Mind if I Come In?

This feels mighty strange. It’s kind of like I’ve walked into someone’s house when they’re not home. It’s too quiet, the carpet feels strange underfoot and all the smells are different. I don’t want to make a noise, case someone hears it and tells me I ain’t supposed to be here.

When the young lady asked me if I’d stop by and say a few words, well ‘course I said “yes”, but sayin’ yes is the easy part. Thing is, what will I talk about? There’s only one thing I know about, and that’s the thing I been doin’ all my life -- workin’ on roofs. I don’t know a thing about writin’ and I’m not much of a one for talkin’. But you know, a promise is a promise, and here I am.

Someone asked me one time, what’s the best thing about workin’ on roofs. I told her, I don’t know that there’s just any one thing; there’s a whole host of things to like about it, and I don’t rightly know where to begin. I’m no writer, like I said, but excuse me, and I’ll try my best.

Most of what I do is small stuff. I Fix people’s roofs; patch a few holes, freshen the paint, make sure the insides stay nice and dry. But I guess what I like best is buildin’ a new roof, startin’ from scratch. It starts from nothin’ but an idea of what it might look like; then we put up the frame, the skeleton, and it’s rough, but it’s already got the shape of a roof. Once the frame’s up, we put on the felting, covering over the gaps and keeping everything dry inside, and once the felt’s all battened down it’s really startin’ to look like a roof. The battens are also what we nail the tiles or shingles onto; and once the tiles are on and the ridge is finished off, you can know, just by lookin’ at it, that you got a good roof there. And if it ain’t just right, you can rework it a bit, change it here and there ‘til it’s just how you want it and you’re all done. Buildin’ somethin’ from nothin’ -- I like that.

Now, I just got off a job buildin' a barn. A big old red shingle roof. Took me and a couple of my boys near two weeks to get the job done, and I didn’t get paid ‘cause I was doin’ it for a friend of mine. But when we were done, when I’d hammered in the last nail, I could stand up on the top of the roof, one foot either side of the ridge, feelin' the wind on my face, and I could see for miles. And if I closed my eyes, I could see even further. Guess that’s the best thing about roofin’: just how far you can see.

Rod the Roofer