Looks Like an Old Joke, but Isn't!

Midland, Michigan
October 23, 2017 10:43am CST
Although I'm American my ancestors are of Polish/German descent. When growing up there were a lot of Pollack jokes flying about. Possibly the same joke was told relating to other ethnic groups as well, I don't know. Jokes such as "how many Pollacks does it take to screw in a lightbulb" and similar silly ideas. Well recently I was driving home and saw what you can sort of see in my image, although it's a bit blurred-sorry about that. It reminded me of those jokes, but this one would be...how many people would it take to install a new roof? Oddly enough there had to be at least twenty guys, both young and old, on that roof with another ten or more on the ground. I'm guessing they were hoping to train several at once. I was a bit concerned that some would be knocked off the roof by another. Since the roof wasn't really that big. Ever see anything quite so ridiculous before?
14 people like this
15 responses
@YrNemo (20272)
26 Oct 17
Must be for training purposes! There were about 6 guys on the roof, 2 on the ground when they did the roof for my place. (It is a small house!)
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
26 Oct 17
Is your roof steep or of a lower incline? Sometimes the steeper roofs will have more on them even if it's a smaller house. I stopped to look at one large window yesterday in the hopes of doing it, but the roof was being done so we changed our mind. It was a smaller house, too, but had a steeper roof and there were probably about five on that one too. Any more, though, and they'd have been falling off I'm sure.
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
26 Oct 17
@YrNemo If you have a camera of some kind you could take a picture of just your roof and I should be able to tell you if I'd consider it to be steep or not. Some don't look steep from the ground but are steeper than they look once on them. Otherwise, I could take a picture of a steeper roof here for you to see the difference.
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@YrNemo (20272)
26 Oct 17
@MarshaMusselman I can't tell one from another. All houses look similar to each other on my street (and other streets - you are talking to some clueless person ).
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@shaggin (71572)
• United States
24 Oct 17
Wow lol that is an insanely large crew! How odd! My mother called people Pollocks often and I did not care for it.
1 person likes this
@shaggin (71572)
• United States
26 Oct 17
@MarshaMusselman I hate any form of name calling but you are right it will never stop so we just need to be kind ourselves and wear thick skin.
1 person likes this
@shaggin (71572)
• United States
26 Oct 17
@MarshaMusselman I think it was bad my mother said it in her own home around us as that taught us to think things like that were okay. One of the kids of people who say “I’m not racist but” and then clearly are!
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
25 Oct 17
It's one thing if other people call us that, but we can call ourselves that all we want and it's not as big of a deal. Actually, I was more offended when I was growing up than I would ever be now. But, I'm not stupid or at least not all the time, otherwise, I might still be offended, lol. It would be better if none of us humans ever called others that are different derogatory names, but even though it would be better, I doubt that everyone will quit.
1 person likes this
@Shellyann36 (11385)
• United States
27 Oct 17
I guess it was a training class. That is a possible explanation. A job that size could not afford to actually pay that many people.
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
28 Oct 17
Maybe, but I don't know that many that would be on top of a roof if they weren't being paid anything.
@DianneN (246452)
• United States
27 Oct 17
That seems like overkill, but as you mentioned, they may have been in training. We had four men working on our new roof.
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
27 Oct 17
Even if they were just learning it seems like too many that may work differently to learn much of anything correctly. I'd not seen that particular roofing company before but will watch out for it now to see if it's common practice for them or whether they were trying to beat the rain or something.
@andriaperry (116876)
• Anniston, Alabama
23 Oct 17
They probably wanted to get it done in a day. But like you said, to many is to many stomping around on a roof. Can cause more damage. Our crews were smaller and only did we hire extra help when a bid was accepted on a huge job, but mostly we did industrial rooking with hot tar and gravel.
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
23 Oct 17
This wasn't that large of a house. I hope they don't have that many on the roof's of all their jobs.
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@andriaperry (116876)
• Anniston, Alabama
23 Oct 17
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@responsiveme (22932)
• India
23 Oct 17
Seems a tad too many....Cutting training in costs maybe
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
23 Oct 17
I'd think most would be standing around talking and getting paid for doing nothing.
1 person likes this
• India
23 Oct 17
1 person likes this
@1hopefulman (45125)
• Canada
24 Oct 17
Yes, that joke has been spun about any group that one is making fun of. However, there are a lot of people on that roof. With all those people, that roof should be fixed in no time if they all know what they are doing.
1 person likes this
• United States
25 Oct 17
Hahh Marsha..yeah I mean how many guys could even fit on a small roof like that
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
26 Oct 17
Well probably a few more, but get too many and possibly the roof would cave in.
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64363)
• United Kingdom
23 Oct 17
At least they should get the job finished quickly.
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• Midland, Michigan
23 Oct 17
You'd think so, but there wasn't much room left on that roof to do the work. I didn't stay to see whether any progression was made or not. I'd never heard nor seen that particular company before, maybe they always load the roof with workers to finish quickly. It could also be because rain was expected this week, and it is raining today, so who knows?
1 person likes this
@amadeo (111956)
• United States
23 Oct 17
Nope
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (323745)
• Rockingham, Australia
30 Oct 17
That does seem a bit odd. Hope they all got down safely.
• United States
31 Oct 17
I remember the ethnic jokes. They really weren't very nice. I've seen several similar examples when road work is being done - lots of workers standing around while one or two are working. No wonder the cost is so high for these projects!!
@Ganma7 (3664)
24 Oct 17
No I have not, that is silly
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
24 Oct 17
Very, and seems stupid to me, too.
23 Oct 17
That is over kill and would leave me scratching my head as well.
1 person likes this
• Midland, Michigan
23 Oct 17
I was concerned for any of the workers that may have gotten ousted from the roof is someone wasn't watching where they were moving a board or something. Thanks for the visit, I've not seen you here before.
• Preston, England
25 Oct 17
I wonder if they tested the roof for how much weight it could take lol - reminds me of this song
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