Watching People Working With Their Hands — Why Am I So Fascinated? Sheltering in Place Week 25

September 2, 2020. Sheltering at Home Week 25

In Bologna they call them the umarells — the little men. They are the old men who hang around construction sites for hours on end, watching other people working with their hands.

I’m not an old man, but I’m definitely an umarell — umarella? — and I’ve been one since before I was old, since way back in my New York City days, when I was a twenty-something office worker on her lunch break.

Just Me and the Men in Business Suits

Manhattan contractors often cut window holes in the fencing around their building sites, which meant that white collar folks like me — mostly men in business suits — could follow the action.

The action. That’s what draws me into a construction site. Something is happening. Something visible, plausible, tangible, touchable.

In my umarell’s imagination, it’s got to be super satisfying work for the people who have spent years getting good at it:

• The new light fixture in place, you flip the switch and, by golly, there’s light.
• The concrete pours in a rush down the hose from the mixer, you aim it and it goes where it’s supposed to go.

• The load-bearing support beam drops in, it fits, and the upstairs bedroom does not collapse on your head.

Working With Their Hands

And so, last week, I was delighted to realize I could watch our new patio being built from our living room, from a big picture window just inches from the action.

On Monday, rebar was laid and tied. I was there.

On Wednesday, concrete oozed from a fat hose. I watched.

On Thursday, flagstones were cut and fit together like puzzle pieces. I showed up again.

I was on hand for all of it, and so was my trusty point-and-shoot.

Outdoors, dust and shouts. The roar of the cement mixer. The buzz of circular saws cutting through stone.

Inches away, inside the picture window, a spellbound umarell, camera in hand, taking it in.

More about hands-on work at “Ceramics Envy — I Want to Get My Hands Into That Earthy, Squishy Clay.”  And here’s a fun one about raising kids, from the book I’m working on: “A Manners Challenged Kid Who Became the Apple of His Grandma’s Eye.”