In my 1st car I kept a shoe box full of 8track tapes (Part 1 of an occasional series)

[The Polack MSgt]

10. I had to climb poles my 1st four years in the Air Force, so I had old style steel arch/steel toe -

climbing boots. I could've put 100 tapes in the box those boots came in.

You can bet yer ass that at my next base I never said out loud that I had been Gaff certified.

I had enough wood pole adventures to last a life time at that point. Didn't matter because the shop I was in didn't have to climb at all

By the time I next worked in a shop that did elevated work, all the structures were either on steel towers or on concrete poles.

Pretty sure the only folks that still use spike gaffs to climb are city power workers, arborists and tree toppers on lumber jack crews.