Like the Springsteen song, 100 channels and nothing on I’ve settled on some Canadian TV offerings, “Highway Thru Hell” and “Heavy Rescue on the 401.”
It could be the Irish Whisky speaking but it struck me that these shows couldn’t be made in the United States. The shows celebrate the wrong type of people.
These shows are reminiscent of Mike Rowe’s offering, “Dirty Jobs.”
In Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe walked in the other guy’s shoes. Reminiscent of a “duck out of water,” Rowe took on a variety of tasks under the supervision of guys that did those tasks in their occupation.
I believe that Rowe’s intent was to celebrate the American worker. I am not sure his message was seen in that light. I suspect a significant potion of the audience was grossed out and unbelieving that anybody would willingly take on such a job.
What came through, for me, was the sense of pride, on the part of the workers. They were able to function and prosper doing a dirty and sometimes dangerous job. They were anxious to demonstrate a skill set not normally seen. Air conditioning, fashionable clothes and a college degree are not the measure of a desirable job.
The same dynamic is shown in the Canadian TV offerings. Both shows track the efforts of heavy wrecker services as they work to clean up the aftermath of wrecks usually involving semi trucks.
The protagonists are fat, tattooed, hairy specimens. It would take two of them together to get one full set of teeth. They are not particularly educated or charming. They make up for it by being committed to their job and solving problems, inherent in that job, under adverse circumstances.
They may be inarticulate, but they offer a practical application of physics and geometry that a college professor might be hard pressed to duplicate. It is a testament to their ingenuity that they accomplish their “recoveries” despite limitation in equipment, time and lack of optimum conditions.
I am sure that given a chalk board, a PhD can draw a diagram and make the necessary calculations to demonstrate how it is possible to drag a wrecked eighteen wheeler out of a ravine. It is likely the great unwashed wrecker drivers would be bewildered by the explanation.
Give the same PhD a seventy-five ton rotator wrecker and point him at the same wreck. I’m betting the wreck will still be there when the cows come home.
