“You Were Alive in the 70’s?”

I see a lot of young kids on the jobs.

They all know me.

I don’t know any of them by name, but I know their faces.

I saw a young kid cutting concrete without a dust mask. He was filling his lungs with the dust.

“Dude. Where’s your mask?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “What are the rules?”

“You don’t need to know the rules,” I said.  “It’s common sense. You’re breathing that shit in, and 40 years later you’re gonna’ wish you hadn’t.”

There was zero chance he was going to think ahead 40 years.

“How long you been doing this?” He asked.

“I was on my first construction site in 1982. I was your age.”

He whistled.

“Damn! You were alive in the 70’s?”

I laughed.

“How old are you?” I asked.

“Well, I wasn’t born in the 1900’s,” he said.

That brought another laugh.

“Well, if you wanna’ see 2060 you probably shouldn’t breathe that crap in every day.”

He nodded.

I hoped he took it seriously. I turned to walk away.

“Hey,” he called out. “How old will you be in 2060?”

I gave him the finger without turning around.

The entire crew burst into laughter.

The 1900’s!