“Shhhhhh...You’ll Wake The Baby!”

I re-acquired a sweet

Long forgotten moment

From the past

While moving a twelve foot step ladder

Echoing across an empty concrete floor

In the main space of a vacant 9,000 square foot warehouse

Built in 1940

As a taxi depot...

Later 

To become the dispatch

For a Trenton brand

White bread baking company.

I dragged that step ladder

Across the floor

Making a terrific noise 

In the building’s emptiness

On March 8th, 2012

While painfully scraping 

20+ foot high brick walls 

Of their failing paint 

Off of moist damp brick clay 

With a flat head shovel

To be repainted

For a prospective new tenant.

Out of nowhere

The memory came...

35 years later

From when I helped my father and grandfather

Both

Union carpenters by trade

Working on the side

On their days off.

Building additions

Putting on roofs

Laying foundations

Hammering sheetrock.

I would hand up the nails

Tools

Or climb the ladder 

With an electrical cord... 

And if I made any loud sound at all

Besides a hammer

The two of them would hush

In unison

“Shhhhhhh....You’ll wake the baby!”

And with a simple drag

Of an aluminum step ladder

I just woke the baby up...