"Luk the lineman" : I've some photos appropriate to this!
The plaque reads:
THE LINEMAN
Sculpted by
Beverly Paddleford
Commissiond by the
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
Dedicated December 10, 1996
To the founders
and pioneers of rural
electrification, who --with, grit, sweat
and vision-- transformed rural America from
the depths of despair and darkness to the splendor of
hope and light, and who server as our reminder
that no job is too tough if the cause
is just and the people are
determined.
Of knotting interest, of course, is the reeved-through-strands
splice shown in the close-up. This came to the IGKT as a
new-knot claim some decade plus ago, from a young fellow
in the Netherlands or Denmark? I found it, though, in some
Boy Scouts literature (IIRC). One can wonder how the sculptor
came to include it as a detail to her sculpture --was it frrom
some photograph ... ? --an enquiry I've not yet pursued.
(And we can similarly wonder if there might be some information
about the origins of the
lineman's loop (aka "butterfly"),
which has its so-far-known initial presentation in a knot book,
which author likely learned of it via other information.)
--dl*
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