I am standing about 15 feet above the ground laying brick with Ricky Grant. Or shall I say learning how to lay brick with Rickey The Brickey. But I’m learning more than that…. Ricky is retired and essentially donating his time to help us with our project. He doesn’t need to be building another fireplace and certainly doesn’t need to be building it with 10 students who have never built a true masonry fireplace before. In the grand scheme of things, we are perhaps more in his way than actually helping him. But what I think we learned the most through Ricky is that there are still good people out there who work hard, live by their word, and have a great perspective on life. And I might add he’s a hell of a cook.
This is a direct quote from the top of the chimney. I can assure you because when he said it, I pulled out my phone, hit record, and asked him to repeat what he just said. And then I took this photo.
“When life come hard, keep living. When life come easy, keep on livin’!”
-Rickey The Brickey