The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 119: They Shook On It

Episode Date: December 11, 2018

The significance of that shake was beyond this world.

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The ocean connects us. Find your connection at Monterey Bay Aquarium.org slash connects. This is the way I heard it. Not long after its historic launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope began sending back some much-anticipated photos of the cosmos. Astronomers were giddy with anticipation. They believed a telescope this powerful could look backwards in time, maybe as far back as the Big Bang itself. Unfortunately, the photos that came back were blurry, undeniably, inconceivably, and unforgivably blurry. NASA was humiliated. Congress was furious and astronomers were deeply disappointed. The Hubble had cost

taxpayers $1.5 billion. And now, thanks to a mirror that had been improperly ground during the manufacturing process, the most expensive telescope ever made was little more than a piece of junk. So NASA did the only thing they could. They called in Sepi. Seppi was an engineer who possessed the uncanny ability to repair pretty much anything. He'd become a legend six years earlier when he proved that satellites could be serviced while they were still in orbit. But of course, the Hubble Space Telescope was not a satellite. Repairing it would require a whole new list of tools not yet invented and a whole new list of protocols not yet in existence. Most dauntingly, fixing the Hubble would require,

a handshake, not the ubiquitous electronic screech of a dial-up modem, but rather a physical connection, 350 miles above the earth, whereby the mechanical arm of the endeavor would have to bodily shake hands with a free-floating telescope, traveling through space at 23 times the speed of sound. This all-important handshake was the linchpin on which the entire mission depended, and Cepi knew the odds of success were long. 84 years earlier and 350 miles closer to earth, the garbage man awakened at 4 a.m. He moved quietly through his modest home,

prepared a modest breakfast, and tried not to awaken his two-year-old son. The garbage man worried about young Frank. How could a man on his salary hope to provide a proper education for his boy? The garbage man sighed, hitched his wagon to his horse and headed into the city to haul out the trash. While his exact route on that fateful day is unknown, we know his itinerary was interrupted at exactly 512 a.m.

We know he ran into Amadeo in the street, shortly thereafter, just as the city was slipping into chaos. We know that Amadeo had in his possession a number of heavy bags filled with gold coins worth approximately $2 million. And when the fires began, we know that Amadeo became desperate to get his fortune away from the looters who would soon emerge from the looming pandemonium. Finally, and most importantly, we know that Amadeo made a deal with the garbage man. Get me out of this city, he begged.

Please, help me now, and I'll give you whatever you want. The garbage man considered the bulging bags in Amadeo's position. possession. He knew what was inside. He knew what kind of man Amadeo was, and he knew what kind of business Amadeo was running. So the garbage man made the businessman a proposition. I will drive you and your treasure out of the city, he said. In return, I ask only that you give my boy a job when he's old enough to be of use. Amadeo nodded eagerly. Yes, yes, of course. If we survive this day, your son will always have work, I promise. And with that, the men shook hands.

The garbage man knew their odds of success were long. He could feel the riot in the air. Moving quickly, they loaded the gold onto the wagon, covered it with garbage, and embarked upon an odyssey that neither would ever forget. On every block, shell-shock citizens stood in their yards, agonizing over what to take and what to leave behind. On Van Ness, children cried in the rubble, their night shirts smeared with soot,

their faces stained with tears. Looters and gangs roamed with impunity, just as Amadeo feared, helping themselves to anything undefended. But no one looked twice at the two men hauling a pile of worthless garbage through the burning city, perhaps because there were so many other things

to look at. On Market Street, throngs of people ran from a wall of flames at the top of the hill. Hundreds of families pushed carts of belongings toward the waterfront where thousands waited to be evacuated. As the flames leapt from block to block, law and order gave way to mayhem. There were fistfights. There were gunshots. But mostly, there was fire. To keep the flames from spreading, the police began to dynamite people's homes. It didn't work because the entire town was made of timber, and soon the air became so superheated, wooden structures began to combusts spontaneously, along with people. The garbage man guided his horse against the tide of humanity, trying to ignore the horror show unfolding before them. Corpses, many without skin, lay in the gutters.

In front of a burning orphanage, children leapt from windows, hoping to land in blankets held taught by firemen below. Outside a burning hospital, the men could hear gunshots from within, as doctors euthanized their own patients, knowing they couldn't get them out before the fires consume them. It was a Stephen King novel brought to life, a nightmare that only Dante could dream, a cataclysm that only Bosch could paint. It was the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and it was the very definition of hell on earth. Maybe you know the rest of the story, the story of the businessman who emptied the safe at the bank of Italy and escaped the city with a wagon load of gold. Maybe you know that he returned two days later, set up a plank between two barrels on the dock at North Beach, and began loaning money on a handshake. Maybe you also know that Amadeo changed the name of his little bank, and years later, when he was old enough to be of use, he made good on his promise by hiring a young man with no banking experience whatsoever, a man named Frank Sepulina, the son of the garbage man whose hand he shook, even as the world shook around them.

Maybe you already knew all that. But I bet you didn't know that Frank Seppelina turned to. turned out to be a very savvy businessman who also thrived in the banking business. In fact, he retired early and raised a son of his own, a young man who, unlike he and his grandfather, could afford to attend a very nice college, a clever kid who could fix or repair pretty much anything, an engineer who the people at NASA called Sepi. Thus, the grandson of a garbage man, against some very long odds, got the robotic arm on the endeavor to shake hands with the Hubble, 350 miles above the Earth, orbiting the planet at 23 times the speed of sound.

Consequently, the telescope was repaired, and today astronomers can look back in time and see our expanding universe in perfect focus, just as it appeared 13 billion years ago, seconds after the Big Bang. However, while that now famous mechanical handshake generated a standing ovation in mission control and changed the way NASA approached all subsequent space missions, it was another handshake that ultimately saved the Hubble, a handshake between a garbage man and a banker made in the midst of an earthquake.

without that big bang, and the handshake that followed, the Hubble would still be a piece of space junk. And a banker named Amadeo Giannini would have never had to rebuild San Francisco, which means his modest little lending institution called the Bank of Italy would have never become the Bank of America. Anyway, that's the way I heard it. If you work in University Maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP, because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip-off, and Granger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock, so your team

always gets the win. Call 1-800-Grangeer, visit granger.com or just stop by, Granger, for the ones who get it done. The ocean moves us, whether that's surfing a wave or taken in a inspiring view. The ocean feeds us. Sustainable seafood practices bring the ocean's bounty to our plates. The ocean teaches us how our everyday choices, big and small, make an impact. The ocean delights us as playful otters restore coastal kelp forests. The ocean connects us. Find your connection at monterey Bay Aquarium.org slash connects.