When I was very young, my father and his best friend, Frank Browne, poured a concrete patio in Frank’s backyard. They of course had no idea what they were doing, which never deterred them from plowing ahead. I vaguely remember that they had a little 1-cubic foot mixer and worked all one hot Kansas City summer day to pour the slab, all the time drinking Hamm’s beer (From the Land of Sky-Blue Water).
By day’s end they had a smoothly troweled slab. Someone had told Frank that you had to cure the slab surface. I don’t know whose idea it was but they carefully laid out sheets of wet newspaper and kept it wet for a few days. The next time we went to visit the concrete was hard and the newspaper ink had bled through into the surface so clearly you could practically read last week’s news. Decorative concrete ahead of its time!
We had many barbecues on that patio and my father and Frank had many more cans of Hamm’s. The last time I saw Frank, when he learned I was now in the concrete business, he told me that that slab served them well for many years and the surface remained perfect. Eventually most of the ink faded, although you could always make it out if you knew where to look.
It just shows that concrete’s not foolproof, but a little bit of knowledge goes a long way. By placing that newspaper they ended up with a nicely cured surface even with the ink. I like to think Frank and my father, both gone now, would get a kick out of the fact that I have made my living all these years with concrete and ink. Now if I could only find a couple of cans of Hamm’s!
