Logged in users > User Diaries
The first step for my shop
Frank S:
--- Quote from: DanG on November 13, 2019, 11:02:27 AM ---Ah yes, long ago and far far away - 35-hours a week at $1.35/hour... then came the day I turned 16 and presented my full work permit... oops, hey, you're umnn fired... 15? You know how much trouble blah blah blah.
--- End quote ---
Exactly. Us farm kids never knew that we weren't supposed to be working at young ages. since as soon as we were able to dress ourselves we were assigned certain chores those chores increased in quantity and difficulty as well as the responsibilities to get them done without being 'stupervised' There may have been 4x4 blocks tied to the pedals of an old pickup truck with bailing wire so a 6 or 7 year old kid could steer and um drive it around in the fields while the bigger boys bucked hay or an 8 year old might be dragging a 10 bottom mold board plow down half mile long rows sitting on a TD 24 dozer. in the summer time by the time I was 11 most goings on in the farm had been taken over by larger equipment with more attachments freeing up our time I went to work at a blacksmith shop 8 hours a day 5 1/2 days a week for $1.00 an hour and still had my chores around the farm to get done. After about 5 years there it was time to move on I thought. So I loaded up my lathe that I had bought my welding machine and torch and tools then took thm to the farm jumped in my old 49 Plymouth and headed for Oklahoma worked in a fab shop a while up there had a disagreement with an idot who didn't know his job left and moved back to Tx went to work for a plumber stayed long enough to learn more about plumbing construction in 3 months than most journeymen are exposed to in several years. the boss got drunk and wound up in jail so I left and went to work at Pettibone. never had a job that paid less than the one I had previously left behind until I went into the Army then I was making less starting out in a month than I had been earning previously in a week, but that didn't take long to change by the time I got out 6 years later I had completed 3 of a 4 year degree in engineering had a wife 2 kids and an aging pickup truck I had bought new when I had reenlisted hadn't been home a week before I landed a job making more in a week that I had in a month in the Army even with all of the tacked on allowances then got 5 raises at that place in 6 months but was now working sometimes over 100 hours per week and driving an hour and a half each day so left for a hob that paid less but didn't have to work but 50 hours per week that lasted a year until I struck out on my own and only worked as contract labor from then on until in 91 I decided to set up a shop and make people come to me. Sometimes it was steak & potatoes other times it was chicken broth and crackers but we managed. I look back on the times when I could call my bank and tell the vice president to put 50k in my account and I'd be in next week to sign the papers and the times when I would have to scrounge to buy a pack of gum for one of my kids. Now that I am retired when I look back I cannot find a single thing that I would have done differently if I had the opportunity yo do it over again, except for maybe try to find wife #2 before I found wife #1.
Bruce S:
--- Quote from: DanG on November 13, 2019, 11:02:27 AM ---Ah yes, long ago and far far away - 35-hours a week at $1.35/hour... then came the day I turned 16 and presented my full work permit... oops, hey, you're umnn fired... 15? You know how much trouble blah blah blah.
--- End quote ---
Ahh , yes getting paid $1/hr to move irrigation pipes from one section of the acreage to another on the pickle farms.
Learned a lot back then! including that gophers love dark wet places and why you leave one end section open to flush the pipes :o.
Harold in CR:
Loved your history story, Frank. Had my Son driving tractor at 7 years old.
Gonna be one helluva shop when you get it finished.
Frank S:
--- Quote from: Harold in CR on November 15, 2019, 08:01:34 AM ---Loved your history story, Frank. Had my Son driving tractor at 7 years old.
Gonna be one helluva shop when you get it finished.
--- End quote ---
Thank you Harold, Funny thing is I was almost 7 years old by the time I started 1st grade then got bumped up a couple of grades through out the years, by the time I got in high school I had become mostly bored with the slowness of the curriculum. I would make it to mid term be exempted from all exams, meaning I would have a few days off but for one reason or another didn't bother to return for the 2nd semester the following year I decided to try again did the same thing did it the 3rd time only by now I was a freshman/junior. left the 3rd and last time needed only 2 credits to graduate but technically would have had to attend 3 more years. Went into the Army that following Dec had my GED which converted to a HS diploma, and by the time the kids from my first grade class graduated I had nearly 2 year college completed while in the Army. College class room and the lecterns were equally boring to me. Even the accelerated and abbreviated studies that colleges offer for military personnel, so once I had accumulated enough hours to challenge the final exams I started doing that. I bagged up a basket full of hours by only completing the final exams Not something I'd recommend for most folks because you cheat yourself out of learning the processes to formulate the conclusion.
Bruce S:
SOooo you basically blew the bell curve for everyone else :o.
Over achiever!! ;D
Then again , I found the theory classes a great place to catch-up on must needed sleep.
If I tried 1/2 the stuff we did (bailing hay, moving irrigation lines, drinking out of the water hose) I'd be in traction for a week.
I really loved the old Ford F1N's the split braking and clutching was very cool to learn and very handy when it came time to drive stuff as a 63H20.
Cheers!
Bruce S
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version