Such great stories. I was raised in a beach town in British Columbia which may sound weird for Canada but they exist. What that meant was it was feast and famon. Work was everywhere in the summer and nowhere in the winter when all the tourists went home. I worked my ass off in the summers to make sure I had work in the winters even if it was part time. My dad was a mechanic and by 8 years old I was in the garage with him rebuilding late 70's Honda civics that he would fix and flip for extra money. My mom didnt beleive in blue and pink jobs so after the garage I learned to sew and cook. All those skills have done me well in my life and although am not a trades person by training can fix anything and spend my winters now restoring bikes, my old Vette, or anything else I can bring back to life as well as being able to cook and keep a nice house. That ability to learn and use my hands has lead me to years of guitar playing, drums and mandolin lately. I love art and photography, woodworking and metal working. I have remodlled a handful of houses in my 46 years so far. The issue is that Renaissance people like us are fading away. Family farms occur such a high inheritance tax that its almost impossible to pass them down to the kids, todays generation has so much knowledge at their finger tips but have no desire to use it and are a "do if for me" generation. What they dont understand is when the people who do it for you are no longer there....who is doing to do it for them? It a cycle but not a good one right now
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Probably only a few of us left.
- Thread starter magoo66
- Start date
Calliway, I'm one of 6 boys...no sisters. Trust me, I learned about cooking, cleaning and laundry! Sewing not so much.
My maternal grandfather was a tool and die maker in the Britannia copper mine. Yes, B.C. beaches exist and they are beautiful (I lived in Pt. Coquitlam for a year). And yes, there is a reckoning coming in the next 20 or so years when the craftsman class dies out.
No doubt you did! That is farm life
LTGTR
XS650 Addict
This is an interesting thread - I envy the qualifications of most who have commented.
I'm nearly seventy and these days I am lucky enough to mix with lots of very qualified people, except when they ask me about my "trade" and I have to tell them I dont have one. I had very good high school marks but missed out on my Electrical Engineers Traineeship because my Dad didnt go and see (read suck hole) the Master of Apprenticeship at BHP, like my other mates parents did (all positions had been filled even though I had the better marks). I cracked the shits and developed a major chip on my shoulder which I still have to this day. Joined the National Bank and got the sack and ended up back at BHP as a bum.
Happy ending (you can put your hankies away now) - I taught myself eveything I wanted to know, lied to get into an auto electricians evening classes, asked all/any tradesmen at BHP to help me with things/undestanding and married a very clever/smart woman and retired when I was 43.
Regards Ray.
I'm nearly seventy and these days I am lucky enough to mix with lots of very qualified people, except when they ask me about my "trade" and I have to tell them I dont have one. I had very good high school marks but missed out on my Electrical Engineers Traineeship because my Dad didnt go and see (read suck hole) the Master of Apprenticeship at BHP, like my other mates parents did (all positions had been filled even though I had the better marks). I cracked the shits and developed a major chip on my shoulder which I still have to this day. Joined the National Bank and got the sack and ended up back at BHP as a bum.
Happy ending (you can put your hankies away now) - I taught myself eveything I wanted to know, lied to get into an auto electricians evening classes, asked all/any tradesmen at BHP to help me with things/undestanding and married a very clever/smart woman and retired when I was 43.
Regards Ray.
We're all "self taught generalists" here. That's a very tiny slice of the job market.
The whole educational system is locked into a model that has little relevance to today's employment market.
Industrial processes change so fast and are now so specialized a public school has little chance of keeping relevant shop equipment AND instructors available.
Minor story; Dad was manager of an industrial plant in town. He convinced the conglomerate that owned the plant to donate MIG welders to the school, They were teaching stick and gas welding that had little use in industry, that was more than 40 years ago.
Manual lathes and mills are similarly outdated. Additive manufacturing will make much of current CAM equpment outdated in short time.
I'm sure when I was in school the old farts lamented not teaching hog butchering and blacksmithing skills.
At one of our rallies a "younger guy" that works in an airliner fuselage building plant amazes me with his descriptions of the process. would love to tour such a plant.
IMHO 12 years in generalist education is a waste of young minds.
The whole educational system is locked into a model that has little relevance to today's employment market.
Industrial processes change so fast and are now so specialized a public school has little chance of keeping relevant shop equipment AND instructors available.
Minor story; Dad was manager of an industrial plant in town. He convinced the conglomerate that owned the plant to donate MIG welders to the school, They were teaching stick and gas welding that had little use in industry, that was more than 40 years ago.
Manual lathes and mills are similarly outdated. Additive manufacturing will make much of current CAM equpment outdated in short time.
I'm sure when I was in school the old farts lamented not teaching hog butchering and blacksmithing skills.
At one of our rallies a "younger guy" that works in an airliner fuselage building plant amazes me with his descriptions of the process. would love to tour such a plant.
IMHO 12 years in generalist education is a waste of young minds.
Our local Vocation/Tech school partners with industry in the area and has a good variety of classes. We have plastics, foundries, ceramics (toilets and sinks) machine manufacture, heavy equipment, furniture and others in the region. A multi million donation raised by local business and manufactures 10 years ago upgraded the high school shops to top of the line CNC labs for the highschools.
I managed to get a shop class each semester in high school. Woodwork, small engines, metal shop, autoshop even though I had excellent grades in math and physics and was college bound. Some events led me to enlist in the USMC. I entered Radar school knowing only enough electronics that it took a wall switch to turn on the lights. I worked hard, got promoted alot, E5 in 3 1/2 years, and got out. 12 years in Aerospace playing with airborne radars and automated Test Equipment taught me some software skills before any body had a PC. I did some nightschool on the GI bill in those years. I moved into the gravel business then and learned hydraulic systems, heavy mechanics and big diesels. I also learned to weld from the shop foreman and designed and built portable conveyors. I built a few boat cradles too. Then I went to an R&D tech position in a polymers company and learned a ton of skills there. I developed gas chromatography routine for our products, chemical processes for our raw materials and did a lot of materials testing. All fun stuff. Now I am learning how to be a motorcycle mechanic.
Britman
XS650 Addict
I have to thank my Dad for what mechanical ability I possess and my deep love of motorcycles. He rode Indians, nothing but an Indian would do. I still remember being on the back of a Chief as a kid with the fishing poles strapped on, heading out at daybreak to catch usually what ended up being our dinner that evening. He spent his life smelling like gasoline or fuel oil, he worked for many years as manager of a gas station back when they would repair or service your vehicle, and yes even fill the tank and wash the windshield. In his later years he drove a fuel truck, pulling around that big hose in the dead of winter well into his late sixties until he finally retired. I spent many days as a kid hanging around that gas station and as a grown man riding with him on fuel deliveries on my days off. We grew up in the country with not a lot of money, but we were always loved, warm, had a full table of food, most of it caught, hunted, or raised, and I never regret having to work for those amenities. My Father was the most patient man I ever met, a WWII vet who saw a lot of action in the South Pacific, he would always take the time to explain a process or repair, which tool to use, and how to do a good job. I remember one incident when I was about 16 and was going to install front brakes in my 1958 Chevrolet and show him I could do it on my own. Of course I tore into it full blast and pulled both sides down. I was standing there looking at it trying to figure how in the hell it went back together when he pulled in the driveway. I will never forget his response, "Boy always leave yourself a path to follow, one side at a time Son." Little did I know he did leave me a path to follow and though he has been gone for many many years now I still try to meet his expectations in the way I live my life and thank him frequently in my prayers for what he taught me. I still have most of his tools and use them on what ever old motorcycle is sitting on the lift begging for TLC. Sadly that way of life has changed dramatically in this modern day computer driven society, most of it for the good, but some of the old ways should not be forgotten. I enjoy reading the prior posts where parents are passing the values of 'working with your hands" to their children, I believe the world would be a better place of there was more of this. All of us old timers know that the days of machine shops, corner hardware stores, one man garages, and country stores are all but gone, but I think there is hope. My 15 year Grand-daughter is in the gifted program in the first year of high school taking a number of college courses because of her GPA. She also taking "Small Engine Repair" as an elective and really enjoying it. Not a bad thing to lay down the phone, step away from the computer, ear pods, and television and pick up a wrench, you might be surprised............
Awesome story. Thank you for sharing your memories. I too, remember that world.
You were lucky and didn't have what I have always described as a "misguidance counselor" telling you what courses you could take!
All the guys in the school did get one semester each of wood shop and one of metal shop. Girls of course got to go to home ec. I think it was in seventh and eighth grade. After those if you wanted to go further you had to be in the Ag classes or not be good in math or science.
I tried to get into the Auto courses that came out in my 11th year and was told "NO WAY!" you are college material! Guess I show that "misguidance counselor" because after a year and half at the local community college I dropped out and got a job working in the shop at the local stone quarry, Then again that only lasted about 45 years! But there were many times over those 45 years I wish I had had learned some of the stuff I probably would have learned the courses I was not allowed to take. Or ones I might have taken if I knew about the tech colleges I could have gone to had I known the existed! Years later I learned there were at least a couple good tech colleges not that far from home in the state.
That sounds like my experience. New York State public school system.
Truly a problem when there are no vocational school educated staff in the Junior and Senior High Schools!
Eisenhower spoke of the "military industrial complex" I sincerely believe that today we have the "educational industrial complex". When all of us were kids 30-35 students was the norm, somehow today we keep hearing that there should be no more than 20 to a class, which means ,more teachers. The inflation in the cost of a college education is far higher than inflation in general. O.K., I'll get off my soapbox.
We needed so many credits in Math, English, History, Science but had a registration day each semester to get classes. The guidance office checked our course load but if you had the proper balance they didn't interfere. I never took art or drama or music so the shop classes filled my electives. I had the credits needed to graduate locked down so Senior year I took Home Ec because the teacher was young and hot. I had AP Physics as Junior and Senior. Spring Semester of senior year I had a little enduro, Suzuki TC90, and often attended class with some trail mud on boots or knees or both after ditching the previous class. Classic High School story. Broke my leg in early May of Senior year. Teachers let you out early to hobble through the halls on crutches with a volunteer to carry books. I got a key to the elevator too. My cousin would help, we would get in the elevator, go to the basement and wait at the underwater swim pool window until the next girls swim class started diving in the water while smoking a joint.
And what really sucks is about 30 years after I left high school my older brother ended up being a assistant principal at a Vocational High School not far from where we had gone to school. And he ran into the same thing but from the other side of the game. This Vocational High School was being used more or less as a dumping ground for the kids the "normal schools" were having problems with, kind of a stopping ground between High School and the State Penitentiary.
He often would ask these "misguidance counselors" if they really wanted "needle junky Joe" to be fixing the brakes or steering on their daughters car. Don't think many of them understood his point as most just gave him the "deer in the headlights" stare.
I have a friend who is a shop Teacher in a local highschool. His enthusiasm radiates. His "kids" can enter industry at $50k/yr with promotions/raises certain. Another friend is a project manager for a large machine shop. Think machining operations on large castings. They can't find operators fast enough at $50-60k in a $160-200k housing market.
Conversely, I spent an hour with new son in laws 4th grade son. His mom seems to be into anything but kids. School pulled me aside to discuss "problems". I think I might be a math tutor for a while as Judson is totally lost in numbers...
Conversely, I spent an hour with new son in laws 4th grade son. His mom seems to be into anything but kids. School pulled me aside to discuss "problems". I think I might be a math tutor for a while as Judson is totally lost in numbers...
This is what I used when teaching math and physics to students that weren't up to snuff. Both in the classroom and as homework. It's a
https://www.mathsisfun.com/
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Administrators will be the death of civilization.
