I was too dumb to go to college so I bought a set of Sears mechanics tools to fund my existence. We’ll talk about my “retirement” the next time I’m down...
I was too dumb to buy a set of Sears mechanics tools and carpenter tools to fund my existence. So I went to college.
I still remember Thanksgiving, 1957, during my sophomore year at college. Our extended family were at our Grandparents and after stuffing our selves, our grand dad invited the guys in college and about to go college out to his incredible carpenter workshop. He had been a master carpenter for one of the major oil companies and after retirement was in high demand for his high end work in kitchens, dining rooms and family rooms. He had basically every high end carpentery tool known at that time.
In his shop, he gave all of us a beer, and we noticed that none of our dads were around, just his grandsons.
The talk was general until, he handed out our second and last beer for the afternoon/evening.
Then, he went around and asked each one of us what we were taking in college, and how we planned to make a living with what we would learn in college.
Everytime, one of us would answer the question in what was basically not knowing or false bravedo, he would ask us, “Will you be able to get married, have children and provide for them and our wives, like he had for decades with his family.”
Looking back, our answers were basically bravado. I had decided not to become a geolgist and would be enrolling in bus ad courses the next semester. I said I wanted to be business sales rep with a big company. My cousins went from Architect, to Animal Science, Law and another bus major.
Then, he asked how would we know that we had done good job an be satisfied. After listening to a lot bs and hemming and hauling, we asked him how he knew when he had done a good job and was satisfied. He said when, he finished a custom carpentering job, the customers were happy and he could look at the job and be happy with what he had done. Most important his customers like him after the job and would hire him again or refer him to their family/friends.
He laughed at some of the answers my cousins came up with, including his favorite comment, “You’re sure that someone will pay you good money to do that?” That went over most of our heads being eager beaver college age bucks. A couple of cousins a decade or two later, understood what our Grand Dad was trying to get us to think about after getting non satisfying jobs.
A few weeks later before Christmas, our Grand Dad died from a stroke.
Dacades later and even now, I used his questions with our sons, nephews, nieces and other young people before and during their college years. Some listened, some wasted a lot of time and money in instant unemployment jobs. A few dropped out of college and never went and became skilled in trades where they are in demand.
Looking back, he was trying to help us find what we could do in life, provide for our future families and have a sense of job satisfaction.