The old guys and the new

Teemok

Maybe this is TMI but I'll risk it as a show of appreciation for this place. I have a 25 year old son who, about 5 years ago was confronted with facts I'd been telling him about since he was too young to hear them. "If you're not going to work using your head you better have a strong back and or skilled hands." "You will need to support yourself and no one owes you." "You're gonna have to serve somebody" That kind of stuff. He avoided and looked down on my trade in his teen years. I'd ask him to help and begrudgingly he would but not for very long. Resisting knowledge and rolling his eyes thinking there's a fantasy job ahead for his unearned and unidentified gifts. Turns out he heard some of my spiels. The combo of understanding how he fit into current social conditions and confrontations with illusions was hard. Post high school, refusing higher education, caviler and rebellious. Depression and frustration were understandable. I convinced him that the screen and isolation where his first foes and he needed a damn job. A hero's journey began. I got him a job as a parts runner, the bosses right hand man. It worked. He worked. He has grown so much, moving from one position to another finding what he likes and doesn't. He's now running service calls for a company as the only hydronics tech booked weeks out. Hydronics and plumbing has afforded him his full independence for a couple years now. A rare thing for a 25 year old these days. He watched Dan's classic hydronics seminar recently. He expressed an appreciation for the history of invention and the generations of clever guys who knew, solved and created so much. His growing desire to learn is great to see. I would have never guessed, though I know that's a typical fathers story. School, the union, business, a big move, options and goals he couldn't envision before. He's proud of his trade and growing skills and is realizing he's a part of a long line of smart, valuable and honorable people in a specialized craft. Note: The company he works for makes him install Navien. @Bay.Area.Hydronics is his documentation of his projects not the company he works for.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Sometimes it takes a while for them to see the light. Good job nudging him along. he can go in a million directions in the future.

Larry Weingarten

Nice story! So many are so indoctrinated to look down on the trades, it's good he was able to see past that. He's part of a profession that has the ability to help people in some very real ways, sometimes even saving their lives.
For years I've kept a file of the best thankyou notes I've gotten. After a bad or difficult day, it doesn't hurt to have a look through that file to regain some balance. Maybe he can do something similar, so he'll never need to question whether or not he made the right decision in going into the trades. That, and as you clearly have taught him... keep learning... is a winning combination.

Yours, Larry

EdTheHeaterMan

I have one of those things too. The "Son" thing you were talking about.
After 4 years of college and 4 years of working in a cubical on a computer for a publishing company, he decided that he was going nowhere in that company, and called me with this news and wanted some advice on what he might do with his life.

I suggested that he move back home (in his own house that he should buy himself) and become my partner in the HVAC business. He jumped at the opportunity and has become quite an oil burner service tech and understands Hydronics pretty good.

KIDS! I teach him everything I know and still he don’t know nothing.

But seriously he likes the trades and has taken up welding for his full time job. Since I retired, he did not want to run the business, but does side work for extra cash and is enjoying it. Ain't it interesting how stupid we are when they are 17 years old and how smart we get when they get to be 26 years old.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Nice story @Teemok. Your children see the way you work and hopefully choose the right path for themselves. Sometimes it takes awhile for them to figure it out, all the while the parents can't help worrying about them. It's what we do.

DanHolohan

A beautiful story, and so well told. Thanks. 

Solid_Fuel_Man

I think sometimes we need to remember how we thought were when we were teens and early 20s. I knew more then than I do now so I thought. 

Great story, when reality sets in and we realize there are bills to pay and work to be done. 

I certainly agree, the screen and isolation are key tools the enemy uses to lock us up in our own minds. 

Mad Dog_2

Plumbing & Heating gave me a strong direction and a path to Glory in life.  What intrigued me in my first day as a 19 yr Apprentice was all the possibilities: 
My "Rabbi" , Chuck Pannepinto US Navy WW II Pacific Theater was an instructor at The Union School 🏫 & the Top Foreman & Super in the Local in his day 1950-1980s. 

We sat down and had a beer 🍺. He told me: "Kid...you have picked a great trade.  This Apprenticeship opportunity is not easy to get.  The sky is the limit. You can make a Good living, or become extremely wealthy.  This is a Tabula Rasa (Latin. Blank Slate)!  No matter how far you choose to take this, YOU WILL NEVER STARVE!"   Chuck was right...I got the Belly to prove it too! Congratulations on Jr. Finding HIS path to Glory....Great news.  Mad Dog 🐕 

hot_rod

It’s great that he gets exposed all the different options in the trade. You guide your kids as best as possible, at some point they find the path that best serves them.