I backed into my surveying career at a young age. I really couldn't tell you when I started exactly, just because it seems like I have been surveying since birth. And that may not be far off. I am a legacy. Pops was a surveyor. Every since I was heavy enough to hold down a cloth tape (THE cloth tape that graced the glove box of every car and truck Pops ever owned) I was out doing something with my father.
At the ripe old age of 9 or 10 I became interested in the heavens. Pops would not allow me to drag the K&E out of his car for astronomical purposes unless I could set it up, level and over a point, with the circle zeroed. It is the truth when I tell people I cannot remember a time that I didn't know there were 360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes in a degree and 60 seconds in a minute.
So when my educational career came crashing to the ground in '68 or '69, the path of least resistance lead to a position on a field crew. I would also like to take the opportunity to explain I never ever heard the phrase "too cool for school". I was just bored with school and wanted to "get on with my life". And I did.
About this same time there was another young man that wasn't doing too well with his educational career either. A short and unsuccessful (but apparently somewhat fun) semester at the university was all it took to convince this young man his future was outside the confines of the ivy covered halls. His family was a member of a prestigious local congregation shared with, at that time, the County Surveyor. One Sunday dinner was all it took for this unemployed and wayward young man to wind up on a field crew. A community takes care of its own.
And as I was getting accustomed to daily wearing a plumb bob, and our second friend was punching a clock at the County Surveyor's office, a third young man accidentally fell into surveying. He had family that had taken to drafting for a local engineer. After two years in the State Penitentiary for possession of weed, he needed day work to satisfy his PO. Voila, the aimless son of drafting personnel soon became a tail chainman on the field crew.
None of us knew each other in the beginning. We weren't surveyors yet, we were just uneducated long haired kids that needed to keep our elders from hasslin' us about "getting a job". And although the pay was lousy, the work had a mystique that kept us in the fold. Like hardened seedlings in a greenhouse, we began to outshine those around us. Each of us probably would have argued the point, but the die was cast.
Over the next few years, with the help of various employers and situations, we three got to know each other. We shared our experiences and our knowledge and seemed to always maintain a common respect for the other. We knew we worked low-pay and dead end positions, but it was exciting. We were learning. We were learning at something that wasn't (at the time) taught in universities. We were learning in a time honored fashion of a quasi-apprenticeship as so many had before us. We were learning our honor. Although the story could fill volumes, let's just say we've all three done well with our families and children and businesses. Three "not so inclined to succeed" young men found something about land surveying that gave them camaraderie and self-worth.
And we have always kept track of each other. When any two of us have gotten together, the third is always the topic of conversation. We just seem to have a need to keep up. One has gone on to own one of the area's prominent surveying and engineering firms. He and his wife just returned from Europe as they followed a number of Moody Blues concerts this spring. Hardly survey related, but fun none the less. One has been an honored member of our State Board of Licensure several times and now heads the Board's Enforcement Department. He takes his tasks as serious as a heart attack. In my mind there is no one better suited for the job.
And I have continued to have fun and experience every corner of land surveying that I can find. Although maybe a bit scattered in my career, I've done well also. Can't complain a bit.
Recently we've all decided to get together when a phone call revealed all three of us have not occupied the same space since probably 1976. We couldn't remember a time it had been all three of us together, it has always been just two of us talking about the other.
It's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to it.
