50 years ago I got a phone call from a cousin who owned a surveying company.?ÿ I was 2 quarters (yes we were on quarters and not semesters) into my Junior year.?ÿ I had spent 2 years at a Junior College and had transferred to an Engineering School.?ÿ?ÿ
One of his employees was getting married and he wanted to know if I could work for him during the quarter break upcoming in March.?ÿ I did and never looked back.?ÿ It was hard work but I loved it.?ÿ I dropped out of school and spent the next 6 years on land survey and construction staking crews until I hurt my back and couldn't work.?ÿ My wife stated, "If you can't work you're going back to school and finish your degree".?ÿ I did as that smart lady insisted.
In that first surveying company there were 6 in the office and 3 - 3 man, field crews.?ÿ Of those there are now, at least, 7 who went on to get licensed.?ÿ I think that's a pretty good ratio.
It's been a great ride and I've made friends for life in this community.
Andy
....I was filling cloth diapers with Gerber's finest mashed peas and carrots and loving it...
Fifty years ago in March............I was in my Spring semester of my Sophomore year with enough credits to technically be a Junior basking in the warm comfortable glow of Calc. IV--Series and Differntial Equations; Engineering Physics II/ Dynamics; and other fun classes. Eighteen hours total. I was also three months away from knocking up my wife for daughter #1. Renting an old farm house for $90 per month.
50 years ago in January I was in 2nd grade and scared of the principal, Mrs Beck. Yes, she looks EXACTLY as she did then. She remembers me oooohhhh to well (not a good thing) and, I still call her Mrs. Beck.
50 years ago I had a screaming baby and a screaming pregnant teenage wife. I drove a '64 Chevy Malibu Station Wagon that someone had given me. It was a good car after I put a new clutch in it.
My trailer house payment was $75 a month and the trailer park rent was $50 with the water paid. I remember how proud I was of my first telephone. The number was 681-6491. It cost $12 a month.
I was dragging a chain around and slamming hubs for $2.25 an hour. I was truly a contributing member of society.
My first big fight with my wife was over me buying a Jim Croce album without telling her...
54 years ago tommorrow I got married and we still are. I was 18 and fresh out of high school. She was 19 and I still kid her about robbing the cradle.
Good to read this stuff guys. 31 years old, 12 years in surveying, 9 with my wife, And my first year of being partner at my company. Looking forward to a lifetime of adventure with my wife and our kids, surveying, and everything else this world throws at us. Keep on keepin on guys!
Started on a survey crew 60 years ago last week. Surveying has been wonderful to me.
That looks nearly identical to the station wagon I was driving in 1971-1972. Mine was a Chevy Malibu Station Wagon but I can't swear to the exact year. But, it sure looked like this picture. Mine was an automatic. White with red vinyl upholstery. I think I paid about $1100 for it. It gasped its last breath of air about 1000 feet from a Chrysler dealership as I was driving in to town for college classes one morning. Thirty minutes later I had traded it and $300 for a 1964 Dodge Dart that was probably worth about $250. Didn't matter. I was going to drive out of there and get to class one way or another and it wasn't going to be in a dead station wagon.
Mine was Shivvy white with (worn out) blue vinyl interior. It did have the luggage rack on top. It had a seriously under-powered six cylinder with "three on the tree".
There was an older couple in the trailer park that took a shine to my wife and me. They were packing up and heading to Florida. Gus gifted me with that old high-miler wagon when they moved. It had sat so long the clutch chattered when you would take off and it could make the wheels hop off the pavement. That fix was easy for me. I think a 10" reman Chevy clutch plate was 10 bucks back then. It blew dead leaves out of the vents for the whole time I had it.
But the trailer park manager just about had a cow when she saw the wagon up on blocks with the tranny sitting on the grass next to it. That was a Saturday night. She said she was having it hauled off on Monday morning...
Monday morning I drove it to work.
Oh, the memories.
50 years ago I was catching on to work at the big company after a few months there, fresh out of college.
This week marks the anniversary of my retirement, now half as many years ago as years i worked, give or take a couple months. I don't know where the time went, as I've not much to show for those years.
...I don't know where the time went, as I've not much to show for those years.
It goes fast, or seems that way in retrospect, doesn't it?
I guess none of us have as much to show for our long lives as it seems we ought. But I never put much stock into material things.
I like to look back on all the rich memories I have and everything I've experienced. I'm one of the few people I know that quit a relatively high paying job just to get back to some sanity. I realized real quick I might be making big money...but I probably wouldn't live to spend it. Peace of mind and good mental health is priceless. What good is a pile of money if you're miserable?
I've got just enough to show for my life to get me through to my funeral with a smile on my face. 😉
still waiting for that first draft to peruse.
hell, why don't yall older farts write a book of short stories, sure as hell would be a great one.
still waiting for that first draft to peruse.
hell, why don't yall older farts write a book of short stories, sure as hell would be a great one.
I don't have much non-fiction to entertain you, but did write a story something between a short story and a novella about a surveyor. Sort of a modern retelling of Poe's Gold Bug, in case you recognize that. Send me a private message if you want to read it and I'll give a link. I don't want to make the link public.
@holy-cow My buddy had a sweet Malibu wagon, we drove it in the Ft. Myers Beach parade for our favorite tattoo studio.. which unfortunately was destroyed in Hurricane Ian last fall.
and 50 years ago I was about to turn 4 and we had moved out to a small farm in Big Rock, Illinois. what a great time to be a kid!
