Anniversary

Congratulations on 48 years! I had my 20th wedding anniversary last week. I don't remember what month I started surveying, but it was sometime in 1977.

Loyal you've got me beat by about a year, not counting the time I spent as a nine or ten year old boy carrying stakes for my father on the weekends.

I never went back to HS after summer of 1969. By September of that year I was a full time grunt on a crew. Hasn't the world changed since then? Man, it makes my head swim. Back then the only equipment we had that needed a battery was the 1961 Carry-All we rode in.

[MEDIA=youtube]QuyaK0hGxWk[/MEDIA]

1968. I was 3. Started my "career" at 7, in 1972. I was tail chainman. Transit and tape, all the way til 1986. Loyal, my career was foisted off on me, by my dad! 🙂

Loyal, post: 392880, member: 228 wrote: [MEDIA=youtube]QuyaK0hGxWk[/MEDIA]

Faaar out, man!

That is an awesome career.

I was dabbling with surveying at that time as I had developed a knack of being able to maintain a rather straight alignment to build fence over hill and dale and from that experience was drafted into toting a lot of stuff and holding the tail end of chain a few times during the summer when the hay fields were not keeping me busy.

I arrived late to the party. First real-world work was in November 1978, so it will soon be 38 years. However, I do remember bits and pieces of work done on our farm in the 1956-1958 range by the Soil Conservation Service local survey crew to stake out a 10-surface-acre pond and about two miles of terraces plus waterways. Their pickup had a couple of metal tubes that ran the length of the pickup bed on one side that held their various poles and targets. The tripods were loose on the bed of the pickup and the instruments were in wooden cases with leather straps and buckles. Watched again in the 1963-1964 time frame as they converted the gravel road past our house into a hard-surfaced road with road widening, all new ditches and all new culverts both under the road and at all house and field entrances. Plenty of tripods holding some sort of mechanisms and guys walking around with rods either surveying the true section line (for the six mile project) or nailing down where the big reinforced concrete box culverts were to be situated. FYI, the built the culverts directly north and south of our house driveway at the same time. We had to drive through the cow lot, across the first pasture, over the big pond dam, across another pasture and the hay meadow to finally arrive at a county road in order to go anywhere for a few weeks. This was mid-Winter, so having frozen ground helped a great deal.

Sneaking up on 44 for me. March of 1973, totally green, just cut line and toted stakes for the first month. Then I got promoted to rear chainman, with my own plumb bob. 3 more years of land surveying, 3 years of construction staking and then back to school to learn WHY I was doing things the way I was. It has been a terrific ride and (mostly) fun.
Andy

June of 1989 here. Just passed 27 years. I was 12.

I can remember my first Gammon Reel. Probably 1973 or 1974. The boss thought they were petty and cheap. We just kept the plumb bob string thrown over our shoulders into a pants pocket and attached to a belt loop. Someone had recently gotten their cord caught on a brush snag and lost their plumb bob. That was when the boss broke down and bought Gammon Reels for everybody.

Congrats, Loyal. I started out on a K&E Paragon and cut chain on a 4-man crew for the NE Dept. of Roads in 1973.

Hang in there and some day you might be able to retire! 😉

Congratulations Loyal, long time. You got it figured out yet? I was 14 back in '68. My dad did teach me to read a transit vernier, and how to tie the plumb-bob string on the hook.

I saw a lot of old farts that didn't learn the new-fangled equipment (like calculators and edm's) But you kind of grew into a real expert even with these fancy gps boxes and computer programs these days. One of the few who got better and not out-of-touch.

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing your knowledge here with us. I am a newbie, only being in this great profession since April 1995. I was 20 years old, a month before I turned 21. I got my first license in 2001, with several other to follow in the coming years. It has been a wild ride, and I cannot imagine myself doing anything else.

Gene Kooper, post: 392935, member: 9850 wrote: Congrats, Loyal. I started out on a K&E Paragon and cut chain on a 4-man crew for the NE Dept. of Roads in 1973.

Hang in there and some day you might be able to retire! 😉

"K&E Paragon"

Man, I loved those things... except when the scope was parallel with a high-voltage power transmission line and the induced charge in the scope tube caused a spark to jump to my eyebrow every time I took a sighting!

Congratulations man! I hope you are still enjoying your career.

paden cash, post: 392931, member: 20 wrote: I can remember my first Gammon Reel. Probably 1973 or 1974. The boss thought they were petty and cheap. We just kept the plumb bob string thrown over our shoulders into a pants pocket and attached to a belt loop. Someone had recently gotten their cord caught on a brush snag and lost their plumb bob. That was when the boss broke down and bought Gammon Reels for everybody.

I have a friend who still ducks when he sees me coming. He never liked gammon reels and always had his string tied around the plumb bob neck (when not in use). I don't know how many times I've slipped up behind him and cut the loop. He got me back for all of them one way or another.
Andy

It's probably not worth mentioning...but funny.

We use to prank each other by taking the little honey packets from KFC and carefully getting only a drop or two into the string hole of the gammon reel. Not too much and it will still work...kinda. It just gets your hands sticky and you can't figure out where it's coming from.

I may be an old fart, but...

I sure don't miss trying to run out a band (chain) across farmland with electric fencing.

I ( still ) think HP calculators are great.

Reflectorless edm is a boon, as is being able to shoot more than a mile to a single prism.

I love the accuracy and ease of use of digital levels.

Well today is my 15th Wedding Anniversary......who knew it would last this long....;)