Legacies: Pros and Cons

I came from a 'legacy' of every generation and family member being a unique occupation and that has carried through with our 4.
Early on in my informative years I was made aware of the issues that "following in dad's footsteps" could lead to.

Not saying that doing such is bad, but when there's an expectation to fulfill the desire of the parent and follow previous footsteps then it can lead to unfulfilled lives.
I saw a few (bad) examples that probably affected (influenced) my thoughts.

On the Pro side I could see real benefits in a survey firm passing down the generational line.
Tasmania has its share of father to son decendancies that appeared from the outside to be good.
Similarly farming around here is certainly generational for some and there's added incentive where the youngest can work with his parents to setup the farm for their future style of farming.
That has proved right for one I did a lot of surveying on to allow the changes to take place.
It was a pleasure to be part of the process.

The negative side in both instances can be where father is a bit too much old school and reticent to let go of the reigns to some bright, innovative, forward thinking, progressive young one for fear of it all going belly up.
Also farms these days can be your Superannuation which could make it hard to pass over to the next generation.

Out of seven of my uncles, six were serious 'farmers' when I was a boy. All were generally cotton and cattle concerns south of the Red River. None of my cousins except one carried on with the family business. And I always thought that one cousin liked raising cotton. But I don't think he had changed out of his dress clothes from his father's funeral when he signed the papers to sell the farm. He apparently kept thing going just for his father. But when he was gone, the farm was gone.

And some of my cousins have vilified their upbringing on the farm, simply hated it. Something I can't understand. We visited them all the time when I was young. Everybody seemed happy and healthy. Years after everyone had flown the coop and this one particular uncle's place was sold, half his kids refused any proceeds from the sale. I guess it's all in the eyes of the beholder.

John Ott bought the 160 acres (now 236 acres) farm in 1835 from Uncle Sam in Noble County, Indiana. Martin Van Buren signed the land patent. That same land has been owned and farmed father to son all the way down to my dad's dad. Grandpa (just turned 85) still lives on the farm with Grandma.

My dad was the first to go to college. He became a PE LS. Now I am a PLS PE. Legacy.

Brad,
Did any of your Ott relatives get lost and wander off to Kansas. Ed Ott's granddaughter is my next door neighbor. I remember Ed and Hattie from when I was a kid.

My 17-year-old son hasn't a clue about what I do. I've periodically invited him along to help with some field work, but he's only taken me up on it twice, and both times he was under 10. That's okay with me, his personality is very different from mine, and I'm not interested in trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. He's a good kid and will do well with whatever path he chooses.

His predominant interest -- outside of baseball -- is physics. I'd be thrilled to have a physicist in the family, so I'm hoping he pursues that into college and beyond.

I have had a helper for about a dozen days this summer who will be starting his senior year of high school in a couple of weeks. He ranks academically as number one in his class of roughly 120 students. He can master anything academic in nature. His biggest challenge is to find anything in his routine day to challenge him. He has told Mrs. Cow how much he enjoys working with me because of the conversations we have while traveling and working. He intends to be a combination engineering and physics major at the university that succeeds at being the highest bidder for his enrollment. Plenty have been in contact with him already based on SAT and ACT scores. He will succeed.

He is a sponge. He absorbs education where most memorize things to do well on the next test, then promptly jettison that trivia as they prepare for the following test. He listened in rapt attention the other day as I described the use of guarded hot plates (no, not that kind of hot plate) to determine the thermal conductivity/resistivity of materials and composites. This included mention of modeling, edge effects, instrumentation sensitivity etc. that comes into play in deriving the closest thing to pure answers to complex questions. He asked very intelligent questions to prolong the chat as it intrigued him. This was followed up by an introduction to thermal diffusivity. That is the rate at which heat moves through an object such as immersing a very large ball bearing into a hot fluid. The core of the ball bearing will initially be colder than the surface that is in direct contact with the hot fluid, but, as a function of time and that material's thermal diffusivity, eventually the core will be at the same temperature as the fluid surrounding it.

Holy Cow, post: 330331, member: 50 wrote: Brad,
Did any of your Ott relatives get lost and wander off to Kansas. Ed Ott's granddaughter is my next door neighbor. I remember Ed and Hattie from when I was a kid.

Maybe?

That's a lot of Ott's. The Ott family that lived in my neighborhood was Ed and his wife, Hattie. Ed was born in 1908, so he's far too young to be the same Ed Ott. Here's a picture of them taken for their 50th wedding anniversary.

Holy Cow, post: 330363, member: 50 wrote: That's a lot of Ott's. The Ott family that lived in my neighborhood was Ed and his wife, Hattie. Ed was born in 1908, so he's far too young to be the same Ed Ott. Here's a picture of them taken for their 50th wedding anniversary.

Thanks man. They are far too handsome a couple to be related to me.