How time flies

[Harold_V]

Interesting for me to note that it was *just* 57 years ago today that I started my training as a machinist at Sperry Utah Engineering Laboratories.

Harold

[SteveM]

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Thanks for sharing your almost 60 years of knowledge, experience and stories with us.

Steve

[Harold_V]

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Strangely, the 19th of August was also the date I was fired from the last job I held, ten years from the day I started in the trade. I say this with considerable pride, by the way. I had a terrible attitude towards my employer(s). The shop was owned by nine individuals, each pulling their own direction. Imagine taking conflicting orders and trying to make anyone, let alone everyone, happy.

My machines had finally arrived and were in the process of being set up to begin what was to be a 16 year run of my own small commercial shop. As I was punching in, one of the owners exited the door from their conference room, where they had just finished the meeting in which I'm quite sure my firing was discussed. He told me to not bother punching in, as I was fired. I reached for my wallet and withdrew one of my business cards and handed it to him. I then told him that had I employed a person that had my attitude, he'd have been fired long ago. The look on his face was priceless!

I expect that the firing was the best thing that could have happened to me, as it forced me to perform. I may have held on to the job for a prolonged period of time, never really getting off the ground, especially considering that I was working day shift, 12 hours daily, and six hours on Saturday. There was no way I could have promoted the humble business I hoped to operate.

Thanks for sharing your almost 60 years of knowledge, experience and stories with us.

I am in hopes that some of it has been useful.

Harold

[SteveHGraham]

Thanks for all the help!

Hey, is that the job where you learned the right term for the stones on a bench grinder?

[golfpin]

A very big thanks to Harold for the patience you have shown, to us "apprentices"...I feel that a big brother is watching over me.
Cheers Golfpin RSA

[tornitore45]

Is a source of pride when you can look back at your career and confirm you did it right, without compromising on your standards. In the majority of cases when a good employee is fired it end up in a better position. For some inexplicable reason, reading the OP make me think of Frank Sinatra song "I did it my way".

[golfpin]

very nicely put Tornitore45
Golfpin

[ronm]

It's great that this internet thing makes it possible to share knowledge like you do, Harold-not even dreamed of back in '57, huh? I know I would never have dreamed of such a thing-(I was a second-grader in a one-room country school that year)...I remember reading about the Soviets launching Sputnik in the "Weekly Reader" paper we got at school about that time...pretty amazing.

[JackF]

Harold, now that the house is finished? have you thought about machining for profit again?


Jack.

[Harold_V]

It's great that this internet thing makes it possible to share knowledge like you do, Harold-not even dreamed of back in '57, huh? I know I would never have dreamed of such a thing-(I was a second-grader in a one-room country school that year)...I remember reading about the Soviets launching Sputnik in the "Weekly Reader" paper we got at school about that time...pretty amazing.

Sputnik---a grapefruit sized satellite that did nothing more than transmit a beep-----but very demoralizing (as it was intended to do) when the "success" by the Soviet Union was publicized.

I've reflected on those days of late. Life was so much simpler. People, in general, had little, but life was good. One does not miss that which he does not know.

Harold

[Harold_V]

Harold, now that the house is finished? have you thought about machining for profit again?


Jack.

Not even at gun point, Jack.

I find little pleasure in running my machines. I'm not sure I could face them if I had to, on a daily basis.

Harold

[steamin10]

Ha! 57' and the death of the 'space fins' in 58' and the return to 'Holes' in the front fenders for snazzy over chromed style. Born in 52 I was all ablaze with moon rover ideas in 2nd grade. I would doodle constantly of tank like things with low domes like a jet fighter and crazy cranes and contraptions for doing 'Moon work'. Bulldozers and earth blowers that throw moon soil over frames to make 'underground' habitat. None of which is even close.

My doodles of aircraft mimiced the Blackbird, only larger with 'Sparrow' fighters, that attached to the inner wings or the double tail. Imaginative, but impractical. I was greatly influenced by Dan Q. Posen, and had his book, Out of This World, (Autographed) that explained space travel of the 50's concepts then.

Except for working in the then flourishing steel industry, beginning 1970, I never got to fly much or express myself in futuristic projects much, becoming a diver and Boatnic, taking canoe trips to far lands, and swapping engines in my Dodge so I could go fast and be cool...

Just like now, too many projects to be good at any one, and always divided in my attentions, making life work.

I am still excited about challenges, and using my machines, I just have a slow pace and a failing walk. So be it. If it makes you happy, march to your own drum, and continue the trek. All the best. D.