Thinking back on my life, there are several occupational passions that I perceived I would enjoy following.
The first of which was being a cowboy. The thought was how wonderful riding a horse on open ranges and herding cattle was a noble and fun way of living. The reality came later, much later. Being a cowboy was and is a backbreaking, bone busting occupation done under harsh conditions in heavy rain, icy conditions, day and night never-ending workloads. The romantic concept still lingers on, but the reality is so very different.
The second passion was joining the army or the marine corps. In that occupation I could travel the world, fight in battles, become a rough and tumble man respected by all. The reality hit me as I grew older, I am not a fighter. I lost a number of fights along my way. It's not good thing becoming a soldier if I couldn't fight well in my own weight class. That passion fell quickly.
The third passion was becoming a car mechanic. It made me feel good to think I would be someone people needed to repair their vehicles. I started working in a service station that did brake work and front-end alignment. I soon discovered that it entailed a long apprenticeship of pulling wheels, fixing flat tires, changing batteries, packing wheel bearings (nasty job), going to auto supply stores to pick up parts and then returning them when they gave us the wrong parts.
The next passion was becoming a radio repairman. My car radio quit working so I took it to a local repair shop. This was in 1961 and anything electronic seemed mystical, magical, mysterious and above all intriguing. The shop had work benches all around with exotic testing equipment and the repair parts were right there on shelves. I was hooked immediately. The reality was I didn't even know how to learn the process or where to go to learn. My high school had nothing in that dimension, so I just slogged along through school and kept working in the service station. Popular mechanics magazine had articles where I could learn about motors and car repairs.
Then one day, just before school graduation, I was working on a tire repair at the service station and in walked a navy chief who happened to be on recruiting duty. He saw a prospect and went to work on me. His uniform was sharp and clean as was he, while my shop uniform was filthy with dirt, dust, grease and grime. He asked if I liked what I was doing. I replied that it was okay until I got to be a mechanic. His next statement set the hook when he said that if I passed the navy's aptitude test I could get into electronics and work in a clean shop with a clean uniform and clean hands. It sounded nice, clean uniforms, clean hands, but the recruiter had obviously never worked on a flight deck, there's grease, oil, grit and grime during operations and maintenance.
Sometime after graduation I went to the recruiting office to take the test. Minutes after handing over my test paper he walked back into the office and told me that I qualified for any aviation occupation, including aviation electronic tech.
The rest of the story is as some folks say, "history". I spent all my working life as an electronic tech and enjoyed doing it.
Here's the link to the video by Toby Kieth "Should've been a Cowboy" it's a great song.
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2019 and beyond.
The first of which was being a cowboy. The thought was how wonderful riding a horse on open ranges and herding cattle was a noble and fun way of living. The reality came later, much later. Being a cowboy was and is a backbreaking, bone busting occupation done under harsh conditions in heavy rain, icy conditions, day and night never-ending workloads. The romantic concept still lingers on, but the reality is so very different.
The second passion was joining the army or the marine corps. In that occupation I could travel the world, fight in battles, become a rough and tumble man respected by all. The reality hit me as I grew older, I am not a fighter. I lost a number of fights along my way. It's not good thing becoming a soldier if I couldn't fight well in my own weight class. That passion fell quickly.
The third passion was becoming a car mechanic. It made me feel good to think I would be someone people needed to repair their vehicles. I started working in a service station that did brake work and front-end alignment. I soon discovered that it entailed a long apprenticeship of pulling wheels, fixing flat tires, changing batteries, packing wheel bearings (nasty job), going to auto supply stores to pick up parts and then returning them when they gave us the wrong parts.
The next passion was becoming a radio repairman. My car radio quit working so I took it to a local repair shop. This was in 1961 and anything electronic seemed mystical, magical, mysterious and above all intriguing. The shop had work benches all around with exotic testing equipment and the repair parts were right there on shelves. I was hooked immediately. The reality was I didn't even know how to learn the process or where to go to learn. My high school had nothing in that dimension, so I just slogged along through school and kept working in the service station. Popular mechanics magazine had articles where I could learn about motors and car repairs.
Then one day, just before school graduation, I was working on a tire repair at the service station and in walked a navy chief who happened to be on recruiting duty. He saw a prospect and went to work on me. His uniform was sharp and clean as was he, while my shop uniform was filthy with dirt, dust, grease and grime. He asked if I liked what I was doing. I replied that it was okay until I got to be a mechanic. His next statement set the hook when he said that if I passed the navy's aptitude test I could get into electronics and work in a clean shop with a clean uniform and clean hands. It sounded nice, clean uniforms, clean hands, but the recruiter had obviously never worked on a flight deck, there's grease, oil, grit and grime during operations and maintenance.
Sometime after graduation I went to the recruiting office to take the test. Minutes after handing over my test paper he walked back into the office and told me that I qualified for any aviation occupation, including aviation electronic tech.
The rest of the story is as some folks say, "history". I spent all my working life as an electronic tech and enjoyed doing it.
Here's the link to the video by Toby Kieth "Should've been a Cowboy" it's a great song.
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2019 and beyond.
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