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More work stories with Ron
Karen thanks for sharing your stories; wow it does parallel my own!
Yes, I do remember “expedite,” but Ron went through a “Spanish phase” in the mid 70’s, so expedite became “Andale!” The equivalent of move your butt!! (He spoke Spanish a lot like John Wayne did)
The weekends were never a time to sleep in, even when doing fun activities like bowling or Golf. I remember our family bowling breakfasts, which included three games of bowling, but started at 7:30 am with a big breakfast. This gave plenty of time for chores or tasks afterwards. Many times Ron and I got out onto the golf course before it was open. I can remember at the Laurel Pines Golf Course in MD when the starter would come racing out in his golf cart to catch these renegades only to smile and say, “Oh, It’s you, Ron.” Then Ron would pay him our green fees and we continued our game.
As the business ventures began, the play ended, but with Ron work was play J
Whether we were out “playing” doing electrical contracting work or “playing” doing restaurant work it was always a family affair. That is one thing I recognized early on, Ron loved having his family working shoulder to shoulder with him in any of his ventures. Perhaps the most humorous story of a “family work project” was when we were putting up a TV Antenna at the La Habra Heights house we were building. The job was to put up a fifteen foot antenna on the roof using guide wires to hold it in place and a metal saddle to seat the Antenna. I was up on a scaffold near the roof line, probably 30 feet from the ground and my job was to hold the pole with the antenna and guide it into the saddle, while it was kept vertical by four sets of willing workers. Worker number 1 – my sister, Worker number 2 – my mother, Worker number 3 – Ron, and worker number 4 - his 70 year old father. (I know what you are thinking…). As I gently hoisted the antenna into the air and prepared to seat it while the four workers were keeping the guy wires taught, the antenna decided to fall over as grandpa Pat was not quite able to hold it against the other two workers. The antenna fell onto the 12000 volt power line that supplied the entire development. Everyone had let go of their wires when the antenna fell, but yours truly was holding the metal pole. My entire body was alive with electricity through my fingers and back, but thankfully (divine intervention) one of the guy wires happened to brush against the metal chimney and was instantly welded in place. This diverted most of the current otherwise I would have been electrocuted. Pa would reflect on that incident with gratitude that he hadn’t killed me or my mother would never have forgiven him, he would say. Later, we regrouped and put up a much smaller antenna. (Picture above is the house and the infamous powerline)
Karen, I found the same thing was true for me; Pa was a great teacher/trainer. I did many projects with him and he would always train me on a job and turn me loose. He allowed me to fail without bringing shame or belittling me. This gave me the confidence to try things as you mentioned. Because of this process of teach/train/turn loose I came away with the belief (erroneous as that sometimes was) that I could do anything I put my mind to.
Perhaps this is what influenced me to become a teacher/trainer as well.