I do small handyman jobs on the side and don’t have to look for work. I learned most of my skills from my dad, who was excellent at building and repairing almost anything. When I was about 15, he would tell me he had a job and he could use a good man to help him with it and would I would be interested. I would almost always say yes.
I also worked part time on a farm during high school and pretty much full time during the summer when school was out. Even though I was only allowed to work 48 hours a week during summer vacation, I seldom worked longer than that.
My dad took on a job to build a ramp from a sidewalk to the porch so the older lady that lived there could use her portable mobility scooter. She could walk only about 3 or 4 steps and then she had to sit. The ramp was going to be 16 feet long and she wanted it made out of aluminum, so it wouldn’t rust.
My dad was a master cabinetmaker, but that wasn’t his full time job. He learned cabinet making before joining the Army during WWII and when he came back from the war there were all kinds of lobs available. As much as he enjoyed building cabinets and putting in new kitchens, he said he wanted to do something else full time. He took an apprenticeship as a tool and die maker and did that until he retired. He was offered a foreman’s job, but he would have had to quit the union and he didn’t want to do that, so he continued working building dies.
