Growing up in the suburbs it seems like many of us didn't gain any marketable skills, unlike our country and city counterparts. City kids tend to become street smart, and are good at networking, negotiating and people skills. Country kids become good with their hands, and can rebuild engines, shoot and skin-out game and live off the land. Suburban kids got good it seems, at going to parties and recreational drug use, at least in my experience, hanging out at the mall and shopping, and surfing the internet, all of which translated eventually into long-term unemployment, well into adulthood unfortunately.
The only thing I learned growing up in the suburbs was that my Dad made money and my Mom spent money. If I made the mistake of asking any questions, my Dad would just just give me a solid backhand and my Mom would take me to the mall, just to get me out of the house, so Dad wouldn't kill both of us. So the mall became a haven of sorts, an escape.
I found myself living in Tennessee for some reason, in 2008. I had started a business outside Nashville, despite knowing nobody and having no local connections. It's not the first time I have just shown up somewhere. I did the same thing in 'Vegas about ten years earlier, and it turned out to be one of the most amazing years of my life, although I starved. I thought it would be interesting, to be near "Music City" this time. Plus it seemed business-friendly. I've had no roots since my parents had moved out of my only real home town of Valley Forge, PA when I was away at college in the 1980's. As a result I have yet to find a place to live I'm comfortable with, and I never did "settle down."
Well I couldn't seem to get my little business going enough to pay my little mortgage, so I had to move back to Florida after a year, where there was way more work for me. Then, I had two housing payments every month,for a while, until I could sell the one. Every time I have followed other people's business advice instead of my own infallible gut instincts, from college in the 80's to this real estate fiasco, it has set me back years, if not decades, financially. It's time to stop listening to the advice of idiots.
While I was in Tennessee, where I fit like a square peg in a round hole, I met this old man who lives down the road a ways, out in the country. He'd been kind of lost because his wife made him get rid of all his farm animals after he injured his knees, or maybe it's just degeneration from old age-I'm not quite sure.
He was lamenting his "good ole days" in his "junk shop", where he could do welding, drilling, wood working, cutting steel, bodywork on trucks, and just about anything else it takes to live the country life:
Anyway, it is amazing, how handy this guy was, and I felt like suburban life had let me down.
The only thing I learned growing up in the suburbs was that my Dad made money and my Mom spent money. If I made the mistake of asking any questions, my Dad would just just give me a solid backhand and my Mom would take me to the mall, just to get me out of the house, so Dad wouldn't kill both of us. So the mall became a haven of sorts, an escape.
I found myself living in Tennessee for some reason, in 2008. I had started a business outside Nashville, despite knowing nobody and having no local connections. It's not the first time I have just shown up somewhere. I did the same thing in 'Vegas about ten years earlier, and it turned out to be one of the most amazing years of my life, although I starved. I thought it would be interesting, to be near "Music City" this time. Plus it seemed business-friendly. I've had no roots since my parents had moved out of my only real home town of Valley Forge, PA when I was away at college in the 1980's. As a result I have yet to find a place to live I'm comfortable with, and I never did "settle down."
Well I couldn't seem to get my little business going enough to pay my little mortgage, so I had to move back to Florida after a year, where there was way more work for me. Then, I had two housing payments every month,for a while, until I could sell the one. Every time I have followed other people's business advice instead of my own infallible gut instincts, from college in the 80's to this real estate fiasco, it has set me back years, if not decades, financially. It's time to stop listening to the advice of idiots.
-Just in time for the decline-
While I was in Tennessee, where I fit like a square peg in a round hole, I met this old man who lives down the road a ways, out in the country. He'd been kind of lost because his wife made him get rid of all his farm animals after he injured his knees, or maybe it's just degeneration from old age-I'm not quite sure.
He was lamenting his "good ole days" in his "junk shop", where he could do welding, drilling, wood working, cutting steel, bodywork on trucks, and just about anything else it takes to live the country life:
True 'Bama Fans
Log-Rolling Tool
Drill Press for drilling through steel plate
Cross-Cut saw for wood work
Heavy-duty vise
Space heater, for winter projects
Heavy-duty jack
Walter shows how to shape steel implements
Anvil for shaping horse shoes
Circular saw for wood
Old truck springs
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