Turtle Rock

I started this thought a while back and forgot about it. There has been so much going on around here lately. Maybe some day I’ll be able to reflect on it in a positive way. But for now, I will commit to finishing this and publishing it.

I’m probably not the best one to write on this subject, but it sparked my interest nonetheless and I decided to start writing just to see where it takes me.

I often say that my parents wasted a lot of money so that I would learn to read and write. It helped in the early years but as time passed, it seems we as a society depended more on hiroglifics. Companies today prefer stick-drawings instead of detailed writing. I get so infuriated trying to assemble something I’ve purchased only to end up throwing their artwork away and putting it together on my own, often times finishing with parts unused.

Additionally, no one today knows how to read or write in cursive! But they sure know how to disrupt society and demonstrate foolishly.

A bored student in high school, I preferred being anyplace other than the classroom, memorizing dates and names. At Mom’s insustence, I took typing in junior high school. She said it was a good skill to have. I also took sheet metal shop because Dad always said if you know a trade, you will always have a job.

An only child, I didn’t have many friends and I can’t remember a time that I didn’t wish I had siblings. As a shy kid, I was also a loner, spending much of my time in my bedroom, listening to my stereo, playing records – rock and roll records when I wasn’t watching television. Both my parents were alcoholics and I had no desire to be around it. When I earned a position on the high school football team I thought I might begin to be accepted by my classmates. I guess I was only in search of some respect and acceptance from those classmates who weren’t good to me and found me an easy target.

My attempts back then to learn to play the guitar always failed even though I loved music. My best friend was, however in the high school band and I attribute my vast appreciation of music to him. He and I also enjoyed the outdoors, camping and hiking. Each and every year, he joined us on our family vacations camping in the Sierra Mountains near Truckee.

We were lucky enough to have a teen club on the navy base where we “navy brats” could “let it all hang out” on Friday nights enjoying a game of ping pong, billiards, having a cold drink at the soda fountain (when a volunteer was working it), a tv room, and a dance floor where we could dance to records that played nonstop on the juke box except on occasion, there was a live band. Anyone who was in their teen years and a military dependent could join the Mare Island Teen Club. My best friend and I spent many Friday nights there when it wasn’t football season.

Unfortunately, I didn’t do well academically and barely graduated with no idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I was lucky however that my best friend’s family took me in after moving to Ohio and his dad helped me get a job in a small, local machine shop where he knew practically everyone there, especially the ones who did the hiring. That’s where I began a successful 20-year career as a machinist, a trade I grew to love.

The moral to this story is, no matter how many times you may fail, do not give up! There is something you can excel at and find success in. And I also realized that if you find a career doing something you love, you will never work a day in your life.