I think it is a fine idea to learn a trade - if only as a fall-back position. Be an artist, a poet, a philosopher, a rock star, but if you also know how paint a house, build a fence, wire a switch, you at least will have a solid income while pursuing your dream. Right?.
Absolutely. When I was going to school, our trades school had the rep of being for those who couldn't make it in regular school. My, how things have changed.
I believe a good carpenter, plumber or mechanic who also enjoys reading Epictitus, a poem by Emily Dickinson, looking at a painting by Van Gogh, or listening to a concerto by Mozart is someone who is living the dream.
Jefferson’s yeoman farmer, the type of person he saw as the result of America’s liberty project. Wendell Berry is one. When I was a kid here in Idaho, I knew a farmer who was born in one of FDR’s Japanese-American internment camps. As a young adult, he won a Rhodes scholarship. He taught for awhile, then went back to farming.
I know people who believe that the life of the mind is incomplete without the skill and the strength of the hand. I believe in that kind of life.
Yes, ha ha ha! So funny! My son ( the plumber) thought that was so funny he had to share it around. I think he has it hanging in his workshop. That last line is so ironic.
That was awesome, Sharron! Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) would be proud! There's nothing like hanging out in an fashioned garage where you can bring a a sound or wobble, and he takes it from there. Or them sink wrassling cowboys. I see those Bassano men; you did them and all journeymen AND women, proud!
And decorative to look at too ))) There are very few out there. He's my darlin Dan. (for 40 yrs?)
Yup got the best of "handyman" right here. Plumbing, roofing, siding, windows, computer build and repair, flood control, mow for lawn and meadows, TV stuff, historian, INVENTOR ( I could write a very long list), patient teacher, barn builder, wine maker, concrete for walks and setting fence poles, kitty sitter, horse shoer, auto repairs, knows all the right questions for clerks on the phone, volunteers to drive 100 miles to help set up tent camp, kitty sit, and help break down three days later.... and on and on...... There is a sign over my desk: "If they give me trouble, SIC DAN ON THEM". It works every time. There's nothing at all that can't be done between the two of us. Two halves of brain and heart. ))) YEah the world needs more of these. Maybe my grandson could be one ))))
Yes, you found a good one when you found Dan all those many many years ago, that is for sure. However, you are no slouch yourself, Kate. You have so many skills it makes my head spin.
This is so true! Bring back shop and metalworking, etc. to the high schools. Not everyone can or should go to college. The trades are respectable and well paying. I know a plumber who started as an apprentice and became a plumber, owned his business, and eventually became a builder. He’s worth more than 80% of my college graduate friends…. Including me!
That is very good news. Steady employment in the future is a great motivator. If only more young men and women realized that it is great to pursue your dreams, but you also have to eat and pay the mortgage, so have a plan B ready.
Oh, this is fabulous, Sharron! Great words and pictures - particularly of those two at the end there! - and you make such excellent points about appreciating those who can turn themselves to fixing stuff. Golddust! 😘
I am so lucky to have those two Bassano men as the bedrock of my family - and not just because they can unclog a drain or mend a fence, but because they are both so smart and so darned lovable. Good men are hard to find, as the old song goes. You got lucky, too, with your very dear husband and dearest of dads. I loved the story you told today about your dad commenting on your adult swimming style. It says so much about him.
We're so lucky to have such fabulous chaps in our lives, Sharron! (And in case any of the ladies in my life are reading this comment - they are wonderful, too! ♥️)
Love this tribute! I try to push as many students as I can in this direction, Sharron. I tell them to pick up a trade while in high school because the programs are offered for free!
Wow! Your high school sounds like a very enlightened place to be. Our highschool have NO vocational programs. See my comment above to James Ron. It is an excellent argument to use with teens.
Just read your response to James, and yes, exactly! It’s helpful to know any (or all) of it. I wish I had picked up a trade while in high school. I’d be saving myself a lot of time, money, and/or frustration.
All students in my district (and in the surrounding area, too) have the opportunity to attend a career/technical institute as eleventh/twelfth graders to learn a trade. There are so many program options. The kids hop on a bus and either go half day AM or PM. It’s a hell of an opportunity for them!
I would love to see one or both of my kids learn a trade. I kind of wish I had instead of studying theater and then stringing together a bunch of part time jobs and then landing on "unpaid writer" in my 40s. 🤦🏼♀️ My father ran a hardware store for 30 years. He can fix anything. He's over our house a lot. 🙂
And he's dang decorative too. ))) To me for sure. The only thing we've had to hire out in 30 years was trimming a tree that a tornado shattered, and pro emergency cleaners for apartment slathered with bug spray by tenant who just assumed he had to do that. Baaaaaad allergic to that stuff so couldn't do my usual "not a single dust, not a fingerprint" clean. A bug would starve to death. sigh. I am so glad you have your own personaL team at hand. We won the lottery eh? ))))
It is a dying breed. In German, we call this trend "Wegwerfgesellschaft" i.e. "Throw away society" instead of fixing things we throw them away, either because it is more expensive to fix or too hard or no one can actually fix it. Try and change the headlights of your car today. You need to bring it to the garage to have it changed. And, yes, the sons and daughters won't continue the family trade or even stay in that small town, they have zero interest in continuing e.g. the trout farm business, even though it is profitable. We have come a long way, yet if we run out of toilet paper or can't order pizza anymore with our phones, chaos ensues. Imagine a week without electricity or a month without a working toilet in winter at below-zero degrees in France? Happened to me while living in Versailles. Luckily, a neighbor two houses down had an old small outhouse which they let me use while the workers redid all the pipes in the courtyard in front of my apartment because the plumbers had connected the drain pipes the wrong way around and whatever everyone flushed came back up the showers and sinks on the ground floor...
Eeuuuw! That sounds disgusting. THOSE plumbers should have been jailed! But I loved this line: "We have come a long way, yet if we run out of toilet paper or can't order pizza anymore with our phones, chaos ensues." Yes, especially that phone thing... a seriously insidious addiction that is affecting the way a human brain works.n Thanks for your comment. By the way, I am intrigued by your last name. I am only guessing - does Ipfelkofer mean apple box in English? The sound of it delights me.
'Ipfelkofer' is tricky to research as there are no direct corresponding words in mhd. or ahd. and Lexer (having studied 'Mediavistik' I have one, a dictionary for Middle High German, mhd.) is no help either. One would need to dive deep etymologically speaking, considering the High German consonant shift as well... hard to say, "ipfel" could be derived from "gipfel" (peak/summit) with the /g/ disappearing over time and "kofer" from koborôn or bavarian "kofern" (come to power, recuperate) but then again there is no way to confirm this without extensive research and even then... regardless it is a name mostly found within Bavaria and I might even be the only one in France. It always surprises me when people find the name or the sound of it of particular interest.
Thank you so much for this very interesting explanation! More complicated than I thought. My mother was German but born and raised in a small German village in Ukraine. ( There ware many, many German communities there, for three generations.) She spoke what she called "plattdeutsch" and her pronunciation of apfel was "ipfel", and käufer was more like "koffer". I miss her and her language so much.
My pleasure. Dialects add yet another level of complexity, indeed! Given that it is a Southern German name, one would need to apply dialectics from that region (Regiolect), Plattdeutsch is far far up north, though.
One could maybe find place names with similar phonetics (Ipfelhofen, Ipfelkofen) but no such place name exists (many places end in -hofen in Bavaria) nor are there any records one could find easily. I did some research some time ago but got nowhere. I might try again someday.
Thank you Heather. And, by the way, please feel free to delete my comment with the suggested topic! I didn't know how to contact you personally, so I put the link and suggestion in a comment. It does not belong there, I know.
So true. IMO college is not for everyone, the trades can offer a very good income there is not a large college debt to pay off.
Exactly so, Scott. And when you come home from a day's work, you know you did something tangible and real. Thanks for your comment!
Very good! I know guys like that - wish I was one. I should have gone to trade school instead of the time I wasted in college.
I think it is a fine idea to learn a trade - if only as a fall-back position. Be an artist, a poet, a philosopher, a rock star, but if you also know how paint a house, build a fence, wire a switch, you at least will have a solid income while pursuing your dream. Right?.
Absolutely. When I was going to school, our trades school had the rep of being for those who couldn't make it in regular school. My, how things have changed.
Where have all those trade schools gone? And why have they been defunded? It is so short sighted.
I believe a good carpenter, plumber or mechanic who also enjoys reading Epictitus, a poem by Emily Dickinson, looking at a painting by Van Gogh, or listening to a concerto by Mozart is someone who is living the dream.
Well, he sure would be living MY dream. You know where such a man is to be found?
Jefferson’s yeoman farmer, the type of person he saw as the result of America’s liberty project. Wendell Berry is one. When I was a kid here in Idaho, I knew a farmer who was born in one of FDR’s Japanese-American internment camps. As a young adult, he won a Rhodes scholarship. He taught for awhile, then went back to farming.
I know people who believe that the life of the mind is incomplete without the skill and the strength of the hand. I believe in that kind of life.
I do too. Thank you for this very thoughtful comment, Mr Switter.
There is a meme that shows two young men, Chris and Adam.
Adam:
- Bachelor’s degree in philosophy.
- $100,000 in student loans
- Can’t find a philosophy job
- Believes people without degrees are stupid
Chris:
- 4 year paid apprenticeship
- No student debt
- Earns $80,000 annually
- Disconnected Adam’s electricity because of nonpayment
Yes, ha ha ha! So funny! My son ( the plumber) thought that was so funny he had to share it around. I think he has it hanging in his workshop. That last line is so ironic.
hehe, karma!
That was awesome, Sharron! Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) would be proud! There's nothing like hanging out in an fashioned garage where you can bring a a sound or wobble, and he takes it from there. Or them sink wrassling cowboys. I see those Bassano men; you did them and all journeymen AND women, proud!
Thanks so much, Mud-man. It comes from the heart.
And decorative to look at too ))) There are very few out there. He's my darlin Dan. (for 40 yrs?)
Yup got the best of "handyman" right here. Plumbing, roofing, siding, windows, computer build and repair, flood control, mow for lawn and meadows, TV stuff, historian, INVENTOR ( I could write a very long list), patient teacher, barn builder, wine maker, concrete for walks and setting fence poles, kitty sitter, horse shoer, auto repairs, knows all the right questions for clerks on the phone, volunteers to drive 100 miles to help set up tent camp, kitty sit, and help break down three days later.... and on and on...... There is a sign over my desk: "If they give me trouble, SIC DAN ON THEM". It works every time. There's nothing at all that can't be done between the two of us. Two halves of brain and heart. ))) YEah the world needs more of these. Maybe my grandson could be one ))))
Yes, you found a good one when you found Dan all those many many years ago, that is for sure. However, you are no slouch yourself, Kate. You have so many skills it makes my head spin.
And yes, his pickup is white hahahaha.)))
This is so true! Bring back shop and metalworking, etc. to the high schools. Not everyone can or should go to college. The trades are respectable and well paying. I know a plumber who started as an apprentice and became a plumber, owned his business, and eventually became a builder. He’s worth more than 80% of my college graduate friends…. Including me!
I could not have said it better, Wade. Thank you!
Harder to find these days, but the pendulum might be swinging back. I have several nephews entering the trades or in apprenticeships.
That is very good news. Steady employment in the future is a great motivator. If only more young men and women realized that it is great to pursue your dreams, but you also have to eat and pay the mortgage, so have a plan B ready.
This was a wonderful tribute to both the handymen in your life and handymen everywhere. :).
Oh and my late dad was both a mechanic and welder.
So I knew what it was like to have someone around who could fix things.
Lucky girl! I need to show my appreciation more often!
Oh, this is fabulous, Sharron! Great words and pictures - particularly of those two at the end there! - and you make such excellent points about appreciating those who can turn themselves to fixing stuff. Golddust! 😘
I am so lucky to have those two Bassano men as the bedrock of my family - and not just because they can unclog a drain or mend a fence, but because they are both so smart and so darned lovable. Good men are hard to find, as the old song goes. You got lucky, too, with your very dear husband and dearest of dads. I loved the story you told today about your dad commenting on your adult swimming style. It says so much about him.
We're so lucky to have such fabulous chaps in our lives, Sharron! (And in case any of the ladies in my life are reading this comment - they are wonderful, too! ♥️)
Love this tribute! I try to push as many students as I can in this direction, Sharron. I tell them to pick up a trade while in high school because the programs are offered for free!
Wow! Your high school sounds like a very enlightened place to be. Our highschool have NO vocational programs. See my comment above to James Ron. It is an excellent argument to use with teens.
Just read your response to James, and yes, exactly! It’s helpful to know any (or all) of it. I wish I had picked up a trade while in high school. I’d be saving myself a lot of time, money, and/or frustration.
All students in my district (and in the surrounding area, too) have the opportunity to attend a career/technical institute as eleventh/twelfth graders to learn a trade. There are so many program options. The kids hop on a bus and either go half day AM or PM. It’s a hell of an opportunity for them!
Wow! I'll say. I hope enough of them take advantage of it. Keep encouraging, Justin!
I would love to see one or both of my kids learn a trade. I kind of wish I had instead of studying theater and then stringing together a bunch of part time jobs and then landing on "unpaid writer" in my 40s. 🤦🏼♀️ My father ran a hardware store for 30 years. He can fix anything. He's over our house a lot. 🙂
Bless dad. I'll bet he is always willing to help out..
My husband was one of them - I sure do miss him and his talents.
I know you do. And now you have developed so many more talents and skills of your own! It is never too late.
It's true . . . reluctantly though.
And he's dang decorative too. ))) To me for sure. The only thing we've had to hire out in 30 years was trimming a tree that a tornado shattered, and pro emergency cleaners for apartment slathered with bug spray by tenant who just assumed he had to do that. Baaaaaad allergic to that stuff so couldn't do my usual "not a single dust, not a fingerprint" clean. A bug would starve to death. sigh. I am so glad you have your own personaL team at hand. We won the lottery eh? ))))
Indeed we did!
It is a dying breed. In German, we call this trend "Wegwerfgesellschaft" i.e. "Throw away society" instead of fixing things we throw them away, either because it is more expensive to fix or too hard or no one can actually fix it. Try and change the headlights of your car today. You need to bring it to the garage to have it changed. And, yes, the sons and daughters won't continue the family trade or even stay in that small town, they have zero interest in continuing e.g. the trout farm business, even though it is profitable. We have come a long way, yet if we run out of toilet paper or can't order pizza anymore with our phones, chaos ensues. Imagine a week without electricity or a month without a working toilet in winter at below-zero degrees in France? Happened to me while living in Versailles. Luckily, a neighbor two houses down had an old small outhouse which they let me use while the workers redid all the pipes in the courtyard in front of my apartment because the plumbers had connected the drain pipes the wrong way around and whatever everyone flushed came back up the showers and sinks on the ground floor...
Eeuuuw! That sounds disgusting. THOSE plumbers should have been jailed! But I loved this line: "We have come a long way, yet if we run out of toilet paper or can't order pizza anymore with our phones, chaos ensues." Yes, especially that phone thing... a seriously insidious addiction that is affecting the way a human brain works.n Thanks for your comment. By the way, I am intrigued by your last name. I am only guessing - does Ipfelkofer mean apple box in English? The sound of it delights me.
'Ipfelkofer' is tricky to research as there are no direct corresponding words in mhd. or ahd. and Lexer (having studied 'Mediavistik' I have one, a dictionary for Middle High German, mhd.) is no help either. One would need to dive deep etymologically speaking, considering the High German consonant shift as well... hard to say, "ipfel" could be derived from "gipfel" (peak/summit) with the /g/ disappearing over time and "kofer" from koborôn or bavarian "kofern" (come to power, recuperate) but then again there is no way to confirm this without extensive research and even then... regardless it is a name mostly found within Bavaria and I might even be the only one in France. It always surprises me when people find the name or the sound of it of particular interest.
Thank you so much for this very interesting explanation! More complicated than I thought. My mother was German but born and raised in a small German village in Ukraine. ( There ware many, many German communities there, for three generations.) She spoke what she called "plattdeutsch" and her pronunciation of apfel was "ipfel", and käufer was more like "koffer". I miss her and her language so much.
My pleasure. Dialects add yet another level of complexity, indeed! Given that it is a Southern German name, one would need to apply dialectics from that region (Regiolect), Plattdeutsch is far far up north, though.
One could maybe find place names with similar phonetics (Ipfelhofen, Ipfelkofen) but no such place name exists (many places end in -hofen in Bavaria) nor are there any records one could find easily. I did some research some time ago but got nowhere. I might try again someday.
Thanks for this discussion. I am always interested in language. Sometimes my curiosity causes me to ask impertinent questions.
Cheers to these heroes....and I love your Bassano men photo!
I have ultimate respect and admiration for anyone with these skills.
Thank you Heather. And, by the way, please feel free to delete my comment with the suggested topic! I didn't know how to contact you personally, so I put the link and suggestion in a comment. It does not belong there, I know.
Actually, if you don't mind, I'll leave it there. Other readers may click on it, which would be awesome. There's some really good 'stuff' in there!
PS - You can always reach me at heather@thebrebaughs.com. 💚