You have "earned" any length post you want.I do not usually post long narratives but today it is about to snow and my shop is cold so I will tell a story about a gentleman from Texas who drank Lone Star beer.Texas has a large population of German descents in some parts of the state so there is little doubt in my mind that the area could produce beer. My friend was one of that group and grew up speaking both German and English.
This is a true story that I either witnessed or had relayed to me by enough good friends so I believe all of it is true. After college my dream job would have been with NASA but the space program was starting to wind down some after the moon landing so I took an offer from RCA. This was a a time when they were still producing hybrid televisions and massive amounts of people were hired to work with solid state. Some of the older people there had started in radio, then tube television, and lacked some of the background to easily move into solid state. There were around 7,000 employees, 80% women (an enticement for a single male), maybe 200 technicians and 50 or so engineers. Lots of line workers, parts handlers, warehouse people, etc. There was a union in place for those who did a lot of that work then of course management, supervision and group leaders. My friend's name is Tony and one of two people I have met in my life whom I consider a genius, the other built a robotic arm at a very early age and made several magazine stories. Tony was a technician and an amazing one. He would tend to play cards much of the day in one of the lounges and while there people would come and ask him how to fix their car, or a tractor, or whatever. He did not read fiction but could talk bullet velocities, calculus, geometry, physics, metallurgy etc. with a keen understanding. The televisions that needed to be repaired were still in chassis form as they went in a long oval in front of technicians and parts changers. People pulled the chassis towards themselves on small dollys and then technicians would hook the chassis to a CRT and other overhead cables to see what the issue was. Generally there were eight or so technicians per line. Troubleshooting a television that was out in the field meant it must have worked at one time, then developed a problem. In this case those who fed parts into the circuit boards might swap two resistors, or forget to install a diode, or leave a solder glob underneath a frame that housed a module or even install a part that was off value from the manufacturer. Tony would tend to come back to the repair line when supervisors came looking for him, diagnose everything on the line at an alarming rate (the chassis were then sent to parts changers who replaced tuners etc), and leave again. People from other lines would seek him out to help with problems they could not diagnose. That was a normal day for him but once he walked by two engineers who had a prototype for a new TV, and it obviously had color issues. He asked if he could fix it for them and they just laughed at him. They left for some reason and Tony went to test maintenance, got a hack saw, came back and sawed the metal chassis in half. The engineers were furious when they found it and wanted the person responsible fired on the spot! To their amazement though, he had fixed the problem, the continuous metal around the picture tube was acting as a degaussing coil and distorting the color. From that day forth the chassis was split and two non- conductive wafers were in place stopping that loop. Tony grew up in Texas on a farm, and learned to do things for himself. He eventually purchased a farm because of work he did outside of RCA. Asking $25 per, he would repair tv's for a large hotel chain and made $4,000 a week, (1973 dollars) while he still worked for RCA. On his farm he built his own saw mill, did electronics work, repaired cars, tractors, etc. I would trade labor for custom made parts for my target bows, or need repair on an antique pistol, or need repair on my car which he handled. He left RCA when they would not allow him time off to harvest one of his crops. He then would repair HVAC units for large factories and eventually figured out how to repair certain large electrical parts for Westinghouse at $80,000 each. As he got older his doctor told him he needed to get more exercise so he built an 18 hole golf course on his property. The last time I ran into him, RCA was selling off a lot of their equipment and he and I were buying specific pieces and he was still as sharp as ever. He had explained how he found an old hydraulic lift in a dumpster, repaired it, and it was key to some of the work he did for Westinghouse. They eventually shut down in our area as well but he had amassed enough money to spend a month in the Caribbean each year where he could finally take some time and rest.In a way I followed in his footsteps and did not mind getting my hands dirty. I would work 8-10 hour days in technical management and still make time to go to pawn shops and repair electronics, cameras, watches etc. for which I was often paid with gold rings, Rolex watches, and even gem stones. I learned the joy of making using my own hands to build amplifiers, or do woodworking etc. I can barely think of Lone Star beer without thinking of some of those days and a guy from Texas who exemplified such a fine work ethic. He instilled in me a belief that if you take time to help others, life can be very fulfilling. Again I apologize for the long post.
Enjoyable read.
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