What Did Your Parents Do?

[Willy P]

What did your folks do for a living? I come from eastern Canada Newfinese/ Nova Scotian fisherfolk. I gutted more fish as a boy than you can shake a stick at. Some eastern soul music....

 

[Desk Jockey]

My father worked for 25-years in a dry cleaning business before starting a carpet cleaning business.

My mother would work seasonal at the same department store when I was a kid but once my father started the business she worked as receptionist/bookkeeper.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

My father had a variety of jobs in the steel industry, furniture assembly, and sales at an upscale men's clothing store before he began managing the dry cleaning plant he ultimately purchased. He started carpet cleaning and fire restoration within a couple years of that purchase.

My mother worked as a secretary and later in the medical field before working full time with my father in the cleaning and restoration business.

 

[Mikey P]

Dad got out of the army and moved to SoCal and did construction in the San Fernando Valley then went into sales.

Cadillacs
Baby furniture
Pianos
Advertising
Tools


Once the kids were up and out, my mom went to work at a french food importer then over to TRW (Northrup Grumman)


The TRW and Military both funded their final stays ate hospitals/nursing homes.

 

[Zee]

My dad was in electronic development...whatever the heck that meant back in the days of cold war as he had to travel a lot in places like Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, east Germany etc....

To be honest, since he died 12 years ago, I'm still trying to figure out what he really did....I just know that a lot of conversations were held right over the kitchen sink with running water and dishes making extra noise for reasons that are obvious.

My mom never held a job after she was done with schools.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Pop enlisted in the Marines shortly after the Army drafted his older brother. (WWII)
Both south pacific combat vets
after WWII Pop worked a lot of different jobs ...hauled coal, laid block, worked in steel mills.
in '57 he hired in at Chrysler's brand new Twinsburg Stamping plant ..ever since i can remember he was skilled trade there (welder repair was the classification) which entailed machine set-up/change over and keeping the automated spot welders sparking.
There was period of years he had a second job too .....managing a gas station

Mom was a stay at home mom


..L.T.A.

 

[J Scott W]

My dad worked a variety of jobs in the mobile home industry, a family tradition. Construction, sales, repair, transport.

Mom did not work all the time but did some work as musician and sold musical instruments.

 

[Mikey P]

Great thread, thanks Willy!


Cole, you're next.

 

[hogjowl]

My Dad enlisted in the Navy during WWII. After the war, he came back to Birmingham and got a job at US Steel Fairfield works. He worked there for 30 years and retired. He stayed hom with Mom (who never worked) about 6 weeks and then went right back to US Steel and worked for another 10 years. He said Mom was driving him crazy.

My Dad was a neat guy. He could work repair and build just about anything. I never saw him sit still. He got a good bit of vacation time at US Steel and would frame houses, build fireplaces, build stair cases, fix our cars, etc. on his off days or vacations. I was with him the night he died holding his work calloused hand at the age of 89.

 

[The Great Oz]

Dad installed car radios after getting out of the Navy (They didn't sell cars with factory radios in those days) and gradually built a TV and radio sales and repair business. Long hours away from family convinced him to sell the biz. Went to work for Boeing, assigned to missile guidance systems. After coming up with several innovations that saved the company millions, quit because he still couldn't get a raise - he was "too new." Boeing sent letters and called every week for two years trying to get him to come back, but he refused to talk to them. They adopted a policy of rewarding innovators after he left.
You should always listen, even if you're angry.

Mom was an artist who put aside a professional career to raise 7 kids. (and teach a crapload of kids to read that had learning disabilities)
Creativity can be expressed many ways beyond paint.

 

[dealtimeman]

Mom was and still is some kind of teacher through various private and public schools.

Dad worked at a uniform laundry company then a sheet metal forming company and now works with special needs kids at schools. ( for some reason he doesn't think they are special needs as he says they are just like his kids but much more funny to be around)

 

[Bryan S. Bennett]

Dad's name is forest and moms name is genny. Dad was a ping pong champ in the military, did a tour in Vietnam, and mom really didnt work much since she traveled most of her life seeing different bands play. They did one movie together. Gave me some money to buy my first truckmount. They got me my first job in Washington DC cleaning out the reflecting pool. They always seemed to have good connections in life. They just sent me some chocolates for Christmas. They always do that........

 

[Mark Saiger]

My dad was a Music Teacher and Carpet cleaner.....and still drives school bus.
Imagine that


Mom was the head of the district meals program for many years....had done some elementary teaching prior to us kids coming along.



A similar post I did just after Christmas about my Dad

http://mikeysboard.com/forum/index.php?threads/my-dad.276891/

 

[truckmount girl]

My dad hired on to Lear-Siegler (the Lear division made the Lear jets) as a janitor, slowly he worked his way up to vice-president of production - telephone products. He met my mom there and because the company had a strict policy against employees dating, she quit and never worked steady until after I left home. Dad got screwed by Lear-Siegler who eliminated his job less than a year before he was to retire and he basically lost most of the pension and benefits he had been counting on to retire comfortably. From there he got a job as groundskeeper for a golf course, but his COPD couldn't handle the mold and pollens. He died of COPD in 2001, bitter and unhappy and resentful of the company that showed him no loyalty.

Mom dabbled in real estate, bought several investment houses and sold them at a loss in the recession when her and my step-dad's real estate business failed.

Take care,
Lisa

 

[mirf]

My Mom was a registered nurse and worked private duty 11 -7 overnight shift for people who needed 24 hour care.

My Dad was a linemen for the UI a electric company in Ct. Also was a veteran of Korean war and WWII.

Both are gone many years now but i still miss them!

 

[Mikey P]

Dang Lisa..

What a bummer.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

Thank you for starting this thread Willy.

The background sketches of our parents' work choices is revealing window into who we are today.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Worked at the newspaper here from about 9 years old to 62.

Retired and is now a full time mountain bike rider and part time guinness taste tester.
Ahhh the good life.

 

[bob vawter]

My dad was taken in by a rather strict Amish/Mennonite family as a child in Indiana and grew up as a farmer using moon phases and such to plant the crops.....also knew how to control the sex of foals of the horses they raised by vaginal Ph during breeding...an art long lost in these modern days!
My mom was orphaned as a baby and taken in by a couple who were very strict 7th Day Adventists (gnostics) by pure definition....she was very good at making various types of poluses using weeds..berrys and different types of bee hives......she had a flair for making quilts telling life stories of people that commissioned her to produce one.........
after they met they moved to Mi where they adopted me at one day old.......i figger thats why i'm so well adjusted......

 

[Desk Jockey]

and here all along I thought you were raised by wolves.

 

[bob vawter]

and here all along I thought you were raised by wolves.

i wish.........

 

[Desk Jockey]

I figured that one you captured was just a long lost relative.

 

[bob vawter]

I figured that one you captured was just a long lost relative.

coyote...damn it!!!!

 

[Desk Jockey]

I thought you claimed it was a wolf?

 

[bob vawter]

NO.....it was a "breed" wit a coyotes ass......the front was a dog but the rear end which you can't see well in this picture was all COYOTE....damn it!
can't you see the color change at the ass end?

 

[Desk Jockey]

Our coyotes don't look like that. They are smaller dog like but run funny like a hyena.

 

[Hoody]

My parents divorced when I was almost 2. So I did the back and forth thing growing up.

My mom has went through different stints of drug and alcohol abuse, sometimes she held down a job sometimes not. She worked in factories, nursing homes, care provider, waitress and a few other jobs. She's been dating this guy off and on for the better of 20 years. Today, I am glad that she has herself together and I hope she gets everything she wants out of life and we can continue to have a good mother-son relationship, because at one time it was very strained. The birth of my son helped a lot with that because I wouldn't let her be around him when she was making poor choices and I have changed in many ways since then myself.

My dad was a welder from '85 - '08 for the same company and he was the shop foreman. I've never seen anyone else lay down a bead so effortlessly. Dad taught me how to weld and together we use to build log splitters for people. The company permanently laid him off 3 years after a buy out from a competitor. They offered him a job back but he had to go through a temp service and make around 45% less than he made before with no benefits. He was bitter and still is so he told them to cram it and sat on unemployment as long as he could. Now he is truck driver for Werner and delivers goods to Family Dollar in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and at times Arkansas. He's on the road all week and gets home on Friday evenings and is back out Sunday mornings.

I watched my dad go through a bad divorce with his second wife where he lost everything. He never let that have an effect on me and always did what he needed. He goes to work every day whether hes hurting, sick, tired, or whatever. Both companies he has worked for have had to force him to take his vacation time. My dad will be 52 this year and my mom 46 - I will be 29 and you can do the math.

I work hard to pave my own path and I am the only one in my family that owns a business. Both parents tell me they're proud of me and that's all you can want as a son. As a father I want my son to look up to me, like I look up to my father.

 

[Jim Nazarian]

In Syria my Dad started & built a very succesful textile factory, but being Christian in a Muslim country wasn't ideal, the "government" would show up & take your business from you & hand it over to mayors cousin & there wasn't anything you can do about it, I was a year old when they snuck out of the country by bribing the border guards at midnight & crossed into Lebanon to fly to Los Angles via Paris. My great uncles owned Zandt Carpet in Hollywood, at the time they were the biggest carpet wholesaler west of the Mississippi, they offered my dad the glorious position of a janitor, my Dad went from employing 50 at his factory to scrubbing toilets in a week, one day he got his big break & got promoted to a carpet layers helper at the age of 45, then later moved into their Carpet cleaning division where my Mom joined him as a team they became the customers favorite, my Great uncles passed & of course their kids were spoiled & partied too much leading to Zandts bankruptcy...Dad bought Zandts customer list from them & wrote all the customers a letter letting them know he would continue cleaning.

I still service many of those original customers 47 years later.

 

[bob vawter]

My parents divorced when I was almost 2. So I did the back and forth thing growing up.

My mom has went through different stints of drug and alcohol abuse, sometimes she held down a job sometimes not. She worked in factories, nursing homes, care provider, waitress and a few other jobs. She's been dating this guy off and on for the better of 20 years. Today, I am glad that she has herself together and I hope she gets everything she wants out of life and we can continue to have a good mother-son relationship, because at one time it was very strained. The birth of my son helped a lot with that because I wouldn't let her be around him when she was making poor choices and I have changed in many ways since then myself.

My dad was a welder from '85 - '08 for the same company and he was the shop foreman. I've never seen anyone else lay down a bead so effortlessly. Dad taught me how to weld and together we use to build log splitters for people. The company permanently laid him off 3 years after a buy out from a competitor. They offered him a job back but he had to go through a temp service and make around 45% less than he made before with no benefits. He was bitter and still is so he told them to cram it and sat on unemployment as long as he could. Now he is truck driver for Werner and delivers goods to Family Dollar in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and at times Arkansas. He's on the road all week and gets home on Friday evenings and is back out Sunday mornings.

I watched my dad go through a bad divorce with his second wife where he lost everything. He never let that have an effect on me and always did what he needed. He goes to work every day whether hes hurting, sick, tired, or whatever. Both companies he has worked for have had to force him to take his vacation time. My dad will be 52 this year and my mom 46 - I will be 29 and you can do the math.

I work hard to pave my own path and I am the only one in my family that owns a business. Both parents tell me they're proud of me and that's all you can want as a son. As a father I want my son to look up to me, like I look up to my father.

so glad Dink...sounds lik you finally took some of my good advice..........

 

[Bryan S. Bennett]

Enjoyed reading all of these stories of talented hardworking people. No doubt we are like our parents and were gifted with a desire to give our very best.

Personal failures, takeovers, loss of employment, companies or complete industries gone due to outdated technology is a grave risk we all could face just like some of our parents.

We are no different, Period.

Real Education is the only way we can ultimately protect ourselves from the forces listed above. Learn all you can and be prepared to market yourself to the next opportunity that comes along. Chances are it will be better than the last train you rode!

I suggest reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Richard T. Kiyosaki to get you started on your educational journey. It really is a great educational read.