RedNeckGeek
Super Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 8,753
- Location
- Butte County & Orcutt, California
- Tractor
- Kubota M62, Kubota L3240D HST (SOLD!), Kubota RTV900
Mine may have been the last generation to benefit from real shop classes. In junior high, I started in a wood shop, and like David, I'm pretty sure my first project was some sort of book rack. The next year a new format came in, and we would build a 18" x 48" piece of house. It had a block foundation we mortared ourselves, a sill plate, then joists/stringers, a subfloor, stud walls with plumbing and electrical and drywall, and even a shingled roof. Some kids started that year not even knowing how to use a hammer, and by the end they weren't even bending very many nails. The next year was manufacturing, where the class picked a product, then designed it, and laid out an assembly line to make the pieces and assemble them. One product was salt and pepper shakers, another was sandals. Then in high school, it was back to regular shop classes. Started in the wood shop, where my crowning glory project was a 4' x 4' mahogany bookcase. It was one of the things auctioned off when I cleaned out my mother's house after she passed, and it still looked good as new. Then I switched to metal shop, and the whole world changed. Now I started making things I could actually use, like hammers, chisels, a pool cue, and a monster screwdriver/pry bar, all of which I still use. That's where I learned to safely operate drill presses, lathes, mills, a shaper, surface grinder, and even how to sharpen drill bits by hand. Those skills are still used at least weekly.
When the school board decided those skills were obsolete and dismantled the shops, they started turning out consumers instead of skilled workers. And that lack of skilled labor still haunts our economy today.:2cents:
I'm glad to see something of a revival in the various "maker" labs being set up in the larger cities. Same with the renewed interest in old cars and motorcycles, a lot of it in young guys and gals that never worked on anything before in their lives. But I'm really fortunate to have come up when I did, and do the things I like to do so much in my own little shop. Looking back, I was a geek before there was anything called a geek, but that didn't come until computers.:laughing:
When the school board decided those skills were obsolete and dismantled the shops, they started turning out consumers instead of skilled workers. And that lack of skilled labor still haunts our economy today.:2cents:
I'm glad to see something of a revival in the various "maker" labs being set up in the larger cities. Same with the renewed interest in old cars and motorcycles, a lot of it in young guys and gals that never worked on anything before in their lives. But I'm really fortunate to have come up when I did, and do the things I like to do so much in my own little shop. Looking back, I was a geek before there was anything called a geek, but that didn't come until computers.:laughing:
On my first cholesterol test 30 years ago I had eaten a big mac for lunch before my afternoon Dr. visit and mine was 450. 
