Greg Heppeard
09-27-2004, 4:39 PM
:D I was born a poor black child....no wait that was Steve Martin.
I was born and raised in midwestern Ohio. My paternal grandfather was a journeyman carpenter by trade and a part time farmer. I spent most of my time at his place, working and learning from him from the time I could hold a hammer. My father was a factory worker and part time auto mechanic.
In high school, I took 3 years of woodshop, 1 year of metal shop, 1 year of drafting (mechanical drawing--pre-computers)
I joined the Air Force at 18 and became a navigation computer tech. I've been over half way around the world, from Italy to Guam. When the Air Force found out that I could do woodworking, I pretty much was doing special projects the rest of my career. I retired in 1993.
I worked for Motorola in Libertyville, IL for about a year then moved back home to Ohio. I became an auto mechanic in my home town for another year. Then came the string of cabinet shops.
The first shop employed the boss and me. We did it all from rough lumber to just before stacking dishes in the cabinets. It was an excellent learning experience. In the second shop, there were 3 of us. We did everything except the installation basic construction differed slightly from the first shop.
I moved to Oklahoma when I met the 4th LOML (yeah it took me 4 times to find the right one). I worked in cabinet shops for the next 3 years. Boy I can tell you they do things different here!! 3 years ago, my boss opened a Woodcraft store in town, so I took the job as manager, and have been happy ever since. Can you think of a better job than standing around talking about woodworking all day and getting paid for it?? No, there really is more to it than that, but it's still the best job I've had so far. I still do woodworking in my own shop, but I'm on my last paying project...then it's all for fun. :D :D :D
I was born and raised in midwestern Ohio. My paternal grandfather was a journeyman carpenter by trade and a part time farmer. I spent most of my time at his place, working and learning from him from the time I could hold a hammer. My father was a factory worker and part time auto mechanic.
In high school, I took 3 years of woodshop, 1 year of metal shop, 1 year of drafting (mechanical drawing--pre-computers)
I joined the Air Force at 18 and became a navigation computer tech. I've been over half way around the world, from Italy to Guam. When the Air Force found out that I could do woodworking, I pretty much was doing special projects the rest of my career. I retired in 1993.
I worked for Motorola in Libertyville, IL for about a year then moved back home to Ohio. I became an auto mechanic in my home town for another year. Then came the string of cabinet shops.
The first shop employed the boss and me. We did it all from rough lumber to just before stacking dishes in the cabinets. It was an excellent learning experience. In the second shop, there were 3 of us. We did everything except the installation basic construction differed slightly from the first shop.
I moved to Oklahoma when I met the 4th LOML (yeah it took me 4 times to find the right one). I worked in cabinet shops for the next 3 years. Boy I can tell you they do things different here!! 3 years ago, my boss opened a Woodcraft store in town, so I took the job as manager, and have been happy ever since. Can you think of a better job than standing around talking about woodworking all day and getting paid for it?? No, there really is more to it than that, but it's still the best job I've had so far. I still do woodworking in my own shop, but I'm on my last paying project...then it's all for fun. :D :D :D