OPE daily

I love listening to my grandparents’ stories about their lives long before my parents were born. Everything suspiciously cost a nickel, horsepower was just that and, from what I gather, people had to do a lot of things by hand. My grandfather laughs when he hears people use the phrase “Good ol’ days.” Sometimes referred to as the golden age. He tells me they weren’t all that great. Grandpa prefers the comforts and wisdom that time and technology have brought him.

My grandfather grew up number four of twelve children outside Pierre, SD. Winters were hard and cold, and summers were hot and hard work. Farms and ranches apparently are all the rage in the Dakotas and he was farmed out at the age of thirteen to a family in a neighboring town (as were most of his siblings).  At the risk of over-simplifying his life, I’ll jump ahead to the age of twenty-one where he ended up in Porterville, CA. It’s as small as it sounds. Located in central California, it is west-coast farming at its best. Orange groves, almonds, olives and, as I’m told, “just about everything except bananas.” My grandfather started out as the kid at a tiny tractor repair shop called Farmers Tractor. Over the course of thirty-seven years he became Shop Foreman and General Manager of a multi-million dollar company. The man has seen outdoor power equipment since before it was powered. It was just outdoor equipment back then. What’s better is he knows his stuff. He won’t remember what he’s supposed to pickup at the grocery store, but he’ll tell you about some obscure equipment teardown in 1958. In our shop, we’ll be stumped on something and he’ll chime in with an “I saw something like this once…” and he’s usually dead on. He can also tell you about the entire original cast of the Lawrence Welk Show, but that’s neither here nor there.

Mostly I like him comparing the early years of OPE to current models. Back then machines were not refined for the user, they were created to do one specific job. Since nothing had previously existed, someone (usually without any sort of engineering degree) had to wing it. That’s why we had rediculously heavy chainsaws that took two men to carry and cut with, and tractors without steering dampeners that have been known to break thumbs and knuckles. Those were the good ol’ days.

So, when your employees start to give you crap about work stress, or uncomfortable trucks, or the fact that there’s no toilet paper in the bathrooms you can say, “Hey, shut it. At least we’re not like those guys over there,” and then point to some kids playing outside. They don’t even know how bad it’s going to get. Naive.