STORIES FROM THE FIELD

My Dad was always out in the storms. He was a troubleshooter. When stuff went down, he had to fix it. No matter how bad the situation was, he had to go out and do it. That fascinated me.

When I was a kid you hear all these different stories. My dad was working on a transformer about 25 years ago. He was working on a pad mount transformer on the ground. I heard my Dad dropped a cigarette in the transformer. He went to get it. I don’t know if he was squatted down or something and he fell into it or what. I don’t know why he went in to get it. But he didn’t see where his knees were. I guess they made contact. And that’s what started him on fire and killed him. I always blame the cigarettes.

So I treat electricity with respect. You can’t get too comfortable around it, because it’ll turn around and bite you. You’ll get zapped if you get too comfortable with it.

Since I didn’t really have a father figure, I basically just taught myself to do stuff. Something just told me to quit whining and focus on something that I want to do. Something just drew me to this. Working with electricity was something that I had to do. I guess I wanted to be like my dad or something. I was excited. And I decided after a year off of high school to go back to school to get into the electrical field.

Electricity just fascinated me. It’s just fascinating how far we’ve come in a short period of time. If you think about it, electricity really hasn’t been out there that long. Maybe made it out to the country in the 30s, in the cities probably in the late 1800s. It’s fun when you’re wiring something up, and it comes to the point when you energize it and it works. It makes me feel good that I’m not leaving this earth without contributing to something. It just makes me feel good inside.