[Publib] More Work

[Lisa Guidarini]

I'd be sitting in my mahogany paneled office, surrounded by Stickley
bookcases and next to my stone, floor to ceiling fireplace writing
novels. That's about the only scenario in which I could afford to sit
home writing novels.

 

Oh, and I'd be volunteering part-time with the special collections area
at the Newberry Library. If I couldn't buy the Library of Congress ...

 

Lisa Guidarini

Adult Program Coordinator

Algonquin Area Public Library District

 

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of backwage at aol.com
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 11:35 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] More Work

 

I forgot to mention that my father went to college after having been an
aviation structural mechanic in the aerospace industry.  He never spoke
a word about his former life.  One day when I was quite young, I opened
a toolbox in the garage and found all sorts of gizmos, strange devices
that I know now were for forming the bodies and skins of aircraft.  I
asked Dad what they were and he said, "Tools."  That was the entirety of
the explanation.  The man across the street had to tell me that my
father had been an aviation mechanic and before that a sheetmetal worker
in a shipyard.  

My father was ashamed of manual work--for a living, anyhow.  He taught
English and wouldn't change his own oil because that was for "grease
monkeys."  Thus he rose in his own estimation.  For his generation it
was a huge thing to go to college; manual labor was something to leave
behind.  Even so, he taught himself carpentry, bricklaying and the
rudiments of other trades, mostly because he was too cheap and we were
too poor (from his teacher's pay) to have things done for us.  I can
attest to the fact that prestige, such as you might enjoy from being the
only teacher in a working class neighborhood, adds no calories to the
family diet.  

You don't know how it grates on me to have the guys where I work, all of
them former journeymen pipefitters and plumbers, say "You know best on
this.  I'm just a mechanic."  I tell them that if they had to start the
world all over again they wouldn't begin with researchers.  

On the other hand, the best apprentices we get come from college
backgrounds.  The reason for this is that they have discovered that the
degree is not a magic carpet to employment, and because they have
learned how to study.  

Everybody belongs in the job they would do if they won the lottery.  I'd
be a gardener.  How about you?

M. McGrorty

 

________________________________

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