Homeowner Forum / Construction / July 2006

Grandfather was a Kentucky hill boy, born in 1900, whose family owned
the local corn mill.  There was virtually no paper currency and very
little hard money, so the local economy was based upon the barter of
corn.  This made the family much like the local banker, and they became
well to do by that standard of exchange.
Rather than having to hoe the family tobacco, grandfather had the
option of choosing trade, and at the age of thirteen, apprenticed
himself to the local blacksmith.  By the time he was in his early
twenties, Grandfather had the reputation of being able to make and
build anything out of metal.
Hearing of this ability, Harvey Firestone came and hired Grandfather
out of the blacksmith's shop and took him to Ohio, where the first
tire building machine was constructed in Firestone's garage.
But, Grandfather's apprenticeship never ended; he went on to
establish seventeen manufacturing plants in the US, three in Europe,
and established the rubber plantations in India and Southeast Asia.
Today, D-line at the Des Moines plant, now owned by Bridgestone, still
utilizes ten machines hand built by my Grandfather.  My own father was
the leading light of the national rubber workers union, until it was
busted.
The ethic of apprenticeship, which is the subject of my dissertation,
is well founded in this story.  Until the last few generations, the
bond between father and son, grandfather and grandson, was cemented in
the love of sharing the knowledge and understanding of their
craft...through the daily experience of honest labor.
An acquaintance, a seventh generation woodcarver, said it best.  "If
I tell you it's Chippendale, it's Chippendale...not because of
conformity to design...but because I use the same tool and the same
technique that I learned from my grandfather, who learned from his
grandfather, who learned from his grandfather...who was there.
What was your grandfather's trade?

LivingTrade.org
http:/groups.google.com/group/senior-apprentice