Well, Im not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I thought it would be pretty cool. Its always nice to see pics of peoples kids working with them in this industry.....especially women. I have 2 kids, my son is 36 and was never interested in heavy equipment. He was always a BIG people person and is very successful in appliance sales and makes 150K a year doing so. My daughter on the other hand always wanted to go when the opportunity came around and she has gone with me many times, especially when she was young. I would let her clean parts, chase threads, do some bolt torqueing, etc……...and I would do the more technical stuff. Now that she is 32, she has decided that it would be nice to spend more time with dad so we have decided to work together once or twice a week. She is responsible for 3 of my 9 grandkids, so there will be times she cant make it due to school or doc visits but we are going to make the best of it. I hope to find some older pictures of her doing this stuff, but I fear they may all be lost. So....I am making this my first installment! JD 544J......replacement of fuel injectors. I supervised, she did ALL the work. OK, I did assist with hood removal and things that needed 2 people to move. I hope others will share their pics and/or experiences. If this thread needs moved to another category, please do so. Still very proud of her! Looking forward to posting more!
This kid loves being around whatever I am doing he has figured out that pulling controls makes things move when we are in the backhoe I hope it keeps up this way
Mom found these the other day I am pretty sure that was in 92 i loved growing up that way
I think the smiles say it all!
My youngest hasn’t made it out to the field with me yet but he sure finds stuff to get into here at the shop. My oldest boy rides along from time to time.
" Spider Man " helping load the dirt blade on the lowboy . Long hot day . LOL !
My wife wasn't real happy when I told her we tested the new basket out with my test weight... I figured I'd get some use out of all that food I've bought. He's a senior in high school this year, he spent the summer framing houses.
I didn't have a son, and I didn't try to make her one. She can be as much of a lady as any, but doesn't mind getting dirty, either...
Keep it up fellas! I'm heading to western Nebraska Monday morning to inspect some pipeline equipment for a customer, and daughter said SHES GOING TOO. She has already made arrangements for the kids and I told her she is going to have to pack light. She has made the trip with me before but its been quite a few years ago. All I need to do now is figure out how to keep her from screwing with the truck stereo. I should have some good pics late next week. Lets keep it up and make this the longest thread ever. LOL
Here's my helper. He's always there when I'm doing anything. His favorite activity is riding around in the Bobcat with me, but of course any machine will do!
My stepdaughter, 30 years old working a IT job. She never got interested in what I do very much but that is just ok-what I do for a living isn't for everybody. Truck Shop
He's only 6, been swinging dirt solo for about 2 years now. I'd prolly put him up against some of the people I've had apply to be an operator for me. Actually that may become a part of my hiring process tell the new hires they have to be able to out do my son.
Way back in the day, I had my 14 year old daughter on a Case 821 loader in a sand pit loading trucks, then she moved up to backfilling trenches with a D-6M, never did get her on the 9050 to dig trenches... I did watch her dig out a beaver dam with it though.
yeah it's totally fine to take your kids into your work place.
Me and my kid in Nebraska week before last. …...and a pic of what we went there for.
My young fella today in my old Hein Werner C-12 HD...
Great pics everyone ! I have taken my 2 kid's to work on those "take your kid's to work day" with my employer's blessing when they were younger and regrettably have never taken a picture of them while there.
Used to follow dad around when working on the truck. Used to ride shotgun in the logging truck with him all the time too. The 90's were a different time. With the safety regs of today and tomorrow I doubt the future 92U jr. would even be allowed on the property of where I work. Its a shame. The operators and tradespeople of tomorrow need the exposure to these jobs in their younger years IMO. The more you know, the easier it is to choose a career you enjoy.
Of all the good mechanics and operators you know. How many of them DID NOT start when they were like 3 years old? You have to strip out, snap off, crack or otherwise destroy a lot of your own (or Dad's) stuff before you learn not to do it to the customer's.
Got mine with me today. On of them anyways.
Guess in a way I was the kid who followed his dad to work. And 45 years latter I retired from that place! Unfortunately dad did not live to see that day but he did stay there till he retired for the same quarry. I recall near the end when he was in the hospital and still able to converse he said to me "We had some good times at the quarry, didn't we?" I'd have to do some digging to be exact but seems I had about 10 years more at the quarry than he did when he retired!
If I'm going outside, he's right beside me These pics are a couple years old. I drowned my phone last summer and lost a bunch of pics and videos, including the one of him sitting in my lap last summer, running the controls for the hoe. He picked up on the Deere pattern super fast and had a blast digging dirt in a 'real' backhoe.
View attachment 194565 Looks like a born operator to me!
Kids are smart. One of my boss's sons was sitting on his father's lap as he piled up top soil with 350 jd. After half an hour of this, his father stuck both hands out the window as the hoe kept piling material. My father used to take me to work when my mom's back went out which happened a lot. I was always truck crazy so I loved it. I learned how to feel a wrench at a young age, plus we spent time together. My father died just shy of his 70th and he hadn't stopped working. He went to work when he was 16. He died of a brain hemorrhage caused by Melody spalastic syndrome, which was caused by exposure to chemicals in petroleum products. Doctor said it was rare and I need not worry but let's just say I don't wash my hands in gas or fuel anymore.
My young fella getting ready to fire up the dyno back on 2004 ......... where did the time go..? What was on there at the time is just in the top LH corner of the photo.
It’s never to early tho learn how to put on thread locker in the first pic. Definitely loves flying, let her take the yoke last fall kept it nice and level with a little coaching over the radio. Helping move the excavator in the last pic.
Good lord Nige, how many HP is that beast? Is it two engines coupled together? must be one heck of a dyno.
Sick or repower? 797?
When I turned 18 my dad gave me an invoice for 300 grand said that was what it cost him to get me where I was in capability i thought it was pretty funny
She has the most styling work boots! )
I started riding the grader with grandpa at 3 years old, later followed my uncle around the shop "helping" him, and riding in the trucks when he hauled equipment, occasionally rode the scrapers with Dad. When I was 9 I was pushing sand with a 9G, when I was 13 I was on a Wabco 252 chasing everybody else for an 8 hour shift when I had a chance. Actually built the fill for our new house in 1977. It had 3 sides for a daylight basement, Imagine a kid reading grade stakes at 13-14 years old. I also ran the crane truck to set an I beam for the carps when they started pounding nails.
Mom has some old pics from way back, me on the grader with gramps, you can just barely see my pups tail over the door sill in one of them, she also has pics of me on the scraper build in the house pad after school every day for 2 weeks. I'll see if I can get her to dig them out.
It's a Cat 3524, the original 797 engine. It was actually two 3512's coupled together. 3300 BHP give or take. We'd just commissioned a new dyno for testing those engines, up to then we could only go to a maximum of 2500 BHP which was fine for 793 engine but nothing any bigger than that. So we installed a 2nd identical dyno giving us the capability to test two engines simultaneously if they were less than 2500 BHP each, or one engine up to 5000 BHP with both dynos coupled together. The latest engine for the 797 is a purpose-designed V-20 C175 engine - 4000 gross BHP, 3800 nett.
Now that's a real engine for a real truck. I always got a kick out of guys like the UPS drivers who came in to our shop and commented on the "HUGE" trucks we had, 769C,D and a 773G! Don't think they believed me when I'd tell them that there were trucks out there that could haul ten times the load ours could.
I was a volunteer with the local tourist RR. My son was 10-11 when we were out with a work train, couple flat cars and a 25 ton American self propelled rail crane (all levers and foot pedals). It's end of the day, I'm dead tired, leaning on the flat car waiting for the crane to couple up. We get coupled up and I lookup at the operator. It's my son. I said to him, who taught you how to run this? He says I stand behind Rick (the usual operator) and watch what he does. Another time I need to clear up the yard tracks for the weed spray truck. I'm shoving a couple of the little 4 wheel track work carts when I derail one at the worst place to have a derailment. It's the heavy one, takes 4 guys to lift it. It's just me and my son. Can you run the crane (lifting since I already know he can move it)? No hesitation "yup", me "go get it". He gets the DD fired up, builds his air and brings it over. I hook up the cart, he lifts, swings around and puts it down on the flat car. One Saturday I'm running a CAT 416 loading stone into a hi rail dump truck (one of our volunteers worked for a track company and borrowed them for the weekend). I'm running the TLB and the other guy is driving the dump truck and repairing stuff while I load. I'm pretty much a one function at a time guy - not a lot of equipment experience. My son is pestering me "let me try dad". After a 1/2 hour of pestering I finally I say "try it". He gets on it and within a few minutes he's doing everything on the fly. The other volunteer says to me "dad, I hate to tell you this but he's a natural operator and he's loading me a lot faster than you". We let him run the loader the rest of the day. One of the engineers would let him run the locomotive on occasion with him standing behind my son. He had a ball doing stuff like this. So............. I get a call from his teacher. "I need to talk to you about your son". Me - "about what?". Her - "he is telling lies at school". Me -"such as?" Her - "today he was telling the class he ran a RR locomotive this past weekend". Me - "he's not lying, he did, plus he can run the TLB and the crane". All good memories of him growing up Unfortunately no photos, this was all be before cell phones with a camera
Not to steal your thunder railroads dad, but I can do one better then the teacher calling from the school saying he is telling lies. My oldest daughter who was in preschool at the time. She was out of school sick for the day so she had no choice but to go to work with dad. I had a pretty light day lined up. Only thing on the schedual was a 10:00 am grave to be dug in the local cemetary. So she rides along and kept asking me what we were doing and I tried to explain but all she caught was "burying a lady". When she arrived at school the next day she told the whole class and the teacher she help me bury bodies on her day at home. Boy oh boy did the school call me very fast demanding answers. I had some fun with that!
LOL...…….Had something similar happen to me too. My daughter was in 2nd grade and we had installed a drug education class in our elementary school ( I was the school board president during this time of course). What I DIDNT know was that smoking cigarettes was part of the curriculum and was being taught as a drug. I have smoked since I was 14 years old and still do and it was always around my kids. My Superintendent called me a couple of weeks after this class started laughing hysterically...……...My daughter was telling EVERYONE in school that " My daddy does drugs".) Needless to say, that took ALOT of explaining!.
Keep up with the pics and stories fellas! Great entertainment going on here!
I like reading stories and seeing the pics of kids working with their parents and learning what their parents do and some being able to do things most their age can't. Gives me some hope for the future that there will still be working folks.
My toys and "sandbox" when I was a young 'un ....... The photos were probably taken around 1960 because I remember as a teenager being given the job to demolish the building behind the excavator in the first photo by my grandfather.
I found this old photo on a web site for the village I grew up in, taken in (I think) 1910. The building behind the shovel in the first photo was originally the colliery workshops. You can see them on the left side of the photo, recognizable by the arched windows. Grandfather bought the land and the old buildings some time after the colliery closed in January 1929 when it flooded underground - no idea exactly when but before WWII if I recall correctly. The shafts were capped and the land sold off. It must have been about 1968 when we finally pulled the the last of the old buildings down. The building to the right of the 2nd set of headgear was the local fire station when I was growing up, even that's gone now. The roof trusses on that old shop were a thing of beauty - 24" x 12" pitch pine beams with cast iron caps in the corners designed for the line shafting that ran right through the roof from back in the day when all the shop machinery was driven by flat belts with the power coming from a stationary steam engine at the end of the shop.
I really like to see girls get a chance to have an interest in equipment or carpentry or mechanics. It made me pretty mad to not be allowed to take shop back in sixth or seventh grade: 1964. There are so many things that a shop class could have given me basic knowledge of instead of having to find out on my own which was a long and painful process. And still is sometimes.
Pixie, Hope that that is changing, at least a little, over the years! Never made sense to me to automatically eliminate close to half the population and there by half the brains from any one trade. Like why is there this feeling that women can not be interested in compute programming and such? When one of the first people in the world to program a computer was Grace Hopper! Years before all these big shots in computers these days were even a gleam in their parents eyes!
Pretty good with a grease gun but still a little dicey with the crane!
It's kind of stupid they didn't let girls take shop class considering a lot women were in the trades for the WW II effort.
Have seen a number of young ladies entering the trades, only issue I ever had was those that really should not have been there. To small framed, too sensitive to dirt or grease and were a constant drain on those that were around them to lift or hold or be the crane/lumper. Guys would tire of it as the girls were using their charms to get the hand, then the guys noticed payroll declining as we were all still on chargeable hours. I have NOTHING against anyone working in any trade so long as can pull their own weight, do NOT take me wrong on this. I see lots of young women running HE these days as do not have to be muscle bound to operate anymore, hardest part of the day is clearing rails with a shovel but they do that as well or better than any big goon and look good doing it! At the nuke we had a few apply for the position I held, roving operator. We had to wing on 40" handwheels on 30" slow moving gate valves or open blocking globe valves on 250-400 lb steam loads winding up the operator until would unseat. Had to be on fire brigade and as such the test to complete was take the biggest fella, and do a down man recovery drag to remove him from the danger site. I was over 250lb, I got chosen as 'Dummy' a lot, most guys had no issue but a 140lb young gal would work her butt off to get me moving. We had one at 170lb could do it but most could not get footing to make it work. That was a make or break test but had to be as could not always count on others to get a down man out. Only other problem was confined space recovery where I was a tight fit thru a 24" access hatch, still could do it but a major PITA, 170lb gal flipped thru that hatch like a barn door!! Are good and bad points to any position for any gender, do not know how to level that field out.
My younger son started on D8 and boxes when he was 6. He's also been operating fork trucks in the yard since then too. Last week,he spent 8 hours digging a box cut out by himself whilst we were moving some soft muck with the D8's.