DRAFTSTUD
Well-known member
Most of ya'll already know by my Handle that I am also a Draftsman. I started for ARKLA Gas in 1974 when I was 17 in the Mailroom. It was alot of fun except when the Elevators quit working! One day as I delivered the mail to Inventory Drafting I told one of the Draftsmen "I can Draw Pictures for a Living". Well, a month later they gave me a Bottle of Ink and a Crow Quill Pen and a sheet to show me how to write Properly. Then I was called up to Personnel and they gave me a choice. I could go into Data Processing (That was way out there in 1974!) 2. Become a Draftsman.
I took the Apprentice Draftsman position, Heck it paid $340 a month!!!!
It was fun, out in the Field; Tx Panhandle, Arkansas, Oklahoma inventoring Pipelines and compressor stations and then back into the office to draw them up. Shoot 19 years old, company car and expense account of $150 a week, we had the world by the Ba...well you get the Idea. Then I worked for some other companies until 1992 when everyone was buying everyone, taking the assets and letting the employees go. When they did this to me in 1992, they were also moving the company, so I paid $745 for the Drafting Furniture and a Zerox that I was the "Key Operator" for, I got it for $100...because it would'nt make good copies. I wonder if it was the toner I dumped into it before they priced everything?
Today is my 15th year in business as Geological Drafting Consultants in Shreveport, LA. It was real spooky in the beginning, really the first 5 years were. But it has paid off and we are where I never thought we would ever be. I hope this does not come accross as bragging, it is'nt. I am just feeling good about what has come to Fruit and I know there are several that run or are starting businesses, Moosie and others. I had to write this out, because I am trying to get into shape for my Elk Hunt and the wife won't let me have a cake!! John
I took the Apprentice Draftsman position, Heck it paid $340 a month!!!!
It was fun, out in the Field; Tx Panhandle, Arkansas, Oklahoma inventoring Pipelines and compressor stations and then back into the office to draw them up. Shoot 19 years old, company car and expense account of $150 a week, we had the world by the Ba...well you get the Idea. Then I worked for some other companies until 1992 when everyone was buying everyone, taking the assets and letting the employees go. When they did this to me in 1992, they were also moving the company, so I paid $745 for the Drafting Furniture and a Zerox that I was the "Key Operator" for, I got it for $100...because it would'nt make good copies. I wonder if it was the toner I dumped into it before they priced everything?
Today is my 15th year in business as Geological Drafting Consultants in Shreveport, LA. It was real spooky in the beginning, really the first 5 years were. But it has paid off and we are where I never thought we would ever be. I hope this does not come accross as bragging, it is'nt. I am just feeling good about what has come to Fruit and I know there are several that run or are starting businesses, Moosie and others. I had to write this out, because I am trying to get into shape for my Elk Hunt and the wife won't let me have a cake!! John
