INDUSTRY MATTERS
63
To be a plumber
A young man had just applied for a position with
an award-winning mechanical engineering firm.
The president of the firm, an engineer, would do the
interviewing of applicants.
By Jerry Rossian
“I see you attended my alma mater!” stated the
engineer.
“Yes, sir! I wanted to attend the best engineering school
in the country.”
As the engineer reviewed the application, he asked,
“What makes you want to be a mechanical engineer?”
“Well, sir,” replied the young man, “I don’t want to be like
my father. I want to be the best mechanical engineer; I
want to be successful!”
“Tell me about his hands.”
“They’re stained all the time. He’s got these big
calluses, and in the summer, he has big white
splotches on his fingers from where the solder and
flux burned him. His pinky on his left hand is bent
from getting caught in a cable and he said he ‘didn’t
have time for pain’, so he just taped it up because he
had to get to the next job.”
Russ Chaney
“Any other pains?”
At this, the engineer looked up, sat back in his chair, and
asked, “What does your father do?” “Oh, yeah, his back is always sore. His knees are sore.
He can’t see under a sink anymore without glasses and
a flashlight.”
“He’s a plumber, sir. He owns his own business with my mom.” “What does he drive?”
The engineer looked at him for a long time. The young
man grew nervous; had he said something wrong? Was
it his father’s business? “I so hate plumbing,” he thought.
“I can’t wait to get as far away as possible.” “He doesn’t have his own truck. I mean, all he has is
the service truck. I hated getting picked up in that truck.
It’s old and smelly. Loaded down with tools and parts, it
rattled all the time, especially going around corners.”
Finally, the engineer spoke. “Tell me about your father.” “Your mother, she does the paperwork?”
“He’s a one-man shop. All he does is work, work, work.
Sometimes seven days a week. Goes out at any hour of
the night. Always dirty. We haven’t had a decent vacation in
years. He even works for people who still owe him money for
work he did before. And he never tells anyone no. I just want
to be successful, better educated, have a future.” “All of it — pays bills, sends invoices, answers the
phone. She would bring us water and food when we
went long. One time, dad had a sewer backing up at
a reception hall and he was on the other side of town.
Mom pulled the snake into her minivan by herself and
met us there. He popped it open half an hour before the
wedding party showed up. We just barely made it out of
there unseen!”
“I see,” said the engineer. “So, tell me, in the application
you were asked to draw a drainage system for a back-
to-back restroom. You, unlike other applicants, didn’t use
double wyes or cross-tees. Why?”
“My father always said that they can cause problems and
are horrible to try to auger out. We always had to use more
fittings than anyone else, because we had to do it his way.”
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
In the spirit of the sharing
of unique experiences that
shape the plumbing industries
in our respective nations,
the following is an anecdotal
tale about realisation and
appreciation for a career in
the trades. Written by Official
magazine contributor Jerry
Rossian, it is the next in a
regular series of similar articles
that will run in this magazine.
“And he’s not very educated?”
“High school only. He should have gone to college, made
something of himself.”
“Does he have a lot of friends?”
April 2019 Volume 25 I Number 2