Gerald W. Brister

Today's episode is brought to you by Slickman Wilma Pearl. Nate Montez, great guy, makes awesome product. I use them every day all day, whether I'm working, yard work, moving my fifth wheel, bumping these so I wear the drivers. You can find them at SlickmanWilmaFarl.com, Nathan Montez, Nasty Nate, on the TikTok. We are also brought to you by Wobrows. Wobrows.us, American Steel and Sex appeal. Hit F-R, I just got the new blue wine, F-R shirt in. When I get another job and go on it, I'll be wearing it more often when I'm doing my videos and stuff. You can find them at Wobrows.us. Bet your own, great people to do business. Well, it's really Christmas. Well, from Chris, great new business with his podcast will be dropping in two weeks from now. He'll be the first full video I just got him one of his great entrepreneur, kind of mindset, so it'd be great. That's www.wobrows.us. Also brought to you by TN Wilds. We're out of big spring sets as Mr. Tows, Mrs. Mary, great people to do business with. Tows carries a million things for 500 to use day in and day out. Being guided, he'll get it to you. He'll get it drop ship to you. Whatever it takes to do his job and get it and take you satisfied. He's there to do it. Great people. That's TN Wilds fly to Big Spring, Texas. Also brought on two more sponsors, but we haven't really got to the point where we're going to start using them. That's coming over the next couple of weeks. You'll see stuff on my social media, which is out on the row podcast on Instagram. Also T-Link, 22, or tonne link on Instagram. Out on the row on TikTok, tonne link on Facebook. Keep up with it. I may eventually move my Facebook over just to build on the out on the row stuff. Today, I'm joined by Gerald W. Brister. I joined Mr. Tows, Linker. It's been a while. We've been trying to get this pulled together, and between you being busy making money and being popular and me dying, we're finally getting it done. I'm looking forward to it. I had to cancel earlier in the week because some skid issues. I'm trying to get my new skid finished up. I pretty much got it buttoned up, but I like a few more things. I don't have a weld machine yet in the back there, but my helper is bringing it to me on Saturday. I'll have it. I'll be ready to go somewhere. We're glad you're feeling better too. I know that put you down for about a month there, which is pretty fast recovery for what you went through. Well, you may have seen the videos I made, too. I made one out here about a week after, and I was invited to speak at a little men's breakfast, and I kind of elaborate a little more. Nobody likes to hear about death and dying, but I didn't just have a hard attack. I was dead, and they had the fight to revive me after I was dead about three minutes. The doctor told me he said, "You are a walking miracle. All your vital signs were good, and I had two small spots." Instead of having an already that's plugged up like a pixie stick, when it's plugged up like that, that's when they have to go in, cut your chest, all the big stuff, and have to take a vain audio load. They have these little stints now, and they put a tone of you. I know a guy that has eight, and so they'll find all the spots are plugged up, and if they're separated, they'll put these stints in there, and it's outpatient for you guys that don't know. If I had known there was something wrong with me, and scheduled an appointment, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal. I was in a one hour after going back alive. I waited one day's slave lawsment. I went in there in a one hour. They went up through my wrist. Right here, off my heart, there was two big tv screens up there, and I'd go winning out because they had me drawing a little bit, and all I could feel was a little post down here at my wrist. We got through, he showed me, he said, "Right here's rear block, and now you are 98% open, and before I was 82% block, and both main arteries on the front of your heart, and that's what they call a willemaker. That's the one you don't usually come back from. There's two tiny spots, so that was awesome." My popsy went down with his willemaker, like 12, maybe 12 years ago, and they had to, they got him to the ambulance, and then they flew him on helicopter, and luckily he never went fully to the other side, but he got as close as you could get on, and they had him in open or surgery in like, probably 50 minutes, so shout out to Helen Keller Hospital and stuff in North Alabama. They got him, they got him there quick when it all happened fast, fast moving, and my parents, at that time, they lived 45 minutes from the nearest Walmart, so it's even a miracle that he made it to the hospital. I didn't know that much about it, I just, I learned a lot, and I would tell you guys, I've read this for years on big research or in, I'm kind of really a jack of a lot of things, and maybe not so good at any of them, but I did a lot of research about it before, and then when it happened, I understood when I were telling me what was happening. If you go ahead of time, and they'll check your carotid arteries right here on an ultrasound, and they can kind of tell if you got trouble, they think you have trouble, then they'll do a scan where they check your heart. If they know where the blockages are, they can tell where they can do the stunts, or they're going to have to open up. Most of the time now it's stints, and I know a lot of people, like you mentioned to me about your dad, that have stints. My wife just met, was talking with her friend, her husband had one side that was almost blocked all the way up, the other side, they were able to do stints, and they did them in an outpatient, outpatient, they put 80 in him. So he's not it's a good issue, but I asked my doctor, I said, "What are my limitations now?" He said, "You don't have any." And I said, "What are you doing?" And I'm thinking, "Something's going to be wrong." He said, "Your vital signs are good." He said, "You're a walkin' miracle. You should be dead. You were dead." And I think they had to find out, they did the compressors on my chest, and that wasn't working. I think I got my rib crop. That's pretty common. And then they did 40 seconds of the electrical shocks, and they get your heart going, they have to stabilize it, and so that's what I was told by one of the nurses, and I asked him, "Well, no limitations. Well, that means you do anything you want to do." I was kind of stoned, and so I asked him three times, and finally said, "I'm telling you, Mr. Brister, anything that you feel like you can do, like a normal person." He started filming back, quit, and so I ran a lot for bunch of things to him. I said, "Can I live for weeks? Can I borrow it? Can I do things I used to do?" He said, "If you feel like it," he said, "I'm going to tell you, you're going to go feel like it for about three weeks." Like you said. And this is a month, a few guys passed a month, and about three weeks, I was kind of not feeling like running a foot races, and I started getting out here in the pool, and doing a little swim-in, walking around, and I started feeling better. I got to turn over, did it the other day, and I'm sunburned like a pro fish. There's 100-something degrees here. When you're in the water, you feel pretty good, but I was exposed to it. I'm doing good. The bottom line is I'm doing good, and planning on next week going, we'll start well in a yard a little bit, and ease in it. So we're supposed to be 120 here next week, and it gets hot out where you are as well. But that's really unusual here. You're usually going to get 110 toil for several months. You got more humidity in the vest area. Yes. Well, before I didn't swim out, when I was in Wyoming, every little video I made was in Gillette, Wyoming, you get some crazy people, some crazy things can happen. But pretty much I'm here right now. I don't know how long I'll be here. I was actually, when I left here, I had no plans to go to a welding school. My wife and I bought a big fifth wheel and that new truck. It was a blessing. It was like a god, you couldn't buy a truck, and I got one in like three weeks, it comes from the factory, the earth, and I found a big trailer, and I had five of them come in like I wanted it, I wanted a rooster for us, a river, and five slides in it, and I was intended for us just to travel and maybe find another place to live. Stumbled into the job with the screw and one thing meant to another. They asked me, you know, we make videos around here, and I'd seen some, and I tell them, I said, I don't mean to hurt your guys' feelings, like I said, but I'm not going to make them a little 60 second videos, to make them a little silly. It was a kind of like I poked them like Larry and Moe. They were nice, and I said, no, you're going to have to do it like that, I said, I'm a love for that, and I said, no, I didn't do it every while. So I made a few, and then I asked me to make a few more work, and they started taking off, and I really didn't even have any idea how popular there were. My students were telling me, because I didn't even have social media, and I guess they were on everything. And so they started telling me they were taking off, and I couldn't believe it, because I just never had any thing to do with that. And then one thing led to another, and then I left there, and I decided, I kind of quite about it for a month. I had people ask me, are you going to make some more videos? And so decided to, and here we are almost a year later now. So that's, that's kind of who I'm, how I got in this. It was just like little breadcrumbs one thing at a time. Well, I think it was provenance. I was going to stay in Sheridan, I have a family there in Sheridan, and I was going to hang out there for a while, and then I was going to go to Florida, and just cruise around the state. I've been in Idaho, we went and looked there. I'd spent about three weeks traveling around the west, looking for maybe a new place, and I had spots I kind of liked, and I had resourced out different scenarios for one thing and another. And I was actually looking for a gel for my brother-in-law, he's a heavy equipment mechanic, and I said, you ought to be easy to get a gel up around here. That's a special gel. That's down the road. It's cold, man, and a little bit of oil for your stuff. much as it used to be. And so I was looking for jobs and think popped up for that rolling screw. And so I put a little resume on my wife and you like teaching young people. That's what you do every helper you're you know trying to break them out. Most of the time they broke out. I didn't hear from for a couple of weeks and I forgot about it and then got a phone call. I never talked to them. Anyway they were they were going to sort them the classroom stuff and that's soon to be barely well and I can hardly see anything that goes well in numbers. You know in every wellness room even in you know that's always a grime. You can't see and welding there's and I remember our hall even put in some extra lights but it's just still it's not like being outside the sun. And I told my son I don't think I see good enough in here to be teaching welding all day long. And it's the way you can go coming here and do the classroom. So that's how it started and then I went back and I started teaching down here well after my classroom. And so that's kind of how it evolved and started making these videos and one thing that's another. So yeah I was it's like Providence and I probably couldn't got as well known on my own because I have all these platforms and they were known. I had no idea I didn't know who Western was and I still don't know who most of the people even you mentioned people other day I have no idea I just kind of do my little thing. The little little I'm learning okay this guy does this guy does this and I'll chat with some people online. But that's kind of how I dig right. Well you're you know we talked about it and I'm trying to make seven eight nine ten at a time it just depends and it gives you a little question but it's just like when you make a bunch of money. I came back from overseas one time and had a suck full of money. I was like blue collar rich and I just want to take off and we'd work 16 hours a day for six months and I lost my church is in my waist eaten Lebanese cook from Lebanon everything had curry and if you made jello and had curry and so I was wore out so I took off three weeks four weeks now since this feels good I'm gonna do it one more month and it turned into six months and so what'll happen it's just like when we have money well and you want to take off and you're gonna go hunting you're gonna go fishing so it's kind of a fight you always want to have like half that number maybe I have to fight that myself plus just I've been sick I want to kind of lay around a little bit but it feels better when you have some ahead of you and it takes a little pressure off it if you don't do this you don't realize that just a few minutes you see takes a lot of effort to get it on and everything I did it up and all that so it takes a little more time than you would think and unless you're just showing some pictures that are moving around as fast you can't see anything and everybody's got a camera so everybody's doing that but if you put anything that has any content for it it's work if you just have to go show somebody running video how many times do you show somebody running videos how many times do you show four joints apart how many times can you show five or six world on rigs you can do that pretty quick but if you put content there's a lot of thought goes into it a lot of editing and it's work believe it or not it's work okay okay another one like it's always something okay yeah it's recording there we go back to normal yeah it's perfect still recording I guess just maybe okay I can hear you every single normal mind how are you good I spent you know I sent this computer to California and had it why you thought for just one minute and it came back to me and it was supposed to have this river side stuff it's supposed to be easy to do sometimes you run into stuff I don't know it it's just dealing with technology sometimes don't work out in it yes so you're like you'll be 72 this year is on my my try don't worry about it we'll make it work out yes I will September be 72 it's been somewhere in area four time I can't think it's been a good while I'm still welding when I was 66 I think and kind of got offered inspection work decided okay I'll try it out so until I made some wells over our western I hadn't welding in about three years it's been good to me well how do you tie if you don't mind well you're in a good age my best age I was thinking about this the night I stopped welding for a few well when I was selling I took off for those six months really is what it turned into and I went back to work when I went back to work I was like I was some broke that had a goof off and I probably the best I've ever welded I felt like I was just like I want to weld something every minute because I'd stay away from it for a while and so young like you are the thing you might find psychologically and if you got a welder you would understand this but when your truck gets tore up or you're trying to put a truck together and you're on the run it makes you feel a little awkward because you don't know where the thing is I can use to it puts a little stress in your life you just you wouldn't think so but for me I believe it would and so it's a little extra pressure you know you're gonna you're gonna have a hard attack you have a hard type first time to say help or lead over that you got to do it yeah first time you see with them helpers laying over that fender with and pearl snaps you're gonna have a hard attack it takes a couple yeah I always like my stuff nice I know it's going to get a little scratched up I'm not that crazy about it yeah for a while it's gonna make a feel that way well this is something I learned and I mean I had this kind of I forget the personality M.F. J. something but it's I'm born in 200 if you had the puzzle with Waldo I'd be Waldo and it's different pluses and viruses and I could be like a detective as well things I could have been profiled for and I'm a kind of perfectionist but I found out something you there's two ways to go in and welding and the model says make your work fit for yourself in the field and afterwards build your house what does that mean it means back in a farm and type economy that you put your money into the thing that makes you money your farm your equipment and then you go build you a nice house and you buy toys and all that well when you're young you start making money you go from zero to a hundred it's hard to do that but that is the wisdom of the Bible and so I always believe that and I like having good trucks and I've tried them about I know 120 thousand miles the ride-alves and all that but the other fun is that I put a lot of money in a car one time and it was paid off and motor had something wrong it so put a new motor and I spent about eight grand I was like I was okay I'm just taking it make it new again a month later a lady that was eighty something years old fell slightly driving and hit me at the intersection not me wearing a buck car was total you know what I got for it low wholesale that's what you get so I found out you can have all these trucks paid off the million miles on one well I'll tell you this story he had a truck with 250 something thousand miles I think it was a dodge and the motor just tore up for some reason he wanted to buy a new truck that's where he thought he needed to do and his wife wanted him to not have a payment so here's the wife versus the welder okay and so he calls me up and he's Mr. O'Wary Thight he tells me all the stuff you know and I said go buy a new truck because there were twenty thousand dollars parts later put that motor there and it's in a truck with two hundred thousand miles and it worked nothing wholesale if you get to wreck I said I learned that lesson hardwood and I said you're driving a million miles every day you're in country that you could freeze a death that thing went down and you got the pair for it I said that it's part of your appearance and what you bring to the job when they're paying you they're paying for a good truck they're paying for a good well machine number two truck first truck tells to machine the machine that can weld and not be broke down all the time so those are the things and then the looks is third but the looks is important too and so we talked about it I said no man knows what another man should do nobody not even your daddy when you're wrong but that's what I think I don't know so I hear for me about three weeks about three weeks later you're calling me up I can tell by his voice he seemed happier and I said how you doing good I just want to tell you I thought over what you said and he said it made good sense to me so I said I wasn't about me another truck because he he was upside down I said you're upside down either way but I wouldn't be upside down on an old truck and he was just thrilled to death I said how do you feel we drive down a road to work it said oh I'm a eager to go to work now I said I'm just curious without getting too personal I said I've typed up he said she went to keynote for about three days he said she kind of likes riding around it now yes well there's a line you cross and you have to be businessman the welder is a business man and we don't we don't think we are we just think we're a god willing and maybe we're going to join some bears in afternoon but you're a businessman and you need to know about taxes one of the best reasons that I promote being a rig welder is the tax breaks on your subsistence and your rig pay it and 798 has a lot to be thankful that's promoted that actually that the IRS gives you whatever it is now I think it's $21 I saw there's no taxes on that you can get $10.99 if it's done right the contract does it right so the time you get that in your song time 60 hours away the normal wait that's a sack full of money now paying taxes on the average welder gets paid way she's paying more taxes than anybody and so the truck is a business thing if you if you don't have to pay taxes I mean on it then you don't have any right also the truck is what you want to do this but I figured it up over the years my wife does bookkeeping on the accounting work, and roughly, I could keep a nice truck and pay all the expenses for about 25% of what I was paid for. And the rest went in my pocket with no taxes, and I take care of my stuff, and then when I go to try to get in or sell it somehow, there's always some other ones because I took care of it. And so, you never come out on the top, you're always rolling money, but you're rolling money in a business just like if you had to pay for an office or a shop or whatever. So that's how I looked at it, and I always want to have good equipment. I'll supervision remembers that, I've done videos about first impressions and the science of it fascinated me, and I had old guys that didn't know the science, but they told me about that when I was young, and the later I got into the psychology, and your first impression with somebody is in seven tenths of a second to seven second. I'm thinking some people right now that I met at Fabtech and other places, and I was thinking I didn't know these people, and one of them made a really bad first impression on me, and I try to give people a second chance because usually people don't, that's the science. You don't get a second chance. Even if they're wrong, people don't change, they just don't like you for whatever reason. And I know some of the things why, and even watching this guy since then, he's never going to be make a good first impression. Formals know that, you make a bad first impression, and it's going to stay there always a little bit. Now, the better you do a job, and if you show up early and all that, the science says you have to do 12 to 15 good things, and this person's eyes, to ever get you back to a good start again. I don't know if that's true or not. Some people say that I work, other people say I don't work. So that first impression when you pull off, and your vehicle, your equipment, I know what I was forming. I'm looking at this truck, I'm looking at this guy when he rolls out, I'm looking at him as soon as God is all big pieces, and sometimes big pieces of machine, well, it's good. But that's the exception to the rule. When I told the well and secure, I told him about two people I knew that were the exceptions to the rule, that I would have thought were just like, never going to the world. But that's the exception. And usually if somebody doesn't take care of their stuff, and they don't care about their own stuff, they don't care much about your stuff, and that's just a trueism. And we don't like hearing it, everybody wants to be the exception to the rule, but that's what I find true. But the point is, whether it's true or not, people don't change their mind, and so that first impression is crucial. I've been tired and go to a new job where I'm going to meet people's first time. I wash that truck, even after washing my hand. I can't go to the car, I shouldn't get the volume to do it. I find my best clothes, I don't know, I make sure the scene is full of fuel, everything. And I'm not a morning person, and I know that it's better to do things at night. Really good morning people, I get up at 4 o'clock, go to the cafe, and more power to them, but I'm not that guy, and most of them are. So I know at night, I want everything ready. If I need eyesight, eyes just, and I had to buy sandwiches, it's ready the night before where I walk out of there. And I get there early, and I'll sit and eat my breakfast, usually a sandwich, and I'll drink my coffee. And it makes you at ease, but it's also the superintendent's there, and that foreman's in that office, and they see that truck out there first. You don't have to kiss no balls, you're not doing nothing, it speaks to volumes. Because when you're a foreman, you'd like to have a lot of superstars, but you're mostly not. You're going to have people that are average, or a little above, somewhere in that range. I would like to have superstars, but they need to be a good person. You can have a guy that's a good welder, but he's not a good person, and he calls a strife on his own. You can have a guy that's a good person, but he's not a good welder. When I've always put it, I'm hiring welders first. I'm a Christian, and the Bible says I'm supposed to do good to all of them, but especially those of the household who play it. If I needed welders, and they were Christians, if they were equally good welders, I'm supposed to hire the Christian first. But if there allows a welder, they're not getting hired, I don't care who's Christian they are. I don't care if he loves Jesus 10 times much, I do because I'm hiring welders, not hiring Christians. And that's just the way it is. So, you need to look, you need to look short, I think you mentioned the best you can. You can't always do what you want, and I find it better to go to work early in the morning having ducks in a row. That right there, especially if you're a young guy, you get there early, and you're not in a hurry to pull out of there to cloud with us and even. Those things stick in Supervision's mind, and so I'd like to have the superstars, but I'd rather have guys that are faithful. I know they're a level of welding, so I know where I can put Joe or Bill on a certain day where I need them. And I know I can count on them. The worst thing you can do as a foreman is have somebody that doesn't show up, it scrambles all your plans, and you can come out like I'm pretty quick if it has more than two times. Well, a good name is a little hard to get, but it's really easy to lose. People remember the last thing. What do you hear on the news? The last bad thing you hear is what you remember. And we don't even remember that very long anymore. They know that. They say something on Friday they release bad news, and they know by the weekend what the sports are about. That's where we are. We're going to play psychological. So you can have a good name, and people will try to carry it a little bit, and they'll try to look over spots, you've been divorced, or you'd drink it too much, but there's a point where after a while, it's like, you know what? I'm here to get this job done, and I tell you the other day, time out trucks. We used to have 454 Chevy's, and I've always had neighborhoods, and they came out with the first decals after the air bowl and barger, and fuel jumped up so high. And the 6.2 diesel was a piece of. And I knew that. I knew that wasn't very powerful, but you got 16 miles to the gallon versus nine. Pretty fours are reliable. You can get 9 miles per gallon, island, or drive it. So I bought the diesel truck. Well, the point was I bought the 454 rear end, it's the lowest you could get. I couldn't go over 80 miles an hour. If I was going forward on a ride away in the mud, and there's a lot of mud, Louisiana, Texas, it would do pretty good. But in reverse, you could ball or get done, it wouldn't even spin the tires. After work got bad, work got really bad, and it was 25% unemployment and all in gas industry around 1982. And it was terrible for about a year, and then it was still bad for several years. Well, I was on a job that was still paying good money, and the superintendents was a friend of mine. He came up to me one day, something's have to lay you off, and I thought he was joking. He said, "No, I ain't joking." And I said, "I started getting mad, and I said, "Well, you're going to well in problems, or you mean you're going to let me off?" He said, "It's not your will." And he said, "It's that truck." He said, "I can't keep a tractor tied up, driving you around, although." So I learned then that fuel and economy and all that means something, but it doesn't mean as much as having something that will do the job. It's got to do the job. It's not to cost fuel, it's not to cost anything else. You need four-wheel drive, you need four-wheel drive, you need to get tires. Because the business plan, that's how you're making money, and they want somebody that's dependable. They were fine with the welding part, but the truck part was killing me. There was components to this. Well, no, no, no, this too, while we're on this subject, this is what I've learned over the years as well, beyond supervision and big in a hand. When work is booming, they put up a lot of junk. They'll put up with bad welders, they think they're good, they'll put up with you coming in late or taking off early. Some machines broken for a month or whatever, but when work is bad, that's when having good equipment really pays off because the tolerance level is not there. There's a million people waiting to get your spot, and they bid the jobs cheap, and they don't have the room for it. And so, even your friend, he can bid the farm and he can be the superintendent, and there's a point where it's like, I can't even save you. So know that, that having good equipment is more critical when work is bad. You would think it's, you need to conserve the money. You need to ask for good stuff, because you need not miss no days or somebody will step in there. So you want to always keep your equipment up. Truck carries it to the job, machines got a weld to do the job. And you've got to work. And there's something about a guy sitting there 15 minutes early drinking coffee that makes him look superior and mature, and somebody that I know I can count on. When I walk in and out of that office in the morning, and I see who's here already, those are guys I can count on. Those are guys that ask us if we need to work Sunday. That's usually who's going to, not, not, you know, this is something really bad. I know they're going to say no problem, Joe, but I treat him good too. The old days, I don't know if you still do, you could tell me, if we had good production all week, somebody asked me the day about the videos about I'm showing about putting the duly together out here, and they said, where's the barbecue pit? Why never was a pipeline cooked? Because I always pipeline, and there's no time to do that. If you're on fabrication, it's kind of a Saturday, they kind of row a little bit, because you really are student time. You can't cook nothing, and 30 minutes later you eat it. So, yes. Well, I run bleeds a lot, and the last time I was on really cooked, a lot was over in Colorado. We had 50 miles, I think 16 inch, and the pipe gun and the guys, they would always cook on a Saturday. They would fry fish or do something, but he was smart enough, he knew after a while what our pace was, and he would figure about, once time, where to have, how far ahead of us. If we didn't get there exactly right, we just ate when it was ready, and that was kind of a blessing. And usually we got off two hours early. If your production was good all week, at least in the old days, the old time was like, okay, you guys get two hours to go into town, get cleaned up, buy stuff, you're sure, whatever you need. And that was kind of normal. I don't know if it is anymore, you tell me. Well, see, you're more popular than I am. I don't have a trouble. That's why I keep hearing as anything you feel okay to talk about or what is the wage? Tell me what the helpers wage is. The two thing is average and the arm wage and the rig pay and the stuff if you can. And you're by your furnishing out of that? Well, I have to sit and think about it. I've run it through my head just to give you an idea. The last time you had an inflection like this, I was a young man and I had a house that would be worth, I don't know, I guess 400,000 is kind of the average house. And I had a new road in truck that was $8,000 a daily. A new Osmo bill that was an expensive car. Both my boys went to private school and my wife didn't work as she could have. She was a surgical organ. And I wouldn't hurt her to raise my kids. And I was able to make enough money to do all of that. And the best year I had, I think I made $76,000 and I looked at what it would be today and today it would be almost four times that. So that'd be what, like $300,000? Because the next year was the worst year I had. That's when unemployment went to 25%. The same is a great depression in all of gas industry. I would see on the news in Texas where you had all the welding trucks, the a-frames before they had the hydraulic cranes. And the banks had them lined up for sale. And they would be showing it on the evening news. So I'd made $300,000. There was the first time in my life the next year I ever drew on employment. And I felt, I either had to do a divorce or go draw on employment. And at first none of us would work for the cheap money. The money started falling. And we had no idea how I'd do it. It was going to be as many years as it was bad. And so I just would take money out of savings and all that. But finally I went down to get unemployment. And in my generation, if you drew on employment, you were like a bomb. And if you drew welfare from the government, you were a bomb. When they first started having food stamps and things like that, people would go first thing in the morning when the store opened, or very late at night. And people would say something you didn't lie. If somebody was handicapped or, you know, done a job. And I heard a guy when I was young. He said, what are you doing in food stamps? I see you got both your arms, both your legs. So it was totally different than it was today. Now I understand that contractors pay the unemployment, you know, we've done a lot of doing all that. So it's not like you're seeing anything. Our culture was totally different. Even in depression, then we get so depressed they would leave their families because it couldn't provide for them. They couldn't take face them. So that's how bad it was. So I go into the unemployment office and it's different than a day, you know, they got these cards and all of this. And they didn't have you really college you in one of the time. I'm sitting in this big room with all these people. And finally, the study calls my name. So everybody can hear your business. And I remember I went and sat down there and she said, are you the guy that I said, yeah. And she looked at me, she looked at the cards, she looked at me in front of everybody. She said, you made this much money last year and you're in here with unemployment. I said, yes, ma'am, I guess I am. It's either that or the divorce. She just shook her head. And that's probably one of the more humiliating things I can remember because I got a little taste to what the guys in the 30s had. So the money, a box of welcome rods was like $35, a Dewey truck brand new. You don't have all the fancy stuff you had to do. It was $8,000. A Lincoln welder was $3,000. I had to receipt. I saw it the other day. It was $3,000 for a brand new S.A. 200, 1978, and $200 foot of lead. And I think we were making $22 or $3 an hour, something like that for your rig. And I used to pay just everything on the rig, kind of. But we worked 60 hours a week. And I felt like I had money to blow. Burn. So now what's the truck? The last one I bought was $85. You said you had to pay $85. Go buy a road machine. There you go. So you go buy your well machine, and if you're buying rods, I bought some, when I started doing a little well and I was here, and I spent like, almost $5,000, jack stands, about, I don't know what I bought, I can't remember. 30 foot of pipe, weights, rods, and the rods were $240 box. And I wanted some of the 80 tens, and all they had was 60 tens, because that's what they used out here in the whole field. But there wasn't that much difference, really. It was just, they had them there. I saw what they'd given to it. So I'm watching now the last three years. And when you hear that inflation is whatever the site, whatever the government says, it's a lie. When before Carter got in, I mean, not Carter Clinton. If we use the same metrics that the government used during that last inflation deal, we had mortgage rates 30 or fixed, get up to 18%. I thought it was 16 and 3/4. As my sister said, no, I got to 18, because we paid it. 18% for a mortgage. And a house, I think my house was $90,000, $1,000, when it trucked to $8,000. And I got 11% bond money from the state, because I was the first time home buyer about 30 years old. And I thought I won the lottery at 11%. So that was the last time it's comparable this time. But the metrics the government used to pay Social Security, retirement benefits to military, is totally different than it is today. If you use the same metrics, I calculated it would be, when I tell you it's 7 or 8%, it's almost three times that. So you figure over three years now. I saw some stuff day of the day. Fills double to 100%, eggs 100%. You're getting that money taken out of your pay. It's a backdoor way to tax it and screw with it. So you're making money, you're making gross, but you're not making money, you're losing money. You just have to be making enough sacrifice from your life and your time. Or if you got a wife that works, well, who's going to work after you to work? The kids climb, and that's what happens in inflation. So that's what I'm seeing going on. And $16 for an helper, I was out here in a bugger's field 15 years ago, helped her as a mega $16 an hour. Now there's no suck 'cause you go to work out here. It's only 40 hour old field in the United States. I know when I came out here, I couldn't even believe it. That's why I hung around out here a while. I came out on a pipeline and work was bad back home. So I stayed out here and I went to work for some of the pipeline contractors. And it was a good life. The bugger's field is one of the cheapest places to live in California. And it's gone up a good bit. And the crime's gone up because people in California, California is like Texas in California. You get to see a carry permute here. They were trying to make it, we had to jump through hoops and that got overturned, so now they have to give you one. They make you go through like an extra day's training. So it's two days training. You got to shoot up 50 rounds ammo or more. But this is like Texas here. But people that stay in California are coming here because you can move out of LA and sell a house for outrageous amounts of money. Come here and play like half and put money in a bank. So it's bringing all kinds of different demographics in here. The crime is going through the roof. That's what's happening here. And the safest part of this town is on the extreme west side of town. That's just the way it is. Where all the new stuff is, like any town. The newer part is usually better than the older parts and the houses are cheaper and no part. So that's what's going on here in Oldfield. The other thing is the state of California is just about killed in Oldfield here. I've gotten people on the websites now that are telling me they've moved out to the Old Dessa area in general, you know, New Mexico. Been out there like two or three years 'cause work was bad. And so I hadn't been in Oldfields for a lot of years 'cause I got in the union. But that's what's going on. This pay is ridiculous. Now when I was in the union, I've been retired now three years. I think my total pay for short line was about $102 an hour with all your package, everything. And it's a little higher now, I'm sure, probably not out-righteousness though. The problem for unions is they make a contract, usually five years, and so they're kind of locked in with all this inflation going on. But I see two of the unions aren't saying very much about anything, back the last time that the outrageous inflation was here. They were crying and screaming every day. Every day on the news, that was the leading story on the news, there were people sleeping in cars and dotted out of the door. The difference now is, there's nobody saying nothing. They're complaining about it, talking about it. That's all a lady in the store crying. One day, she picked up some meat, and she had tears in her eyes, and I said, "You okay?" She said, "I got kids, I don't even know how I'm gonna do this." It kind of brought my heart. That's not my America, that's not what I grew up with. So all that's going on, but nobody's really saying anything. America is strangely quiet, a lot of stuff going on. So the wages need to go up. This immigration call it coming in this country is part of the problem, it's a big part of the problem. I saw numbers last week that they're saying, "Oh, we created this many jobs, you know who got them?" People in ordering citizens, and they know it. They're saying it out loud. They're saying out loud things that used to keep quiet. So this is how we're doing. Which one is that time? Who? Oh yes, yeah. Well, they have on purpose that all this happened. I'm here in Bugsville, and I make some videos at the area I hear that's in the museum. And during the press and there were 600,000 people sent back across the border. And the people that took their place were the Okies. And here in Bugsville particularly, this was a rough area when people came out here. They would promise them to pay them so much money that they would change it. They'd beat them up. That old movie from late '30s, '40s. Great Sir Raft tells that story. But the Bible says you do good to all people, but especially those of your household faith. So you transfer that big things or really just little things on a bigger scale. So you can be good to a lot of people, but you be good to your family first, and that's how it used to be. I remember, whereas a boy, Eisenhower and Kennedy both stopped all emigration into the United States. It was not that big back then because there were too many people not assimilating that were bunching up in clusters and it was changing the United States. So this is a Democrat and a Republican. And so if you just go by the Bible, you'd be good to people, but you'd be good to the family first. And then if you have some extra then you do that as you have need and you pick who comes in your house. I don't just let anybody come in my house. I did videos about life on the road and a guy posted a thing and he said don't ever invite a construction hand to your trailer. And I got his point because of the lifestyle and a lot of times of people. So if you're going to be good, you'd be good to the Americans first and people hate that. You want to see the deviless? He hates that thought because in England, it started over there and we watched it for eight years, didn't we? And now we're watching all the rites and the murders in England. Then I'll stride you. Canada, what they do is they surround us with the last guys that have weapons with the last ones. Australia is getting there as well. So psychologically, I know the psychology behind psychological warfare, when you see it happen in other places, you remember how you'd tell your mom when I was young, your mom would say, you saw, I want to do something and Johnny's doing it. When you go to jump off the bridge of Johnny does, well, that's what they're doing. We've watched everybody else do it. I knew it was coming here sooner or later and it just got put off for years. The plan is to have all these people come in here. And now it's not just whether it's Mexico or whatever, it's Chinese, Arabs, and they've scattered all over the United States. And you might know us, go look it up if you don't, because if you can go look up George Washington's Angelic Visitation at Valley Forward. And we was at Valley Forward and I've been to Valley Forward, there's nothing there must to see. I sat out there for a couple hours, just looked around and was just trying to think about how it must have been. And he was in his cabin and he was very distressed about the war because he mostly lost for a lot of years. I don't even know how he put up with so long. And he didn't want to be disturbed because he was stressed about how things were going, owed his aid, not to let anybody in and the story goes like this and it was told by a lieutenant. There was a Christian, Washington is a Christian, I've been to his home out there and saying his little, where he's buried. So they were friends, even though he was a lieutenant and they told the lieutenant the story of that day. And years later when a lieutenant was 90, he told a reporter for the paper in Philadelphia on the 4th of July of the story. The reporter asked him, do you have something new that you can tell me about the revolution? He said, yeah, I can tell you something you've never heard before. So he tells this guy of the story and this is a story, Washington's in there, told not to be disturbed. And he said he looked up and he said he saw the most brilliant being he had ever seen in his life and he later realized it was an angel. The angel speaks with him and they're giving a short version and it's like the wall of the cabin and it turned into what we call a TV screen. And he said, don't worry, you're going to win this one. And he showed him on the wall. Then he showed him there's going to be another war and it's going to be a bloody war. But it's going to be solved. He said the last one, America almost does not win. And he showed him that we were invited from the north, from the south, and the east. And he said there were campfire, he saw fires all over the map that was on the wall of the United States. And the angel says you're going to almost lose and then God's going to have mercy at the very end and send some angels to help you. Well, I know strategically different reasons that if things are like they should be, there is nobody can invite the United States of America. God put us over here, oceans, supply lines and a lot of things. But what's been happening lately? We are being invaded from the north, from the south, they're actually flying people in here. We have no idea where they are. They're from countries that hate us. I see these chimneys, and I've been trying to read body language a little bit. And I watch them when I put the camera on them. China people don't just get out to go anywhere. These are military training people. I bet my soul on it. And they're being scattered all over the United States, which is full of guns. If they're not stockpiled already and somebody wanted to do something. This is just my speculation. And how, if that story is true, how would we ever have that happen? With their scattered all the United States, and you remember Katrina happened and you're old. People in Texas drove down and brought food. It's like when you hit your thumb, your whole body bends over and you grab the hour. I have a little background in martial arts and part of the training is that if I hit you a certain place, you're going to bring your hands to that place. And when you do that, that opens other places up to hit. That's how we're made. So America went to Katrina to New Orleans and we helped out. But what if there's Katrina's and there's riots and there is killing like an Israel going over all over the United States at the same time? Well, it sets up a perfect scenario to declare a emergency, national emergency, martial law. And under martial law, people don't realize there is no presidency, there is no constitution. So I'm old enough to know all of this. I would screw in your taut civics and understand all of that. And I'm looking at all of this and I'm saying this cannot be happening by accident. Nobody can be this stupid that really is trying to protect the United States of America. So there's a lot going on here and I'm watching that. I'm watching the wages drop because you're breaking people in here that are taking the family's jobs first and that's just a fact. I don't care who don't like it. It's there. It's obvious. We want to go along and be for everybody. I saw a guy on my site that got his citizenship. I was all happy for it. I saw a guy who takes his off and gives you a little flag. But he did it right. He had to learn so much English. He had learned some history. They're not teaching the history and school anymore or any of that. So it's the perfect situation now. Everybody's crying about the blue collar, trade, it's not just the welding, it's electricians, it's everybody. And I'm for all the tribes. I like the one I do. If you're in the Marine Corps, you'll be from the Marine Corps. If you're in the Navy, I expect you to smack, talk to the Navy. So I don't have any problem with different trades, bad malign back and forth, but we're all in the trades and we build this country. We build something. The divorce, my generation did it. Divorce. You got mom's, trying to raise boys and they really can't. Sometimes it comes off. You got uncles or cousins and everybody's trying to use a football coach to replace it up and it's a work. And usually the people that come through welding skills, I noticed are people that like to work on motors, they have the old ways, they like to hunt and fish. So they are the ones that are interested in these trades because they build something. And the rest want to play video games and get free college ride. And that free money, what it does, they want you to go to college because you get indoctrinated. I've seen it. I know friends. And the lady we know that was wealthy and before she died, her bad regret was not dying. Her regret was that her and her husband paid for their two grandchildren to go to an Ivy League college. And they lost their grandkids to all this, uh, on American junk. She said that was the worst money we ever spent. So all of that's going on here. Everything's coming to a head from these years of bad decisions. And that's why there's no people to go into trades, no matter what you pay. You may get some, but you don't have the same people we used to have. You don't have the same big poo, I would say. That's what I know. You never know what you saw and you ever gotten your chart with the roller road? I didn't want to. I didn't do it again. I said some bad words. Yes. Well, personality has a lot to do with it. I've studied that a lot and I believe it's true. I'm a first born. My wife's first born. It's not always true, but it's a lot true. But the thing that's happened and I've been big and, uh, holistic things and I understand a lot. I spent literally hundreds and hundreds of hours, researching things here the last four years. And I pretty much know what's going on, but it's been going on for years in the food supply. There's a lot of stuff that is changing your testosterone. So a lot of it is personality between two people, sc googling, divorce, not divorce, but the last thing that nobody talks about, or they do, and it's on the fringes, is diets, the kind of food we're getting here in California. Our sky is full of treils constantly. And I've read what's in that and there's, and then cell phones in your front pockets. I never carry a phone. I look at it more now because I'm trying to answer people who has regrown. I try to answer people. So I'm on that thing a lot. And you can't do it on the laptop unless you're a YouTube the way I understand it. So I'm around that thing a lot more than I want to be. I have, uh, meters and I can measure all that stuff in your home, the lectern, my radiation and EMFs. I was in a toilet park here the last year of my wife and there was one of those cell towers, uh, big one. And her blood pressure went up high. She had headaches all the time and we moved out of there and, uh, went to, uh, Wyoming. It's first time she noticed in the first week, you know, right from that time. So I know Anna, totally, I know the science from around the world and there's information out there, but it's, it's censored. pull down when piper's come out they're buried. I've read about what happened during the pandemic and it's on the websites, but it's kind of buried and Physicians that have lost their jobs go pull it up and read it. So it's a lot of that too that's making our boys It's not just our fault. Well, I've told me a day that she was talking with a friend and Her son is a young muscular guy works out and him and his wife can't have any kids because this firm count is like in a seller for you know That's abnormal I made a video here about a year ago and I saw some advertisements for hymns My aggro for 30-year-olds. I'm like I laughed out loud. I'm like what is that? No, it's true. It's for it's for 30 year olds Yes, well, I never would have dreamed, you know So there's a lot going on here that's not talked about and it's also contributing to that so it's divorced Who raised the young man if he had uncles or cousins? That came in and stepped in that's great white schools. They went to so there's more here than just one thing It's a synergy and to me. It's a synergy of evil and we're seeing the result is what it is at the same time You're letting anybody wants to come in here. I don't let anybody come in my house. Yes That's right The the me you got captured if you if you read the history during World War II Hollywood would make movies for the war effort and after that Truman started the CIA and He said in his book. I read one of his books. It was one of the worst things he ever did Then they got into owning the media Frank church from Idaho years ago. You're too young You know, I think it was around 73 Nobody believed that John Cuny was shot by a two two-cent bolt-action rifle from school book closet And finally movies were made books are written and Congress had hearings about what they also do Is they drug the CIA and they're started asking questions and I remember watching an old TV and they talked about the weapons that could use to kill people and They sat in the other but they asked them right there in the open Do you guys own the media? Do you pay them to put out what you want and the guy wanted to go in executive session and finally He kind of said, yeah, we pay some people to put out stuff and the you probably have heard it if you watch much news It's been out for some years. It was called Operation Malkingburg Where they got all the press to simultaneously push the same propaganda Okay, and I've seen it here the last year Where they put up on the screen there'd be like 50 different local TV stations and they would be saying the exact same phrases So they've got control of the media and when you put something in people's heads comes celebrities this that and the other That's how you change society is very powerful because people most people don't think Even if you're on social media you can't go over two minutes Don't even want a lot. Don't even listen anything very much. So that's a big deal - you're exactly right They got they captured the media It's constantly being pumped and even to the point where people know and they're got something's not right and You'll see that it's exactly backwards from what they're saying and you still I have friends that like I don't know if it's really true or not So it's very powerful and Hiddler's guys at the Nuremberg trials when they put them on trial there They asked the propaganda guy how did you get all these people to do all these heinous things and he said it's easy You just have to scare them and keep telling the big lie often enough and people believe it He just told it right out. It's all being manipulated. You they're only trying to hide anymore. You used to Satanic things were hidden and now there's in your face where that's the difference how you can tell you down close to the You know that prophetic things Israel Euphrates River the last big fight that's going to happen in prophecy is an army of 200 millions across the Euphrates River in the Israel to wipe them out once and for all and I didn't know this so last year that river is almost dried up right now. It's like the Mississippi River It's part of the river that was passed where the Garden of Eden was and there's different rivers there that mark boundaries and It's just about dry so that army can come in and you're seeing that China is probably going to be that army That the only ones that can feel that big an army you're seeing the American dollar I don't know if you if you're aware of all the things going on with it It sees paper money, which is not money the definition of money is gold and silver But paper currencies last roughly for about 90 95 years and we're at that end and The BRICS countries started off Brazil Russia and you're trying to know that and now they've got like 90 something or more countries They're joining and they're gonna make up two thirds of the world's Economy they'll the day the Saudis quit taking American dollars are not exclusively Nixon could have deal with the Kissinger went over and said we'll protect you guys and In return, you're gonna make everybody buy oil and all the person-girl countries is joined in dollars So we could just print these dollars Everybody had to have them. I knew they were getting ripped off by our inflation So the other day they say done and sell in our treasuries and people don't even realize what that's fixing to be it's fixing to be terrible They're gonna have massive inflation because the dollars are gonna be worth this and the inflation is gonna cause depressions It's called It's called stagflation Everything goes stagnant because it calls so much you came forward to buy things and it's already showing signs So there's a lot of stuff going on here and that's why it's out in open now and it's whether it's the jobs or the wages or whatever And people are seeing it you know in your gut something is really bad. This is like normal bad. This is like in your face What do you do? You want to live at peace? You want to be a good person so a lot of this stuff we're talking about is a part of the much bigger picture It's not even so specific to welding anything. Also, it's continuous. That's pretty good. Well, it's just in your sale amount. I've had I don't know here in the last couple weeks. I've had probably half dozen people though that are asking me young man How do you get a good reputation? How do you carry forward in this trade and the thing that was most helped me was your Appearance, not even when you get to the unions and you when you Resort to unions It was a guild where you were supposed to be the same So if you traveled from here to there and slotting went to hire you and you had your book Then that they believe that you could do the job and so they were kind of a little fanatics about that in the beginning But the looks is one thing that gets you in the door and Then it's your attitude. You'd be confident and not cocky. I don't like welders that are just cocky Especially when I was a foreman especially ones that really just weren't all that good, but they thought they were and You'll run into that. I had run two off one time or run one off And I hated to because he was a good rubbery who's causing problems on job and Another guy said Well, he goes on going to And I said okay, and I said who else wants to go and I said so I know how many helicopters you get Everybody's looking at the ground and this guy says well if I go with him, what are you gonna do? This is where I tell him and I'm in it too. I said fixing to go down to our medic And I'm fixing to get me some Speed and I'm gonna work both shifts and fill your spot. I said him I'm gonna miss because he's pretty good welder even though he's wrong right now You I'm gonna miss you so much at all because you were really just filling Your attitude stinks about it. Nobody's gonna miss your own So sometimes you're good that so you need to be confident But don't be arrogant and if you're gonna leave there's a right way I'm gonna do a video about I saw a bunch of guys have to leave a job and I'm all for that when it's the right way But what are the parameters? How do you know when to leave? How do you handle it? So it's kind of some rules and I'm older and they might not be all right, but it's what I believe you can only teach what you believe and I was thinking about putting out some of those things. Here's a trigger. This is how you handle it I've seen it down in the past. You don't want to jam somebody up just against the wall because then they have to come back Like if we go to job and something's not right all the welders need to talk about it and I've seen guys that just want to have their own way and they'll just kind of go out on their own and Humiliator body and the following you need to talk about it together make a decision and So you need to know those things and that helps instead of just being a loose cannon I used to work with mr. O.D. Adams. I worked overseas really man He was a charter member of seven out of yet. You taught seven out of yet And I love that old man and I was in his room and I was young. I was like 23 And so I was like having your welding grandpa That was there in the beginning after World War II and the well and that is and I learned a lot from him And this is where he told me time I asked him I said how did seven out of eight come to be he told me he said it was contractors put the money Oh, I don't have any reason to believe he's lying, but this is what he told me. I don't know I have tried to look to history up and I don't find any own line and He said that there was so much work after World War II That's when the park lines exploded after the war my dad built in a state hire was so it was very similar We lived in a tripers like park one and he said that there was so much work and The guys would just pit fits over anything want more money but jobs down and the contractors wanted to level play and feel So they put the money up to start a union for big jobs big contractors So they knew in the contract what the rules were That's what he told me and I believe that's probably true So you need to have some rules and it helps you where people aren't mad when you leave if you leave a right way people know is a right and wrong thing. So you got to know when to pitch a fit, you got to know the right way to do it, and I don't know if that's still out there, but we used to kind of know how we would do it. You would get together, we'd pick a spokesperson, and usually it's the guy who had a stronger personality, and they were kind of known for that. But they'd just go and say, hey, if you don't do this in this, unless it was something really bad, I mean, I've been on jobs, I told stories about it, talking about ice cream and watermelon elsewhere, we showed it's off now and had a picnic to make a point, because the guy was putting people in danger, and he was being real smarty at like about it. So you got to know when and what to do, and I've left jobs like that that I would come back, because we loved to write, and they knew it was wrong what was going on. So things like that, but your work needs to be good. I just told you, I'm born again, I am big time like that. I mean, I was such a horrible person. I only got one friend at and I used to, my wife and I used to, had tell her, and I wasn't sinful, I was evil, I was violent, and so I'm all for Jesus, okay, changed my life. I didn't change, I got changed. So I'm all for that, but it's like I said, when you get on a job, some of the laziest people I ever work for Christians, and I'm telling you the truth, I'm even like lazy, they think like because of her Christian, they don't have to work as hard, especially because I'm a Christian. Actually, you're supposed to work hard, kind of. So you need to work, I don't care if you're Christian, not Christian, diderson, non-citizen, and among men, if you want respect, how do we judge people? Do they pull their own white, whether it's a helper, a welder you're working with? That's how we can get along, because this man is a man first in our minds and mine does he work, does he pull his own white? I don't work for the guy that got to carry all day long, and that kind of a thing. So you got to do that, and then you need to always be trying to better yourself. Some people get into welding for the money, I had a friend like that, the nicest guy I probably ever met, most people don't like it if you're doing better than they are. We've had an easier time being sad for you and helping you if you're less than us, you're having more trouble. This guy's only guy ever knew that if you're something good happened, you better than him. He was happy about it, but he was always dissatisfied with his welding. It never was as good as he wanted it to be, and one day Ralph or Tolkien, he kept saying this and saying this, and we'd work a little bit, and it would go away, because after all, you don't want welding. If you learn bad habits, it is a habit, and it's very hard to break. And once you get a certain name, you can't teach anybody anything anymore. That's why I like getting young guys. You got a bad habit, and you're making money, you're going to keep it, and you're going to know what's wrong. I've got a bad land pipeline style, because I did labor to work for 10 years first, and that pipe can move when the seas are rough, and so you have to stay up jammed up in it, or you'll arc that pipe, especially when you're capping. That's the worst place to be. If you're down in the bevel, running beads is the easiest place to be, because you can one hand it walk with the pipe. So you've got to always be wanting to get better, try to make the last one, the best one, show up early, that kind of a time. The looks as a part of that is your foot in the door with the rest of it has to be your craft. There's a point where you just won't want to know anything else, because you're happy in what you're doing, you're making money, you've got a girlfriend, you got a truck, and you can't teach me anything. I even found it in a welding screw. Once somebody else had taught a young man something, it was very hard to teach me though I knew they were doing it wrong. And most welding screws, we'll touch on that. If you talk about 798, they're screw, and it's a good screw, when I know I used to know somebody that ran it, they don't teach downhill welding. To me, it's easier to teach somebody a TIG welding is downhill welding to a high standard. It just does. When I did down to water welding, I was a pipe liner, and I learned how to TIG weld in 30 days, to do work on the ocean floor that was critical. Because I already had that deal. So if you wanted to be a downhill welder, I know half-dozen students right now that came out, paid big money to go to school, they wanted to be pipe liners, and I had to go back as helpers, and I told them, I told them in class. I said, "You don't go like hearing this." I said, "You're going to have to go back and be a helper somewhere." That's just the way it is. You know, we're getting enough time here. It's at the very tail end of the training, and it's kind of just like program, and it's harder to me. Yeah, there's no short coat around it downhill welding. Yes. Well, it's a dry environment, but everything is different. If you're in, say you're an army, if you're a rugged infantry guy, paratroopers call you a lady, because they, you walk, and they fly in. There's always this little smack top for everybody. I think it's healthy. It's a little healthy, and the guy that's a paratrooper gets more respect than the guy that's not. And wherever you're happy at in life, be happy. There's no rule that says you have to do one kind of welding, but there is a certain pyramid effect, and there is things that are top nor things that are at the base down here at the bottom. And a man needs to do whatever he's gifted and happy. That's where he's going to be good at something. If I was not going to be a pilot climber, I told my students in a school. If you want to work on these plants, you will come home every night, or do shutdown work, I would be the best for your welder. That's the top guy I've worked in plants. I've worked with guys that look like pipelineers going in there. And I have, I'm wearing this worn guy. Yeah, that guy was like, and I've worked with someone who used to do the incanoel, and one guy came out of Los Angeles, the company that sold him the bellows for the catcracker, and he had to put it together in two house like well and washboard, incanoel, and incanoel is like, you don't even weld that junk, you just dab it to me, because I'm used to flowing when he's going. This welder held that refinery for Shiloh hostage for a week. They had four welders there, his ladies and waiting, because he had them. And he told me to like the weld machines, they got even others. I don't like that one. They finally brought four of men there. They just went and bought, or brought rentals. And he was a top dog. So there's different top dogs and every kind of welder within that welding. It's just the way it is. It's different. And when you're the top, I have friends that sort out and ship yours. They're in New Orleans. On the West Bank side of the river, that's old fuel welding town. That's all they do is they started off over there. And he told me, so we don't know any better. You think that's the best place for the world to work. And there's welder one, welder two, tacker one, tacker two, and all that. And he got out and got into pipe welding and got into pipelines. And he said, you have no idea. You're doing good where you're at. And it's not a mean thing. It's just you didn't know. And some people they like what they do. Pipeline is a zone little unique deal. It's free as well. I liked it. The pay is higher. The tax break is better. And that's just what I wound up with. And I worked offshore. And I wasn't supposed to be a welder. I was supposed to go. I was profiled to go to electronics school for two years. And in the south, you know, in Alabama, where you go. If you want to make some money and you don't have a skilled trade, you go offshore a year, four hours, none of them. They feed you and all that. You don't have any expenses. And I met some pipelines that were out there doing that fabrication work while they were waiting on the job. And I started welding a little bit. And they had the pup joints they would cut from fabrication at night. And I could go out there and weld until 10 o'clock formed. Let me weld them. I just had a gift for it. And they'd come. I didn't really have one mentor. They would come and show me something because they're tired. And then I would weld. And finally, it was getting good enough. Bobby lemons from Texas told me he said, "Son, you need to forget that electronics school." He said, "This is your gift area right here." He said, "You stick with us." And he said, "You'd be wearing diamonds." And I still wasn't sure but eventually I said, "Okay, I'm going to do this. They helped me get by the first test." And the test for show was good for one year if you kept working all the time. So that's how I got into that. And I would weld that pipe. And then they were going to go off for Mac Dermott and Brown and Roof. They gave people both those places on the layboard. And I said, "I want to get into that." And so they helped me get into that. And then the overseas money was 33% to 33% bonus plus you got paid a higher rate. And if you stayed out of the United States for 11 months, you didn't pay taxes on sky-high money. So it was almost like a 100% raise. And not everybody wanted to do that. It's like you're a khaki collar mercenary. Most people could work at home. There was work every work back then. So I got into that and then I came home as on a platform. Brown root bars pulls up and I'm looking over the handrail. I mean, another guy, the divers are in a water. There's a big hammerhead sharp down there. My friends agree you got to watch those. And he knew the foreman. And the foreman came up. They were tying a pipeline into that platform. So he came up on a platform for the riser. And we got talking. He said, "Hey, he said, uh, Halliburton, Brown root company, tighter down his solvars is looking for welders to train to dive. Then they don't take divers and teach them to weld. And you go down, pair it up, done it out of the up." And I said, "Well, how much does it pay?" And he said, "Well, it's for the North City of Scotland." And he said $1,000 a day. Well, today that would be like $4,000. And I already had a scoop of background for different reasons. It kind of appealed to me. I had to go take a bunch of tests, watch physicals, and got into it. So I just kept chasing money. And then when I decided I'm going to be offshore anymore, I decided to buy a rig. And I think you and I were talking or I'll text somebody online, feel bad versus a picture. and years ago pickups, they remember how narrow they were, you see the old pickups, the fenders, and the wheels stuck outside, so the beds were narrow, and you would see these old welding trucks, you see them now in the pictures, and that's why I had the welding beds, because it was all the link and welding change are longer, right now that's 200. We put out videos here in the next week about how you shorten them, and so you would see mostly steel beds, if you made a steel bed, it was an individual thing, it was like you had a gift to paint a picture, and it would be different, some of them were gaudy, some of them were raggedy poor boy, and some are really nice, somebody had a gift with steel, they had a gift to see the design and show it, so it was very personal, so about half people had pickups, once the pickups got wider, I have the people, Louisiana they would have one ton single wheels because they go in a mud better, and I've had doggalies, they're terrible in the mud, they'll sling mud all up over your mirror and reverse, turn into a sling, but they had a big enough room in there to make a rear gaudy, and I saw some really nice ones, you know, everything I've done, I've copied a little bit of somebody else, okay so you would, I copied a lot of stuff and I made it my own until for five trucks or six trucks, I had the same thing, and Bob King came along and he started selling the little West Texas pipeline beds, and everybody's pretty much copied that, when I look online and see all these trucks, that's pretty much what I'm seeing, and so it got easy for a guy to go buy one already built because it would cost you too much money and time trying to do it on a weekend, had to have a place to do it, I never had one, so all those reasons I never had one, if I was a young man today and crew it, and it's money and it's still time, I would have somebody build me what I wanted, if that's really what I wanted to steal a bed, and just to drive down there and let them hook all the wires up the cameras and drive off and be done, you never know, well the trouble like we talked about when you have a steal bed used to if you had to build one, I did not have a house where I could set it up, leave it, I couldn't make a bunch of racket because I was always in subdivisions, and the famous last words are when I get time, I'm going to finish this and then I'm going to paint it, guess what, that is like winning a lottery, because once you're working six days and you don't feel like messing with your rifles, the do stuff, your kids want to see it, so you just have to consider that, so it's wise, make it like you like it, it may be a little while, it might be longer, so it would be money when you had a time to do it, then you just have to turn this to money because you're out of work, and that's a real world, so if somebody can build it for you and you can afford it because money is always, you're going to do what you do, then that would be my recommendation is you can buy a used one, if you don't paint it before you put it on a truck, here's the other problem, it's not supposed to money the painted even, you got to pull that whole bed off on the hassle of it, who's going to do it, it's got to be sand blasted there if you wanted to do right, you're going to spend the money for the paint or whatever, so those are the problems, and now it's much easier for somebody, I had a friend bought one from I think Bob King, and it was a really nice truck, it was a bed, and he even had little fives that opened the two boxes, you can customize them now, but everything I see is two auction bottles laying behind the cab, whatever on top, machine, yada yada, and it's a very functional, it's very clean, but it's not like in the old days, in the old days it was very personalized, you've heard the coffin lid boxes and whatever, I've seen, you talked about the truck you had, people come up because you had a bed that people like to look at, that's how it was, that was part of your name, if you built a really nice bed, everybody in the country knew about it, oh they're so-and-so, I've heard about that bed, that's how distinct it was, so if you like to steal a bed, I'd have one built, I know how to do the delis to me that worked good, and so I probably would never do, I'm too old now anyway, but if I wanted one of Val's Younger and wanted to steal a bed, then I'd get it done right, and then pick it up and be done with it, because mostly, first thing I've said, you need a truck that's good, you don't be missing work, you need a machine that wells good, it doesn't have to be new, but it needs to be a good one, that's just business, those are your two things, and then your vehicle needs to look good, you need to look good, and I see all these trucks, and I had a friend, not a friend, somebody of two guys sent me a deal, and I'm so tired of seeing $85,000 trucks with two dollar well machines, rusted builds, and an $8,000 with chrome wheels, so it's fine if that's what you like, there's no rule about it, but if you want to have a good appearance like guys are selling and build a reputation, it needs to be solid, the truck works every day, the machine wells good, the bed is painted, then wheels are like a personal preference, like jewelry, it makes it bling, so that would be if I was talking to my boy, that's what I was selling, now you talked a while ago about helpers and breaking them out, my son, I got a son that he tried to help me about three times, and the last time I thought he was going to make it, and we were over in Colorado and making a lot of money, I was getting, I think I was telling you $200 as I saw, I was getting higher than Union Scale, they were furnishing my fuel, I pulled up, it's like a pump filled up, because the Union was locked into a contract and everybody was sore hands, we were doing some light wall pint, and the helpers on Sunday would go to the yard and never let them go practice, so they would cook hamburgers and practice, and he wanted to be a welder, and he said how long do you think it's going to take me, I said about two years, he looked at me and he said well these guys are breaking out in like three or four months, and he said how come it's going to take me two years, I said because you're my son, that's why you got my last name, and I said these clowns over here, all they're doing is running a little rod on some 250, while just straight to the bottom, and he'll let them get by with all kind of garbage looking junk, I said when this boom is over right here, these guys are not going to have a job, I said you started me two years, you're going to know what I know, because you're my kid, and you're going to weld on Sunday with this truck, and I'm going to teach you how to fit, I'll teach you how to do this, I'll teach you how to do that, so you'll be able to go out on your own and journey, it's kind of just thinking journeyman, if you're in a trade, you can journey, you can travel, and you're like here and at too much, but that's the truth, there is no free lunch, you're not going to go to anybody's welding school, whether you pay $10,000 or $30,000, and you're not going to come out of there and go on the main line, you're just not, that's not going to happen, that's yes, let's a business expense, you're in a business, you got equipment goes down, things happen, but as long as you got a good foundation to bounce back from, whatever kind of welding you do, you have to be made to do it, that's my man's happy, you got a financial major there, and I got sidetracked while I go to that friend of mine, he wasn't happy with his welding, and so finally one day we're by ourselves, I'll say I can tell you why you're not happy and as good as you want to be, I said, "Y'all go like it," and he kind of ate his sandwich for a minute, he said, "Go ahead and tell me," and I said it's because you're not in your gift area, and what he had done, he was doing some other thing before, he was a cowboy, and that's what he liked, he liked the cowboy life, but he needed to finance it, there's a lot of people out here in Burgersfield, they get into welding because they liked the cowboy life and need more money to finance it, I said, "That's what it is," I said, "You're not in your gift area, you do okay, but you're not happy with it," and he just, just like that, he said, "You are exactly right," he went back and told me how he got into it, he said, "I wanted to make money and I heard a welder for making money," so it wasn't his gift area, he was disciplining hard working, so the main thing is whether your plant work pipeline, you'd find what are you like to do, I could usually tell them my students by their personality, it was four basic personality types, and I wrote down on a piece of paper even sometimes, the names, and I said, "This was going to be this, this, and this," and I'd ask them, and I said, "Which welding do you like the best now, I have to be in there a while," he said, "Don't, don't, don't, I said over here, there's personalities," and we come here with those personalities, so everybody would like to be free of the lifestyle when they see it, but you may not have the gift to do it, and you're not going to be happy when you add on top of that to be in a way from home, and what you're talking about, the wages used to be high enough that it made it worth it, but now you're making a living, so kind of like that, fun at what you're made to do, if it's welding, who wrote, it's been good to me, fun at what you're making to do, yes, no, it's not, it's not, yes, well they're in their gift area, that's a big deal to me, is I'm like you, somebody wanted me to tell them some horrible story about how long I had to struggle to get somewhere, and I just fell in provenance, I think, I found out I had a gift or I didn't know I had, I was with the right people, it was the right time you're in a boom to help you, and one thing just went to another, so I really, I really can't say that it was terrible hard, it was a little intimidating, because I'm around all these guys that were really good, and they would tell you you have to keep up, you can't get you, you can't stay kind of thing, but they were willing to help you, so you know, being in your gift area, somebody's got a little more gift to another, I just thought a thing about 10%, 10% in mathematics and in psychology and life, are the people that really, you know, church 10% of the people on average are the ones that give, 10% of the people do the work, and so I was gifted, I got all the boys, and I honestly consider that I was probably in the top 10%, but I worked with guys that were a little better than me, in that 10%, I don't know who the best guy was, I don't know how to know that, But I work with guys that were professional, and I can tell this guy was a little better of this, a little better of that, that's just how life is, it's not a mean thing, it's a life thing. Just do it with me. Yes, yes. Operators to me are the unsung heroes a lot of times. They sit up on that tractor, they don't come down unless they have to pee or hold them alone. Especially a fast set in driver, it makes you fast, you're going to go already faster when that guy knows how to set that pipe in there, and I've seen so much like you could put cotton between the joints when they break them down. Just amazes me, and everybody, it is everybody, and I've got some videos I'm going to talk about things that I've been on and happen. I've had sections come off heels, and it was because they weren't doing the skids ride, and I said something to them, I could actually quit, and it went off the hill about a week later I found out, because they weren't doing the skids ride, and they came loose. But it's everybody, and there's nothing that I like seeing better than when there is professional people, and by that I mean seasoned people, and you say professional. Everybody knows their little dog, and they do it well. And when a pipeline is moving, it is a beautiful thing to see, and just do this, it's assembly line out and open to what it is, and everybody's doing it, and everybody's happy, you go home feeling like you've done a good day's work, you used to get paid well, and the pay is way down, and it's way down, and I said something more than the videos, I think welding wages already at least $50 even single hand, and I look at all what's happened, probably not going to be, but that's what I believe. So if you're made to do this, then do it, you may like to plant, you may want to come home every night, but if you're making $35 an hour, and you go to work in some plant 40 hours, or guess what, bro, you're about starving, you know how you're going to make it, your wife's got a good job. That's how you're going to make it. I'm just talking about that house that come home every night, so I'm going to be on your welding wages. Yeah, but you're not going to work 40 hours and do it, yes, there it is. It would be easy today because of the internet and social media, and I think I told you out here, we started a non-union rig weld association, and it had 450 people before we could turn around, I didn't even know there was that many rig welders in Kern County, California. So there's different things you can do, you can set up a site for information for rig welders, and when you leave a job, you can leave a review. How's this job? And you don't even have to put your real name, you just have a handle on some kind, and so other welders can look and see, okay, this company was good for this, pros and cons, just real thing, pros and cons. These are the pros, these are the cons, so that everybody is informed, and that naturally will cause hands to go to the best company, and it will incentivize the ones that aren't to bump their game up a little bit. That's a very easy thing to do today, and it's not going to get anybody a lot of trouble, especially if you have a retired welder, that will step up there and kind of hit it up a little bit. But there's things that can be done, but you got to make it easy for people, because they're not wanting to have a lot of controversy, and they're happy with the money they're making more money in their life, and they don't care if the other ways are torn down, a lot of people fault for, loss money, loss jobs over, things like those, you know what I'm saying. So that's how you, that's how you get better, and that's how you get better, and that's how you get better, years ago offshore, I took a job offshore, my mother was sick for the summer, and it was 100 miles of 20 in offshore, and I got put running beads with an overman I'd heard about him when I was younger and never met a legend, and he was my age, he was 70 years old, we were up on running beads in the Gulf of Mexico, and we ran the same room, and to your point earlier you were talking about how you learned things, I got to talk to him, and if you're in the room with another big hands, especially when they're older than me, I got to ask questions, and they would say we'll do this, do that, but his name was Chick Leaper, I'm sure he's probably dead now, this is about 20 years ago or more, and we're up there running beads on 24 inch, maybe a little bigger, but it's 24 inch big parts, the guy's seven years old, got coke bottle glasses, and a ton of water she'd earn his shield, and I could have beat him if I wanted to, and I wouldn't have dared, I mean I wouldn't have dared, because we've been so disrespectful how I'm raising a self, to older welders on the light barges, there's little critiques, you never get in a bottom bed, if there's an older welder, there's little things we do for each other, but let me tell you this, I wouldn't have beat him by very much, that man was still good at 70, and we were in the room when I said, Mr. Chick, I said, what are you doing out here, he's light barges, he rode over on that bed, he said, I just like it, I said, you just like it, yeah, I just always liked it, and I knew he had money, I knew about him, he worked overseas, he lived up in a fancy place in North Louisiana, so I just liked it, and that old man was good, still, I can imagine what he was like when he was younger, I never would have beat him, never would, yes, yes, but the main thing to me is, so you've been on a job, and everybody knows it's a bad job, I'll give you this little time here I learned, and you see, you don't think it's going to get any better, you know who the supervision is, you know the personality, whatever the issue is, it can be safety, it can be a lot of things, and then you got to decide, I found this out, if you're going to leave, and everybody's grumbling, when everybody starts grumbling about the job, you need to be the first guy to leave, and not the last guy, because this is what I do, I quit, I told the guy, I said, you know, I'll give you time to find, this is what you want to do, you want to tell him, I'll give you, I'll stay here until you find somebody to test and type my place, that's fair, it's a week or whatever, it also takes the pressure off of you because you can see light in the tone, you just tell him, I'm leaving here and you get happier all of a sudden, okay, and the third thing it does, it puts the ball in their court to change things, without shoving them, you just say I'm not happy, you know, I'll do it, I'll do it, and I understand you need somebody, so I'll stay here until you can get somebody, that gives them time to reflect without you jamming them in a corner and foreign people and all that, and they may say, well what's the problem, well, I'll do it, I'll do it, he may change it, or you don't like rubbing somebody, so that's why that's good, you give them time to absorb it and react, so this guy comes to me and he said, what's the problem, and I said, I'll fix it, you know, you're doing good here, we're gonna lose you, and I kind of knew I needed to go, because I didn't believe it was going to really change, that's okay, you know, I told him, okay, well now I'm on the hook, because the Bible says a good man keeps his word even if it hurts him, when it hurt me, oh, about six or seven other guys quit and front of me now, I quit from my school studies and they're all happy, they hate the guy that says he's gonna stay and done way more than the ones that quit when they know their job is screwed up, they'll actually have some respect for you if you ease out the right way, and they were mad at me toward the end and got so bad, I said, I can't even stay here anymore, I don't even care if I ever want for you guys, so I learned that after I got all of it and I thought about it, so I should have just eased out and done the first guy and go found me a job, because when you got a bunch of guys quit in the term, the jobs are after start filling up, right, so there's a lot of reasons for that, so you weren't about to hell, that's right, well house divide can't stand, and the one good thing about to you, I mean, I know that you, I can tell you good, but I understand exactly how it works in general, but you have a stirrer to talk to you, I've been a stirrer a good many times because I'm over and this that in the other different reasons, and I've had to go fight with contractors, and even on non-union jobs, it was almost like I had something written on my forehead, go get your old talk for us, if something would happen, all of a sudden there'd be five or six guys like, you know, this side, right, I thought it has to do with personality perhaps or whatever, but the union, you don't have to have those fights, there's somebody that goes and fights for you, if he can't solve it, then he goes back to your, uh, binocity just in business managers, and so that's one of the big benefits, if there's enough work so you can work all the time, that's the plus that you don't have to be out there fighting, there's a contract, and everybody's supposed to stick to the contract, and there's certain things that are always being followed over, track or not, but that is a plus when you can just work and your store is going to be the talking for you or your business, like, now there's an area of rig work that I think is overlooked a lot, and I did a lot of it out here in the union with one of the utility companies here, and just like you're doing the anomalies and, uh, split sleeves and all that kind of stuff, there's a lot of work these pipelines are old in these major cities, and I see it, I've looked from Jacksonville, Florida, in Florida, and different states, and a lot of time these contractors are actually union, they'll be through some other jake light union, but its union scale is to go through the work in the cities and the street, and it's kind of like, there's a lot of work in the city, and there's a lot of work in the city, and there's a lot of work in the city, and there's a lot of work in the city, of slow, you know, just like doing the anomalies they dig up and all that. And that's an area that pays pretty good and they'll work hours because they got to get it done. And it's kind of like a little underbelly that I don't have many of my friends talking about, but I know about it and I've looked into it, talked to some people before because I thought about maybe the Florida. And that's what I was looking into is in the bigger cities and there's a lot of contractors there that do that. So that's another area if you want to work a rig like say back in Alabama, Pensacola area, Lexingtonville, Miami is get hooked up with these contractors that are doing this rehab and utility workers. Sure, just think up, think up the questions you want and I'll send them to me a little ahead of time so I don't get sidetracked and we'll get a little more efficient. I can answer where people. No, I could do a lot better if I was. and for different reasons I haven't.