I knew my father loved me, but I needed to get some independence.
My father gave me two days to get a job.
I was thirty and I had never worked. I didn’t think he was being fair, but he was right. It was about time I got a job. My girlfriend told me the same thing about a week earlier. I asked her to marry me and she said yes, but only if I had a good job, and could afford to pay for the wedding. I didn’t know if I was ever going to get married with those types of ifs attached to it, but I knew I needed a job. I asked dad what I was supposed to do, and he told me I was an adulthood, and I had to decide. I talked to some of my buddies that I played pool with, and they looked at me like I was crazy. They wanted to know how I could afford to play pool all the time. I got a lot of little jobs here and there that paid for my fun, but I never had a real job. Bill only said ‘oh man’ and threw his pool stick down. He told me they were always looking for good HVAC technicians at the HVAC company where he worked. I went to the HvAC company, and they started me out with a menial job, but I got a pay. He told me that if I worked well, and still wanted to be an HVAC tech in six months, he would pay for my classes. I was going to be thirty-one and going to HVAC school with a bunch of young guys.