y mom has 21 kids, 48 grandchildren, and 29 great grandkids, and one great-great grandchild. She’s 84 years old. To support our family, I was farmed out to do work for other farmers. Like I always said, my Dad just farmed us out so that he could feed the rest of his family.

Farm kids usually work a lot better. But there’s a lot of younger ones that come from the city with the country work ethics too. And I have trained a few of them here. You’ve gotta find those few, and keep’em and hang on to them.

The younger ones who I’ve helped train aren’t afraid to ask questions. I always figure there’s no stupid question. If it’s bothering you, you ask it. I don’t care if it’s simple or if it’s difficult or what it is. If it’s on your mind and it’s bothering you, ask it.

I try to instill in younger people that you do a good day’s work for a good day’s pay. If I wouldn’t pay for my work, I don’t expect the customer to do that either. That’s always been my philosophy. If you work 8 hours, you should get paid for 8 hours.

There’s a lot of good people that don’t work, and working doesn’t make the person. I think attitude makes the person. If you got a bad attitude in life, you aren’t going to succeed. My attitude is to smile; the day goes better. And I’m not one to downgrade people. I always have a positive attitude. You don’t get anything out of me negative, ever.

I wanted to succeed. I didn’t want to be on welfare or anything like that. You gotta have a goal in life and then set your standards high and work toward that.

If it’s a drudgery to go to work every day, then you shouldn’t be in that job. I don’t have any regrets in life. I enjoy going to work and enjoy the people I work with. If you go home and complain about it—why are you doing it?

Stories from the Field