[unstable bob gable]

Originally Posted by JPiZZiJP

Bob,

After meeting you, and seeing this post's title and the text that follows, I was quite shocked. You should be proud of what you do, no matter what or how "low" you think it might be. I'll give you a great example...

My father is a retired soldier... 18 years in the service. Airborne Ranger, Special Forces, RECONDO, Purple Heart, Combat Stripes, the works... you name it, he's got it... he did some serious **** in Vietnam. He wasn't drafted either... he was one of those crazy sons of bitches that volunteered... for MORE than 3 TOURS. If any of you have read up on RECONDO soldiers, they are crazy sadistic sick sons of bitches, and I can't imagine how my father used to be what books depict him as.

After his service in the Army, he became a police officer, and then a Corrections Officer at a county jail. A few years ago, he was forced into retirement (which is a whole other story... but let's just leave it at that).

He then got a job at Wal-Mart as a sales supervisor. When I found out about this, I was devastated... the first time in my life, I wasn't proud of my father... it was cool to tell people "oh my dad's a cop, and a retired soldier", but then when he started working for Wal-Mart, I shifted away from my pride in him.

When my parents seperated, he moved to Maryland and worked for a different Wal-Mart... he then quit to start working as a cashier at a gas station. He did it because he enjoys dealing with people. He lives in a small town in Maryland, where the same people come into the store everyday, where he can chit chat with the same people everyday. Everyone in town knows him, and he loves it. He loved what he did as a soldier, he loved what he did as a police officer, and he loved being a gas station attendant as well. For that, I'm proud of my father. He's had a long and respectable carreer that MANY (I guarantee) would not have voluntarily chosen.

You love dealing with cars (or at least, I hope/think you do? lol). There is/should be no shame in working for AutoZone, or Pep Boys, or any other commercialized shop out there. I tell you what, your store would probably get business for NJFBOA'er's all over the state. I'd go to your Pep Boys or Auto Zone knowing you worked there. Why? Because I know you'd treat me right as a customer and not some jerk-off that knows nothing about cars. You've got this mutual "do unto others" respect for people that I recognized when we first met.

So, after pouring a bit of my heart out, I hope it's uplifted your spirits a bit. You might think this is low, but I think things will work out for you. If not, I will definitely suggest to everyone on the boards that you be our token parts guy :P

Cheers!

Hey, Burn Out King

Thanx for the post and for being concerned about my well being. But basically the point I was trying to convey is I feel I am too good a parts guy to be subjected to stocking shelves for a few cents above min. wage for a chain store like Da Bone. Places like that gen'l have a high turnover rate, and they don't want to pay what a knowledgeable guy is worth. If I found a place that was willing to pay me a decent buck and let me man the counter I'd grab it in a heartbeat, and it wouldn't matter if it was a chain store or independent. And yer dayum straight I'd treat ya right. One of the things that is really f'd right now is there is a guy dealing with my old store who is restoring a 1970 AMX, and instead of me being there to take care of him, I'm getting calls from my friends who work there, to give them info so they can take care of him.

And on another note, next time you talk to yer Pop tell 'em a former USAF guy {me} thanks him for the duty he did for our country. And ya should always be proud of yer Pop, no matter if he is a ditch digger or President of the USA. My old man worked as a grunt unloading trucks at the last place he worked, and worked his way up to a supervisior position. He retired with a nice pension, and now he burns up the golf course a few times a week. He is gonna be 70 in a few weeks, and he can still kick my azz!