I was born in 1959. As soon as I was able to swing a hammer around 7 or 8 I was helping my dad build houses. Mainly nailing down sub floor and as I got older I was able to lay out the walls and roof. I did that all through school plus worked with my grandfather on the family farm. He raised cattle and had corn, beans, and wheat. His newest tractor was aold Case 830 until I was a junior in high school he bought a JD 4020 with a cab, no AC just a heater in it. Boy, you would have though we were rich when we got that.Before that we froze our ass's off in the fall and winter. I did both those pretty much all through school also working part time at a gas station. By the time I got into high school I was able to pay cash for my first car, a 1966 Chevy Impala 2 door , 75,000 miles with a 283/2 speed auto, cherry red. I paid $500, bought it from my mom's cousin. After I graduated from high school in 1977I got a job working for the State of Illinois doing building maint. work, building research equipment for wildlife field work, fisheries, and ag. I did that pretty much my 30 years then retired in April of 2008 at 48 years old.