Sounds like Dave Manson sold out and retired?
- No text -
Dave sold his business. Now he will go crazy
being retired.
Usually guys like that (and us) start another business
- No text -
I retired from radio after 22 years in 1985 and
started building custom guns. Now 37 years in this monkey business.
I retired from owning a business for
35 years and went to work for my competition. I really enjoy flying again. 47 ag seasons with 4 seasons of flying fires mixed in. 2 seasons of fires in Australia.
Been to some wonderful places seen some amazing things and lost some good friends.
Maybe 1 or 2 more seasons and I'll quit.
Wow, you old guys have sobering histories.
I cannot fathom how one retires. I cannot figure how the money works out either. Yeah, 401k and all that, social security, but I don't think I could ever find comfort there, gives me anxiety to consider it. My work history is pretty boring, (3) pay-check garnering jobs in my life from the age of 15. Working on 38 yrs. here now and my boss is retiring in 3.
The stories of Gary climbing 300 ft. up a radio tower for pocket money. Mark flying down under. I know enough about flying to really respect the skill and knowledge required. I'm sure you'd need to stay sharp, no "whoops" allowed with either. I've climbed a 72' water tank and don't want to again.
I'm still climbing the corporate ladder. No physical labor involved anymore but health issues are beginning to manifest, at almost 60. I aspire to get to a point of truly considering retirement, not that I really want to be in that position. If I can just make it.
One of the towers I climbed was a bit over 1000 feet. It
took me 3 hours to get to the top and replace the light bulbs. I had to climb that tower a couple of times. The top lights were 2 bulbs, each about 18" in length. To get to them you have to unscrew one of the wing nuts on the sides of the outside casing, lean it back so both bulbs are showing and then replace them. And it never failed that when I leaned the casing backwards there would be a wasp nest in there.
I guess I should mention in radio I had the morning show for 17 years and I got fired several times for pulling silly ass publicity stunts on the air, so I took an 8 week course in Dallas to get my 1st class license which meant I was the same as a chief engineer. I didn't know diddly but I was legal to sign off on the chief engineer's log every day. Plus being chief engineer/DJ I was obliged to climb the tower every time it got hit by lightning, which was around 2 to 3 times every summer. That was in my contract. I climbed 3 towers, Two of them were under 500 feet and the big one at almost 1000 feet.
Every radio station had to have a 1st Class man on call or on the payroll so after that I was a bit more valuable to them than before as chief engineer and DJ on the morning show. After that (1968) I was never fired again. I still pulled the same silly ass stunts on the air but I didn't get fired. In 1973 I was made program director so I was doing the firing. I stayed in radio until 1985 when I retired after 22 years and got into building custom guns full time,
![[image]](images/uploaded/2022081120574462f56d4821e12.jpg)
![[image]](images/uploaded/2022081121071662f56f848a464.jpg)