Wiring Houses

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At home old Dad gave me work directions and I would moan and gripe about it. When I worked side by side with him on paying jobs, I was proud to take work direction from him. Here’s the story

 

 

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Wiring Houses

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When I was 16 years old, I was able to make some extra money wiring houses. My Dad had moonlighted working for Page Electric owned by his uncle Dewayne Page in Borger Texas for years so he was familiar with with all the codes and regulations and was licensed for wiring houses in Borger. They were expanding a relatively new living area in Borger called Keeler Heights so there was a lot of new houses being built in the area. My Dad decided to get in on some of the electrical contracting himself, so he picked up some work that we did in the evenings and on the weekends. We probably wired 15 or 20 houses in the Keeler heights area until he got tired of doing it. I did all the climbing in the rafters and pulling wire while he provided the designs, purchased materials, and was the lead electrician. I was the assistant doing everything he directed me to do. Every single house that we wired passed inspection with no revisions required, so I guess he knew what he was doing. I gained a lot of respect for my Dad working side by side with him. I had no idea he had those electrical wiring talents.

 

 

 

This is my Dad working on a transformer out in the boonies while moonlighting for Page Electric of Borger, Texas.

 

 

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My Dad told me a story about his uncle Dewayne that ran Page Electric. Dewayne got called out during a thunder storm to repair a transformer bank that had failed. He arrived at the scene with it raining cats and dogs. There was about an inch of water on the ground inside the transformer fence. As he entered the fence, the storm blew a hot wire carrying 20,000 volts loose and it hit him while he was standing in the water. He said it knocked him out of his boots and roasted both of his feet and split them both open like over cooked wieners. He was very fortunate to survive and it took a full year for him to recover. This kind of occurrence dampened all of my ambitions about becoming an electrician.

 

 

Please respect this Danger High Voltage sign when you see it.

 

 

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Thanks for reading Wiring Houses,
Bill