So... when you were raised, what did your father do for a living? (infant, years)

[brightdoglover]

I wonder if the number of engineer-type jobs in that generation of men was due to the GI Bill, and engineering being a concrete kind of job, maybe the men were the first in their family to have higher education?

[saibot]

Lots of engineers here.

My dad was a WWII vet who worked as an electronics and radar instructor at an air force base in Mississippi for a few years after the war.

He then moved to Southern California to work in advertising and public relations for Hughes Aircraft. A few years of that, and he left to start his own small advertising agency specializing in high-tech. I am just old enough to remember that one of his accounts was a company that made an early personal computer, a competitor to IBM (needless to say, that company is no longer around!)

Dad personally consulted with all of his clients, wrote all the ad copy, and sketched the layout for the ads. Final drafts were then completed by his art director. He was really a brillant man who was gifted in numerous fields.

ETA: To the previous poster, I think you are right. My dad and his brother were raised by a single mother whose parents had been immigrants and who had barely finished 8th grade. Their father was nowhere in sight but had not been an educated person either; apparently he worked at an ice-cream store. After the war, Dad and Uncle both went to school on the GI bill; Dad got degrees in mathematics and physics, and Uncle became a surgeon.

[old fed]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

I wonder if the number of engineer-type jobs in that generation of men was due to the GI Bill, and engineering being a concrete kind of job, maybe the men were the first in their family to have higher education?

my dad was the first to have a higher education, his parents immigrated from Finland.

he utilized the GI bill. I assume that was part of it but the market was needing engineers from what I can gather. look at the origins of some companies around that time. sure, IBM is old, old but they move with the times. control data and Remington rand, etc. post WWII, all things 'engineering' were ramping up considerably.

[Submariner]

My father was Electrician, construction worker. he built houses and shopping malls. He spent a few years building hydro-electric dams, and a few years building a nuclear power plant [its foundation straddles over an active fault line]. His dream was to be a farmer. At home we raised cattle on pasture and we had nut orchards. We also share-cropped other orchards.

He also spent a few years as a business agent for the Electrician's Union [IBEW]. But he was never very handy with a pistol, so he did not work as a business agent very long.

[2 Scoops]

On my birth certificate there is a line for father's occupation. It says "Telephone Installer." He worked many years in
the CBS building in New York. He had some stories. He got Captain Kangaroo's autograph for my little sister's third birthday. He said Barry Manilow used to work in the mailroom. He'd see him smoking pot in the park across the street on his lunch break. His co-worker yelled at reporter, John Stossel, when John told him there was no smoking in the elevators! He said the late Morley Safer wasn't exactly a well dressed man.

He also said Candid Camera's Allen Funt was very nasty to people when the cameras weren't on him.

When we were little, he used to bring us these really cute princess phone key chains. They came in pink and
blue. I wish we kept those!

One time, he brought us a box of ping pong balls that were painted blue. They were used for some sort of skit -
I think for the Captain Kangaroo show. We had a makeshift ping pong table in our basement. So we used them!

[Ceece]

My dad was a firefighter, a career he started at age 29 when I was just a few years old. Before that he was a meatcutter at a supermarket chain.

[puginabug]

Originally Posted by suzy_q2010

Wow. I thought my dad would be one of a kind here!

My dad was a linotype guy too!
He actually worked factory work when I was very little, then at some point he opened up his own print shop. He started in our garage.
He first set type by hand, later on purchased a linotype machine. So fascinating to be able to setup the type so fast! He had a big paper cutter with a huge wheel on top to lower the weight to hold the paper down. He had several presses, a big german one (the name escapes me right now), an ABDick, couple others.
ETA the big German press was a Heidelberg.

[NewUser]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

I wonder if the number of engineer-type jobs in that generation of men was due to the GI Bill, and engineering being a concrete kind of job, maybe the men were the first in their family to have higher education?

My uncle (5 years older than my dad) came home after the war and got an Electrical Engineering degree at Carnegie Mellon.

My dad was not so "fortunate" (if you can call being too young to go to war unfortunate) and only got a high school education. He became a professional photographer for a civil engineering company in Pittsburgh called Dravo. Spent his entire working career of 40+ years at that company. Amazing.

[Loriact]

My father was in the Navy for four years. After he went home with his wife (my mom) and baby (my sister), he delivered newspapers until he got a job as a plumber’s helper. A couple of years later, he started working at a large aerospace manufacturer as a pipe fitter and eventually retired from the same facility as a foreman in the electronics repair department.

The manufacturer had great training programs for their employees. I worked there as an inspector for a year and was accepted into their electronic apprenticeship in 1981, but the apprenticeships were all cancelled, and I was laid off, along with 599 other inspectors. My father and some other foremen were demoted. He accepted an early retirement offer, but was eventually called back as a foreman before he retired for good.

[myrc60]

My dad was a real-life "Al Bundy". He managed the shoe department different department stores and eventually a stand-alone shop selling only men's shoes. After switching to men's shoes, he opined that men were easier to sell shoes to. No wonder many department stores are now self serve.