Were you destined to be a painter?

I come from a long line of military men and factory workers, not a painter in the entire family history. At about seven years of age my brother and I would polish my dad's army boots, the one who did the best job would get 25 cents, I never got the money, so one day I painted his boots with black high gloss enamel, looked great and I got the money, well………… about an hour into wearing the boots they started to crack all over, (must have been the multiple coats) needless to say I had to return the money and a pound of flesh. At about eleven I painted one side of our new home soffit, facia, eves and siding with high gloss battleship gray enamel, looked great until my dad got home, I had to repaint it the original color several coats to cover that gray, again a pound of flesh, by now I'm losing weight! At sixteen I'm a bell hop at a motel when I over hear them discussing needing a painter, well……….. I'm a painter I say, now it's a swimming pool needing a paint job, after a trip to the local paint store for advise and materials, I proceed to acid etch, rinse and apply the first coat of chlorinated rubber starting at the deep end and up the sloped part when I slip in the wet paint, now I'm stuck, can't run out can't climb out of a 10' deep pool, after a few minutes I notice motel patrons in lawn chairs and drinks watching as though I were the entertainment, finally someone helped me out, I gave up painting until I was about 18 yrs. old, then went to work for a local contractor as an apprentice (union) after almost two years of grunt work I joined the army one day at lunch time, no more painting for me…………………..Not long into the army I am painting rocks to border the side walks and what not around the company grounds, then off to aircraft maintenance school, from there off to Viet Nam, now I'm painting airplanes with a cup gun hooked up to a 2 1/2 ton truck air pump under the dash OD green. Well I survived that and many other events. Upon return from military service being paid the grand sum of about 17 cents per hour I was offered my old job back painting at $8.97 per hour, that was 1971. I have been painting ever since, in April 1984 my wife Terri and I started Cal-Tex Painting, so I guess painting was my destiny.

Leonard Charbeneau

http://www.spraygunaccessories.com

All articles appearing on this site are copyrighted by the Painters Chat Room. Permission to reproduce any portion of this site including submitted articles must be obtained by e-mailing us at administration@painterschatroom.com. (c) 2000

Archives of Tricks of the Trade.