I'm thinking I should put a Bio on here of the things I've done, many of which started me on my journey of providing advice on construction topics. I could say it started with fetching loose nails off construction sites and making tree houses out of what I scavenged. Or making carts with wheels that I could ride down hills on. Maybe it was building cities with blocks, or assembling cabins out of Lincoln logs. Chopping fire wood for my parents which they let me do when I turned six. There was always a handy axe I could use next to the wood pile.
Terry Love in 1975
This is me when I started plumbing. I was 6'-1" and weighed 155 pounds. I entered high school at 115 and exited at 155. I was 155 until I was 28 years old. As much as I tried, I couldn't put on any weight. I thought I was going to be a rock star, writing songs and playing my guitar. But I wasn't really sure I could pull that off, so I kept my day jobs. Before I started in plumbing, I worked eight years in bicycle shops as a mechanic. I was getting pretty good using both hands to turn wrenches and use tools. I could also bat left and right. It didn't really matter. That would come in handy for plumbing as I watched the other plumbers looking handicapped and having to do everything with only their right hand. What a waste I thought. With plumbing, they put a lot of things on the left, so why not use the left hand for those? I also passed the real estate exam to be a realtor. I passed it and then only lasted a little while longer before moving on.
With my dad, Judge Melvin V Love
My first job had been mowing lawns for the neighbors, and baby sitting. I was ten years old and getting 25 cents an hour. Sure, who wouldn't trust a 10 year old to watch your kids while you went out? I started doing a paper route at ten too. That lasted until I started in the bicycle shop at 15. My brother in-law got me that first job. He had noticed that I had pulled my 10 speed apart, painted the frame and then reassembled it making it look brand new. I was always making things, whether it was car models, or making toy boats out of what I could make from the wood pile. I had combinations of wood to use, and I found the cedar to be nice and soft and easy to carve. As a first and second grader, there were always some nice sharp knives I could find for that.
Lucky for me during first and second grade, I noticed that my family had art books that explained composition, and books on skiing and how that's done. The art books were very helpful later on for my photography, movie making and water color lessons. I had access to a dark room in fourth grade and I was able to print photos whenever I wanted to. In junior high I bought a movie camera and equipment to splice and edit film. Violin also started in fourth grade.
In 5th grade, during the time that Seattle was having it's World's Fair that I started off the school year by playing tackle football after school with the neighborhood kids. September 14th, while running the ball my older brother, James Packard Love, tackled me snapping my right femur in two. Lucky for me, my brother was also a boy scout and before the medics came had spun my leg back into position. The leg needed to be twisted back 180 degrees so that the toes were facing the right way again. I didn't find out until recently that they were considering taking the leg off at the hip. There was something wrong with the bone in that location, and it was either cut off the leg, or try grafting in a cow bone and seeing if that would work. It had never been done, but the doctor and my father thought it was worth trying. I spent six weeks in the hospital sharing the room with adult roommates, some of them smoking which I found very annoying. I didn't see any kids my age until I left the hospital. That's a long time for someone ten years old to hang out with adults only. Finally they did the operation and inserted the cow bone, putting me in a body cast. What is a body cast? It goes from the toes, yes I could wiggle my toes, and to just under my arm pits. I could not bend my foot, my knee or my leg at the hip. I couldn't even bend my back. I had just become the only real "cow-boy" in history.
More later, it's time for dinner.
1967 Lake Quesnel in Canada. Me on the left and Randy on the right.
Me on the chainsaw. No shoes, no problems.
Terry Love in 1975
This is me when I started plumbing. I was 6'-1" and weighed 155 pounds. I entered high school at 115 and exited at 155. I was 155 until I was 28 years old. As much as I tried, I couldn't put on any weight. I thought I was going to be a rock star, writing songs and playing my guitar. But I wasn't really sure I could pull that off, so I kept my day jobs. Before I started in plumbing, I worked eight years in bicycle shops as a mechanic. I was getting pretty good using both hands to turn wrenches and use tools. I could also bat left and right. It didn't really matter. That would come in handy for plumbing as I watched the other plumbers looking handicapped and having to do everything with only their right hand. What a waste I thought. With plumbing, they put a lot of things on the left, so why not use the left hand for those? I also passed the real estate exam to be a realtor. I passed it and then only lasted a little while longer before moving on.
With my dad, Judge Melvin V Love
My first job had been mowing lawns for the neighbors, and baby sitting. I was ten years old and getting 25 cents an hour. Sure, who wouldn't trust a 10 year old to watch your kids while you went out? I started doing a paper route at ten too. That lasted until I started in the bicycle shop at 15. My brother in-law got me that first job. He had noticed that I had pulled my 10 speed apart, painted the frame and then reassembled it making it look brand new. I was always making things, whether it was car models, or making toy boats out of what I could make from the wood pile. I had combinations of wood to use, and I found the cedar to be nice and soft and easy to carve. As a first and second grader, there were always some nice sharp knives I could find for that.
Lucky for me during first and second grade, I noticed that my family had art books that explained composition, and books on skiing and how that's done. The art books were very helpful later on for my photography, movie making and water color lessons. I had access to a dark room in fourth grade and I was able to print photos whenever I wanted to. In junior high I bought a movie camera and equipment to splice and edit film. Violin also started in fourth grade.
In 5th grade, during the time that Seattle was having it's World's Fair that I started off the school year by playing tackle football after school with the neighborhood kids. September 14th, while running the ball my older brother, James Packard Love, tackled me snapping my right femur in two. Lucky for me, my brother was also a boy scout and before the medics came had spun my leg back into position. The leg needed to be twisted back 180 degrees so that the toes were facing the right way again. I didn't find out until recently that they were considering taking the leg off at the hip. There was something wrong with the bone in that location, and it was either cut off the leg, or try grafting in a cow bone and seeing if that would work. It had never been done, but the doctor and my father thought it was worth trying. I spent six weeks in the hospital sharing the room with adult roommates, some of them smoking which I found very annoying. I didn't see any kids my age until I left the hospital. That's a long time for someone ten years old to hang out with adults only. Finally they did the operation and inserted the cow bone, putting me in a body cast. What is a body cast? It goes from the toes, yes I could wiggle my toes, and to just under my arm pits. I could not bend my foot, my knee or my leg at the hip. I couldn't even bend my back. I had just become the only real "cow-boy" in history.
More later, it's time for dinner.
1967 Lake Quesnel in Canada. Me on the left and Randy on the right.
Me on the chainsaw. No shoes, no problems.
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