Neale, I can specifically remember times when I was much younger, first starting out in the trade (carpentry). I was a green bean and knew it. I listened so intently to anything that the Old Timers would tell me.
Looking back on it, these older guys were, at the time, the age we are now (mid 40's and older). They had decades of experience and were willing to impart some wisdom to an eager young buck.
I don't recall the kind of nitwits that you just dealt with being on the jobsites, but I am sure they were around back then. I do remember that these Old School guys that I worked with didn't tolerate any BS.
I was on one job one time and an older carpenter and his helper came to install some commercial door units (steel doors and steel frames, set in the block). He took the time to explain to me how to use a tap set, size the bits, read thread pitch, select fasteners, and so forth. THis was in the 1980's, and this carpenter had been in WW2, so he must have been in his 60's at the time.
I haven't thought about that until this thread, but his efforts to spend what must have been less than a half-hour with me ended up so that I have used my tap set probably a hundred times for work, and made plenty of money solving problems that otherwise would have gone unresolved or would have gone to someone else.
These motorheads you ran into probably won't ever know what they might have learned from you and your experience, if only they hadn't copped an attitude and had simply paid attention to anything that you might have been able to pass on.
