A little about myself
My name is Richard Mayers, I was born August 1 1956 in Lodi,Ca. I grew up there and still live with in 15 miles of Lodi today. My dad was a general contractor,my mom was house wife. I graduated high school in 1974 from good old Lodi High School. After high school my main goal was to become an auto mechanic, so I got a job at a local car dealership. After working in the shop for less than a year I was offer a position in the parts department. This worked out pretty well, I took over the parts department in about 4 years. The only problem was, I was not happy doing the same thing everyday .I was young and had time to change my career,so one day I call up good old dad and hit him up for a job. So my last day day at the dealership was on a friday at 5.30 pm and my first day in construction was Saturday morning at 5:30 am. I was at my new job with in 12 hours of quitting my old job. Since my dad was the boss I got all kinds of special treatment. He bought me a brand new shovel an took me out to a new construction site he was just starting. The building was 200' wide and 360' long.He explained to me that the ground was to wet to dig footing with a tractor, so all the footing would have to be dug by hand. He told me to start digging and left. I went from pushing a pencil one day to being a concrete laborer the next. The rain started so there was very little concrete being poured. My dad kept me busy, when I wasn't pouring concrete I was sweeping floors at the same jobsite I started at. While sweeping floor one day, the electrical contractor on the job ask me if I had ever thought about becoming an electrician,my reply to him was NO. I told him I knew nothing about electricity,he told me that he needed help on the job and he liked how I worked. Sweeping floors was not the most interesting thing to do all day,so I took him up on his offer.That is how I got my start as an electrician. The year was 1979,I worked hard and learned new things every day. I found out early that the same tool I started out with in concrete was also used in the electrical trade.If you haven't guessed, it's the shovel.By 1981 I started an electrical contracting business in,where else Lodi. That was the same year I married my wife Liz. We now have 4 children an 1 grandchild. My son is 14 and plays high school football,for who else good old Lodi high school. I still work with my tools every day. My experience is from residential,commercial, industrial and motor control. I was taught to do it all, and still work in all categories everyday. There is always something new and different to do everyday. One day you might be installing underground conduit in a ditch, the next day you might be troubleshoot a motor control problem at some factory, or working in someone's home repairing or adding electrical, there is never anything that is exactly the same so you are learning everyday .I have been an electrician for thirty years now an still enjoy what I do for a living.