I was about 14 years of age then and it was in Los Angeles and my father and I were expanding the electrical panel (the main one) for KQED in Los Angeles. I was young but strong and very mechanically capable and very co-ordinated. So, my father hired me during summers to work as his Electrician's helper and Electrician in training. By the time I stopped working for him at age 17 I could literally wire any house or business just with reading the plans and being given the materials to do this. So, he gave me another trade if I wanted to do this first time if I wanted to and I worked at times for people doing this kind of work for short periods of time for money or for free if they were friends.
But, in 1962 I was 14 and we were changing and adding to the wiring of the main electrical panels for KCET. My father told me what to do with a wire as big around as one of my fingers. So, I bent the wire at the right place with my pliers and tried to fit the tip of the wire into the hole. However, it didn't want to go and the harder I struggled even with 200 pounds pressure from my hands arms and body it didn't want to go in. So, I started to get angry about this because I was 14. This was not a good idea and what happened then because we were having to work with the Panel Hot with over 400 volts running in and out of the panel because the TV station was on the air at the time caused my screwdriver to burn in half, which also blinded me Arc Welding style which also spattered metal droplets of melted screwdriver onto my face. So now, I was temporarily blind and I called for my father. He led me over to steps since I couldn't see then for awhile and sat me down on one of the steps. Then he proceeded to bring KCET back online so the TV returned to the air. My eyes hurt for about a week or so and for two days there was a big evidence of a blue flash burned into my retinas but eventually within a week my eyes were perfect again even if a little sensitive to light for awhile. The burns from spattered molten drops of screwdriver I had to pick out of my face. Also, strangely enough they didn't leave permanent scars even though I had sort of a lot of red spots that looked like miniature burns on my face (about 50 to 100 of them for about a month. This was my life in 1962. So, my father was teaching me the trade of becoming an Electrician or Electrical Contractor like he was. It was also one of many reasons why I chose not to become a lifelong Electrician. The main reason was because I liked to play pianos, organs, keyboards and synthesizers and my fingers swelled up too big to fit the keys so I couldn't play for a few months without hitting too many keys. This is what finally decided me on not becoming a life long electrician and in Going to College instead of trade school.
KCET,
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