Leading by Example: A Father's Day Conversation with the Antonellis Family

In this special Father’s Day edition of On The Job, Lou Antonellis sits down with the men who helped shape his life and career—his father and brothers, all proud members of IBEW Local 103.

Together, they reflect on growing up in a union family, the lessons learned on and off the jobsite, and the impact IBEW 103 has had across generations of the Antonellis family. From stories of apprenticeship and brotherhood to memories of working in the trade, this conversation offers a personal look at the values that connect family, hard work, and union pride.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers, grandfathers, and mentors who help build the next generation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:18

Welcome to uh back to the On the Job podcast. We uh have a special edition this week. It's uh it's leading up to Father's Day weekend, and it's also pin night. So I just thought how appropriate to have uh my dad and my brothers on uh to talk about the IBW, to talk about our family's history here at Local103. So uh so welcome dad, welcome Callie, and welcome Rich to On the Job Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Yeah, nice to be here.

SPEAKER_05 0:42

Is this your first podcast, Dad? Yeah, really. Doing up with the time. Doing the tour, you're doing the podcast tour. So um so a lot going on this past week, right? So a week ago, uh we had a Prentice graduation. Um your grandson, my son, Lewis, yeah, became a journeyman. Yeah, it was a pretty awesome night. Kind of a big deal, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Yeah, to see all the kids. I can't I was just amazed on how many kids have graduated that night.

SPEAKER_05 1:07

Yeah, right. Yeah, almost 300, I think. Yeah. And then now a week later, it's pin night. Um, another big night uh for the IBW for local 103, but for our family again. Um I I'm getting my 35-year pin. And you're getting, remind us what pin you're getting? 59. 59 year pin. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Damn. Yeah, right? Yeah, 35's pretty respect.

SPEAKER_06 1:27

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll just keep that down a little. Kind of quiet.

SPEAKER_08 1:30

Oh, Richie got 30 last year. 30 last year. Yeah. You're coming up one. What are you coming up on?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

I think I got uh seven years left. Oh, you'll get it. Six years left to the 20. Was it 2010? 2013.

SPEAKER_05 1:41

Oh, 13, okay. So you got a little ways to go to get you 20. 20 is your first one. Yeah. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, 59.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Yeah. That's crazy. Times have changed since I've been here.

SPEAKER_05 1:52

Yeah, what year was that? What year was that you started? 66. 66. Yeah. That's when you're first year apprentice? Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

I got in in 66. I actually graduated high school in 65 at 17. But you I was too young to get in the local, so I waited a year.

SPEAKER_07 2:09

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

But uh yeah, so many things have changed, just like working on the job.

SPEAKER_05 2:14

Right. What a ride. Yeah. Right. Do you remember your first job?

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Uh yeah, I worked for MB Foster. Trying to think of where I went. Worked for them for a couple of years. They were a pretty good shop. In fact, I actually met uh Ed Joy there. Yeah, really. He was working in the office and he wasn't too far out of high school. He I think he was estimating for them. You know, he he got to recognize my face. I knew his face. Would see him, I'd see him in school. We might be passing in the halls.

SPEAKER_05 2:44

He's one of your classmates. Uh well.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

Yeah, I'm not sure what you whether he was a year ahead of me or same year. Yeah. But I can remember seeing him, and then so many years later, I don't know if MB Foster went out of business, but that's when he opened up Joy.

SPEAKER_05 2:59

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

And then a lot of the guys from that office went w with him to Joy Electric.

SPEAKER_05 3:03

Yeah, wow. Which what job was that you were on when you first started?

SPEAKER_03 3:08

I'm not sure the first one. I know I worked in a um I didn't remember what the job was when I was in Waltham. Oh, you know the first job I went to for MB Foster was uh Mass General.

SPEAKER_06 3:21

Really?

SPEAKER_03 3:21

They had like a maintenance contract there. And I was one of the new apprentices at that time. That was a nice little job.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

Yeah. MB Foster, they were it was before my time, obviously. They were like the uh the Mass Electric of the day, right?

SPEAKER_03 3:38

They had all the big work, they had all the good sized jobs there. Their shop was right on Congress Street in Boston. Okay, oh wow. And they like if you were going to a job, usually they'd send me, and they had like a a mini supply house in their lower level. Oh wow. So you just go in and order a bunch of stuff and the shop, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You either take it with you. In fact, Vinnie Crowley was a truck driver for them when I first he was trying to get in. He got in, I think, like the year a year later.

SPEAKER_05 4:10

Yeah, you guys are about the same, right? You were a year ahead of you.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

He might be in age, he might be a little older than me, but I think he got in like maybe the next year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:19

Yeah, he's getting his 58 tonight. You're getting your 59, so you guys are right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Yeah, I can remember him. He's is exactly the same then as he is now.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he's a good guy. He just came in and brought us a uh a uh jigsaw puzzle piece of the front of the hall, picture of the front of the hall. It's pretty cool. I gotta find a place to hang it. Oh, really? Yeah, but he's been with the retirees club, uh, did that. That's pretty cool. So you work for MB Foster. Uh I always thought that your first job was that BU, the Warren Towers job.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

I actually worked there as uh right out of high school as a laborer. Uh huh. Because being too young to get into the local. So I went there and uh local, I think it was local 22, yeah. And uh my f right out of high school in that fall and winter was uh the job was open, so it was cold.

SPEAKER_05 5:06

Yeah. Oh wow. So they were just digging the hole for those three towers there in in uh on Car Mav.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

Right.

SPEAKER_05 5:11

Yeah, wow. Right. So 59 years later, they're just finally doing those buildings over now, like fully renovating those buildings as as we are right now. Um out of them. Oh they get that that's yeah, I believe they're complete guts, like they've gotten the whole building.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

And I think it's uh they so they are pretty old.

SPEAKER_05 5:35

Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, they um I think it was someone told me it was cheaper to remodel the whole buildings down to the grind down to the stone or down to the studs, I guess, for a building like that, um, than to tear them down and rebuild them.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 5:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Yeah, I think that was all steel, soldier.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I always thought that that was one of the one of the first jobs.

SPEAKER_03 5:57

That was definitely my first, not as an electrician, but in construction.

SPEAKER_05 6:03

Yeah. So you did the apprenticeship, you did you did four years, not five years, right? Most mostly a four-year program when I was in.

SPEAKER_03 6:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:13

I was one of the first, I think, that did a five-year program.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Really?

SPEAKER_05 6:16

I think, yes. Right around my right around my year, a couple years before, probably it went to it went when it went to five from four.

unknown 6:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

So I can remember when I got my license. Uh, you know, such a load off your back, you know, at that time. But uh the tests were much different than they are now. Yeah, they think it was like ten, ten code questions if the code programs.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Electricity was hardly uh made back then, right? Yeah, we still had candles. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

Yeah, so uh my your grandson just got his license, became a journeyman last week. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, uh, he's the fourth generation uh Antonellas to be in local one all three, which is a huge deal. You know, something that we take a lot of pride in, obviously being third generation. Uh and now we got a fourth generation and a couple more coming up behind him, I think. Michelle's kids and Richie's son and I know it.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

I know it. Yeah. Well, it's I it I don't think there's a better spot to go than staying in the business, you know.

SPEAKER_05 7:19

Especially with uh the way things happen.

SPEAKER_03 7:21

I mean, if you go to college, that's great, but you know, you sometimes you don't even get a job out of it after you spend so much money and right.

SPEAKER_05 7:28

And AI taking over a lot of those types of jobs. Best thing you can be is an electrician. So yeah. I always wish that you were a doctor or a lawyer, dad or a rich stock broker, and I followed you into the into that trade. I was always like, why the hell are you an electrician?

SPEAKER_03 7:43

I tried to talk you out of it. I remember telling you, whatever you do, don't get into the business. You know, you're working out in the cold and all that. Yeah, I remember now it's almost like you talk your mentor the going into the business.

SPEAKER_05 7:54

Yeah. Yeah, I mean everybody talks about how great the uh the wages and the benefits are, and they are, they're the best you can get. But the people don't talk about really how hard the job is. Right. It it's not easy.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Right.

SPEAKER_05 8:05

Especially when you're leaving, you know, before it's dark and you're going out into the the frigid temperatures or the hottest days of the year and you're working on a roof somewhere. Uh yeah. I I I remember like being in high school and you know, whether I was gonna go to college or whether I was gonna go into the trade. I remember, you know, passing out on the on the couch in the living room and you know, waking up at four in the morning with you, you know, go going out the door to go to work, and I thought, holy shit, I'm never doing that. There's no way I'm ever doing that. That's crazy. Like I felt like you were getting up in the middle of the night out to work.

SPEAKER_03 8:39

In the dead of winter, you're getting out of a nice warm bed and then you're going outside.

SPEAKER_07 8:43

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:44

Yeah. I can remember my father one time, kind of similar, you know, woke happening to wake up early, and my father's getting going to getting ready to go to work. And, you know, he's he's putting on all these clothes. And one thing that really struck me funny is now I don't know if anyone's ever done this before, but he was spraying his feet with um deodorant, like underarm deodorant, and then putting a plastic bag over it. And I said, Why are you spraying your feet? And he said, It stops them from sweating, and then like they wouldn't freeze. And and I said, Dad, why don't you just stay home? It was like 15 of them. Yeah, and he goes, I don't stay home, I stay home, I don't get paid. Right. He goes, We don't eat. And that just like stuck in my mind. And I remember going to school that day, and it was like two o'clock, we're getting ready to get out of school, and I'm and it's still freezing, and I'm thinking, Jesus, my father's been outside all day long.

unknown 9:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

And that's that's when it really clicked the first time I ever really gave it any thought. That was probably like 12 or something. Right. You know. Yeah, I said, I don't want to do this. Yeah, I'm like I know, and then and when I first got in too, the pay, first year apprentice, my my pay was uh $220, I think, an hour.

SPEAKER_05 9:59

Really?

SPEAKER_03 10:00

I think it was uh my take home after they take out, you know, the taxes, and then well, they didn't have the annuity then, but whatever other things they were taking out, my take home was like $49.

SPEAKER_05 10:12

Oh wow. Yeah. As an apprentice? Yeah, first year.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

First year apprentice.

SPEAKER_05 10:17

I think my I think I was like seven bucks an hour, I want to say. Six or seven bucks an hour. What was yours, Rich? $8.20. Was it $8.20? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Yeah. When I come out of my time, my journeyman were making seven something. And I thought that was like holy macro. Yeah, right. Seven bucks.

SPEAKER_05 10:30

I remember you always said like when you had when you were making seven bucks an hour as a journeyman, you had more buying power than a journeyman today, really. Yeah. Close to 70. With inflation and with the way Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

I mean, the cost of a house then. Right. My first house, I paid 29.5. Wow. 29,000. Yeah, that's not even a down payment today. You can't even buy a car for that. That's true. But yeah, I know it. Yeah.

unknown 10:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

It's just 59 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Yeah.

unknown 10:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:56

It's funny how the you know the cycle goes. You, your father out in the cold, you didn't want to be an electrician. Right. And uh, I remember thinking seeing you going out to to work, being like, I am not gonna be an electrician, I don't want to be anywhere near that that career, that trade. And I remember my son when he was in high school, he's like, no, I don't want to do that either.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

I I can remember young Lou not wanting that any part of it.

SPEAKER_05 11:17

Yeah. And I think we're all there at one point, and then finally, Don, you need a job, you need money, and stop looking at the big picture. And you you're looking back now for me after 35 years, for you after 59, or you after 30 and almost 20. It's gotta be the best decision that I've ever made in my entire life. And I'm not good at making great decisions, I think, but this being the absolute best one.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Well, my father, 103, of course. And I remember one night when we realized I wasn't going to college, he goes, All right, you're gonna be an electrician. And I was like, Yeah, I was pumping gas in the gas station. I'm like, Dad, this guy lets me change my own oil.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Yeah, those are benefits, right? Yeah, yeah, right. Take an admit made.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Yeah. But uh yeah, that's I think back how lucky I was to make to do that and go through the program. And go going through the program, you know, if you've got to have the right mindset too. Yeah, especially now. And I mean it's so much more difficult, I would think. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:18

Yeah. I feel like they they don't put up with as much today that they did back when I was going through my time. I I I I I don't envy the kids that are going through now. Um Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

I know they they were kind of strict on absences. You couldn't have X amount of absences per year unless you had a legitimate reason, but Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:40

Yeah, my definition of a legitimate reason, and their definition of a legitimate reason I think were different at the time. Uh but I I I get up every morning, I really do. And I mean now I'm the business manager. I can't believe that I'm the business manager at Local 103. Um, but I get up every morning and I I honestly thank God every day for Local 103 and for the IBW. I don't know, I don't know where I'd be in my life without this direction and having been set on this path uh that you set us on, all three of us.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

You set us on think of the same thing, Lou. I really do.

SPEAKER_05 13:14

You know, how fortunate. How lucky we are. Yeah. You know, and I see the families that come through now that bring their kids in, um, or they bring their grandkids in, just like you brought us in, or grandpa brought us in back in the day, into meet the business manager, or into meet the training director, and this is my son or my grandson. And I see the look in that kid's eye. I had that same look. I knew like I didn't I didn't feel like I belonged. I didn't know where I was. It was all so intimidating, like, oh my God, like the real world coming at you. Yeah, right. And uh just really I but I see those guys bringing their kids in, they want the same thing for their families and their kids as we all want for our families to you know to to work through our entire career and look back and say, oh my god, that was the best decision I ever made. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

You know, it's like whether they realize it now, because I didn't. Oh no, right. It took me a a few years before it dawned on me, and I started realizing I I had a new car, and half of my friends are driving shitbox. Right, right. And you know, all that kind of stuff started falling into place, and I'm thinking this isn't too bad.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's uh it's amazing. Like I said, I every every single day I wake up and thank my lucky stars, I have a I have a house and a roof over my head and the bills are paid. And it's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

You know what I mean? Bills are paid, it definitely gets the stress away.

SPEAKER_05 14:38

Yeah, it's getting harder and harder to do that. And without having a good wage and good benefits, I don't have to worry about going to the doctor. You know what I mean? Yeah, right. You know, taking your family to the doctor, like uh we don't stress about that ever. Never had that stress. I don't know what that stress is like. Thank god, like thank god.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

And you know, now being retired in in that and still being able to go uh go to the doctor. I mean you get Medicaid, Medicare that helps you, but the locals still get involved, right? And in the prescriptions. I mean that's huge.

SPEAKER_07 15:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

Some of the prescriptions are crazy to get people paying a minimal amount of 15 bucks for per prescription.

SPEAKER_05 15:19

Yeah, yeah. I remember um I was working at the at Mystic Power Plant. There's a couple old timers that were working in the um in the tool crib, and they were talking about the one guy was getting ready to retire. I forgot the gentleman's name. Um old timer though, and he's um talking about the benefits and the retirement, and he's getting ready to go on retirement, and he's like, you know what? When they used to propose these retirement benefits and put money away in the annuity, uh, I was always one of those guys that was against that. Like I didn't want the union managing my money for me. I want I was capable, I wanted to manage my own money. I didn't need anybody to do that for me. And he goes, you know what? I'm so glad nobody ever listened to me. He says, because uh I wouldn't be retiring uh you know next week or next month, whatever it was, and and how great the benefits really are, you know.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Yeah, I can remember guys saying that, like at a union meeting. Yeah, they didn't like that. In fact, that um that those two checks they get in the summer and in the winter. I think you guys bought it back. No, the vacation funds. I mean, I that I always liked them. Oh, yeah. And uh there were there was always a small group that didn't care for them. Eventually they ended up getting rid of it.

SPEAKER_05 16:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

But uh yeah, anytime somebody wants to hand you some money.

SPEAKER_05 16:32

Right. It's kind of like force savings a little bit, someone said I'm like, yeah, well, a lot of us need a little help, uh, force savings.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Especially now. I mean with everything going on, all that's everybody's got more bills and more bills.

SPEAKER_05 16:46

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's great. I uh that's one of the great things. I remember you know, when they collapsed the holiday vacation fund back in the mid-90s, I think because of the healthcare needed money, and instead of taking money out of people's envelopes, out of the pocket, out of your wage or your paycheck, uh, they collapsed the holiday vacation fund and they put that money into into the healthcare because healthcare had started to skyrocket. Yeah. And I think we went to, you know, five or six bucks at that time. Uh and then, you know, we went a couple decades without a holiday vacation fund. And you know, people always reminisced on how great the holiday vacation fund always was, and people wanted it back, so we were able to, you know, the team was able to renegotiate and get the holiday vacation fund back. And again, it's uh people are really happy June 1st and December 1st.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

Oh, that's nice.

SPEAKER_05 17:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Yeah, I can remember that. Yeah, and I think a check when I was getting 300 bucks. Yeah. And that was nice. Yeah. Well 300 bucks, you know, you filled a tank. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:44

Never never got a check I couldn't use, that's for sure, right? So you got a three sons in the local dad. I know it. How's that feel? That's pretty awesome. Right?

SPEAKER_03 17:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:53

Local 103 has always been known for having you know big families that are in the local, and I feel like our family keeps growing and growing, and we're like all of a sudden we're one of those families. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, right. Multi-generation with uh multiple siblings, like we have my my two brothers and my son, my daughter, you know what I mean? There's all the whole families here. Uh you know, Richie's son and Michelle's son both going to trade school to become electricians. It's uh I don't know how proud I am. I can't imagine how proud you are.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

Um believe me, I'm so proud of everybody. Yeah. You know, and and then when they start working and they develop their own self, you know, their own name. Yeah. Yeah, it's just uh great.

SPEAKER_05 18:36

Yeah, no. Yeah, it's great, yeah. Yeah, lose out at the airport.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

I mean, I only like when I got in, I I it didn't seem like uh maybe I just didn't know them, but it it was always more father and the son. And you and it never seemed to go beyond that, right? Obviously. And then as you grew older, the kids are yeah coming up, and this one's got a grandson now, and yeah, and I remember you know being saying, oh I'm in a third generation, my father, my grandfather.

SPEAKER_05 19:04

There was a lot, there was a lot of people like in the same boat as we were, you know, third generations, but now you're seeing fourth generation even more. But you see, now you're seeing also seeing mothers and daughters, yeah, or fathers and daughters, or mothers and sons, and uh, you know, you're seeing more diversity, more women in the trade. So you're seeing you know, lots of women, my my daughters in the trade, like yeah, that's that's awesome. I mean, it really is.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

I think back of like when my father started working on the buildings that they were working on then when I started, when I started working, Government Center was just starting to get built up. Really? And uh company I was working for for a while, Gens, they had I think they had the um the Kennedy building. They m they some of those buildings were. They can start with a name and then they get renamed along the way, but I know it was the Kennedy Building and the Salt and Stall Building across the street. Yeah, the two federal buildings, yeah. And then one center plaza was around the corner.

SPEAKER_06 20:00

Yeah, then I think right across the street, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Yeah. But all those were in the 60s.

SPEAKER_06 20:05

Is that right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Yeah. And I remember what was there before vaguely. I mean, it was you know, old, old, these old, old buildings, and they were just down.

unknown 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:18

Was the 60s a boom? Was it busy then? Was it?

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Yeah, in the 70s is when it dropped off. Yeah. I can remember, and at that time I really I remember them talking to the guys at work would be talking about, geez, we've got 10 years of work ahead of us. And you know, I never thought in that direction about you know, you're just kind of being green, that green coming into the business. Yeah, right. Yeah, work's always gonna be here, but that's not the case. Now it's probably a little better.

SPEAKER_05 20:46

Yeah. And that's one thing that uh seventies a lot of guys traveled. Yeah, there's a lot of work, a lot of unemployment back then. You know, work was slow here. Um that's that's one thing. Like being in the office um as a business agent, even the business manager now, that's one thing that's where your majority of your stress comes from is you know, where's people's next job? Yeah, you know what I mean, finding the next job because in construction, basically you're working yourself out of a job. If your shop doesn't have a job to go to, then now you're looking, you know? Yeah. And I yeah, I remember the the the the the the cycles. You know, I come in in the early nineties and it was as bad as it ever was.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

I think I remember at one point you you went to Maine, I think.

SPEAKER_05 21:26

Yeah, that's right, yeah. I worked uh on the road up in Maine uh at a paper mill uh up in the mid 90s.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

Were you a journeyman? I was a journeyman. Yeah, because I don't think apprentices uh are able to travel.

SPEAKER_05 21:36

Yeah, right. No, I was a journeyman. We were living in Watertown at the time. And uh I was spent I was working up in up in uh Westbrook, Maine. Some working at one of the paper mills. Yeah. They had a flo they had a flood or something. It was a bunch of work, a bunch of local 103 guys were working up there.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_05 21:49

Yeah. Uh Ronnie Ledger actually called me up and he's like, Oh, you should come up here. There's a decent amount of work. Yeah. So I worked up there with Ronnie and a bunch of uh other 103 guys. Yeah. How long were you up there? Uh I was up there probably three or four months. Yeah, straight.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

It's tough to be away from home.

SPEAKER_05 22:04

Yeah, yeah. I mean I didn't have a family at the time. We were just kind of living here. Me and Rich were just kind of living together in a apartment in Watertown. But yeah, I can see it's real hard to do, like especially if you have a family. Right. Try to support two homes and you know, send money home for uh for bills and then try to live while you're while you're away. You know, it's tough.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Hey, I I was lucky enough to continue working around here during the 70s, but uh uh Alaskan pipeline was going on and guys were making a lot of money, and it really gets you going, thinking, Jesus, maybe I should hit the road. But then I was thinking about not being home for six months or whatever it was. And I had a young family at that time.

SPEAKER_05 22:43

Yeah. And uh Yeah, a lot of guys uh worked up in in Alaska in uh one of the journeyman I worked for out in Deer Island when I worked for Norfolk um was Russ Daly. He was an older older guy. Remember Russ? Uh he was an old old timer kind of when I was you know, a young journeyman. Uh I think he's he's since past uh a good guy, but his son, Steve, um is in in the local. And I think he just retired. But I remember Rust saying uh, you know, he went to um Alaska and he was really strict with his money and he really saved all his money, didn't blow it, sent money home to, you know, to keep the house up. And when he came home, they bought a uh a like a piece of land on the beach in Falmouth. And I think that land, I talked to Steve Daly all the time, or pretty often, and he tells me that that that little cottage or that house that they built is still in their family. And he always attributes it to that was his Alaska money when he was, you know, my dad left when we were little to go find work and he was gone for a couple years, and when he came back, that's they saved all that money, and that's what they ended up, you know, keeping the house up and keeping their mortgage and the house afloat, but also uh able to buy something for the family to enjoy and they still enjoy it. Right, which is pretty cool, you know.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

That's it's pretty tough though to be away from your family off and on for two years like that, especially when the your family's so young.

SPEAKER_05 23:57

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we get guys doing that now still too, which we're guys working right all over the place, right? Yeah, everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

Upstate New York, um New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Baltimore. Yeah. We got guys Midwest, you know. Um there's so much work everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Th these jobs that they're uh working on, uh any of them doing any time?

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Most of them are doing um they they're offering all sorts of overtime incentive pay um per diem. Um they're just they're just trying to get trying to get they're putting out uh some of these jobs, and some of the locals are putting out uh, you know, book three, which is like out of classification. Um not putting out non-electricians and electricians' roles to fill to fill spots. Um yeah, it's it's crazy the amount of work on data centers. Um for a while you were hearing nothing about um blue oval battery uh charging plants, Ford plants, um all over the Midwest, and now it's all data centers. Wow. So it's um I mean that's the one thing we're a little bit slow here, but there's no lack of work anywhere. And without tra without having to travel to Alaska. So you can I mean a few hours away, a few hours from home, might be able to come back on the weekends, but yeah, right, you know something like that. But yeah, but there's uh there's plenty of work out there, which is which is different. The last last couple downturns that we've that we've experienced, the whole country was was experiencing. You know what I mean? There was no no really place to turn.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Yeah, yeah, that gets tough.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

Yeah, so opportunities which which is nice. You know, things get that tough.

SPEAKER_05 25:31

Yeah, you can always go make a buck when you're gonna get an electrical license or you got a journeyman ticket in your pocket, you can stay whether it's at home or on the road somewhere, there's always in the need of an electrician. It's always it's great having that trail. Yeah, right, yeah. Well, you doing bag work or in the road, it's can always you can always make a buck as an electrician. And I tell you what, that's one thing you you you're appreciate that your kids are doing because you know that they can always hustle and make a buck too because as we've it's been so good to us, you know you know how good it is. Great, exactly. How's the uh testing business?

SPEAKER_01 26:04

It's good, it's always busy.

SPEAKER_05 26:06

Yeah, is it yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Yeah, when I first started, I used to it sent me all over the country, but now I a little bit easier saying no. Yeah, now that I'm a little more established, but yeah, they they're always busy.

SPEAKER_08 26:19

Yeah. You guys doing still testing out substations and where's most of your work these days?

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Most of our work is uh Connecticut, Western Mass. Yeah. Um we got some substation type stuff? Oh, yeah. Yeah, is that what it mostly is? Yeah, yeah, because uh we did a lot of work at Mystic, just closed down recently. So um we do also, you know, generation plants, that kind of type of thing. But uh yeah, mostly substations. What do they do? Are they I don't know actually selling it all off? I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_05 26:51

Yeah, I'm thinking they must be, right? Selling it to whoever. You know, there's a lot of equipment. That equipment hasn't reached the end of life at Mystic. That's like a 40-year plant, and they've only closed it down after like 20 years, so I'm thinking that uh a lot of the equipment still probably got some value to it. You know? Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Do you guys do much testing in new buildings? Uh like if new buildings before they put the power on?

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Uh not really. Only for utilities. I mean, we'll put utilities still. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like they'll anytime they put in a new control house or anything. Yeah, that type of stuff. But yeah, we don't work a ton in the city. Right. Um, not as much as we used to anyway. Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_05 27:28

Yeah. I took a short call for American one time.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05 27:33

Yeah. I was a j I was a journeyman. It was like an over-the-weekend. I was working at the um Sun Life Building down in Is that Nick Needham in 128 by the by the pike in 128 there? They have a couple of things. Yeah, Weston in it. Yeah. Um, and they were just cleaning out all the switch gear and and doing some testing. And I was they just needed a journeyman to take the covers off the gear and you know, move some of the equipment around. It was a nice little job. I worked all weekend, made like a it was just like a one weekend job, but I made a ton of money on that one weekend all overtime. Like, oh, I want to come work for the American election guys. Those guys clean up.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

Yeah, they work so much what they're doing now, but I know they've worked a ton of overtime.

SPEAKER_04 28:12

Yeah, right. Yeah. We've always had a handful of one or three members working with these testing companies. Yeah. Doing exactly that to clean up panels and um and then some of these guys have gotten into a little bit of the testing. Yeah. You know. So it's pretty pretty decent gig from what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_05 28:29

Yeah, American used to kind of be the only game in town. Yeah. There's a few of the few of those companies that have kind of spun off and kind of grown uh in the last few years. You see a little bit more competition in that. You guys held that market for a while.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that they probably have more of the in the city type work.

unknown 28:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 28:51

Dad's Father's Day weekend, dad.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Yeah, no it's uh coming up. I know.

SPEAKER_05 28:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

55th Father's Day.

SPEAKER_05 28:58

But who's counting?

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Yeah, I know. I know. It seems like I I was born a father.

SPEAKER_05 29:06

Right. Uh yeah, you know, being in this business, uh, you know, I know me and Richard talk about it all the time. Um, you know, how easy you've made life for us by having a good name, going to work all the time, and just doing your job, putting your head down and doing doing your job, kind of mind your business. You kind of made life real easy for your sons. Yeah. You know, I don't know if I've ever thanked you for that, but thank you.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

That kind of gets you in the door. Yeah. But then after that, it's like on the individual. Yeah, you gotta you gotta pull your own weight.

SPEAKER_06 29:42

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_03 29:42

I mean, because I know that just like you said, when I got in and I mentioned my father, yeah, Louis Antonels. Oh, Louis, your father, oh it's great. And then they see me for a week, and then it's like, okay, Louie was up. There's no Louie.

SPEAKER_05 29:57

Yeah. No, but I know you mentioned that you know it's always been a father-son business, you know. And uh, you know, you've the way you've always handled yourself and gone about your business, you've made it real easy to be a son. Yeah, well, going out three. Yeah, oh absolutely, you know. Uh I know I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

And certainly, being Father's Day and stuff, I had all these thoughts in my mind about things that happened with my kids during uh you know the course of the them growing up and everything. And I wish I could remember how I as you get older you kind of forget a lot of things. But one thing that I remember is when you I think I cut right now. You were like four, and um it was uh Halloween, so you were going over your first Halloween, and um, so I decided I think I'll take you back to my parents' neighborhood where I grew up. Yeah, not Emberge Lane, but the the other one, yeah, and uh where I grew up, and I used to trick or tree. So we went over to see grandma and grandpa and you're in your costume and everything. So I took you down the street, go to the first house, walk up to the porch. I was right there with you because you were so young, you know. So the lady comes to the door and you know, trick-or-tree, you know, the lady's like, oh geez, you know, you look great. And she gives you this candy bar. And it was like the candy bars that used to be when I was a kid, you know, they were they were like that, good-sized candy bar. She hands you the candy bar and you're looking at it, and then I said, What do you say? And you went, Oh, we'll go to another house. I every time I think about that, I just crack up.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

It was the funniest thing. Yeah, still that. And that was like the perfect, you know, perfect response. Yeah, unscripted.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

I remember at that when I was working, when I took it, oh, right around that time, I was working at uh a building that's right behind Kelly's Roast Beef. It's housing.

SPEAKER_08 32:00

In Revere?

SPEAKER_03 32:01

In Revere, yeah. Yeah. And I was working with this kid, uh Joey O'Connor. We used to drive in to get that. And I remember telling him the story. Well, he, him and I both, I mean, we just roared about that one. It was just so funny.

SPEAKER_05 32:14

Yeah, I remember uh I remember I worked for you. I went as an I was an apprentice working fell in well over at Harvard. Yeah, yeah. We're doing like the like summer slammers, but they were like doing all fire alarm over in a couple of different buildings. And I remember being uh work working for you. And I didn't appreciate it back then. I really didn't. I think I think as you made me work and held me to a high standard, and I was like, oh man, I want to kind of go to the beach today and I gotta go to work, and if I don't show up, my father's gonna uh be all over me, is kind of what I was thinking. And we worked at a little job right up the street from in in Victory Road in Dorchester here, little pub station. I remember we I worked there with you too. Remember that job that little job and uh it was all it was all Bridget Conduit and it was a great little job, and I I I was brand new, I learned a lot, but it's like years later, like I appreciate the up the fact that I got to work with my dad like on the job with you. Like I didn't appreciate it back then as much as I used to live with a mouth. But but looking back, I really appreciate the opportunity that I got to work with my dad, because not everybody, everybody, not everybody, but a lot of folks have members uh dads in the business, but never really worked with their dad. But I got to work with I get to say that I got to work with my dad. It's pretty special, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

Yeah, I can remember Harvard.

SPEAKER_07 33:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

And I remember at Harvard, it might have been that fire alarm job. And at lunchtime would sit out, it was during the good weather in the summer, and we'd sit outside. Um, and there'd be students all over, and we'd be having our lunch there. Yeah. And you used to bring one of those uh beach chairs, yeah, and you'd take all your stuff down off and you'd have like um shots on, yeah, and you'd be out sunning yourself.

SPEAKER_05 33:55

Yeah, sun team.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

So one of the owners, and you'd be like 20 feet away from us, you know. So one of the owners, Fred Richardson, comes out to the job site to see us, see how everything's going. Those four or five of us. And he goes, looking around, he goes, What's Louie? You are like this laying on the lounge chair there.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

My beach day. It was getting in the way of my beach day. That's what I referred back to. He made me go to work that day. So I think my side.

SPEAKER_05 34:26

Always has he had to get a good tin. Yeah, I think um speaking of Fred Richardson, I think he's getting a 50-year pin tonight.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

Oh, he is? Yes. Oh, so he he'll be here?

SPEAKER_05 34:37

Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think Dennis and Fred both get in there. Uh both get in there.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

Yeah, so they were at the um Naples. Uh yeah, they went there. The luncheon, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I have nice memories of working for that shop. Yeah, Linwell.

SPEAKER_05 34:51

Yeah, they're right.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Good shop. They were they were nice people.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

Yeah, oh definitely. I liked working for Linwell the first few years in the trade. Yeah, Larry Mahoney was my first journeyman. Yeah. Now he runs, he's running Limwell now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

I remember Larry when he first came in, he was you know, brand new.

SPEAKER_05 35:06

Yeah. Yeah, Larry's a great guy. He was my first journeyman. My first day in the business was uh Larry was a real good guy. Yeah. Still was a good guy. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Yeah, but you worked at Deer Island when I was there, right? I I mean I I worked in Deer Island.

SPEAKER_04 35:22

That was my first job in the local.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

Yeah, I think I was working there for a little at the time. Yeah, both of you guys, I think. Yeah, I think I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_04 35:28

I think at one point we overlapped. But separate ends of the island, I think. I don't think we were on that.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

Well, like with Linwell had the uh maintenance, the electrical maintenance, so we were kind of like everywhere. We had a nice job. And uh I remember it was at the end, right?

SPEAKER_04 35:42

The island was kind of up and running at the time.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

No, no, it's not during construction. Yeah, we were there for two years. Oh, okay. I think that was a thing. I'm not sure when, but I remember you guys being there. And um I think you guys were working for Gens.

SPEAKER_05 35:55

I was working for Norfolk, yeah. Oh Norfolk, yeah, yeah. Norfolk Gens, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:59

That was a great job. Yeah. Things were slow in Boston, and that was like uh vegan town, kind of took the boat or the bus. Yeah, I actually got a cool picture of the on the on the boat. It's of me and Richie and Chris and Tanales. We're sitting in the front of the boat. It was like a sunny day. And it's like, you know, we're we're real young, we're like in our early 20s. Richie's probably one of his first summer in the business, you know what I mean? You know, there's a cool picture someone just snapped of us on a boat going out to Deer Island. Yeah. Uh that was nice. A couple years later, working out there in the same job, icebreakers in the harbor to break up the ice so the boats could get get out there. I remember that being one of the coldest winters ever.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

And every once in a while the boat wouldn't run that day, and you'd have to have to drive to Revere and go in that way.

SPEAKER_07 36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

Yeah. We used to buy two papers in the morning. Those those chairs were all like steel or whatever they were. And buy two papers, one to read, one to sit on because the chairs were so cold. Yeah, that was that was tough.

SPEAKER_05 37:00

Either sitting in your lunchbox out on the uh open or inside underneath cover on the colder days. Yeah, I took the bus from Riviera, um, me and Mark uh used a carpool together. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And uh that was a good job, dear island job. Like I said, the coldest winters. Even like the the blue houses, the the shed houses were frozen solid. They didn't treat them, they didn't do anything with them. They were awful, but they were like frozen. I can't remember those times also. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

Yeah, that was like now that you mentioned that, that was a cold, cold winter one of them.

SPEAKER_05 37:37

I remember doing a wire pull under the digesters. Stevie Jiga was my partner. We're on a lift underneath, you know, way up in this big, you know, six by six uh steel cans, and we're you know, put pushing the feeders up and we're soaping up everything, and everything was just frozen solid, even the soap was all frozen. Oh but we had a five a couple of five hundred quartz uh watt quartz lights to put on the on the soap buckets to to um throw them out a little bit. And I remember putting them on my feet because my feet were so cold. Yeah, and I melted my boots, the the rubber sole on my boots it was all melted.

SPEAKER_02 38:12

I had to wear them all the rest of the winter. Uh because it was so cold.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

Yeah, I I can remember going on to jobs along through the years. Yeah and in fact we used to start at eight o'clock. It was eight to four thirty, which was terrible.

SPEAKER_07 38:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

But um, you know, it'd be like a cold winter's day, and eight thirty my feet would be frozen. And I'm just thinking, how am I gonna make the rest of the day?

SPEAKER_05 38:38

Yeah, you should have gone to college.

SPEAKER_03 38:45

That was tough. Yeah. You did what you could to stay warm, and then you you know you're trying to be productive at the same time.

SPEAKER_05 38:51

Uh and and that I know you worked at another job. Uh you're hanging off the side of a building. Oh, that was um it's in it's in one of the cabinets out here, I think. They picture you with somebody else hanging off the side of a building.

SPEAKER_03 39:04

Yeah. Uh Palmer Conville.

SPEAKER_05 39:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

That was Brigham and Woman's hospital.

SPEAKER_05 39:08

Is that right?

SPEAKER_03 39:09

Yeah, it was in that was in the 70s. In fact, when I started working on that job was a week after the blizzard of 78. Oh, is that right? Yeah, and I think you were like seven or something. And um so we got delayed, we couldn't go in and what and when I went back to work, that uh Brigham Woman's that that building was uh a big mud hole. It was five stories in the in the ground. It was five stories before it even come out of the ground. Wow. And when I left there, um I think you were 12. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 39:41

Oh wow, you live that long.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Yeah, and the job wasn't even done because they had laboratories out front, but I uh I and got sent to another job at that point. Wow. But I was there, I think that was like five years I was there.

SPEAKER_05 39:52

No kidding, wow. Yeah, there's a picture of you like hanging off some scaffolding or something on the side of the building.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

Yeah, we're running a pipe, I know. It was like a big if you look down at the building, it was like a big clover leaf.

unknown 40:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:02

Yeah, they had some cold winters there.

SPEAKER_05 40:05

Yeah, but the uh but it's the thing that strikes me from that picture is you're wearing like a harness, a safety belt, and that's all it really was was a belt. It was just a safety belt.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

It wasn't really like it was wrapped around the column and and it hooked. Yeah. Yeah. Just just a safe.

SPEAKER_04 40:21

You know that that's right.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Yeah. I know. Yeah, there's a safety belt, that's all because that's all it really was.

SPEAKER_03 40:26

Yeah, it's definitely uh not the same now.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

I mean, they they always talked about safety, but they they didn't have the equipment and things that they have now.

SPEAKER_05 40:36

Yeah, no, safety now is you know paramount, and that's why there's a lot fewer deaths and injuries today. What other big jobs, what other jobs have you worked on, dad, notable jobs that you recall as as part of your career at 103?

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Uh well I did a lot of work in in Harvard with Linwell, which was uh a real nice spot to work on. In fact, I one of the times that I wasn't working, I went to work for Harvard, I got to know them from doing working when I worked for Linwell, and uh when I was laid off, I uh got a job as a casual for Harvard.

SPEAKER_05 41:13

Oh, yeah, doing five over there.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

Yeah, and I was I was there for nine months. That was a great job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:19

Is it true? Is the story true that uh Ben Affleck and Matt Damon got that story about Goodwill hunting from you solving problems on how to lose?

SPEAKER_02 41:31

That's when I worked for MIT. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were doing formulas in between.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

You know, those those hallways that they were did the book I I've walked those hallways. Yeah, MIT. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, in fact, I might have seen them, and I and he got the first one wrong, and I had it correctly.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

You had to correct it, yeah, yeah. Matt Damon said that'd be a great screenplay. He stole your idea.

SPEAKER_03 41:55

One thing about Harvard, though, um, there was just so many areas that were like eye-openers, yeah. So I forget who I was working for, working with. Uh he was a fire alarm kid, and I was working with him. And um the business school was on the other side of uh Charles River. So we're in Harvard Square, and he goes, We gotta go over the business school. He goes, but I'm gonna take you this way. And there was like a doorway on the sidewalk, literally a door, and it you know, went down into the ground. And he said, he's telling me how all these uh dormitories are all connected underground, and there was a tunnel, and then at one point it crosses over the Chales River. This it only happens one time and then brings you right into the business section. So we actually walked and it was pretty amazing. You're walking down these this tunnel, and it's probably 10 or 15 feet wide, 10 feet high with all steam pipes, and and as you're walking by some of the um uh dormitories uh areas, they were like kitchens or whatever that was on that level. I know one or two other doors were open. You could look inside, you'd see people in there in the kitchen area like working. So I saw some of that, and we got to a point where we walked over the bridge, and I don't remember the name of that particular bridge, but you walk standing up, and then as you get closer to the center, you're almost down to like three feet. Yeah, and then it opened back up again. But I walked, and we come out in the b um business section, business area.

SPEAKER_05 43:32

I remember we worked in some of those buildings down in Harvard Square, some of those old buildings. Um uh fill in while a lot of them, I mean, there was all those basement tunnels that connected all those buildings. Like you said, there was all steam pipes and heating pipes and stuff, you know, it was all they're all asbestos wrapped and everything.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:51

Uh it's crazy, it's crazy. We would just summer earlier the spring, I was kind of hitting a bunch of different jobs at different times and we hit a handful of Haver jobs. And Havas got you know a few buildings that are a couple hundred years old that they're kind of remodeling and they're keeping the you know the architecture uh back from that date and you know try to keep the um you know the the buildings to look the way they built they were when they built them and uh I mean like I said it's probably cheaper to rip the building down than to remodel some of those old brick buildings that they built, but what a beautiful, beautiful campus they have over. That campus was amazing. Really is. And you know, their master plan, like some of the colleges or some of the other universities, they have like a five or ten year capital plan to fix up their buildings and maintain their campuses. Harvard's, you know, capital plan is like a 50 or 100 year capital plan. Uh you know, so the when stuff happens with the economy and a job gets canceled and it it may not happen now, so you don't have to wait 10 years. I mean, 10 years for Harvard is like nothing.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

How old is Harvard?

SPEAKER_05 44:53

350 years or something? Yeah, right. Is that like sixteen hundreds or something? Yeah, yeah. And uh yeah, as as officers, me and Richie were fortunate enough to go to the Harvard Union Trade Program. Yeah, which was which was an honor to go to go to Harvard and be, you know, represent Local 103 at the trade union program, but just the history and some of the lecture halls, uh being in over at Harvard, you know, the place is awesome. They do everything right, everything's you know, 100% union, build buildings all the time. Yeah, you know. Yeah. Yeah, you had two sons that went to Harvard. Yeah. Lowly U mask graduate engineering.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Yeah, disappointment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:38

I'm still trying to catch up on some of the reading that they gave us. Uh haven't finished it yet. Yeah. Yeah, I know the uh the amount of work I can see in your in your career, you know, almost 60 years, some of the work buildings you worked on, all the you know, the colleges and the hospitals, that's really a the bread and butter. Right. Fed a lot of 103 families those jobs. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 45:59

Right, right. Yeah, I worked at Dana, brand new when I that was in 75.

SPEAKER_05 46:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

And um worked from that was like a hole in the ground. I was there for quite a while.

SPEAKER_07 46:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:09

I think it was might have been in operation by the time I left. Wow. So I got I I I was lucky on to just to to have that longevity on some of those jobs.

SPEAKER_05 46:19

Yeah, those those research hospitals and the in the in the colleges and the universities like Harvard and MIT and um now some of the research facil places that come up are spin-offs from some of that grant money that comes into those colleges. I mean, that I kept you a lot of your jobs were work, you know, working on those buildings. I worked there, you know. Fed a lot of fed a lot of 103 families working on those uh facilities, you know. Really built this local into what it is now. You know, almost a 10,000 person local, you know, because of our institutional work here in Boston area. We're so fortunate, we really are. Right, you know.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

I I worked at Madison Park.

SPEAKER_06 46:54

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

Uh brand new, that was uh brand new out of the ground. I was there for quite a while. And that neighborhood was pretty pretty rough. Yeah. And you know, it was leading down to a Dudley square. But um on the other side of it where Madison Park was, uh all that area that was like before me, but they had torn it all down, so whatever was there was gone. And then the new stuff started popping up in the Madison Park.

SPEAKER_05 47:23

Was that in the 70s? The Madison Park?

SPEAKER_03 47:24

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:25

Yeah. I mean, they built that. I worked at Madison Park uh for Linwell as an apprentice doing retrofit lighting in the early 90s when they were retrofitting all the old city buildings. That was one of them we worked in. I remember, you know, just packing up all those ballasts and hampers going out to the dumpsters. Yeah, um, brand new. You know, changing out the ballasts and then changing out the lamps and putting the reflect reflectors in. I could think I could do those in my sleep. We did so many of them, thousands and thousands of them. Because Linwell had the schools, right, and that was part of it. Remember I worked at uh, you know, all bouncing around all the schools.

SPEAKER_03 48:00

Right. And we worked on um some of those in in other schools. I don't remember working in Madison Park, but I did do we did do retrofits on some of the other schools in Boston.

SPEAKER_07 48:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:11

Yeah, that was uh they had Linwell always kept busy. Yeah, yeah, they had a nice account with the Boston schools.

SPEAKER_05 48:18

Yeah, that was a slow. I mean, they still have that account with the Boston schools. Yeah, they still got a handful of vans that go around, you know, nice maintaining the schools. It's a nice yeah, it's a definitely a nice little uh.

SPEAKER_03 48:28

I mean I didn't realize there were so many schools. I think they said at that time there was like 250 schools. Oh wow they didn't have every one of them, yeah, but they had a uh whatever that number was that went out for conference.

SPEAKER_05 48:38

Yeah, definitely a nice account. Yeah, all the Boston schools, yeah, and they still have it, which is great. I think it's changed hand a couple times in between, but Linwell always seems to come up to get a hold of it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 48:47

Yeah, and then it's being familiar with uh the schools and the way to go.

SPEAKER_05 48:53

Yeah, yeah. So you're coming up on 20 years retired, right?

SPEAKER_03 48:56

You're coming up on twenty years? Uh yeah. I went out in 06, so 26. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:01

Oh wow. Yeah, so 20 years. Yeah, yeah, wow. I know.

SPEAKER_03 49:04

Oh, it's quite hot. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_06 49:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:07

Yeah, I mean I couldn't sit still. I mean, I I was lucky enough to be able to get out and the numbers work, like I said.

SPEAKER_06 49:15

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_03 49:16

And then I just I always did had something lined up for a Saturday like Moonlight, and so I just kind of perked that up and continued that.

SPEAKER_05 49:24

Yeah, I mean it's I mean, being retired, local 103, they say is the is the best booking around. And yeah, to see how healthy you are and how well you're doing, you and mom, you know, have a great life together. It's uh it looks like it's still the best booking you can have at 103.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

I know it. I I have a lot of nice memories thinking back. Uh and once in a while you hear about all this work and it kind of gets you excited because you know the all the good that comes from that. And then like reality will set in, and because you might be thinking, geez, I probably could go back to work, you know, and do something. And then reality sets in and goes, yeah, okay, that's not a good idea. Four o'clock. Yeah. When I used to come into town 20 years ago, I'd get to the mouth of a expressway coming up from the Cape, and and I'd get to the mouth of the ex the expressway like 10 minutes or six.

SPEAKER_07 50:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

So it wasn't too bad to get to the job. Now I don't think and I walk out the door at 4 30 in the morning. Yeah. You know, I wasn't no I was no fun after eight o'clock at night. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. But I so now making that commute, I don't think uh I don't think that'd be early enough.

SPEAKER_05 50:33

Yeah, from Cambridge to Falmouth. Yeah. In the afternoons. How was that on a Friday afternoon?

SPEAKER_03 50:37

Oh, it's off.

SPEAKER_05 50:38

Yeah. Yeah, you don't miss those days, huh?

SPEAKER_03 50:40

That's about just like coming here today.

SPEAKER_05 50:43

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

You know, it expressways just ooh constantly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:48

Yeah. Well, Dad, thanks for everything you did for the IBW. Thanks for everything you gave to Richie and Callie and I leading the way for us.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

And yeah, well now you guys can take it a torch and yeah just happy Father's Day. Yeah, happy Father's Day. Happy Father's Day. Thanks.

SPEAKER_05 51:04

It's awesome. Thanks for uh coming on our podcast. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah, believe it or not, this was just a little uh clothes closet. We had kept sweatshirts in here, and it was kind of a mess in here. Now it's uh it looks like a Hollywood studio. Sean did a good job putting this place together. It looks pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, you've uh you're in a pretty popular seat. That's the that's the hot seat. You did really good. The governor sat there, the uh the Marty Walsh has sat in that seat. We've had probably your old friend Ed Markey sat there. You know, it's great. No, it's good. It's a good seat still. It's been uh it's been awesome, Dad. It's been a great ride, certainly been a great ride for us, and yeah, thanks for uh uh you know paving the way for us. It's been great.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

Yeah, and our kids, the younger crew will keep it going than grandchildren.

SPEAKER_05 51:55

Yeah, they can pay your pension now for a while.

SPEAKER_03 51:57

Yeah.