I had no idea that my grandfather used to be an HVAC contractor

My grandfather did not like telling many stories when I was a young child.

He was still suffering pretty severely from battlefield post-traumatic stress disorder and had yet to get any of the psychiatric care that he pursued later in life.

He absolutely loathed the thought of inadvertently becoming vulnerable around other people. I don’t blame him either, because his innocence was forcefully ripped from his grasp and he was thrust into a garish world full of pain, terror, and torture. When he returned from the war, the first thing he did was look for work. I learned later on that he did everything from newspaper deliveries to cooking in the kitchen at a fast food restaurant. After a few years of less than stable work positions, my grandfather decided to join the emerging world of indoor heating and cooling. While the air conditioner was invented during the first decade of the twentieth century, it wasn’t nearly as widely adopted 50 years ago as it was today. A lot of homes simply lacked air conditioning at that point, but much of the new development in this area was getting indoor HVAC for both heating and cooling needs. Apparently he was so good at what he did and had so many happy clients that he quietly walked away from his job and managed to poach about 70% of his existing clients to start his own business. I learned that my grandfather owned his HVAC business for 10 years before he sold it and went into real estate investment for the rest of his life.

 

 

Heating and air conditioning