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Jigs Gaton's avatar

Hilarious, I did not know that about you, but u coulda been me. Only I think I came up earlier when you had to drive a forklift to eat (US Army, US Post Office, etc.) but then I figured it would be easier on your back and less dangerous going into chem/physics instead of trying to hold down a dirty job for life - only to realize that Physics or an Academic work was mind-bending instead of knee-hurting and just as dangerous as loading trucks with palettes of ammo. Who woulda thunk?

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Alicia Norman's avatar

Very cool--I would probably get fired because I would driving it all around the place going "Wheeeeee!"

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Geoff Anderson's avatar

Not gonna lie, we did do some hooligan driving of the forklifts...

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Alicia Norman's avatar

OMG ahahahaha pictures or it didn't happen (seriously, ribbing you cuz I wanna see!) LOL

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Geoff Anderson's avatar

Fortunately, it was long before smartphones. Thankfully, or I would have been fired

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Alicia Norman's avatar

Ahahhahahaha, that is awesome though :-)

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Ingeborg Fernau's avatar

Haha I remember those days

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Geoff Anderson's avatar

Good times indeed!

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Amber's avatar

I love this, while I studied History and not physics lol (those were lessons well learned in very rudimentary ways) there’s a feeling you get at the point of increased stability as the operator. Leaving college for the glamor of a Marine Corps enlistment🤦🏻‍♀️😂, I was an equipment operator and worked underground furthering that career in a salt mine. There is a very unique relationship between man and machine in forklifts and drills, even under cutters, and you can “feel the physics and geology” for lack of a better way to express it. There are feelings that let you know the load is secure or not, how is the material being cut or drilled, those extra forces can be ‘felt’.

Thanks for sharing and I would say you are the first physicist I know of to have been certified on a forklift!

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Geoff Anderson's avatar

Those are valuable life skills.

A couple of times, the loading dock needed help unloading trucks, and I have to say that driving a forklift into a trailer to lift out pallets of product was wild.

You become insanely aware of your position, and how close to walls/ceilings you are.

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