Exclusive report!
From under a lovely tree in our Nation’s capital with the Dome looming in the background, Mike explains why he’s in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, September 29, 2010… and it goes like this -
10 Comments
From under a lovely tree in our Nation’s capital with the Dome looming in the background, Mike explains why he’s in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, September 29, 2010… and it goes like this -
10 Comments
Yeah good luck getting them to listen to you Mike but you might get lucky….might.
My father sent me an article from the Peoria (IL) Journal Star, dated Sept 23rd, 2010, about Mike Rowe and his visit and partnership with Caterpillar, Inc. I was ecstatic to read this, and more than a little emotional.
You see, my father, Kelly, worked for 42 years at Caterpillar as a specialized machinist in the Transmission Unit in East Peoria, Bldg KK, making transmission gears for construction equipment. He was, for several years before he retired in 2007, the only one who could run the machine that made these particular gears for Cat’s tractors. Every tractor in the world, made in the last 20 years or so, contains a transmission gear my father sized, cut, and polished.
He worked for 42 years, every day, many 12 hr days, with only a handful of days off. He worked steadily with a quiet inner pride you don’t see in many workers today. The only time he took off was to take a vacation with his family, or, in 1983, for surgery for his colon cancer.
I remember his arms would often itch and break out from the coolant he used on the gears, and I can still smell the comforting smell of his work boots and t-shirts. He smelled like hard work and sweat, and I loved it.
He and my mother raised two girls, attended every school function, provided a loving, wonderful home, and put us through college with the labor of his heart and hands. He was, and still is, dedicated and strong. Two of his brothers, Don and Warren, have since retired from Caterpillar. Their father Chuck, my grandfather also retired from Caterpillar after 42 years in the early 1980s. I worked there as an intern in the Communications Dept. during college.
Mike Rowe is honoring these men, so this makes it a very personal issue for me as well. I thank Mike from the depths of my heart. I will never be able to adequately express the gratitude, awe, love and honor I feel towards my father. He wasn’t afraid to get Dirty, and he is my Hero. — Janet
Thanks for showing the value and appreciation of all the manufacturers based here in the U.S. And please keep showing the importance of all the “behind the scenes” people that keep our country running as smoothly as it does. For without them, our lives would be very different and not as we are accustomed to living it.
Best of luck……if your congress men are like our politicians your gunna need it!!!!!! I really hope it works out for you!!!!!
Mike,
Congratulations yet again for MRW and all it’s respective fields that you are standing for.
Mike, you are climbing it’s ladder to success so fast they can’t make the rungs fast enough…..
Love what you do Mike, and all that you stand for.
I am all for Dirty Jobs, Blue Collar jobs, Green collar jobs etc., but will congress end up taxing all of us to make this happen?
Mike, you didn’t wear the hat or the t-shirt, and yet you were still persuasive as all get out.
Didn’t hurt to have Josh, Michael and Camilla there as well.
Keep coming back to DC. Soon enough you’ll be speaking directly to the men and women inside the “hallowed halls.”
Pia
Hi Mike, thanks for the update!
Do you still have the per-sway-em that you got from Walt? Maybe it works on politicians too? It’d make it easier to – you know – persuade them in the right direction?
Good luck!
trill
I am in the agriculture field of raising cattle and hay. I don’t think it is just one industry that is unappreciated. It’s every one.
But the most unappreciated industry in this country is agriculture. We bust are butts to put food on the table, and clothes on there backs, products for cars so people can get were they are going, but when you are driving down the road to go to the other field there isn’t one person that tells us thank you for what we do. Instead they flip you off for being in there way. They complain of the smell of cattle, and dairy cows the same time they drink their milk and eat there steak and veggies.
mm… maybe your dirtiest job yet?