A friend recently asked what it is about Ghostbusters that hits so close to home. Of course my first response was that I was a huge fan of the cartoons and the movies as a small child. The cartoon was my main fandom and the request of Christmas and birthday gifts from around age 4 through about age 8 when the Kenner toys seemed to have started to phase out. I watched the series religiously every Saturday morning.
Upon giving the question a bit more thought I came to an interesting realization.
My father was a merchant sailor, an electrician by trade. He always had meters and devices lying around as they were part of his work. He sailed on many different routes around the world; from passenger and cruise ships to massive oil tankers in the Middle East, to finally a smaller cargo route along the pacific coast of the United States and Canada.
As the ship’s chief electrician he was mainly stationed in the engine room, his work attire consisted of - a jumpsuit. My mother, older brother, and I would visit him on his ship at the Port of Los Angeles when it was there and we even got to sail as passengers on the pacific route on multiple occasions to Crofton in British Columbia and back to Los Angeles.
Whenever we visited him onboard he was wearing a jumpsuit carrying a radio in his back pocket along with a multitude of devices. This was the 80’s so the radio was big and fat, not the small radios of today. Of course during visiting time or when off duty the jumpsuit was hung from a hook on the wall next to the phone. Even though he had his assigned shifts, he was still on call 24/7. I still have the distinct memory of his cabin phone ringing and upon answering it, donning his jumpsuit, grabbing his tools, and dashing down to the engine room leaving us all behind still sitting there in his cabin.
My father was also unfortunately a smoker, so of course he had breaks and I would see him smoking in his jumpsuit on the occasions the family was able to accompany him on a voyage.
Problem solving as the ship’s chief electrician was also unique. He was very handy and always solved problems in unconventional ways fabricating solutions with the materials and tools that were available. Of course I got to see this mindset at home as well; if something broke the first thought was to pull it apart and fix it or if we needed something unique, we built it. I still have a very vivid memory of building a shortwave antenna on the roof of the family home together so we could listen to Norwegian radio programming in Los Angeles.
I was probably six years old when I asked for a jumpsuit of my own because I wanted to be like my dad. The only color that was in my size was white, and my aunt had to tailor it to fit me. But of course I was thrilled to have my very own jumpsuit. Of course I would slip a RadioShack walkie into my pocket too.
This was a major part of my life in addition to being a massive Ghostbusters fan. It seemed totally normal to wear a jumpsuit for work and have to take off at a moments notice, carrying a multitude of different tools and devices; after all I saw it happen first hand.
As my friend so eloquently put it: all that was missing was a proton pack.
Upon giving the question a bit more thought I came to an interesting realization.
My father was a merchant sailor, an electrician by trade. He always had meters and devices lying around as they were part of his work. He sailed on many different routes around the world; from passenger and cruise ships to massive oil tankers in the Middle East, to finally a smaller cargo route along the pacific coast of the United States and Canada.
As the ship’s chief electrician he was mainly stationed in the engine room, his work attire consisted of - a jumpsuit. My mother, older brother, and I would visit him on his ship at the Port of Los Angeles when it was there and we even got to sail as passengers on the pacific route on multiple occasions to Crofton in British Columbia and back to Los Angeles.
Whenever we visited him onboard he was wearing a jumpsuit carrying a radio in his back pocket along with a multitude of devices. This was the 80’s so the radio was big and fat, not the small radios of today. Of course during visiting time or when off duty the jumpsuit was hung from a hook on the wall next to the phone. Even though he had his assigned shifts, he was still on call 24/7. I still have the distinct memory of his cabin phone ringing and upon answering it, donning his jumpsuit, grabbing his tools, and dashing down to the engine room leaving us all behind still sitting there in his cabin.
My father was also unfortunately a smoker, so of course he had breaks and I would see him smoking in his jumpsuit on the occasions the family was able to accompany him on a voyage.
Problem solving as the ship’s chief electrician was also unique. He was very handy and always solved problems in unconventional ways fabricating solutions with the materials and tools that were available. Of course I got to see this mindset at home as well; if something broke the first thought was to pull it apart and fix it or if we needed something unique, we built it. I still have a very vivid memory of building a shortwave antenna on the roof of the family home together so we could listen to Norwegian radio programming in Los Angeles.
I was probably six years old when I asked for a jumpsuit of my own because I wanted to be like my dad. The only color that was in my size was white, and my aunt had to tailor it to fit me. But of course I was thrilled to have my very own jumpsuit. Of course I would slip a RadioShack walkie into my pocket too.
This was a major part of my life in addition to being a massive Ghostbusters fan. It seemed totally normal to wear a jumpsuit for work and have to take off at a moments notice, carrying a multitude of different tools and devices; after all I saw it happen first hand.
As my friend so eloquently put it: all that was missing was a proton pack.
Statistics: Posted by edspengler — July 11th, 2024, 11:37 pm