After summer stint in Florida, son comes back to Highland

By Chuck Gait
Posted: August 19, 2008

Our son, Charlie Gait, came back home after spending the summer living and working in Melbourne, Fla. His cousin, staff Sgt. John Beltz, is stationed near there with the U.S Air Force and had invited Charlie down for an extended stay. The only thing left for him to do was to find a job. It turned out that he got a job at the apartment complex where his cousin, John, resides.

Charlie spent the summer working as a maintenance man. There he got a taste of what the world was really like. On his very first day of work, Charlie was assigned to clean out an apartment from which the tenants were evicted. I can’t describe some of the things that the former tenants did in the apartment, but suffice it to say, the condition of the apartment after they were evicted was atrocious.

Throughout the course of his employment, he learned to do some simple plumbing, lots of painting, carpet removal and laying — he really learned lots of things that he’ll be able to use once he completes his schooling and gets a place of his own. That’s one thing that this job really drove home for him — the need for a college education. “I had fun, learned a lot but I’m glad to be home,” he said.

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