The Steel Guitar Forum

Okay guys/gals..........How many of YOU are truly retired and have given up your DAY JOB?

How many of you are living the life of leisure at this time and are free to devote all the time you want to your music?

After stessing out driving the BIG RIGS for 12 hours per day for the past three years, I'm finding it extremely difficult to unwind and get with the music as I really should be doing. How about YOU?

Me for one. I retired from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Office (Coroner Division) in 2005. It took me about 2 years to really get rid of the stress and start progressing on the steel. Hang in there, The relaxing part will begin..

THANK YOU for the encouraging words.

I've NEVER experienced this phenominum (sp?) before.
(Never really been this old before!)

I sit down every day and say: "Today is going to be different and productive"; but, I sit in the wife's living room chair and the lights go out for a couple hours and after that, all of my enthusiasm has wained.

That "ENTER" button clicks so very fast!

I was retired for 45 days and then started on a second career. So maybe I'm the wrong one to ask.

I retired on November 29th, 1998 at the age of 58. I never did have the energy nor desire to get back into the working world.

I got it my head that I would take up the steel guitar and get rich like I heard all steel players could easily do.

Somebody lied to me!

I also thought that I would sleep in until noon every day. It didn't happen. Some habits just never leave the body.

I'm not yet old enough to retire, but my picking buddies have told me many times not to quit my day job. I wonder what they ment

Ray
You are no doubt suffering from the " work ethic " syndrome
it will take at least a year to get over it - or find something to
replace it - like - getting into the recording studio and pump
out some CD's --- you-tube's ect. maybe even some training clips
for us wanabe steel players .

Hick

Ray, I retired 2 1/2 years ago at 49. I was an assistant fire chief for a mid-sized city in west tennessee. Now that I've got everything washed, painted, and waxed. Now what?

Practice, practice, practice!!!

I still get up at 5 AM, shower, get dressed...I don't have anything to do except pittle around. I have a small 17 acre farm, yes, it's manicured too. I'm on my own schedule...sometimes I get bored, but not bad enough to go back to work! It's kind of like Burger King...I do it my way.

Tommy

I can never retire. I have to make payments on my mortgage and student loans until well into my 80s. Any thoughts of selling the house, paying off the debts and living on what's left disappeared with the falling house values.

If I had stayed in England I would have retired in 2005 on a full pension.

I never plan on retiring unless my health completely goes to pot.
I have been self-employed most of my working life and still have a one-man operation that helps me to support my GAS habit. I maintain an office but spend the majority of my time on tabbing and reworking steel guitars, both lap and pedal.
I turned 70 years of age on my last birthday but the Lord has been very good to me and I sure don't feel it!

I was self employed most of my life and was driven by deadlines. Now I'm retired by circumstance rather than choice I struggle to get anything done and I hate myself for it. No attention span, a different plan every day, the symptoms seem to affect a lot of us.

I think the only way to progress is to find other people to commit to a project with. They seem far harder to find than when we were young.

Mark

Mark Butcher wrote:...No attention span, a different plan every day...

I have so many half-completed projects that I make a list of them, and cross them off as they get finished. If I left it just to memory I'd spend all my time in front of the television...

...if I could remember where the control switch is, that is....

I have the same problem and I am not retired. I like the Steel, but I someties find it difficult, or impossible to make myself go into the practice room daily. Really what is the motivation. I have come to realize that no matter how much time I spend in practice. I will never be a great player. I was older when I started playing and realized the Musicans in clubs don't get rich, as you get older the youngsters don't want you in the band. I didn't want to spend my life in dark, smoky, foul smelling place surrounded by drunken dudes chasing the best looking women they ever saw at two o'clock in the morning. I also at one stage thought I wanted to be a DJ. Being a DJ, is also a young mans/womans job. I have come to realize that I am glad some of my dreams of my young life would have ultimately become nightmares. Thank God for unanswered prayers.

I retired from my day job, as a union electrician. Started that in the 11th grade, till I retired Dec.of 2001. I played music all my life, and joined the AFof M in the early 60's. Played country, and bluegrass, all over. I bought my steel in the 70's, and only gigged it a few times. Now that I am retired, I get about 2 to 3 hours a day on it. I can play guitar, 5-string, average bass, and suck on fiddle. Right now I go into my room and amuse myself playing classic country and classic bluegrass. Hit a few jams, but don't push finding gigs. I still keep my union dues up for promoting the union, and in case I want to play out.

I'll be 64 this year; my dad worked til he was 72 and said he would have kept working but mom wanted him to stop. He's 86 now, said most of his friends who retired young died young. I'll work til I'm a 100 then!

Retired construction.Active music and inventions

HELLO ALL OUT THERE
Well i have semi retired as still work three days in local school trying to hold the place together after a thousand boys of all ages have passed through and two hundred sixth form girls have made thier mark . My motivation is trying to catch up with david hartey he is about a thousand miles up front but im still hanging in there he has a lovely warm place to play while mine is sub zero so thats my excuse for being so far behind . Idont know how find time to work realy ill be seventy this year and that is older than most of the trees around here IM still playing around with old army trucks and tractors but as i began tofeel my age i took up the steel and am enjoying every moment but finding it hard very hard .regards to all vic uk.

I'm 64, and retired for the last 3. Every time I talk about maybe getting a part time job, my wife talks me out of it. She doesn't have to say much. John

I retired in 2005 because of a bad back. All those years as a telephone lineman took it's toll.
Haven't missed it a bit. Now I have plenty of time for doing what I love to do..........play music.
I "play" steel for the pleasurable hobby and play bass fiddle in a Bluegrass Gospel Band for the Lord and for the joy of serving Him.

I had to retire in 2005 because of illness. Now with that cured I work as a consultant 5-7 hrs a day. Now, Thank God it's Friday has real meaning again. And weekends are special again. Yahoo, it's Saturday.

Im retired as well

Im 67 and after 30 years as a chief engineer on 10500 HP towboat running from New Orleans to St. Louis I am having a great time here in southern colorado surrounded by beautiful mountains! which i can see from every window in my place. With what little hearing i have left I enjoy playing my new Derby. Someone ask me a while back who my favorite steel player was and i told them anyone who ever sat behind one. Good luck to all of you and enjoy your retirement Steve

I'm retiring from driving satellite trucks and satellite uplinks at the end of February 2009 and devoting myself full-time to a flying-school - and to the steel guitar when I'm at home.

Probably picked the worst possible time to leave one job and start another, and a flying-school can make a small fortune (provided you start with a big one!!) but you reach a point in your life when you realise this is not a rehearsal, no-one gets out of here alive, and you better get on with making happy memories for your rapidly-approaching old age.

My challenges now are getting my 3-axis instructor-rating (I have about 1400 hours weightshift flight experience with about 700 hours instructing), getting a couple of aircraft working regularly, and getting back my proficiency on the steel. I'm not exactly short of things to do in my "retirement". I'm hoping I'll be too damn busy to grow old!

So I'm off into the wild blue yonder by day and into the wild oblivion of the steel in the evenings. One way or another, I'm hoping time will pass pleasantly enough.