Since I was packing everything I owned in a 8x10 trailer from Home Depot, I didnt have much in the way of belongings, but I do have a 4 yo Yellow Lab , and the only places that the school had lined up for students was dbl occupancy 2 bedroom apartments. No Pets allowed. So I looked around and Trenton is a pretty small place, and not much going on , so I looked to Chattanooga which I suppose would be considered a decent sized city and was only 20 minutes away. I managed to find a single room apartment near the interstate for 425 a month ( better than my mortgage in Florida )
I moved up a few days before Thanksgiving even though classes didnt start until the second of January. Too get a feel for the area, and maybe get a job. Nailed down a job in downtown 'Nooga at the TGI fridays , which works out because they were able to cut my schedule down to 2-3 days on the weekends so it wouldnt interfere with my schooling.
January 2nd came and I showed up @ 7:30 am , to get an early start on things. Everyone was assembled in one of the 2 classrooms. 66 guys and we were missing a few from the Grand Bahama's that were having either travel issues , or union issues, we never did find out because they never showed up. We have 4 primary instructors, 1 director of training, 1 director of business and one AA on site at all times, and we got to meet them as they introduced themselves. After a brief introduction and just a little bit about the school , we were split up into two groups, those that havd been on site and been fitted for gear , and those that had not. I wa sin the former group and headed outside to pick up my equipment. This included brand new boots, Hard Hats, Safety Glasses and of course brand new Bashlin Gaffs and Pads, belts, safety straps and a bunch of small tools. After assembling our belts with tool pouch and nut bag ( yes I laughed too ), trying on our boots and making sure we had everything we headed back in side. Lunch was provided and many of us started meeting the guys we would become pole buddies, and friends with. After lunch it was time for those of us that had been issued tools to finish up our paperwork. 5 at a time we went down , saw the AA, and then the Dir of Business to pick up our books and so they were assured we had living accomodations and payment was either taken care of or enroute.
After lunch we were grouped into our teams. 4 teams, 16-18 guys per team. I drew Thomas Kinard as my instructor, we met outside and he gave us a quick run down of what he would expect of us. THomas, looked a little back woods, and had a pretty deep Alabama accent that some of the guys had trouble with. But he spoke loud enough ( and he does it often ) so that you are at least to hear him even if you cant understand him. So as the day neared its end , we stowed our gear in our group ( or circle ) shed with the promise of pole time on the very next day.