Old timer in a St. Louis freight elevator taught me something I still use

Mark Ward · 2026-05-27T09:45:06.410157+00:00

I was working a modernization job at a 1920s building downtown a few years back. This older mechanic, maybe 68 years old, came up to chat while I was wrestling with a stuck controller. He said "son, you're fighting the machine instead of listening to it." Then he tapped the relay panel with his knuckle, heard something, and pointed right at a loose contact that took me 20 minutes to find. He walked off without even saying his name. Has anyone else had a random encounter like that where one line from a stranger just stuck with you?

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Old timer in a St. Louis freight elevator taught me something I still use | Elevator Mechanics - Free To Speak