[Wondergirl]

First published: April 26, 2012

Tom (a.k.a. Speedball1) has been with Ask Me Help Desk since the early days, and Ram Prayaga (rpray2007) had the chance to interview Tom by phone. We wanted our first member interview to start with a rockstar. Tom is AMHD’s rockstar and we’re honored to present this short excerpt of Ram’s conversation with Tom.

Ram (AMHD): I asked Tom if he would be interested in doing an interview and his first reaction was, “Why me? Why not someone more impressive?” He wasn’t kidding and that’s Tom in a nutshell – one of the most humble and inspiring individuals I’ve met. Tom might be 85 years old, but you wouldn’t know it from his energy and passion – maybe pushing 40′s…Whatever he eats or drinks, I want to get some of that.

Read this interview which I fear doesn’t do enough justice to him but I tried.

AMHD: Tell us something about yourself that most of us on AMHD don’t know
TOM: After my retirement from plumbing, I got into women’s rights after watching a gang of protesters harassing a young girl attempting to enter a women’s clinic. I volunteered as an escort the next day. Three years later I was put on staff as head of security, chief escort, and clinic spokesman. During the next thirteen years, I was shot at twice, was in four fights, had two bomb scares, and opened a fake Anthrax letter. I stayed with the clinic until they closed in 2002. I had started answering plumbing questions on AskMe, then went to AllExperts, was rated #1 on both sites. I came on board AMHD in 2003 and was its very first expert. I was in the Navy from 1944 to 1945 and was trained as a Motor Mechanist Mate on LCVP landing craft deploying to the South Pacific. I sailed with the Merchant Marines from 1946 to 1949 and traveled all over the world.

AMHD: How did you get into your profession?
TOM: Plumbing – My father owned a 40-man plumbing company in Wisconsin, and I started in the trade at the age of 13. My formal education ended at grade school due to ADD. I am self educated and am pretty well read (have over a thousand books in my personal library). My only rebellion as a young boy was when I ran away from home at the age of 15 to join a carnival troupe for the summer.

AMHD: What has been your greatest achievement so far?
TOM: Living to 85, but I didn’t think I would get past 72. Was an alcoholic (and a smoker) up until 49 but sober since then. Professionally, I ran the biggest housing division (consisting of ten subdivisions plus phase two of a shopping center for my company and controlled that for over six years). After that I was on warranty repair and was the shop’s troubleshooter until my retirement in 1988.

AMHD: How do you deal with stress?
TOM: I don’t “deal” with stress. I just don’t let it happen. At 85, life becomes too short for stress. I handle my problems as they come up. One thing that helps me is my chopper bicycle. Due to failing eyesight, I turned in my auto tags. That left me housebound. This didn’t set too well with me so I bought a “beach cruiser” and put a motor on it. Then I started to “trick” it out and ending up building a chopper. I now ride between five and ten miles every day. It’s the best thing for stress I know.

AMHD: Name one short-term and one long-term goal you have set for the next year.
TOM: My goal is to make the Plumbing Page on AMHD the best place to get your plumbing problems solved on the Internet. I answer questions on AMHD and that’s important to me. Long-term goal is just to wake up tomorrow morning. Just having a good time and plan on doing it until I can’t do it any more. I am really proud of the Plumbing Page because we have such good guys and we’re like a family. I’m not the best plumber on the planet, but we have some of the best working on the plumbing page along with me.