How many 2nd and 3rd generation scrappers we got here ?

First generation here.I started a year ago. Needed cash and started with stuff in my house that I collected from cleaning out parents and grandparents houses. Started with junk gold and silver. When I started in my basement and pulled out 900.00 in non ferrous I was hooked.

Out of curiosity for those who have been doing this for more then one generation, has there ever been a best time to be a scrapper in the last 100 years? I would assume escrap was big back during the last gold rush (when electronics had much more gold and copper content), Aluminum might have been worth more before curb side recycling became common etc.

Grandfather,dad and uncle owed a salvage yard and ive been a part of it since 2003

Second generation the third was born last DEC 2 2011. He already has a job for life and doesn't even know it. My father probably worked or contracted for almost every medium or large size scrap yard in NE OHIO. The home of scrap metal and that is where I learned about it since I was a pup. I can count 10 or more mills an hour or less from where I grew up at. Scrap yards were everywhere before they all got bought out.

Wow, I never thought about this before I saw this thread! I am second generation, my dad used to scrap copper and aluminum though he didn't scrap steel. there were 5 kids to raise and he did this in between working 3 jobs. My sons will help me also but I can't see them carrying on the tradition after I'm gone in the full time sense that I do it but one of them may do it a little if he needed money.

Come to think of it - blame my old and poor memory banks lol, my oldest son once told me he and a friend would scrap rotors for money so I guess HE was scrapping before I was. Does that make me 3'd generation once removed? Heee!!!

So, I guess he's the one that would be most likely to ever carry on the tradition on some level out of the 3 boys because my youngest will bring me stuff but doesn't like to do the turning in part I have no idea why.

Don't know about my great grandfather but grandpa run a garage in a small reservation town. I remember stacks of cars in the back yard that was part of thier retirement. My dad grew up building every thing from scrap. I got started by saving cans and car batteries. Now my daughter brings cans home from school so would that make her a fourth gen?

Multi generation - not sure which number. My father scrapped as he worked around heavy equipment - fixing them, my parents saved aluminum cans before it was common, my brother -in-law and nephew have been scrapping everything since my nephew was about 8 (he is 20 now). I am sure my grandfathers scrapped in their day. I never really thought about it until I retired. However, I used to take stuff to my dad for scrapping. Now it seems anything metal I want to pick up and save. Unfortunately I have less room now so I am working on smaller piles. It still all adds up.

My mom's dad was a dumpster picker from way back. Raised on a Wisconsin farm and a Navy Pilot (pre-WWII) he was always finding and fixing up cool stuff. When he retired to the Calif. woods in the 70s I remember his front yard looking like an outdoor museum of machinery. Tractors, mowers, trailers all over.
My mom was a big time recycler, but her motivation was more environmental than financial until her friend's building renovation biz took off and they were pulling wiring, conduit, and pipes out by the barrel. They asked me (14 at the time) to help out sorting it, showing me how to strip wire with a box cutter (like I knew better?)
Now in my 40s with young kids getting them into helping out. A 4 year old with a knack for finding cans and a 6 year old obsessed with how much everything weighs....gotta love it.

My grand father during the great depression became rich , buying junk cars - fix and re selling wile not scraping , it was a form of get low sell higher & it was good old steel cars.