JAN/FEB 2026 RETA Breeze

FIND THE NEXT YOU

VOL.3

By Arlie B. Farley, CARO, CIRO, CRST

G rowing up as the son of a refrigera tion guy, my dad was very tough on me and my brother. But as a young man in high school, I was always working on something: engines, trucks, tractors or just something with an engine

of all the things I’ve passed down to him over the years. Teach them about tools and how to use and take care of them. But most impor tantly, teach them to think for themselves and not go to YouTube and just find the

One is head of refrigeration for a process ing facility. Another is a lead refrigeration service technician. As I raise my son, and some other kids come to hang out in the shop and tinker with cars trucks and tractors, I wonder if I’m

and wheels. You know how wheels excite young men. Well, high school friends would come over to my house and dad’s shop, so we could put a lift kit on a truck to change a water pump, or just anything mechanical. My pops, Larry Farley, would guide us young punks to see what the hell we were doing. He had a way of teaching us how something worked. He never gave us the answer to the question, but he’d ask another question that made us use our heads and teach us to think. I can hear him today, “Now boys, use your head for something other than a hat rack!” One of his other favorites was, “You have to be 5% smarter than what you are

working on!” and most of the time it was cast iron, so I’m not sure if three or four 16-year-old boys were smarter than that (and sometimes I wonder today, Am I 5% smarter than that cast iron compressor or valve? ). Flash forward: Larry Farley must have made an impression on some punk kids many years ago. One of them is head of refrigeration maintenance for a large grocery store distribution facility chain.

cheat code. Life is about falling and getting back up and trying again and again until you succeed. Never give up, keep fighting. One stupid thing I heard, or saw, was, “Fight like the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s ark and it is starting to rain.”

making an impression on these boys, and where they will go in life. I purchased a ‘73 Ford with a manual transmission—it’s 3-on-the-tree—and my 12-year-old son took to it like a duck to water. He just loves that old rusty truck, and has taught a couple other kids and adults to drive a standard shift truck, so it kind of brings a tear to my eye when I think

Arlie B. Farley, CARO, CIRO, CRST is Vice President of Farley’s Frigeration, Astatula, FL.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026