If Papa can’t fix it, we’re all in trouble.

The words of Mark and Connie Pirtle’s 16-year-old grandson, Isaiah, say a lot.

Kingfisher became home to the Pirtles in 1979, where they raised three sons, Dustin, Chris, and Bradley, as well their grandson, Isaiah.

Mark and Connie grew up in south Texas and were high school sweethearts. Mark’s career in the oil and gas industry led them to Tishomingo and then to Kingfisher. Mark worked for an oilfield equipment rental business in Oklahoma City for 17 years, eventually becoming general manager.

It was there he developed much of his welding and fabrication skills.

The Pirtles purchased 33 Welding and Fabrication in Kingfisher from Claude Lann in 2000.

In 2007, Kingfisher’s 500-year flood devastated their business, when they lost most of their business and machinery.

“We kinda got the chair kicked out from under us in 2007,” Mark said.

But like so many others in Kingfisher, the Pirtles bounced back and started over in a new location on North 11^th Street, just east of the old business.

When it comes to metal, the possibilities are endless for the designers and engineers at 33 Welding and Fabrication.

Welding, fabricating, sandblasting, painting, trailer repair… the list of what they do goes on and on.

They may see themselves as simple people just doing what they know best, but the work they do at their business requires not only hands-on skill to produce quality products, but knowledge of how to design, create or repair something so that it is fully operational for its intended purpose.

Connie manages the responsibilities of the office, but frequently helps in the shop also. She said she loves being able to “get her hands dirty” working in the shop.

They are truly engineers and designers working with their hands. As Mark said, “People come in with an idea and we have to figure out how to make it work.”

A recent product of 33 Welding and Fabrication can be seen at the corner of S.H. 33 and North Sixth Street. The idea of Steve States, it is a functioning approximately six feet by nine feet metal sundial. States, along with his mother, Anna States, owns the lot on which the structure stands.

States came to the Pirtles with a small metal sundial in hand and the idea of replicating the sundial in a much larger, functioning form.

Mark, Connie and their employees were happy to oblige.

Much of the work was performed on the sundial by Robert Sosa and the Pirtles’ grandson, Isaiah.

Sosa, a single father of three children, two daughters and a son, is originally from California and has worked for the Pirtles for approximately five years.

Isaiah, a sophomore at Kingfisher High School, works after school and weekends with his Papa at the family business.

Sosa described how the sundial works. He said the sundial has Roman numerals at its base and as the sun “appears” to move across the sky it causes a shadow to be cast from an arrow onto the numerals, which then indicate the time of day.

The sundial was installed Dec. 20.

Sosa explained that the sundial had to be “tweaked” after installation to establish the proper position so the time would be accurate. According to Sosa, the sundial can only be set on one of four dates within a year.

The sundial is only one of many projects Mark and his crew have produced.

Mark said they are currently in the process of restoring an approximately 100-year-old child’s merry-go-round for a customer, as well as other projects.

The work they do is varied but as Mark said: “We are like a Goodwill shirt; we try to fit everybody.”

The Pirtles have made Kingfisher their home almost the entire 40 years of their marriage and say they have been fortunate and something has always been provided.

“We’ve been blessed so many times, in so many ways,” Mark said.