I've taken a welding class, too. Don't expect too much from those people, it's simply a fact of life that career paths that don't require much education are going to have more mouth-breathers than those that do. Seriously, I worked a lot of construction in my twenties, and you'll meet some nice. easy-going people, but you'll also meet plenty of folks who think the KKK are heroic and that evolution never happened, and they will be antagonistic towards you when they figure out you read a book after high-school. Don't let it get to you, but realize you were the one who signed up for it.