Work Ethic

I didn’t always feel the way I do now about work.  I avoided it as much as I could when I was younger.  In fact, I was probably considered lazy.  I guess it was after my dad died that I started thinking about my life, where it was going and where I wanted to take it.  I did what I could to help my mom around the house.  Clean, cook, mow the lawn, I even had a job delivering newspapers for a while.  After I went away to school, I would work on my summer vacations.  One job I had was washing dishes in a restaurant.  Didn’t pay much but it was something.

Three weeks after graduating from high school I joined the USAF.  I did it for several reasons:  my mom couldn’t afford to send me to college but they had the GI bill and I joined that branch thinking it would be my best chance to NOT go to Vietnam.  I found out that wasn’t completely true but I did luck out and get stationed in AZ for the rest of my tour.

After the military I had a few different jobs until I moved the Bay Area and started out in a career of word processing.  They were:  (AZ) cleaning two post offices before they opened for business; (PA) worked at a pottery factory (1 week) which was hard considering what I had to breath in every day; a shipping/receiving clerk in the restaurant at a Hilton (there about 2 months and my boss was rumored to have ties to the mob); (AZ) a pest exterminator (there about six months and hated it when I found out they were doing all they could to rip off the customer; at the end of the day we would sit around telling stories of all the stupid customers we scammed); (CA) maintenance man in a 96-apartment building in Oakland – I expected to be assistant manger but after I got there that job was gone; full time (on GI bill) student at Laney College and later part time as the bill didn’t pay what I hoped and I needed to get a job.  I went to a school courtesy of the CETA Act.  I tried to take welding which paid $19/hr to start after graduating and I wasn’t afraid of heights but there was a year waiting list and needed something right away.  What was available right away was word processing.  What is that?  Typing and working with computers (this was 1977 after all).  Well, I taught myself to type when I was 13 (bored ok?) but I hadn’t done any typing in about 5 years. Well, they had a practice center 1 block away from my apt so I went over there to see where I was. I needed to do 30 wpm and had a week to do it. I was at about 12. The day I took my test I did exactly 30 wpm.

I started class 3-4 weeks later. I was 1 of 2 males in a class of 25. It was a 9-month course that I finished in 2, not because I was particularly smart but the government wanted to make sure people would pass. I helped the teacher for about another 2 months (i.e. procrastinated I mean). You see I found out I would have to create a resume and go through an interview process. I had never interviewed for a job before. I had always filled out an app and said “when do I start?” I guess I thought of it as performing. Funny thing. First place I interviewed, they hired me! I guess I was worried for nothing.

In (CA) Crocker National Bank. They started with about a dozen word processors in their training and development department and when I left 5.5 years later, it was just me. I was responsible for typing up the training manuals for every job in all of CA. I even remembered what I typed, not that I was cross-training or anything.

I then went to Townsend and Townsend (T&T) and worked with my sister who I had just helped move to CA a few months earlier from IL (along with my niece). I was there for the next 6.5 years. That’s where a partner came into the WP center one day, plopped down a new IBM AT (’83 I think) and asked “anyone want to learn about this?” That’s when I set on my new career path.

From there to Heller Ehrman, White and McAuliffe (HEWM). I was there for 3.5 years before marrying and moving to IN. Funny, I went from highest salary, HEWM, to lowest, Pythia. 

Was this a good idea?

When I was discharged from the USAF, I had no idea what to do next.   It happened pretty quickly.  Fortunately I was able to get a job right away.  Maybe that’s because the job was cleaning post offices.  Menial labor is usually pretty easy to get and I wasn’t too choosy.  I had two to do before they opened in the morning so waking at 3:30 AM was something I had been used to from the military.  I used to work 3 days,3 off, 3 swings, 3 off and then 3 mids, 3 off.  Crazy huh?  Well, after working this job for about 4 months, I had saved about $200.  My Honda car had bit the dust so I bought a friend’s Dodge Dart for $75.  This car took me from Tucson to Washington, PA.  I made two stops.  One was to where I used to live near Seven Corners in Falls Church, VA.  So starting at the 4000 block of East Montecito in Tucson, AZ I drove along 10E for quite a bit.  It was me and my dog.  His name was Blue.  I can’t say where he is now but I hope his life was filled with happiness.

I can’t say how long it took me to get to my first stop but I was in no hurry.  I even broke down once in North Carolina.  It turned out to be a loose wire under my distributor.  It didn’t take me long to find the problem and was glad it was easy to fix as I didn’t have much money for repairs.  It was October, 1974 and though gas was not like today, it was no longer $.32/gal.

When I arrived, I looked up a neighbor my brother and I both knew.  I spent the night and was back on the road the next day.  My next stop was the HS I graduated from.  Patton Masonic School in Elizabethtown, PA.  I thought of visiting my dad’s grave near Philadelphia but was running short of funds.  I looked up my French teacher, who I had a secret crush on, and she was getting married to an English teacher from town.  Imagine that!  Needless to say my crush remained a secret.  Her last name was Roth by the way.

My next stop was Washington, PA.  I was going to look up a school chum, Greg Clark.  Hopefully he still lived there.  He was.  As it was near the college, the only parking available was at a meter.  I spent a lot of time moving the car or bailing it out.  I got a job at a local pottery factory sweeping the floors at night.  I spent most of my earnings