jobs

A Life of Work

This was not a job but is what I did to earn some extra money. During the summer when I was in middle school, I caught and sold nightcrawlers for the local sporting goods store. The owner told me he would take all I could catch. He paid me a buck a hundred and then sold it for two bucks. I would drop off the nightcrawlers on Thursday and the anglers would buy them for the weekend. I would average about a thousand a week and that was ten bucks a week. The only expense I had was flashlight batteries. If I remember correctly, I would earn about two to three hundred dollars for the summer. That was a lot of money in the fifties.

My next job was parttime at the public library while going to high school. I was a library page, which is code for a do whatever was necessary. The most interesting job was running the elevator on Saturdays. The elevator was automatic, but the crowds were large, and they overwhelmed the automatic system. Another job was they had a basement and sub-basement where books were stored. They would receive an order and they had pages in the basement where they would retrieve the books and put them on a lift that carried them up to the upper floors.

After graduating I started working for a government contractor that was building the Titan I ICBM for the government. I was a teletype operator in the purchasing department. Unfortunately, the job was on the swing shift. So much for my night life.

Three and a half years later I received the letter stating, “your friends and neighbors have selected you to become a member of the United States military.” For the next two years I was in the army. I was fortunate enough to go to Germany instead of Viet Nam. I then had two years of active reserve and then two years of inactive reserve. Then my military obligation was over.

After my two years of active duty, I returned to the aerospace contractor because there was a law that they had to hire me back since returning from military service. A year later I was laid off. They just hired me back to fulfill their legal obligation to have a job for me after military service.

I then started working for a large electronics manufacturer in the consumer electronics industry. First, I was an assistant buyer, then a buyer and then became a department manager. This career lasted for over twenty years and was the highest paying position in my working period. After a purchase of the company a year later the company buyer decided to close thirteen distribution warehouses across the nation and here, I was forty-six years of age and without a job. During that time the unemployment rate was eight percent. Try to tell me there is not age discrimination happening.

Working in part time and temporary positions for four years I finally get a full-time job in a high-tech position where lasers were used to cut close tolerance components used in the solid-state electronics field. This was a field that was totally new to me. I started as a temp, and it worked into a full-time position. Tell me a positive attitude and hard work is not the way to go. This continued for thirteen years and then I decided it was time to retire and have been retired now over fifteen years. Now, “Every Day is Saturday!

After retiring I decided to give writing a try and this is where I am now. I have posted over two hundred articles on WordPress and having fun doing it. Most of my articles are about experiences in my life. I am not doing this for money, I am just doing it because I enjoy reminiscing and sharing events in my life.

https://tomt2.com/ Stop by and make me feel good. I like to see a lot of viewing numbers, likes, and comments.

Daily writing prompt
What jobs have you had?