My Jobs
WARNING...as this will cover most of my life...it will require you to scroll down.
Hookay, as I mentioned the U.S Navy was my first serious job. However as a teenager, I did many things for spending money after school and during summer vacations. Such as pumping gas, elevator operator, stockboy and cleanup person in markets. Things that teens can no longer do as Liberals have pushed the minimum wage...thus doing away with these jobs. Apparently the liberals think that you should be able to bring up a family just from operating an elevator or pumping gas.
Ah yes, the Navy. Grow up in a hurry. Boot camp, basically a place to train you to obey orders. Not as tough as the Army or the Marines. However in the first few weeks, you swear they are trying to kill you. You would be surprised at how much a nine pound 06 Springfield rifle weighs as you try to hold it out in front of you for an extended period of time. I was lucky, they team you up with a bunkmate since they have double bunks upper and lower. If one bunkmate screws up, you both get punished. My bunkmate was an ex national guard guy that wanted to make the service a career. He told me to just do what they said, after a week they would concentrate on wise guys who rebelled. He was right, after a couple of weeks, we were basically ignored.
Except for a few schools in electronics and on equiptment that I would work with and maintain. Most of my duty consisted of sea duty aboard ship. First was the USS Severn AO61, a fleet oiler that refueled ships at sea. Then a carrier, the USS Ranger CVA61. On the carrier, it was like a floating city. I became a plank owner, a shell back and a moss back. It was amazing watching the planes taking off and landing on that huge ship.
After leaving the Navy, I got a job as a technician with a company that made recording equipment for business. A closed shop where I had to join the union. Company made a mistake. They decided to change from vacuum tube to transistors, instead of changing one line at a time and seeing how it worked, they changed every line at once. Of course, problems came up. Now at that time there was only four young guys that had recently left the service that was even slightly familiar with transistors, me being one of them. The company offered us overtime to help fix the problem. The union said, NOPE overtime depends on seniority. Company said, ok, we'll close down until engineering can fix problem. Union backed down. Later after all was straightened out, the foreman approached me, warning that the union would never forgive us, he gave me the name of another company and contact that I should talk to about working with. A non union company.
I took his advice and went for an interview. I got hired. Interesting job...I worked in what they called the model shop. Building and testing prototypes of new equipment. Every little thing that I did had to be noted, dated and signed in a notebook for patent rights if a fight ever arose about who developed a particular device. They posted openings for tech rep positions for overseas positions. I applied and was accepted. I really had no idea what I had applied for. Turns out that I ended up in the far east for three years working on cameras for a U2 plane. Once again, a very interesting job. Two interesting things happened to me on that job. One during my training with the U2 at the dry lakes at Edwards Airforce Base in the Mojave Desert was seeing the X15 land. The second was meeting my wife in Taiwan. I've been fortunate, I saw Europe, Africa, South America and the islands of the Caribbean while in the Navy. Then as a tech rep, I saw Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and Korea.
My job as a tech rep was a government contract job. So after being laid off, I needed a good dependable job to get my wife into the country. IMMIGRATION, another subject I will bring up. I went to work for the Bell System, a public utility. Once again, hit the books to get a commercial radio license to work on microwave radio. In thirty five years in the telephone industry, I went from mechanical switching systems to digital switching. Microwave radio to fiber optics, physically being called to go to work at all hours mostly in bad weather. When I finally retired, most problems could be handled from home on line with my computer, no going out in bad weather. A good example of staying on top of your chosen field. Like I said, education never stops. In the Bell System, I was considered a, 'ready now candidate for promotion to management', however this was in the seventies. I was informed by my boss, I was the wrong sex, the wrong color and had the wrong surname. BAM, (GRIN), reverse discrimination, yes folks it existed and still does. No, I'm not bitter. After thirteen years with the Bell System, judge Green decided to break up the Bell System. So I went to an independent telephone company away from the big cities.
When I went to the interview with the owner of the independent phone company I was three months shy of being forty years old. The owner pointed that out saying that I was a little old to be changing jobs. He looked astonished when I pointed out that I still had over twenty years to go before retirement and was offering thirteen years experience. He frankly admitted that he had never looked at it that way. He hired me. Talk about culture shock, I had never lived in a rural community where property is measured in acres instead of square feet. Party lines?...what were those? Ten families sharing one telephone line? The telephone situation changed over the years as we installed new equipment and technology. All pretty modern now, even have DSL lines available now. Rural life is different then city life. I lived right next door to people in the LA area and never knew them. Here I know everyone who lives on our road. Everyone looks out for all their neighbors. I retired after twenty two years with the independent.
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