Chapter 26: What jobs did you have besides the military?

I think of being in the military as my first real job, but before that, I did several other jobs.

Most young kids when I was growing up did household chores and got an allowance. Some of the chores included doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, raking leaves in the fall (we had five fruit trees in our yard), washing my dad’s car, etc.

My mother taught me how to babysit after my sister was born. I was seven years old. I learned how to make baby formula. After heating it up by putting the bottle in slightly boiling water, you had to check the temperature by shaking some on the inside of your arm. If it was warmer than your body temperature, it was too hot. We used cloth diapers which were held together with a diaper safety pin. You are supposed to hold your fingers under the cloth so that you won’t accidently stick the baby. I was afraid of sticking my finger and ended up sticking my sister. I am sure that she has forgotten about that by now. I would often babysit my cousin’s kids. This helped prepare me for when I had my own kids. I had one friend who said that he had never changed either of his children’s’ diapers. I was surprised to hear that.

When I was about 10 years old, I got a job delivering the Seattle Times newspaper. After I got married, my wife said that I should not tell my Japanese friends/students that I delivered newspapers. I guess in some people’s minds, a child delivering newspapers meant that the family was poor. In the US, it was a very common first job. It taught young people responsibility. You must deliver the newspaper every day in the heat, cold, rain or snow. Some famous people how delivered newspapers when they were children are Walt Disney, John Wayne. Bing Crosby, President Eisenhower, etc. Anyway…

My paper route was at the bottom of Queen Anne Hill. From where I picked up the newspapers to the bottom of the hill was about one mile. Most of that was walking down rather steep hills. I had to carry about 80 newspapers, so my brothers built me a large cart to carry the papers. The wooden cart was about two feet square and three feet high. There were two wheels on the back and two mini legs on the front. Going down the hills wasn’t so bad but going back up was a challenge. When it snowed, the cart would pull me down the hills like skiing, but it was a “lot of fun” returning home. When going up the hill, I could walk a long distance where the slope wasn’t so steep, but I usually took a shortcut and walk up about 70 steps.

My father believed that no matter how difficult a job is, I should take responsibility and do it myself. The Sunday newspapers were rather thick with all the inserts and advertisements. But in 1962 Seattle had the World Fair. The Seattle Times printed a special edition with 152 pages. The daily papers were delivered in the afternoon, but the Sunday edition was delivered in the early morning. My father helped me with delivering this special edition. The trunk of the car, the back seat and front seat was stacked from the floor to the ceiling. I would have had to make two or three trips up and down the hill if I had to do it myself.

During high school, I worked at a summer camp. One summer I was a camp counselor in charge of about 20 kids. The was such a headache. The next summer I worked on a maintenance crew. We did odd jobs, but the two biggest projects were building two A-frame cabins and building a water tower. Both jobs included working in high places, and I am afraid of heights. When we got the platform at the top of the tower finished, they wanted all of us to climb to the top. It was difficult, but I made it up to the top. We had to dig a trench from the tower to the main camp. The dirt was very hard. We were using picks and shovels and sang “The Chain Gang” song African slaves would sing when doing road work or work in the fields. It looked like we were prisoners on a work crew. But it was fun!

I’ve mentioned that I worked at an IGA supermarket parttime in high school and then full time for some months after I graduated. I wanted to take a break for a while before I entered the Air Force, so I quit working. That “a while” turned into a “long while.” My friend’s brother got me a job working on an old ferry boat that was being converted into a crab processing boat. The crew I worked with were mostly young guys who spent time in jail for various reasons. Washington State had a program to help these young men stay out of jail by helping them get jobs. I heard some interesting stories from them. That job lasted about six months before I went to basic training in the Air Force.

I think that many young people today are just plain lazy. They would rather take government money rather than do a job that they don’t like. And then they complain that the government is not giving them enough money.