Our challenge this week is about nostalgia, how our parents and/or our jobs have changed over the years.
I was wondering what jobs people have had and how they have changed over the years?
What jobs did your parents do, maybe jobs which are now defunct or would be done very differently now? How did jobs affect family life and how you grew up, what it made you want or dream for yourself?
I am sure we all have odd stories to tell..hope so!
I will try and pop in during the week with some extra thoughts, but if you would like to expand on this perhaps you could write a bit each day :
your parents' jobs, how life has changed
your first job, the mistakes you made!
your best job
the dream job you wish you had
the worst job you ever had
Both of my parents were born and raised in West Virginia in the areas of the coal mines. Their families were very poor. My mother's mother passed away when my mom was only a toddler. My mother was basically raised by her grandmother as her father (my grandfather) spend long hours working in the coal mines. My parents were forced to quit school in the 8th grade to help support their families. Neither of them ever had a chance to return to school.
In his early years (before my time) my father drove a Greyhound Bus (long distance bus service between states) and then after that he drove a beer truck. When I was a child my father was a long distance truck driver (big rigs) for Kraft Foods and he would be gone weeks at a time. It was always exciting anticipating his return. At that time my mom was a homemaker who did not work outside the home. I loved this as well as she was always there when I got home from school. She didn't drive so we would usually walk everywhere we needed to go or take a local bus. Going to the grocery store was interesting because we would walk there and take a taxi home as we couldn't carry all the groceries while walking.
My dad passed away when he was only 52 so I am not sure what he may have done in his later years but I do know that the company he worked for starting shipping their big trailers by rail instead of trucks. He probably would have been out of a job. My mom had to go to work after that and since she did not really have any special skills she had to get a job in a department store. She really didn't like it but she stuck with it until she could retire. Her employer didn't treat the employees very well.
Any pictures that I have of them back in those days are packed away and I can't get to them right now as the area where they are stored is all mixed around while Thadd is doing some work in that room.
In the summer when school was out, I started working as a child of nine for a neighbor woman babysitting her two boys during the day while she was at work and cleaning her house. I got paid a whopping 25 cents an hour! The boys were brats to boot! When I got a little older I used to pretty much spend the summer at my girlfriend's parents house that was on the Gulf of Mexico. We would earn spending money doing odd jobs for people but I think the most lucrative job we ever did was packing shrimp to be used as bait (they would be frozen later). We got paid 3 cents a carton. We would probably pack 100 cartons or more each. The cartons were like these (take out Chinese Fried Rice comes in the same kind of carton LOL). Afterwards we would smell so bad we would go jump in the canal clothes and all. Boy, we thought we were rich!
I have had many jobs over the years. I was a certified optometric assistant in my early twenties. I also worked as a PBX Operator. That was a stressful job and if you weren't careful you could get a shock as well (literally). This is not a picture of me but it shows a similar switchboard like I used. I worked my way up from switchboard operator to executive assistant over the years.
When I lived in Tennessee (in my twenties) I worked as clerical assistant at JC Penney (a large department store chain). I had to quit when I was seven months pregnant with my daughter.
I stayed at home with her for three years and then went to work at the University of Tennessee Memorial Hospital. I was the administrative assistant to the Chairman of the department of Pediatrics. I worked there until the early to mid 80s when I moved back to Florida.
Enough old history! My dream job was when I was a travel agent. It was so much fun booking travel, cruises, tours, etc. for other people. I would get to research the areas they wanted to go which would broaden my knowledge. I loved learning about places. Also as a travel agent you received a lot of nice perks like really cheap prices for cruises. To this day, I still think a cruise is the best vacation value for the money. These pictures were taken on our first cruise many years ago. We still love cruising!
If I could have stayed a travel agent I might still might be working! With what happened September 11, 2001, the bottom dropped out of the travel industry and most local travel agencies closed, including the one where I worked.
The worst job I ever had wasn't due to my position but to my boss. He was so derogatory and just down right mean. I used to say he was evil and since I believe in karma, I know one day he will get his due. LOL
Like I said, I have had so many jobs over the years that I really can't list them. I am happy to be retired now though. And to update hubby's situation....he decided to retire as well. It will be tight financially but we think we can handle it until we can get the house sold and move to Belize.
Here are some nostalgic pictures of days gone by. Enjoy and take care. I look forward to reading your blogs! xxxxx
