Life's Been Good to Me

      So here I am 5 months retired and I don't feel like I am supposed to be doing something.   I truly am enjoying this new chapter in my life. I like waking up at 7:30, reading the paper, having a cup or two of coffee, and then figuring out what I am going to do for the day.  I have no guilt what so ever.

      I look back on my life and realize that I started working when I was 15. The summer of my junior year was spent at Sunroc Corp. making drinking fountains.  My job "on the line" was to fill the cooler with insulation, install the pressure plate, install the basin, and screw on the bubbler. (That is what the "drinkey" part on a water fountain is called.), and send it on to final testing.

     The summer I worked there, the company had gotten a government contract for 984 drinking fountains. Why I remember that number, I can't tell you, but that is what I did day in and day out. Pour the insulation, install the pressure plate, install the basin, and screw on the bubbler. Over and over and over again. The only physical part of the job was we had to throw the 40 lb bags of insulation up into a loft where they were stored, but that was about it. You would stand by the conveyor and the water coolers kept coming all day long.  That summer made me realize that I did NOT want to spend the rest of my life working in a factory. 

  The next summer found me at Aldon Rug Mills, doing a variety of jobs. Aldons was closing down and getting ready to move to Sugarbush, Georgia.  I started out running yarn, and replacing spools as they ran out on the big looms. It was physically hard, pushing boxes of yarn weighing about 100 lbs up ramps into the loom rooms, and climbing the spool racks.  After two weeks of this I was transferred to maintenance.

    I soon discovered that I was needed on maintenance because I could fit into a boiler.  The boilers were shut down and I would squeeze into them, with a hose and a wire brush and scrub out the tanks and the tubes. After that, I would squeeze into the fire boxes and with my wire brush and brush down the walls of the the heat chambers.  After cleaning several boilers I was transferred to Table Top Looms.

     This next assignment found me making carpets 24 inch passes at a time. The room was on the top floor of the plant, and it was always hot even though I was working 2nd shift. I made rugs until the end of the summer, and came away realizing that I REALLY DID NOT want to work in a factory.

     These early work experiences were formative in what I would do for the rest of my life.  In college I worked for Wawa, which was a huge change from factory life.  When I dropped out I went full time with Wawa and spent the next 9 years in retail.   Working in the stores and then as a District Supervisor was a great job, but there was always something missing. I was only happy when I was training or teaching people.  This led me to the next phase of my life.

    I'll pick this up again in the next day or so to continue this theme. In the meantime, I am really enjoying the "Retirement Life."