Let me see now.... First job was while I was going to Jr High I worked in this nice little re-purposed Caboose into a little Hamburger Stand. One of our buddies Father bought that caboose and had it delivered to a corner of 7 street intersections. They remain today but much change has taken place since the 50s.
I think all of we friends worked there at one time or another, we just about ate that Father into bankruptcy !
My next job was selling news paper subscriptions for the Houston Press, which has been defunct now for over 57 years, at the time it was a good paper. The manager was all in love with the Houston Colt 45s and I don't think he owned a stitch of personal clothes because he always wore something that had been purchased at a baseball game.
We were paid 75 cents per subscription cash money at each end of day. The Press building was located across the street from a Chinese store downtown Houston and we would all go in and spend our money on Chinese junk. You could by a lot of worthless stuffs at a Chinese store.
Later we moved to Oklahoma City and I and younger Brother took up an open paper route in our neighborhood. My Brother was 5 years younger and he had the sleeping habits of a bat. 8 PM and he was in his jammies and in bed.
The route manager dropped off papers on an opposite street corner across from our house which sat on a corner. My temptation was great and I would pull all sorts of pranks on the young Brother. My favorite was to wake him up after he had gone to sleep and tell him to go out and get the papers. It was -4 outside but he would get up and run out and get to the corner and there were no papers !
Of course there was no papers it was 9pm ! He would holler and scream so loud it just made it funnier.
I'm going up the ladder now living in OKC, my next job was working as a fire department dispatcher for Mid West City Oklahoma. I went to work in the newest fire station of 3 way way way out away from humans. They purposely built that station far out while planning for future expansion of the city, and boy has it expanded.
The old historical station 1 was directly across the highway from the Tinker AFB. Today looking at google earth I could not find the new station from so long ago. It seems they have built several new stations and torn down the shiny hew one I had worked at.
I have to finish the dispatcher job with this true story. I was about 4 miles from the job because it was on the same street I lived on. I purchased my first car paid for with my own money, 35 dollars for a 1950 Chevy.
The car had headliner drooping down and a typical well worn old car. I drove that car for about 2 weeks.
I came out and cranked the car to go home after shift and it was knocking like crazy. One of the firemen got two quarts of oil our of our Truck stock and gave them to me but told me to be sure and replace them since they were inventoried. I put the oil in and it sounded pretty good so I drove off the front drive headed home and got about 400 feet and the engine blew up with so much pressure it actually blew the valve cover off.
The station was built like most stations of that era and there was a huge plate glass window facing the road I was on so the guys sitting there at the table saw the smoke and they came rushing out in one of the Trucks with light on. No fire but a heck of a lot of smoke. I was able to crank it up and drive it home and that was where it was when I joined the Army.
One of the Firemen had inherited a real nice Fluid Drive Chrysler from his Aunt after she passed. He sold the car to me for 50 dollars. The car was clean and solid as a rock. I later joined the Army and I drove that car to the induction building for physical and orders and OATH. I left the car parked at the curb and later my Sister went and drove the car home. She and my Brother drove the car to San Diego.
Decades later my Brother told me the water pump had gone bad on that trip and it cost them 4 dollars for the water pump. Finally the rear bumper fell off but he was able to wire it back on with clothes hangar wire.
The fireman that sold me the car much much later became the Fire Chief of Midwest City. My Grandfather drove a yellow cab for 35 years in Oklahoma City and he drove me to the air port when I left that evening. I remember his last words he spoke to me, and he hands me a 5 dollar bill and simply said to me "Be Good Son". I was only in the Army for six months when he passed away.
Lot's more to come but I will stop for now and pick up again later. I have a very hard time with double vision wearing these reading glasses. My original Recruiters personal card..
