When Life Sends You On A Journey: Business School, Turning 21 and Changes Galore ....

So much was going on in my life in 1986 and 1987, it is downright nutty to try to decide what to mention first. I think I will 'start at the very beginning', like Maria sings in "The Sound of Music." :)

Sanford-Brown had a jobs notice board. I decided to try to find a part time job while going to Business School. I got hired on after passing their test at Western Union. The telegram company. The Internet hadn't yet become a public useful thing at the time, people still sent telegrams everyday as well as money to people in need. I learned real quick this place monitored EVERYTHING you did. You had to get a time card and punch it on the wall, when you started your work, when you got up to use the restroom or take your break, when you came back from break, and at the end of your shift. You were allotted so much time based on your hours worked for restroom breaks. If you went over that, you were docked. If you took a longer break than allotted, same thing, docked for the overage.
No one really came to you and spoke to you once you entered the room where all the computer terminals were.   You were an Operator number and nothing more. I did not like this.   I worked there for about a year, and only as a means to make money. I made no friends there, and because it could be stressful, I started smoking...

The stress came from the pushing to have everyone sell things that cost more than the average fee of sending a telegram.   And they monitored your phone calls. I don't know how they did that with over 100 employees spread out in at least 4 rooms of terminals, but they did. The 4 rooms I remember shared one corner from each butted together, and in that area there was a monitoring station with a couple people working, every day, every minute.   This company ran 24/7, 365 days a year. I worked 25-30 hours a week at first, just enough to keep me busy but below full time status. To get on full time there involved politicking. Which I never got into. You had to have recommendations from other full timers or from management. Well having never really gotten to know anyone there, that wasn't going to happen, and the longer I stayed, the more I hated it, so in my mind why would I ever want to be their FULL TIME. They charged union dues, even if you didn't technically belong to the union. I never understood that, but they docked me a set amount on every time card for it.   I believe I was making $6 a hour back then, which was nice. All my summer jobs before only paid minimum wage, $3.35/hr. I had no true benefits, so I had to get medical insurance on my own.

Some time while into working at WU, 2 days per week got slashed off my work schedule, so I dropped to 15-18 hours a week.   To fill in the income gap, I found a job with Emerson Electric. It was fun there, but the biggest problem was that the Union workers were all on strike, and no one knew when they'd return. I only worked at EE 2 days a week for a month and they had to let me go because the strike was preventing them from getting the workload to keep me busy. That sucked, because I really enjoyed that kind of job. But I don't specifically remember what I did there....it was too short a run.   I just remembered there were nice people and it was kinda interesting to walk past the work stations the union members would work at building whatever it was they built.   I think it was parts for airplanes.

I don't think I ever found any other place that would work with my schedule to work only 2 days a week. So by early 1987 I was looking again for full time employment. I found that at Bob Schultz Motorcycle Supermarket.

They actually had 2 stores, and sold more than just motorcycles, and parts for them. They also sold John Deere and White lawn equipment. They sold 3 wheel ATVs, which over time became a problem with the amount of dangerous stunts and accidents people had, so they slowly started selling 4 wheel ATVs. My job was to help do all the paperwork, including getting financing for those wishing to finance their purchases rather than pay cash. Although most of the ATVs and bikes were less than $5,000, most people chose to finance. There were dozens of forms to have filled out before the purchaser came to sign. My biggest problem wasn't the work, it was the manager/owner. He was a very aggravating and sometimes downright nasty person to work with.

I got the job after showing some backbone in convincing him that I was worth more than just minimum wage. Although he advertised the position as minimum wage position, I talked him up to $4 an hour. I had made $6.50 an hour when I left Western Union, but that was for part time work, this was full time and not likely to have cut hours. So he agreed to the pay rate if I showed him I could be dependable and do the work. I was and I did. Until one day when he wasn't there, and I was doing the closing with a purchaser.   The guy asked how the bike went from $3500 on the sales floor to over $5000 at closing. I was trained to "fudge" how that happens....I didn't like the magical trick of lying to people. Instead of pointing to the final sales price, I was to tell them them monthly payment and this guy wasn't budging and wasn't signing. The salesman got all nervous and didn't want to lose the sale, he only got paid commission on the number of bikes he sold (maybe too on John Deere's, I don't know). He called Bill the boss and Bill asked to talk with me, and proceeded to yell at the top of his lungs at me over the phone, I became totally unnerved and started freaking out, and dropped the phone and went into a closet and cried. I had never been treated so badly by an employer in all my life up to then.

I wanted to quit but couldn't find anything in the paper advertised where I met the qualifications for. I was so confused, and really avoided being around Bill when he came to the office after that. I don't recall if he ever apologized for his treatment towards me. He was such a nasty person at times, and then when he wasn't that, he would say things that would make any woman feel uncomfortable. Not TO them, just about women in general. Stupid things. I learned a lot that year, that was for sure. I did have good times with the other ladies in the office. Donna and Joyce were wonderful to me. I worked a couple times at the other store, which had a different ambiance altogether.

During this time is when Lisa and I had visited Colorado. About a month after that she decided she had to move back to Colorado and wanted me to come. She was working at a car rental place at the airport and found she could easily transfer out to their office in Denver. Good for her.   But I couldn't do that. She left me behind until she could find a suitable apartment for me to move to live with her. That was the plan anyways. I began saving my money and boxing up my stuff to have sent out there ahead of me.

I turned 21 that year.   Which was a blessing and a curse. I was now legal to go to any dance club I wanted, but now my friend who got me involved in dance night's out was in Denver. I hung around some friends from high school, Carmen and Michelle. We hung with some guys one of them knew, and went horseback riding at Creve Coeur Park. We had a lot of good times.. but when I turned 21 I felt the weight of being taken advantage of.   Carmen kept bugging me to purchase alcohol for them to take to a party or somewhere, and I refused. I remember that feeling to this day how that felt. I remember that was pretty much the end of the partying and hanging around with them. And I never saw Carmen again, not for a VERY long time.

I decided to keep my mind on moving to Denver in the Spring of 1988....and for all the changes yet to come in my life from that point on.

....when you are young and free to do as you wish, the world opens up and seems inviting and ominous at the same time. Being naïve is normal when you are young, you haven't learned the outside world and how it truly ticks.   But naivety also comes with some warnings.   Whatever you thought you knew, that you learned from your family, may not be how everyone else lives and does their lives. It's in the coming of age that we truly learn what kind of people we are, what kind of ethics we have and what kind of life we want to live. Sometimes we grow, sometimes we freeze out of fear, and sometimes we take risks....and realize good or bad can result. I had a lot of those kinds of lessons in life. Read on, things get complicated really quick next.