May. 22, 2007 - 22:25 MDT

EMPLOYMENT ?

I remember looking for work in about 1937 when the country had not yet quite come out of the Great Depression. Jobs were still few and far between, especially for 16 year olds, but I finally found one. The pay wouldn't have supported me, but being a kid living at home with my parents at least I was working and paying a miniscule amount of my pay for board and room to my parents. In later years I found out that Mom spent all I payed on clothes and things for me - - something she kept secret from me so that I could respect myself as a wage earning person.

Through the years as an hourly wage earning worker I was subject to expected and unexpected layoffs. Having a wife and kids necessitated finding work as quick as I could. Our unemployment bureau (whatever they call it now) seemed to have their hands tied, they couldn't offer me a job that paid less than I had been earning. I took their tests, and listened to their counseling, which in essence the information was given to me that I could be whatever I wanted to be but that unfortunately there were no openings at that time. They wouldn't give me a clue as to what was open - where, that payed less than I had been making.

Somehow we muddled through, things got pretty tight at times, but our kids stayed sheltered, clothed and fed and went to the doctor when that was needed. Heather and I performed some remarkable feats of conservation and creative budgeting to keep on going, but we did.

And, like with others, it went on that way through my working life. I remember when first coming back to Denver in 1960 and meeting the trite answer at places of work, "Sorry you are over qualified and we can't hire you." Finally getting a job with a place that was manufacturing cabinetry for electronic gear for missle silos, which lasted for a time, until that company was taken off the approved vendor's list and just before Christmas I was given a turkey in one hand and a pink slip in the other.

Things went on like that for most of my work life. Due to my bad back I had applied to the state to go to school to train for a job that didn't entail "back work", and after being certified by their doctors I was told that I was entitled to go to school, but that the state was out of money.

That was while I was back out of work on layoff that the State told me that. So, back on the street again looking for work. Work found and performed for several months when the company I was working for decided to close their Denver facility and hunker down in their midwest factory.

While holding my head in my hands and wondering, "What next ?" I got a phone call from my State Employment counselor who asked me if I was still interested in going to school. So for a year I went to school learning electronics, eking out an existence with food stamps and us living with my Dad.

After that year in school I was lucky enough to go right to a job, where I worked for 13 years. When I was 69 years old the company was cutting back and offering early retirement to workers. The clincher was paid HMO and addition of five additional years to pension computation. Company offered no assurance of a job if we didn't take the offer.

Heather and I conferred at great length and juggled figures and finally decided we could make it if I retired. Good thing I did as some of the men who decided to stay were out on the street within a year.

So, whats new ? Very little, same old clock telling the same old time. One of our granddaughters went in to work tonight and found that the place she worked is closed down -- no explanations or communication from the company.

Thing that really puts a crimp in things is that she and her family are in the process of moving into rental property they obtained in order to be closer to her job.

Thing that worries me is that none of the family, in-laws, outlaws or acquaintances can pitch in with aid of most any kind.

So, sadly they are faced with the same thing that many of us have faced through the years, what do you do without a job, with kids and a mate to help support, when there is no EMPLOYMENT ? . . . . . . . . . .

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