He Worked Hard for the Money

My dad lost his job today.  They eliminated his position, giving him a severance package and a "thank you for your service" and goodbye.

He reached "retirement" age a couple of years ago.  He was planning on retiring in another couple of years in the future.  So at this point, he's decided that it's time to retire.  It's not how he wanted it to end--on someone else's terms, but sometimes, especially when working with technology companies, the unexpected happens.

There will still be work opportunities for my dad.  He may do contract training work.  He may teach a class or two a semester at a local college or university.  There will likely be other opportunities that will arise that he hasn't even though of yet.  But for all intents and purposes, my dad has officially retired.

My dad has been a great example to me of putting in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.

I can remember going to visit him at the Lasa Data Center when I was very young.  There was a doorbell high up--too high for me to ring unless my mom lifted me up.  My brother and I argued about whose turn it was to push the button when we drove up in the blue rambler to pick him up from work.  When the door opened, I remember walking past large computers and punchcard readers and tape drives.  After a right turn, my dad's desk was in an office to the left.  He sometimes had treats in his desk drawer.  We would ask him for a "big pill," a large, pink, wintergreen-flavored candy.  That job ended when the data center was being moved to another city.  Not wanting to leave billings, Dad opted to take another job.

I'm sure I don't remember all of the jobs that my dad had through the years.  I do remember that he sold insurance for Prudential (Get a Piece of the Rock) and for Woodmen Accident and Life.  The building he worked in at Woodmen was down the road from the airport.  A couple of times, when I visited there, we saw deer just outside the windows, looking in at us.

He sold corrugated fiberboard (aka cardboard) boxes for the American Packaging and Container corporation for a few years.  For that, he drove all over the state of Montana in a company-leased Ford Escort.  We would drive that vehicle with all seven of us inside from Billings to Circleville, Utah.  It took 15 of 16 hours, and way before we arrived at Grandpa and Grandma's house, we were sick of being in that vehicle.  Yet my dad's hard work saved him a lease payment for a few years.

I was in High School when Dad was let go from that job.  Even when he wasn't working, he worked hard at finding his next job.  I don't recall how long he was out of work before he started working for the public library in Billings.  He brought them out of the card catalog days into the computer age.  He remained at the library until just a few years ago when he moved to Utah to work for SirsiDynix.  (They went by a couple of different names back then.)

He worked as a trainer for SirsiDynix until today.

In addition to the regular full-time jobs, Dad was always working in other ways as well.  He traded computer services to our dentist to pay for our dental work.  He tied flies to help pay for musical instruments.  He sold cleaning products and health products.  He taught remedial math classes at Eastern Montana College/MSU Billings.  He was always working to ensure that his family had a roof over their head and food on the table.  Sometimes, that was about all he could provide, despite his best efforts, but due to his hard work, we never went hungry.

I also want to mention that my mom worked very hard as well.  In order to be able to remain at home for her own growing family and to still bring in the money that we needed, she ran a daycare in our home.  I remember being quite young when she started.  She continued watching other peoples' children for many years, finally "retiring" when my parents moved to Utah.  Her efforts helped pay for many other necessities that five growing boys needed.  She also delivered newspapers for many years, rotating in and out of different routes with her sons.  It's her sacrifices that often made it possible to make ends meet during my dad's unemployment or when her sons were serving missions.

I'm grateful to my parents for their examples and for the things that they taught me.  I'm grateful that they taught me a good work ethic.  It's helped me in my career.

Happy Retirement, Mom & Dad!