1. Paper routes. Rock Island Argus.
2. Mowed lawns, weeded, trimmed, shoveled walks. I had regular customers all year
round.
3. Worked at Borden’s Dairy making fudgesicles and popsicles for 2 weeks.
4. Collected bottles, lead foil, tin cans, string, newspapers, etc. in my wagon. Sold to
junk yard.
5. Sacked potatoes and bananas and onions, etc at the grocers next door.
6. Loaded barges on the Mississippi for a month when 14. Under age. Got caught.
Fired.
7 Set pins at “Bowladrome” Bowling alley most every night for the leagues. 10 cents a game.
9. Quit school at 15 and got job at Ucanco Candy Co as a candy maker and worked
2 yrs.
10. Joined the U.S.Navy at 17 in March of 1950 and discharged at 21 in November
of 1954.
11. Went to Italy in 1954. Started selling Encyclopedias to American Military in
Italy, France and Germany.
12. Came back. Worked in Hancock, Michigan at a Diner flipping burgers and waited
tables.
13. Went to work in the Copper Mines underground as a miner for a year.
14. Moved to Rock Island and went to work at a Sanitary Service cleaning restrooms.
15. Got a job at the Peterson Paper Co. filling orders in a warehouse.
16. Passed a civil test for the Post Office as a Letter Carrier in Rock Island.
17. Transferred to Long Beach, California Post Office.
18. Worked part time at a Bowling center in Long Beach. I got divorced in here
somewhere.
19. Quit the Post office to work full time at the Bowling center. Yeah! I know.
20. Worked for 3 months at a Cabinet shop and bartended part-time in the evenings.
21. Left California and went to Tulsa and worked at Braden Steel Fabricators for
3 months.
22. Found work at a door fabrication shop for 2 or 3 months.
23. Friend and I started a bakery sales route out of a Bakery which only lasted
3 months. Made a few bucks.
24. I left for Bonner Springs, Kansas and worked at an Underground Storage Center.
25. Quit. Worked at a Steel fabricator company for 1 ½ years and got laid off.
26. Started at a Safeway Cereal Plant in Bonner as a mill worker.
27. Went to Davenport, Iowa and worked at another steel company for nearly a year.
28. Moved to Pueblo, Co. Found a job at a Feed Mill for a few months.
29. Moved to Denver, Co. Worked at a Hotel as a night desk attendant for 6 months.
30. Got a job at Roy Glazier Iron Works and stayed almost a year.
31. Moved to Grand Junction, Co. Got a job at Grand Junction Steel and Stayed for
6 months.
32. Back to Denver and entered the Alcoholic treatment center at Ft. Logan for
3 weeks, finally. this was 1967. From then to the present I worked at the
following Co’s.
33. Found a job at Jeffco Steel Fabricators and stayed about two years and I
learned a trade. Steel Layout using all that geometry that I thought I hated
earlier in life.
34. Went to work for CF&I Iron works as a Layout man for about 2 years.
35. Worked at Card Iron Works as a layout man and steel fabricator.
36. Went to General Cable Corporation as an inspector and moved up to weld
shop foreman after 6 months. I stayed for about 9 months.
37. Hired on as Shop Foreman at Lomax Steel.
38. Started own business making ornamental iron and Small utility trailers in
Hygiene, Co.
39. Went back to Lomax Steel. After one year the business closed down.
40. Moved to Hamilton, Montana and Hired as Maintenance man in Log Home
construction.
41. Went to work at Selway Corporation in Stevensville as layout man and
stayed 2 years.
42. Started my own business in a shop I built and named it “Sleeping Child Welding”. Lasted for about 2 years. Sold the shop.
43. Moved back to Denver in 1982. Found a job in another Steel shop in Arvada.
44. I went to work for Silver Engineering in Aurora and stayed a couple of years.
45. Started at Cleasby Manufacturing and stayed 3 years.
46. Found I had lung cancer. Had lung surgically removed. This was late in 1993.
47. Went to work for Meals on Wheels for a year.
48. Went to Jefferson Center for Mental Health as a van driver and stayed 5 years.
49. Moved to Medical Records at Jefferson Center for Mental Health and stayed
8 more years.
50. Retired at 76 yrs old, finally.
59. Now I paint and write about all the above and below and am realizing how lucky
I have been in my life and my wife and I actually sit and talk and laugh about it all.
60. I said earlier that I had witnessed a black man being nominated for President of the United
States and tonight, the 4th of November, 2008, I watched a black man elected to the
Presidency of the United States. I am proud of this country and the people in it. I am happy to have lived long enough to see this happen.
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