1973 ~ 1976 Miscellaneous
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My first, "official" entry into politics was as manager of Margaret Owens' run for the City Council in Albuquerque, NM in May 1974.  We had discussed it for a while and decided that she made a more personable candidate, so she ran and I managed. We finished third in the primary - losing by 36 votes to a UNM professor who went on to become the first city council president. There were 8 or 9 total candidates for the District 3 City Council seat and 33 for the Mayor's office. (We'd both been involved in the initial meetings of concerned citizens who petitioned for a referendum to change from the City Manager to Council form of government. Many of the others involved also ran and went on to become members of the first City Council. Albuquerque was a vibrant cradle of democracy back in the mid- to late-1970s.) 1975 February (left) - Ben & bar girl(s) in Taxco Bar, Juarez, Mexico. This 'comfortable' bar was the hangout for an expert winner picking co-worker and Ben after the horse races at Sunland Park just across the Rio Grande outside El Paso, Texas. The first horse race we went to together resulted in us winning all ten of the races we bet on, including the daily double. John picked 'em; I just paid for half of the $6 combination ticket. Six months before that, at my very first horse race at the State Fair in Albuquerque, I won on all three of the only tickets I bought - 3 show tickets. The more knowledgeable horse race betters I'd gone with were debating the 4, 5 and 6 horse all the way to the track. So, my first tickets purchased were on those 3. They came in 4-5-6! Too bad I didn't know anything about trifectas at the time. That meant that I cashed in the first 13 horse race tickets I purchased - 13 being a lucky number for me! |
The listing of various employers below includes as many as can be remembered or for which pay stubs have been found - some of the latter can't be remembered. Most of them were temporary jobs obtained via Instant Help, Manpower, Kelly Services or some other temporary help contractor - before the days when temporary workers were paid according to the skills required on the job, especially accounting skills.
Some of the other jobs not listed include driving fork lifts; operating powered hand trucks; making experimental glue in a glue factory (the type that eventually was used to seal the plastic bags in cereal boxes); creating various word processing reference forms; spreading leaves for a horse run area; working with numerous business owners unloading extra Christmas inventory from incoming trucks; working on inventory crews counting the entire inventory for grocery supermarkets in less than 4 hours - sometimes in less than 2 hours.
While some employers, especially those with personnel departments, view all this experience as a sign of instability or some other unwanted characteristic, I still consider it the fulfillment of my lifelong desire: TO NEVER DO THE SAME THING TWICE or at least not as a career - I've loved the disparate experiences, new skills acquisitions, corporate (or small business) cultures and, in general, the wonderful diversity of it all. (All the while, I learned how to live and eventually embrace a life of just-in-time income - I've become quite adept at poverty budgeting and living without many needlessly expensive luxuries.)
46 ~ 50 none Notable for the lack of money making
opportunities, mostly due to our poverty at
being able to buy anything to convert into a
salable product, the 4 years on Scenic Drive in
the Sunnyslope section of Rubidoux, West
Riverside, California was still an adventurous
time - the little corner grocery store at the
bottom of our hill was too far to walk to,
anyway, so spending any money earned wasn't
that easy to do.
(home business) 50 ~ 53 3 years 25 cent hotpad sales door to door; mother,
of course, paid for the raw materials; all I
had to do was knit the various colored loops
together in varying designs of my own
creation and sell them to neighbors.
??? Mills? 53 3 mon stocking sales as a 10 year old
Milw Journal Co 56 ~ 58 16hr/wk newspaper route age 13 - 15
(?National?) 58 1 mon magazine sales (1st work permit job)
Murphy's Restaurant
3417 W. North Avenue 1958 ~ 1959 48hr/wk dishwasher/busboy One picture taken on June 19th, 2001 shows the 3400 block of North Avenue where the restaurant was located before it became the first empty lot on the block sometime during the 1990s. Another shows the block three years later on June 15th, 2004 when the third empty lot was created at the location of the former Candyland/Smokeland building at 3415. (The large building on the east corner was demolished in 2005. 4/24/2006 remodeling in progress.) Murphy's Restaurant was where, as a 15 year old back in 1958, I got my first paycheck job as a busboy and dishwasher -- where I learned a lot about working with adults ('dirty old men AND women') -- where I learned to put a pinch of salt in the coffee grounds to make it less bitter --- where I first discovered that I was a good worker capable of rushing to get the job done during a sudden crises of too few clean dishes for too many hungry patrons ---- very memorable and valuable experiences for a growing teenager curious about anything and everything.
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Wilkinson-Bethke-Rand 59 4hr/mo janitor (2nd "paycheck" job) U. S. Navy 61n ~ 648 40hr/wk Intelligence analyst Fleet Reserve Assoc 63 ~ 64 21hr/wk bartender/bookkeeping snack bar ops. Fererra's Apple Orch 635 60hr/wk apple packing/feeder line supervisor U. S. Navy 648 ~ 64n 40hr/wk Shore Patrol - Permanent Duty U. S. Navy 64n ~ 65d 40hr/wk Chauffeur (D.C.) (learned how to drive!) U. S. Navy 65d ~ 67d 40hr/wk personnel office manager (ramrod) Hawaii Raceway Park 65d ~ 665 monthly Staging Area Boss American Appraisal Co 681 ~ 687 40hr/wk Quality Control Clerk American Appraisal Co 688 ~ 68o 40hr/wk Cost Accounting appraiser American Appraisal Co 68n ~ 69d 40hr/wk Tax Dept. Admin. AssistantAm. Appr. Mens Club 69o ~ 69d 4hr/wk Treasurer/Christmas party planner I gave 60 days notice and quit American Appraisal at the end of 1969 to matriculate full time at the College of Artesia. I'd just been elected Treasurer of the Men's Club before giving notice but still managed to help plan and supervise the annual Christmas Party held at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 11th & Wells that year. The decision to get a degree now was motivated by the encroaching expiration of my GI Bill benefits and lack of promotional and salary advancement at AACo. My Tax Department job took me to Charleston, West Virginia in October where the call from the Men's Club representative was made regarding my eligibility to become Treasurer - a request I couldn't refuse since the decision to give notice had not yet been made - I'd decided to give notice and go to college after this assignment if and when my boss refused to allow me to become the project manager for the next new bank building appraisal, something he really couldn't do with me not even having a 'for real' high school diploma.
Drove down to Charleston a day early to think about my options - checked into the hotel - turned on the TV and heard a representative from a firm in Chicago discussing how they could help GI Bill veterans find a college of their choice. All one had to do was submit a multi-page application to them which they would photocopy and disseminate to 'small' colleges throughout North America - colleges looking for students.
What timing! Exactly what I was looking for! I wrote down their address and used it upon my return and notice making decision - their very efficient process got me at least 30 or so brochures and promotional literature from colleges all over the country - including the American University in Mexico City.
An 18 column spreadsheet I prepared listing my criteria (remote location but with enjoyable vistas, appropriate business and psychology classes, small size, etc.) made the College of Artesia my ultimate choice, primarily due to the OUTSTANDINGLY thorough brochure they sent and the fact that my father had settled in Albuquerque a couple hundred miles away - close enough for support but not so close as to interfere with my intention to obtain my undergraduate degree in 18 months.
When switching from the first hotel to the Holiday Inn and turning on the TV in that room a couple days later, Johnny Carson just happened to be in the audience talking with a Cyriacks cousin from Nebraska whom I'd never met but knew about through our Cyriac Family History Project. Another night during this week long stay in Charleston, a call from Milwaukee informed me that brother-in-law and childhood playmate Thom Curley and his comedy team partner, Joey Edmonds, were to appear on Johnny Carson that night.
White's Store-Artesia 70 1 week Moving labor Miller High Life Tent 708 100 hours Bartending for entire run of VeteransOffice - UNM 70 & 71 8 days Registration clerk for veterans Instant Help Inc. 71 & 72 Various temp labor jobs Miller High Life Tent 718 100 hours Wisconsin State Fair SE Wi RegionPlanComm 72 Freeway traffic counting studies L L Olds Seed Company 725 1 month Part time warehouse/production laborVanek Packaging 728 1 week MachinistHelper-SpecialtyCardboardPackaging This job was one of the more interesting for it pointing out the tremendous effect of passive role modeling on a workforce. Being a college graduate doing the scut work (or scud work or lowly labor deemed beneath most people's skill levels) of cleaning up around the various machines involved with preparing specialized cardboard packaging orders for the research and development department to check-out before styrofoam allowed compactly molded designs, I garnered more respect from the other workers doing the same during our work and food breaks and discussions. I did more than was required without prompting and without complaint - the cardboard dust got into everything - I cleaned it to almost pristine conditions. By the end of one week, everyone else was doing likewise - we never talked about the cleaning work - the process was all due to role modeling a behavior that others came to accept for themselves.
SEwiscRegPlanComm 728 2 weekends Traffic Counts for SEWRPC Royal American Shows 728 1 day State Fair Midway rides set-up labor Findley Adhesive 729 1 month research & development helper MilwaukeePublicSchool 729 ~ 731 4 month Book BuyerThis last minute job came after I'd already decided to travel to Germany to work as a 'guest worker' alongside my UNM college buddy Larry - Larry had been over there more months making good money. That trip became a vacation of 2 weeks instead. After returning, I got an apartment on Martin Drive a couple blocks from MPS headquarters at 50th & Vliet. After pouring my heart, soul and dozens of hours of unpaid extra time into this job (primarily creating a comprehensive vendor buying databank that nobody else appreciated), I was fired the day after Christmas - within the 6 month probationary hiring period that disallowed any 'legal' response by me to the unfairness of the firing. (More on this when time is found.)
[This firing motivation my move to Albuquerque, New Mexico and stay there from 1973 to mid-1987.]
Olan Mills Studios 735 ~ 736 2 month Delivery man/check collector AdvancedMicrofilmSys 737 1 week Cut film to microfiche strips IMS Corporation 736 ~ 756 (twice) Warehouse laborer/supervisor Manpower Inc of Albq 73 ~ 79 Various temp clerk/labor jobs Sears Computer 741 ~ 745 Manpower equipment installation VillageInnPancakeHous 746 ~ 747 6 weeks RovingFill-inManager (3 locations) Shalimar Inn Gallup 747 ~ 748 1 month Night Auditor IndianPuebloCultCentr 762 ~ 769 Chief Accountant/Business Manager Neff & Company 771 ~ 784 (twice) UNM referral - tax preparation Gilbert Home Furnish 778 Inventory analysis/set up ColumbiaBusinessConsu 781 ~ 884 11 year (CBC) Sole Proprietorship I owned/operated [ All of the following jobs were accomplished in addition to running CBC. ] Kelly Services Inc. 78 ~ 80 Various temp accounting/clerk jobs Sears Warehouse 786 Manpower Ed Black's Chevrolet 786 9 hours Manpower grease monkey/janitor Coca Cola 786 ~ 788 2 month Manpower helper on rural delivery truck ALC Bonded 789 5 hours Manpower (roadway salt 50lb = 2 person job) Pioneer Bus. Equip. 789 Manpower Texaco 789 6 hours Manpower Bill Biffel, Inc. 78o 7 hours Manpower Modern Press 78o 2 weeks Manpower running dbl button cutting machineSylvania 78o 1 week Manpower changing light tubes The Sylvania job was memorable because two of us helped an electrician change all the fluorescent lights in a newly re-modeled K-Mart store. We handled the 6 foot long tubes while he replaced them. Because of his proximity to the lights, he (and we) took 15 ~ 20 minute breaks each and every hour during each 13 hour shift. We worked there for 3 days.
Tops & Trousers 78o26 4 hours Kelly minimum
Baldridge 78n 8 hours Manpower
Don White 78n 6 hours Manpower Albq franchise owner - preparing the fenced
horse exercise yard with another worker at his home.
Pertec Computer 78n 8 hours Manpower
Phillips Petroleum 78n Manpower changing jet fuel filter
Phillips Uranium 78n 3 days Manpower (coloring maps)
Genuine Parts 78n 15 hours Manpower
GTE Lenkurt 78d 2 weeks Kelly employee gift shop sales
Westinghouse - WIPP 791 4 days Kelly Waste Isolation Pilot Project
First National Bank 791 4 days Kelly
Bag & Save 791 4 hours Kelly
H. G. Pickard 791 4 hours Kelly
Strong's Office Furn. 79121 6 hours Kelly
City of Albuquerque 791 ~ 796 6 month Kelly accounting/auditing
Tri-State Insulation 79. 1 day Manpower truck driver
U. of New Mexico 796 Kelly NDSL project w/Lynnette
The NDSL (National Defense Student Loan) project was memorable because I
worked with the wife of one of the yet to become famous pitchers (with
the LA Dodgers) of the Albuquerque Dukes AAA baseball team. We
matched names of those who were in default on their student loans to
other lists of prominent citizens who could well afford to pay them
off.Digital Equip. Corp. 796 Kelly accountingReplaced the 'down' computer at Digital Computer - of all places. Got the job done in half the time they'd anticipated without ANY mistakes. They wanted to hire me to become the Chief Accountant but I wouldn't agree to move out of Albuquerque and would only guarantee two full years of employment with them - conditions unacceptable to anal retentive personnel offices of the time -- probably one among many of the reasons why Digital Equipment and other such companies are no longer around --- they not wanting to get even 'good' employees unless they also agreed to become 'slaves' to their self-defeating policies.
Childers Mfg Co. 796 ~ 797 11 days Kelly ?computer forms clerk/design? Bellamah Corp 797 7 days Kelly accounting Rust Tractor 79d ~ 802 12 days Kelly accounting Blue Cross & Blue Sh 80 + 81 friend accounting reconciliationThe notorious Real Estate Rapist was a co-worker (click that link to read all about it). Another memorable part of that job was that the monthly reconciliation of the main checking account involved 10,000 checks written each month to beneficiaries for reimbursement of their insurance claims. It had not been reconciled for more than a decade. Every couple years, they just closed the old account, wrote off the tens of thousands of unreconciled dollars and opened a fresh account to begin the process anew. Well, my good friend and old college buddy was hired as chief accountant and she thought of me - the person who had tutored her and our other classmates in our accounting classes -- helping everyone get A's on the final exam. It took me a week to figure out how to reconcile the account and discover where all those unexplained thousands came from - mainly by questioning the honesty of the bank where the account was maintained -- they were routinely paying on STOP PAYMENT checks and then covering up after the fact so Blue Cross instead of the bank paid the duplicate costs --- in the process pocketing also the STOP PAYMENT fees paid by Blue Cross as insurance against such happenings that really were paid for nothing.
The other memory of that job was that Blue Cross & Blue Shield became one of the first big clients of Columbia Business Consultants, the business I created in 1978. Many of the jobs listed here were taken to bring in money to pay the mortgage until that business could sustain me by itself.
ATL Engineering 856~9 90 days CBC - CEO
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ATL (Albuquerque Technical Laboratory) was my ex-wife's sister-in-laws'
family business, founded by the then already deceased man for whom the U. of
New Mexico School of Geology (or Civil Engineering) was named. His
widow and mother of the sister-in-law was matriarch of the other extended
family members who worked within the company. She wrote the checks and
oversaw the one PhD Manager and other PhD and Master's Degree'd Department
Managers who supervised various cement, geological and nuclear tests and
associated labs. It had around 60 skilled employees and was spending
much more per month than it was taking in. When all looked hopeless, I
was asked to come into a decision making vacuum as an outsider with a fresh
perspective. After hiring a replacement PhD, firing some managers who,
with prior permission, were running their own highly profitable personal
businesses (by running some of their expenses through their department);
shifting various employees around in recognition of their unique skill-sets;
eliminating some expensively redundant functions; discovering one very large
lost payroll tax deposit (by an arbitrary IRS renumbering glitch); and
injecting a new 'esprit de corps' among the remaining employees, the company
was returned to profitability within 60 days - circumstances which motivated
the former PhD Manager to reassert his authority and obviate the need for my
continued primary decision making - all within a total of 90 days.
