John and Jo #6

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Well, it's John and Joe timeagain.
And, um, here we are.
Here we are, uh, looking at ascreen, which a bunch of stuff
on it we've never seen before,but that's the way it is in
podcasting.
You never know, uh, what's gonnahappen.
But anyhow, um, Joe, we've gotsome interesting things to talk

(00:24):
about at the end of our podcastbecause we had.
A meeting yesterday, and this isa church meeting, a church
meeting.
And one of our friends attendeeshad a story to tell that's, uh,
she said we could share it.
Person will be nameless.
But you've gotta listen to thiswhole podcast, uh, to get what

(00:45):
we're doing.
So here we go.
We thought we would talk aboutjobs that we've had and we have
had a lot, a lot of jobs, and,um.
You know, we're not youngpeople, so we've been working,
um, Joe's been working longerthan I have'cause she's a hard
worker.
Uh, so we'll start.

(01:08):
Just went to, I went to workearly.
She did.
So I'm going to start, uh, withmy jobs, um, I guess outta
college or No, not outtacollege.
Well, in college I was incollege for a year and a half
and, uh, didn't do very goodbecause I.
I ended up going to the AirForce and, uh, not finishing,

(01:28):
but I saw well and good becauseI got good jobs and good careers
afterwards.
But my first job was riding atrolley bus.
Now most of you don't know whata trolley bus is, but uh, it's a
bus with wheels and, uh,electric connection to wires
above.

(01:49):
Uh, I was interviewing people tofind out what they did, where
they were going, so maybe theywanted to.
Reroute the bus route.
I dunno how good they werethinking because when they
reroute it, they would also haveto move the trolley wires.
So, uh, that was not my problem.
Another job I had in school was,uh, a model.

(02:10):
Now I was a sought after, soughtafter model for the art class, I
made 50 cents an hour and, uh,posed, um.
With clothes on for the artclass.
And, uh, you, you may see mypicture somewhere in some
museum, uh, when you're lookingat art and you'll say, oh, look,
that looks like John when hewas, uh, how old?

(02:34):
18.
18 years old.
Okay.
18.
18.
Yeah.
I think I was 18.
No, I was 17.
I was just a kid.
Uh, then during that time I alsowas a shoe salesman.
I sold shoes for Pizz DepartmentStore in Birmingham, Alabama.
Now, pizz is a seven storybuilding that was built in the

(02:56):
early 19 hundreds and was one ofthe fancy stores along with
Lovemans in Birmingham.
Uh, I worked in the basement, soI had to start somewhere and I,
I.
Tied shoes together when peoplewore, tried'em on and broke'em
apart.
And I also graduated to be ableto go to the stock room and get

(03:19):
shoes out of a box and, uh, letpeople try'em on.
I did that for a couple yearsand I told the manager, Mr.
Lipchitz, I said, shoes are mylife.
So, and they were for a while,every time I needed$5.
I would call him up and say, canI come to work this weekend?

(03:39):
And he would say, yes, come towork.
Was he afraid you were gonna goto college and not come back to
work?
He was exactly.
He was afraid I was gonna go tocollege and not come back to
work and not be his number oneshoe tire.
And this was not an easy jobbecause you had to match up
shoes that were all over theplace.
And, uh, you know, I always tryget the right sizes together.

(04:01):
Uh, hopefully sometimes ifsomebody got a nine and a nine
and a half and somebody else gota nine and a nine and a half.
So I hope, hope they were happy.
Then after that, went to St.
Louis and I worked for the MagicShift Stove company.
I thought I was going into amanagement job, but uh, when

(04:22):
they assigned me my job.
I lasted half a day and atlunchtime I didn't come back and
they sent me a check for fourhours, which was gracious of it.
Many of you have magic shifts,stoves.
Uh, I moved tops and sidesaround to make a stove.
That was my job.
I.
Then I went to work for RollinsBaseball.

(04:44):
You know, if you watch baseball,you watch the pitcher's gloves,
you'll always see Rollins.
Uh, I worked there a coupleyears, started out in the
basement.
Putting Matt in catcher's mittswas, was not a good job because
it was very sticky.
I worked my way up to, uh,working on a punch press,
punching out gloves outtaleather.

(05:06):
So, uh, my biggest joy there waswaiting for the food truck to
come so I can.
Go eat lunch.
'cause I already ate my lunchthat I took with me, uh, early,
early in the day.
Uh, then what did I do?
Then I went to the Air Force andspent four years in the Air
Force, got out and immediatelywent to work for a McDonald

(05:27):
Aircraft Corporation because itwas big in St.
Louis.
And I worked on, um, uh, one ohones F1 oh ones Air Force and
Navy F four H, and then.
My mother was sick and she hadto transfer somewhere with a
better climate.
I said, why don't we go toDenver?

(05:47):
I've been there in the Air Forceand I got, I went to the FAA at
the airport in St.
Louis, and I said, I want to goto, uh, Denver.
Get a job at the FAA.
They said Now, okay.
Uh, what are yourqualifications?
And I told'em a little bit aboutwhat I've done.
Filled out an application, gotan extra five points on my test

(06:10):
for being in the military.
Got a telegram one day and theysaid, if offered, would you
accept a job with the FAA atDenver, at staple an airfield?
And I said, yes, I would.
So I did.
Worked there a couple years andthen, uh.
So on adding in a paper for RCAservice company.

(06:33):
Went to work for RCA servicecompany 15 years.
I worked in, uh, Denver.
Transferred to California,transferred to Chicago.
Uh, very good job, very goodcompany.
I learned a lot about managementand, uh, profit and loss
statements and all that stuffthat goes with it.
Uh, then in Chicago, one day Iwas in the office, I got a phone

(06:58):
call from a company that I knewcalled Dale and they said, John,
you wanna come to work for us?
And I said, I don't know.
And it was a, a holiday and Iwent into the office to work and
I said.
What do you got?
And they said, how about comingover and being a sales engineer?
Whoa, boy.
So I said, okay.

(07:19):
They said, what do you want fora salary?
And I said, uh, well, you know,I don't know.
I kind of thought about it.
Took my salary I was making, hada company car, which I wouldn't
have knew I had to buy.
And added, uh, you know, alittle bit of percent on there
and.
Went to work for XL, worked forthem for two years.
Very good company, privatelyowned company was, ended up

(07:43):
being sold.
And then I worked for Siemensanother 15 years with Siemens.
And uh, you all know the storythere.
That's where Joe and I met.
But, uh, after Joan and I met,she insisted that I get jobs to
stay out of her hair and I'lljust, after he retired.
After I retired, so I had a fewjobs.

(08:05):
Uh, worked for Peapod, whichwas, uh, groceries online, which
was way ahead of what we'redoing now.
I sold real estate.
I worked for Walmart, uh,demoing, uh, computers.
I worked for enterprise rentalcar.
I sold golf carts and Aiken.
I worked for the county and theassessor's office and, uh,

(08:27):
volunteer.
Why did you do that, John?
Well, I worked there becausethey said if you want to pay off
your real estate tax.
You can work for the county.
This was meant to be for peoplewho couldn't afford to pay their
tax.
Nobody wanted to work, but Isaid, I don't mind working.
So I worked in, uh, assessor'soffice and learned a lot about,
uh, accessory.

(08:48):
So, um, I was about that.
Uh, I volunteered a coupleplaces after move to
Pendergrass, I did volunteer atJackson County Airport.
Uh, my job there was driving arunway sweeper, cleaning
toilets, sweeping floors, uh,serving breakfast, uh,
occasionally when they hadfly-ins, and I just had a good

(09:08):
time being with the airplanes.
Well, John, the manager of thatairport, what did he, what was
his job?
He formally was a pilot for NoahStorm chasers, hurricane
Hunters.
So he flew, uh, those hurricaneplanes and, uh.
Just a side note, his office wasin Florida and when they did the

(09:29):
movie Strategic Air Command,which I was in, in the Air
Force, uh, the office, hisoffice was used in one of the
scenes, which he told me about.
So enough about me.
Joe, we've talked about, uh, 10minutes.
I'm gonna give you a coupleminutes, uh, to talk about, uh,
your job.
Well, go ahead.

(09:49):
The very first job that I hadwas, uh, working for Senator
Ditter in Pennsylvania.
I worked on Saturday and my jobwas to shave the cylinders, uh,
that were used as a dicta, uh,in the dicta.
Dictaphone, yes, Dictaphone.

(10:09):
And, uh, I also answertelephones, so.
Um, I loved that job.
I, I really enjoyed the senator,but then I went to work for, now
wait a minute.
Was this a US senator or a statesenator?
State senator.
State Senator.
State Senator, okay.
That, that clarifying.
Okay.
Yes.
And then I went to work for a,uh, a department store and, uh,

(10:36):
didn't like that too much.
Uh, that was not my cup of tea.
Well, what, what did you dothere?
Oh, I sold anything that anybodywanted and I wrote it.
Wrote up the sale.
And you sold groceries and No,no, no, no.
New groceries.
Clothing.
Clothing.
Okay.
Clothing.
No shoes, but clothing.
Okay.
I'm your shoeman.
The other Shoeman.

(10:56):
Okay.
And then, uh, when I graduatedfrom.
School.
I went to work for a company, alocal company, which was Esby
and Madison.
Uh, k and m as as everybodycalled it, and, uh, worked in
the, uh.
Shipping, not the shippingdepartment, but the, uh, gosh,

(11:21):
how could I explain that?
Uh, were they Bill Laden Bill?
Well, I, I took, well you didshipping, you were, you didn't
load the freight cars, but youNo, no.
You, you did paperwork?
I did all the paperwork and Iwould take the paperwork to the
local train station where theywould ship out merchandise.

(11:42):
So, uh, then I thought.
I'm not making enough moneyhere.
I've gotta gotta get a betterjob.
So I applied for a job withPhilco Ford and I had to ride
the train.
I.
To Lansdale, which was about 25minutes away from my home.

(12:02):
But I enjoyed that.
I did.
And uh, I, I went to work at,uh, telco Ford.
Now wait a minute.
You had a big benefit there, bigpayout, didn't you?
Well, I worked in the office andfor every hour you worked, you
got a nickel.
In benefits and if you have itovertime and you got 10 cents.

(12:26):
So, uh, I ended up having somestock in the company.
Hmm.
Okay.
Big time.
Oh yes, big time.
How much was that, uh, Joe?
Well, I get$2 and 40 cents aquarter.
A quarter.
Right.
And I've been getting that sinceI was.

(12:47):
Let's see.
Can you remember?
Uh, 20 years old.
Okay.
So you've been getting your neckfor 70, 70 years.
70.
76 years.
76 years you've been getting.
$2 40 cents a quarter for Ford?
That's correct.
Okay.
That's, see, I bet you nobodyelse can, can attest to that.
Um, I worked in the accountingdepartment.

(13:08):
I was a TER operator, and, uh,on once a month we would have
have to go in and takeinventory.
So we would go out into thefactory and count all the items
and record those items.
For inventory.
So, uh, I worked there until mychildren were, were born.

(13:34):
At that time, you were notallowed to work, uh, if you were
pregnant.
So I was able to work kind of himy pregnancy for six months and
then I had to leave.
So then I became a mother, andthen my husband, uh, decided he
wanted to start his own plumbingbusiness.

(13:56):
So I worked in the office of hisplumbing company.
And then, uh, now wait a minute.
As I recall, as you told me, youdid a lot of, um.
S uh, scheduling of men?
Uh, yes I did.
So you were telling we we had 14men working for us.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, also I took off the.

(14:19):
Plans and submitted, uh, bidsand, uh, sometime we got them
and sometime we didn't.
How you, you got paid well forthat, I'm sure.
Didn't you?
Oh, very well.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Okay.
Oh my.
But now wait a minute.
What am, how did this lead intothe drive-in theater?

(14:39):
Uh, business, which I've toldyou.
Uh, did you sell popcorn or whatdid you do there?
Well, my father-in-law had adrive-in theater.
Uh, he actually had a, a 23 acrefarm and, uh, it was converted
into a drive-in theater.
We lived.
On the second floor of a, a bighouse that had a deck, and I

(15:06):
used to entertain all of ourfriends and because we had a
speaker on our deck and theywould come and watch the movie
and I would be feedingeverybody.
So I decided I'm not making anymoney.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Did you open trunks to see ifanybody came in?

(15:27):
Now wait a minute.
I went to work as a cashier.
Yeah, but what about checkingthe trunks of cars for No, no.
Sneaking in.
Every Tuesday, every Thursday itwas a dollar a car.
Okay.
And any, as many as you couldget in.
That's right.
And um, also we had a littlecocker spaniel and he used to
love to come down to theplayground at the theater and he

(15:50):
would climb up the, the, uh,sliding.
Slider, sliding board and slidedown the board.
So he'd go up the ladder andslide down the board and the
kids would follow him and do thesame thing.
It was very entertaining.
Now, you know, Joe's truthfulhere.
Everything we say is truthful,but if you look up Google

(16:10):
driving theaters and, uh, andwhat town was that in?
Um.
That was considered Lansdale,Lansdale, Lansdale, uh,
Pennsylvania.
You will see, uh, the drive-intheater that, uh, she was a
cashier at and, uh, took care ofmy, took care of a dog, uh,
going up and down a slide.

(16:31):
And my father-in-law owned theproperty.
Your father-in-law.
So you, you had it easy, prettyeasy there, didn't you?
No, I wouldn't say so.
Well that, and while I wasthere, uh.
I thought I've got to make moremoney because my husband's
business wasn't doing too well,uh, his plumbing business.

(16:54):
So I became a Dutch madedemonstrator.
I don't know if you know what I,I have no clue what Dutch, I
know Dutch, uh, cleanser thatyou clean the sink with.
No, no.
Dutchman was, uh, uh, the nameof a, a manufacturing company of
clothing.
So I would take this, I wouldtake the clothing and

(17:14):
demonstrate the clothing, and Iwould put my children into bed
at six 30, go off to work atwork until midnight
demonstrating come home, get upat six when the children got up
at six and my day started allover again.
Okay.
Well you were busy.
I was very busy.

(17:35):
Busy girl.
Then what?
Then I You went to Florida?
Not right away.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Go ahead.
Then from there, I went to workfor.
Merck.
Okay.
Big chemical.
Big chemical.
Pharmaceutical.
Pharmaceutical company.
Yeah.

(17:55):
Oh, no.
Wait, I went to work for RTFrench company First.
Mustard.
Mustard people.
Yes.
I, I started out in qualitycontrol.
And then I was asked to becomethe secretary of the engineering
department.
I loved that job.
It was very interesting that I,I was buying, buying all the

(18:16):
materials for the engineers toservice all of her equipment.
And then we had a consultingcompany come in and, uh, they
decided that I should becomesecretary to the president, the
plant manager.
And then the plant manager aftera few years decided he was gonna

(18:41):
go to work for another companyin Philadelphia, and he asked me
if I would go and I decided.
I didn't wanna pay city wage taxand I didn't wanna ride on the
train because I had a family tobe concerned about.
So I applied at Merck and uh,got the job and I worked at

(19:04):
Merck, uh, until we went toFlorida.
And getting back to mustard.
Mm-hmm.
And quality control.
Did you like open jars and tasteit or No?
No, no.
I had, to me that's qualitycontrol.
Well, that's not the way it wasdone.
It was weighed.
You had to weigh all, okay.
Well, I, I'm undermisconception, however, I have

(19:27):
to tell you, the factory went onstrike and all the office people
had to go out and work thefactory lines.
I lost 10 pounds in one weekbecause mustard flus 120 jars a
minute on a conveyor belt.
And if the, a case packer getspacked and, uh, is unable to

(19:51):
take it, the jars, the operator,which I was, I was the operator,
had to take four jars of, of.
Off a conveyor belt really fast,so I lost a lot of weight.
Well, you, you were there and Ihad a lot of respect for the
girls that worked in thefactory.
Anybody that works in a factorygets, uh, respect.

(20:12):
Yes, indeed.
Hard work.
Hard work.
One time we forgot to turn thefu uh, line off.
We had mustard flowing all overthe floor, so we had a disaster.
Did you have any hot dogs aroundor barns?
No.
No.
We did not have a hot make itChicago hot dog.

(20:32):
Uh, with that mustard.
Okay, let's get moving.
So, when I went to work forMerck, um, uh, I was interviewed
by the.
Um, a department that submittedall the FDNA, um, findings to
the, um, all of our results ofour testing to the FDA.

(20:56):
Gotcha.
And my typewriter ribbon.
Was so well, so secure that whenI ran out of the ribbon, a
security guard would take theribbon away.
Oh wait, you didn't have acomputer that you no typed on?
No.
This was all type word.
Word document, maybe?
No.

(21:17):
All typewriter.
Did you use carbon paper?
Oh, yes.
Okay.
But not when you submit it.
Some of those you don't knowpaper.
Not when you, not when you wentto FDA.
Okay.
You may not know what carbonpaper is, but, uh, it's messy.
Very messy.
It ruins your clothes.
Yes.
So, um, then my husband was veryill and he had, he.

(21:41):
He was told he had six months tolive.
Take him someplace where hewould be happy.
So, uh, we had friends inFlorida and we went to visit his
friends.
We had visited them many times.
I.
So we decided that we would moveto Florida to make him happy.

(22:02):
So, so he lived and we lived inBroker Raton, Florida.
And he didn't work for a nu anumber of years.
And then he was offered a job asa supervisor at the, uh, city.
City of Boca.
City of Boca.
I was work, I was working at abank at the time.

(22:27):
And, um, I needed to make moremoney, uh, because I kept my
home in, in Pennsylvania, so wewere.
We had two mortgages and, uh, Iwent to work, well, I applied
for a job as a supervisor at thebook, return Laundry.

(22:48):
Well, later I became one of thepartners in the business and,
uh, that didn't work out toogood.
So then I decided I would,would, uh, go, I would pie at
Siemens.
Private industry.
Private industry.
Okay, good.

(23:08):
And uh, well.
The, that, that's how I met you.
That's right.
That's how we got togetherheaded.
Yes, indeed.
I see all that trail of what'shappened to each of us has
brought us, uh, together almost36 years ago.
So, and here we are.
Yes.
And what, even when I went, whenI left, uh, Boca and moved to

(23:33):
Illinois.
You retired, didn't you?
I retired.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, I thought I retired, butwhen I got to, to Palatine,
Illinois one day, John came homeand he said there was a notice
on the bulletin board if any ofthe spouses wouldn't come to
work apply.
So I, I was very bored notworking.

(23:55):
I.
For a number of years.
She wasn't used to the easylife.
No, I was not.
So I applied and I became asubcontractor for them.
One of the girls had cancer andshe would get her treatments and
be wiped out for a couple ofweeks, so I filled in.
For her, for when she wasn'table to work.

(24:17):
Mm-hmm.
But I was also volunteering at,uh, two hospitals.
Right.
Uh, so they allowed me to, youknow, uh, work, work in my
volunteer work as well.
You worked harder than I didbecause I'd want you to go to
lunch and you told me you taketwo hour lunches and I'm only
allowed half an hour.

(24:37):
Exactly.
So I can't go with you.
So I said Okay.
Don't long without you.
It was my business that I know.
I know, I know.
So, um, that's kind of what I'vebeen up to now notice, and I
thought I had a lot of stuff totalk about, but you have talked
two or three minutes more than Ihave, really.
So now we need, I hope that thishadn't bored you all, but, uh,

(25:01):
there's jobs there that we'vedone that you've never heard of.
And, uh, notice there's no fastfood.
Did you do fast food?
No, no, no.
Fast food.
Josh, no f no, no nothing.
No gro uh, no food.
Well, no food.
The only thing food, grocerywise I did was Peapod when I did
that on the computer, but Okay.

(25:21):
Let's get to what everybody'sbeen waiting for.
The punchline of this wholething is what, yesterday, Joe?
Is that right?
We had a, we had our churchmeeting, our life group here.
Yeah, our life group.
And our, our clock is, uh,ticking.
So, you know, this is a realthing.
Uh, incidentally, that's mymother's clock, her mother's

(25:43):
clock that she's had for.
Uh, now you wanna tell a littlestory about, uh, what your
husband formed first husbanddid?
Well, when we were dating, uh, Ihad to be in at 10 o'clock and,
um, my first husband knew thatclock was.
Would, uh, chime at 10 o'clockand he kept sitting and we also

(26:05):
chimed every quarter hour.
So, uh, he would turn the clockback so we, it, it never chimed.
So you were fooling around a lotlonger than, well, he stayed a
longer, he stayed longer.
Okay.
Got it.
Okay.
Is that it?
That's it.
Alright.
Now getting back.
Now I have to say I've marriedmy first and only boyfriend.

(26:27):
And then after he passed, Johnwas the second one came.
You were my second.
Second.
Second boyfriend.
Second and only boyfriend.
Second and only.
Right.
And last, that's right.
The last, now yesterday we hadthis meeting and one we were
just telling different thingsand one of the ladies said,

(26:48):
well, I've got something to tellyou.
That's interesting.
So, um, Joe said.
Proceed.
Yeah, proceed.
So she said that she and herhusband had met overseas, uh, on
a trip and were coming back intothe United States at the airport
in uh, immigration section.

(27:10):
And her husband, uh, showed hispassport, went through the line.
No problems.
Waited for her on the otherside.
Was she, she was very nervous.
Very nervous.
She didn't know if she could getback in the United States or
not.
Uh, no reason why she couldn't,but, uh, she was afraid she
would foul up and she wanted todo everything by the book, so

(27:31):
she didn't get stopped.
So, going through to the line,she saw a camera.
That she thought was a retinacamera for the eyes.
So she goes up and puts her facein this camera, and the
immigration official said, lady,what are you doing?

(27:54):
And she said, well, I'm lettingyou read my eyes so we could see
who I am.
And they said, ma'am, that's a24 hour surveillance camera.
Get back over here and let mecheck your passport.
Meanwhile, her husband islaughing and yelling at her
because he said he got through.
She didn't, she was havingtrouble.

(28:15):
But anyway, that's her story.
And, and the line was backed up.
The line was backed up where shewas looking in the camera trying
to get her eyes, uh, pictured,if that's okay.
Okay.
That's it.
That's it.
This is the longest we've done.
I hope you'll listen through toit.
And, uh, our PSA announcement,you know, we didn't give one
last time, but our PSA now, thisone is a do not.

(28:38):
This is a note to yourself.
Do not kneel in the gardenunless you have a plan on how
you're gonna get up.
Bye bye for now.
Bye.