The Daily Journal from Franklin, Indiana • Page 23

O. DAILY JOURNAL, JOHNSON COUNTY. IND. WEDDINGS PEOPLE DAILY JOURNAL SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1992 SECTION 5 Of Love First jobs affect people all their lives Compiled by Annette Reynolds Working there during those years taught me how to work long hours to do what was expected of me. I can remember working until midnight or later to get the books to balance at the end of the month.

I was proud to have the job when so many were unemployed, and I've never forgotten how fortunate I felt to ha ve been selected. Ruby A. Bogie Nineveh honor of Labor Day, the Daily Journal takes you on a trip to more than 40 different work places, where the employees are learning about life, liberty and a paycheck for all. We asked our readers to write in and tell us about their first jobs. Forty-two of them did just that, writing how their first job affected them.

and what it felt like earning money for the first time. We found through the letters that their first jobs affected them for the rest of their lives. The general consensus from the letters is that the best bosses are the ones who inspire their workers to work hard, but who also take a personal interest in their employees. Many letter writers told us that their first job was the hardest job they ever loved. Youll hear from some folks who met dear friendron the job, and from one couple whose first job encounter led to their marriage.

You'll also learn a lot of local history, as many of the letters give us rich vignettes of Johnson County work places of the past So sit back and read these letters, and perhaps they'll inspire you to harvest the fruits of your own labor. 1 I obtained my first job 57 years ago at the age of 20. 1 had graduated from Southport High School two years before. It was the height of the terrible Depression. The job, paying $10 a week, was at a small insurance company in Indianapolis.

During those Depression years, you could buy a good lunch for 25 cents. My bus fare equalled 50 cents each day. It was a small bus, owned and run by one person. I imagine there are people my age still living who remember the Sunshine Garden bus line. The first bus run began at 6 a.m.

and the last one leaving town was at 6 p.m. I paid my parents $1 cash each week for room and board. The first deduction from my check was in 1937, when the Social Security law went into effect Five years later, I received a raise of $2. In 1942, 1 married. My husband was a military police in the Army.

On March 29, 1946, 1 resigned to have my first child that July. My weekly check at that time was $50. There were three more deductions by that time as state and federal taxes also were being deducted. The company carried a small group insurance policy on the employees, with each employee paying one-half the premium. Yes, I learned quickly about the outside world when I was employed at this first job.

My boss did not have a good personality but I tolerated it I remember bow uncomfortable we were when the weather was humid as there was no air conditioning. One gentleman employee thought he was a "ladies' man." He delighted in sitting on a girl's desk and telling dirty jokes. At first, I was afraid of making waves because I was shy. Finally, one day I told him very firmly I cared neither for him sitting on my desk or telling me the jokes. He never spoke to me again, but that was OK with me.

When I was young, I had many severe head colds but I wouldn't dare miss work, as I would have felt that I was shirking my Job. I always showed respect to my boss even though he was difficult to like. My first job taught me always to do my best in whatever endeavor I undertook. I should give credit to my parents who instilled in me always to work hard and give a full day's work. Eva Robinson Indianapolis It was the summer of 1936, and if you could check, I think you would find it to be one of the hottest on record, with no air conditioning in home or office.

I was 18, just graduated from high school, and the product of the Depression years, shy and scared to death to be starting out in the real world. I landed a job as a policy writer for the Hoosier Casualty Insurance Co. I made the whole sum of $15 per week a good wage in those days, believe it or not I gave my folks $4 per week. With the rest, I bought my lunch, bus fare, clothes, entertainment, and even saved a little. I bought my younger sisters clothes and treated them to the movies, and I never had to borrow to make it through the week.

In five years, I received one raise to $18 per week. But then World War came along, changing my life as it did for many others. But that is another story. I would say that I learned to live within my means, debt-free, and I learned to work and be compatible with co-workers two lessons that might well be worth learning in today's world. Hilda Tavenor Greenwood STAFF PMOTO IT KOTT NUMTT them.

"She chased me around the bread racks," Maurice said with a smile. "We became best friends and then married in 1980." Maurice and Brenda Richter of Franklin met while working in the kitchen at the United Methodist Home. It was the first job for both of My first job was a driversalesman for Dy-Per Service, delivering baby diapers. I worked at least 60 hours per week for $12, with 12 cents taken out for Social Security. I really enjoyed having a job after three years in high school.

The job gave me independence and freedom. The job was really easy, only the truck cab didn't smell too good. My first check went for rent, board, and laundry all for $5 a week. Not being married, the balance was spent on clothes and pleasure. Circle City Beer costs 10 cents a bottle, Lucky Strike cigarettes cost 15 cents a pack, and White Castle hamburgers cost 5 cents each, or six for 25 cents.

I got married on that great salary in 1939. Maurice R. Baxter Whiteland "We learned many valuable skills at the drive-in, such as the finer points of Ice fighting, wet-towel flipping, and slick-floor skating. most important, we learned the value and rewards of hard work." Theresa (McDermott) Gaskin Kathy McDermott In 1923, when I was 23 years old, I lived in the small town of Sullivan. I worked at a pop bottling factory placing empty bottles on a washing machine.

My pay was $2.25 per week. I gave my mother $2, and I kept 20 cents for a Saturday afternoon movie and a bag of popcorn, leaving me a nickle. H. Maurice Grizzle Franklin the tiles. The $2.10 an hour didn't mean much to me at that moment.

I found out real soon private hospitals were much different than my experience for the past three years at what is now Wishard Memorial Hospital. I'm still working and for the past 33 years, I've worked in obstetrics at Johnson Memorial Hospital. Frances F. Davis Franklin Iformy for my was hired first job on May 13, is, by Kegal 1 Stores a wholesale grocer, on Davidson Street in Indianapolis. I had just completed business school training at Sanderson's Business College in the People's I graduated from high school in 1933, at a time when work was difficult to find.

My first full-time job was with a radio cabinet factory in my hometown in northern Indiana. The job was obtained through the influence of my grandfather, who was acquainted with the president of the company. I was assigned to sweeping the floor and disposing'of all the trash and sweepings in the finishing room. The pay was 12 cents per hour and my first paycheck for two weeks was just over $9. After those first two weeks, I was promoted to working on finishing cabinets and my pay was doubled to 25 cents per hour.

After a few weeks, I purchased a used Model Ford for $25 for transportation to work. The work was hard and dirty, but the income was necessary and I worked there for three years, with my pay gradually increasing to 60 cents per hour. At that time, Ithought that if I could have income of $25 per week for the rest of my life, it would be very good. That was certainly a misconception. However, those three years convinced me that I did not want to make my life work in a factory, so I entered business college to obtain more education.

I learned that it is important to work hard on your job, because at the time, there were many people looking for work and you could easily be replaced. Also, good quality workmanship went into the cabinets and the better radio sets went with them. Zenith and RCA were of the highest quality then and still rate very high. RCA later acquired the plant and continued to produce radio, and later, television cabinets. Bob Baker Franklin Bank Building on Market street.

I received $12 a week and worked 44 hours a week as The business was called the Meridian Drive-In Theatre. John and Edna Browning were the owners. Our checks were written by Theatre Candy Concession Co. out of Indianapolis. They were our employers, but we worked for Jack and Martha Henderson.

Jack was the manager of the concession, and Martha was the manager of Jack! What a first job it was! We learned many valuable skills at the drive-in, such as the finer points of ice fighting, wet-towel flipping, and slick-floor skating. We made many intra-county friendships with our co-workers, primarily the kids from Center Grove. But most important, we learned the value and rewards of hard work. Of course, this was the late '60s, before the advent of cable TV, when going to the drive-in at the Meridian was a wholesome, economical, family-type outing. It was before the days of electronic cash registers that print the order, add the tax, total the bill, and make change.

Each of the front-line workers not only did the job of today's cash registers (manually), but also filled the orders, poured the soft drinks, buttered the popcorn (with real butter), boxed it all and delivered it to the counter with a smile. Anything less was not expected nor tolerated from us. Good service rarely meant a tip; it was just our job. After the doors were closed for the evening, there were always floors to be swept and mopped; dishes to be washed (by hand) grills, fryers, and ovens to be cleaned; and lots of stainless steel to wash and leave spotless. It wasn't a job that just anyone could or would do for that amount of money 75 cents to $1.25 per hour).

It was -hard, hot work pure and simple. But for those of us who stayed season after season, it was well worth it because we not only gained marketability as members of the work force, but we also gained as people, from the friendship extended to each of us by Jack and Martha Henderson. Behind Jack's gruff demanding exterior was a not-so-tough guy with a great sense of humor. Business Was business and work was work. But when the doors were closed and it was clean-up time, Jack was involved in more than one prank on the employees.

I vividly remember a pie in the face. Martha was our sounding board, our confidant, sometimes a buffer between us and Jack (including saving the job of a temporarily misguided smart aleck) and always our friend. They are really extraordinary people. When the season was over and when most people in their right minds would have been glad to be rid of the hassle of supervising 10 rowdy teen-agers, Jack and Martha opened up their home for a wild Halloween party each year: Included was an annual scavenger hunt with a bizarre list of items to find, good food, games, and major amounts of whipped andor shaving cream pies for us to wear. And even though we pretty much trashed their house at those parties, they always hired us back the next spring.

This is probably sounding like a tribute to Jack and Martha Henderson rather than an account of our first work experiences. Well, so be it. You cant separate one from the other. More than anything, we were really lucky. Not many people can say their first job experience was their best.

Because of Jack and Martha, ours wds. Martha, if you are reading this, just remember one thing: It's all medical! Kathy McDermott Theresa (McDermott) Gaskin New Whiteland (SEE JOBS. PAGE D2) I will never forget my first job. It was a summer job, working as a pin setter in a bowling alley. was 12 years old and not too bright.

Other kids were out mowing grass, washing cars or working for truck farmers in the sunshine. I preferred to sit on a two-inch board in a dark, black, sweaty hole at the receiving end of a bowling lane, while grown men rolled 16-pound balls at me as hard as they could. The pay was good, though. I was paid 7 cents a game. On an average day or night, I could earn $7 or $8, before taxes.

As to what I did with the money, I have no idea. I don't even know where the money went that I made last month. The one thing I learned from that job and others like it is, in hard times, if you are willing to lower your standards a little and get out and hustle, you can make it 'til something better comes along. Jim Gorman Franklin a receptionist. I was elated to be a working person.

In July, I was advanced to bookkeeper and then received $15 a week for 44 hours work. I loved all of it because I liked working with figures. I worked there until April 1946, after being married in November 1945 after the war. By that time, I had advanced to assistant cashier as well as bookkeeper. I was so pleased to be earning money, and that amount at the time was sufficient, especially when street car tokens were four for a quarter and a transfer cost 2 cents.

Aileen Fulmer Greenwood I was born and raised in a small town called Glyndon, Md. The East Coast is known to have the best submarine sandwiches in the United States, so I figured that was a good place for me to get my first job. I started work at the Chicken Roast when I was 14 years old in 1962. Even though I was only paid 65 cents an hour to start, I loved working there. I eventually owned my own store and then got out of that business in 1977.

It was very hard work because we did every aspect of the job every day. I remember that I learned several work ethics from that job. Safety is very important in any job that you do. Customer service is the most important aspect of any business. You should be courteous, dependable and you should care that you do a good job for both the employer and the customer.

It shows. To this day, in my dealings with employees and as a customer, I always look to see if the person I am dealing with really cares about his job. It's nice to deal with people who really care. Cherri L. Short Greenwood My first job after I graduated as a registered nurse from Indianapolis General Hospital was at Dunn Memorial Hospital in Bedford.

My first day was Labor Day, 1957. It rained for a short time and made the roads very slick, so we had lots of wrecks. We admitted nine patients to the floor where I was working. My supervisor for the night was pressed into service in the emergency room. I was accustomed to doctors wearing white pants and a white coat when I was in nurses' training.

Of course, the private physicians wore street clothes. A man came up to my floor and asked what room "Jane Doe" was in. I told him but asked him to have a seat in the waiting room because I was going to start an IV on Miss Doe. But he still started down the hall to her room. I said, "Sir, you need to wait in the waiting room for now." Of course, he was the doctor, and he told my supervisor, who had just returned from the emergency foom, "Tell her who I am before she throws me out of here." Needless to say, I wanted to fall through the cracks in I finished school during the Great Depression of the '30s, and I was unable to find a job for a year afterward.

Finally, I answered an ad in the paper for a stenographer and got the job. It was a trucking concern with headquarters in the abandoned county highway department's building. I was the only employee in the office besides the manager and the man whose job was getting the hauling jobs. I was paid $5 a week for part-timeork six days a week. The job called for typing letters and bills of lading, answering the telephone, keeping the books, sending out the monthly statements, and anything else the boss thought of.

I worked there for four years and was paid $13 a week for full-time work when I resigned to take a 'better job. Years later, I talked with my old boss who asked nut: "Did you ever wonder why you were hired?" I had always thought I was the best qualified. He explained that there had been 56 responses to the ad. I was hired 1 because there was not a rest room suitable for a female in that old barn of a building, and I lived less than two blocks away..