Saturday, September 24, 2011

55 and Counting

09/24/2011

I think without a moment’s doubt this is about the scariest time of my life.  The decision to end my working career is irrevocable at this point; it is too late to re-think it or undo it.  This die is cast in stainless steel, not that I have given much thought to continuing to work in any fashion – not even part time.  All of us know there is an omega to every alpha, a sunset at the end of each day, a final minute in the game.  I am ready for the end, the last day, and the beginning of another phase of my life, very possibly, according to some, the best phase.

My very first job began in 1960: I was an usher at the Senator Theater on York Road in Baltimore, Maryland.  It was a summer job and I made fifty cents an hour mostly cleaning up after thoughtless movie patrons that thought it was really a neat thing to do to leave their trash all over the floor, and their gum securely stuck under a seat or, even better, stuck to the carpet in the aisles or the lobby.  I earned $150 while on vacation in the middle of my sophomore year, and that made the summer very special. I had never had that much disposable income before.  It was too sweet.

After graduation from the Baltimore City College (high school) in February 1962 – yet another story – I worked as a bank teller with The Equitable Trust Company for the unbelievable sum of $40.00 per week.  Now if you think that is a paltry salary, stand by?  I enlisted (also now accepted as the dumbest thing I ever did) in the United State Air Force in September, 1963 where I really got into the “little” bucks and my first monthly salary, a whopping $30.10, allow me to repeat that – thirty-two dollars and ten cents per month..  Even after getting married, the most I ever made in the military was just about $300.00 a month.

After discharge in from the service in 1967 I had a job doing collections for a finance company in Baltimore, going into some really totally unsafe areas of the city after dark.  Even now I cannot help but shudder when I think of some of the areas (aka ghettos) I entered after the sun had disappeared below the horizon – dark, very dark.  The things I did for $3900.00 a year.

I worked for an oil company for six years as a sales rep of sorts, sold residential real estate (but not well) for eight years making little or no money, and worked for Western Auto as a rep for three before hooking up with the sweetest job I have ever had, and one I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about in all my near twenty-nine years. 

Over the years I have often told people I do not make as much as I’d like to, but at this point in my life more than I need, and a hell of a lot more than I feel I am worth.  Prior to this job I had always been the consummate underachiever.  With this job came an opportunity for me to reach deep within and excel, and I feel as though I have done exactly that.  It has been a great ride with a top-notch company doing a job I fell in love with on the very first day and that feeling has not diminished one iota since that day I began this journey, January 17, 1983. 

So, I guess all of the above is a mea culpa of sorts; an apology for being successful in spite of all of my early efforts to be mediocre.  I am a very lucky guy, indeed!

There is a feeling deep within me that occasionally floats to the surface; one that begs to scream to at the top of my vocal register, “It so sucks not to be me.”

And that is all I have to say about that…