Experience? We Got No Stinkin' Experience!

After four years of college, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that employers were lined up just waiting for me to offer myself as the ideal employee - educated - fun -interesting - adaptable - hard working - family man - actually an ideal catch! Guess what?

I had quit my job at the Nazarene Book Store (shipping & receiving plus janitorial) two weeks before graduation. Too much going on with the end of the school year and my college days. Now here I am with diploma in hand and out giving these companies a crack at hiring me. I was married to Ann and we had a two month old son, Rick.

EVERYWHERE I went they wanted that nasty old "Experience". After lots of interviews I got an opportunity to sell my skills and personality to C. F. Braun & Company in Alhambra. They were builders of refinery plants, asphalt plants, etc all over the globe. Very nice brick buildings with individual offices and apparently doing very nicely. I interviewed with the manager of a department that secured bids and submitted them on equipment being part of the company bid for a major project. They bid on any job over $25 million. They wanted someone to develop a system of files of various items they were needing so the buyers could review and make their selection.

I'm their man! But all of the sudden the manager said "we are looking for someone with experience and you don't qualify for this job". That did it! With nothing to lose I got out of my chair and banged my fist on his beautiful wood desk and looking him in the eye said emphatically "how do you get experience? Everyone wants it -- how do you get it?"

His next statement came out differently than I expected. He asked me if I could start on Monday! I found out that they paid once a month and that was last week! So I had three more weeks of no money for my family at a time that was critical for us.

I had my own private office with a glass door. Worked very hard for $350 a month and nine months after I was hired I found out the economics of this type of work. When they lose a job that they bid on, layoffs were the next step. Since I was the last one hired on this staff, I was first to go. They brought someone in from another department and gave me one day to train him. With one week severance pay, I was once again on my own but with one secret ability --experience!

I went to a competitor called Fluor Corporation in Maywood and was hired in the Expediting Department (because of my experience). It was our job to get the purchased materials to the jobsite on time. The job that C. F. Braun & Company lost, Fluor got. Unfortunately this job only lasted 11 months and I was once again out of work. But with "more experience".

See my posting on "50 Years Ago Today" which tells of my next job which became my career of 37 years and how "experience" helped me get $5 more a month than people hired without experience. Whoopteedoo!

C.O.E. High School Class

Dick at Sears Mail Order 1952

When I was in Southeast High School in Kansas City, Missouri, I was not an interested student. If I liked a class I got A's. Like Choir and Algebra. If I didn't care for the subject, you can only guess what kind of a grade I got. I just wanted to get out of high school and get on with my life.

I had enough credits to graduate if I took only three subjects in my senior year (1951-1952). They offered a class called Co-operative Occupational Education (C.O.E.) much like ROP is today. You took the class as your last class of the day and here you discussed things that go on in the workplace. General situations at any employment no matter where you worked were discussed. I could add my two cents concerning the job I had. In the summer of 1951 I got a job at the Sears Mail Order plant in Kansas City. So during my senior year I was allowed to leave school and work at Sears from 12 noon to 6 p.m. every day. That is only 2 hours short of a full time job. During the Summer (1951-1952), I worked full time.

The picture above is one of me taken at Sears Mail Order by our school and appeared in the 1952 yearbook called Crusader.

My job was to sort packages going to the various retail stores in the area. Orders were filled in other departments and sent to our area for sorting and mailing to the retail stores.

The country was in the middle of the Korean Conflict and had the military draft. I had no intentions of going to college when the war broke out in June 1950 but as I entered my senior year, the war made you think that it wasn't such a bad idea. You could get a 2S (student) deferment if you attended college and maintained a "C" average.

During this year I decided it would be better to attend college to keep from being drafted into the Army. I applied to Pasadena Nazarene College (PNC) in Pasadena, California and was accepted. My job at Sears gave me money to start attending a private college. My 2S deferment lasted all four years and just before graduation, our son, Rick, was born deferring me because I was now a father. Thank you President Ike.

This work experience and the C.O.E. program helped me in future job opportunities. I'm glad it was offered in high school.

Forbidden Entertainment

In 1952 television was fairly new in Kansas City, Missouri. Having a set was a novelty. Most had small black and white round viewing tubes. During the summer when I was preparing to leave for college, I found an entertainment combination set which included a 7 inch B&W television, a 45 rpm record player, and an AM radio. It was about the size of a 21 inch table model today.

When I arrived at Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena, California, I found that TV was a no-no there. So I put the set in my closet and did my viewing quietly. Anyone coming into the room couldn't see the set and didn't know I had it.

One night about 15 of the guys were watching something on that 7 inch TV in my room and a knock came on the door. One of the guys opened it and there stood the dorm Pop who was in charge of the building. He saw the TV and told me I had to get rid of it. So ended my career as entertainment provider.