PLACES WHERE I HAVE WORKED

Introduction

I worked for pay for over 50 years before retiring in 2004.  Prior to holding those paid jobs, I had various jobs in and around my home.  My dad was very handy and I learned a lot by helping him do things.  Some of those jobs were my responsibility as a member of the family and I did them in that spirit.  I didn’t have a formal allowance; but I got things I needed and sometimes got money to buy things that I wanted.  My formal working career began in 1963 with my graduation from Western Reserve University. During that career I had the opportunity to work in many very interesting buildings, mostly in the Cleveland area. Prior to my graduation from college, I also had some jobs which supported my interests and helped me save money for my education.

My work history before graduating from Shaw High School

Throughout my youth if I needed money for any purpose, such as buying something for myself or a present for somebody else, I was able to get funds by mowing lawns, shoveling snow or doing other odd jobs. 

The Cleveland Press

In 1950, when I was 10 years old, I had my first paid job as a paper carrier for the Cleveland Press, an afternoon paper, which was Cleveland’s largest.  At that time there was one morning paper, the Plain Dealer, and two afternoon papers, the News and the Press. This job was great experience for a young boy.  It was usually passed along by an older brother or close friend.  My friend, Ralph Pratt, had the route before me and he passed it on to me when he moved on to other things.

 

As a carrier, I was an independent contractor with the Press.  They gave me the route and provided the papers.  The carrier had the responsibility to service the route.  That included delivering papers, collecting money and developing a customer base.  The more customers you had, the more money you made.  My route in East Cleveland had about 50 customers on Shaw Avenue from Euclid Avenue to the Nickel Plate Railroad, Plymouth Place, Welton Drive and Euclid Avenue from Shaw to Richmond Place.  I worked for a district manager named Mr. Engel.  He delivered the papers to me and other carriers and collected the money for the papers once a week.  I in turn collected from my customers once a week. A carrier had to be well disciplined to get the papers to customers on a timely basis, which usually meant between 3 PM and 4 PM every Monday through Saturday.  When I started in 1950 the paper cost 5 cents a day, so my customers owed me 30 cents each week.  That generated $15 from a 50 customer route like mine.  Most of that went to Mr. Engel and the Press.  My share was about $5 a week.  The price for the paper increased to 7 cents a day or 42 cents a week later in my career thus increasing my pay a little.  We had inflation even in those days.

 

When I moved to Nela View Road in 1953, the Press route belonged to my best friend, David Reynard.  David’s father was a teacher at Shaw High School and as a result their family had the ability to take long summer vacations.  I became David’s designated substitute for several weeks each summer and at other times he needed help.  My next door neighbor, Lewis Jones, also had a nearby route and I became a substitute for him as well.  Those substitute carrier jobs provided enough spending money for me those years and helped develop my sense of responsibility and work ethic.

Ricks Radio and Record Store

One of my greatest interests during my teen years was big band music and phonograph records.  When I was still living on Shaw Avenue and delivering the Cleveland Press, I discovered Ricks Radio and Records on Euclid Avenue near Allandale Road.  It turned out that I spent most of my paper route money on records at Ricks.  The store was owned by a married couple, Cappy and Kitty Ricks. Cappy did the radio and TV repair in one section of the store while Kitty ran the record store.  I had been a regular customer since about 1950 and I got to know the Ricks well.  When I moved to Nela View in 1953 and didn’t have a regular job, Kitty Ricks offered me a job at the Record Store.  For me that was being like a kid in a candy store. 

I worked at Ricks for a couple of years.  I didn’t make much money, about 50 cents an hour; but I enjoyed the atmosphere and learned a lot.  I probably spent most of my earnings on records. That was near the end of the 78 rpm era; 45 rpm records were just starting to come in as were 33 1/3 rpm LPs.  Most of the records I bought were 78s. I was just starting a collection which now includes about a thousand 78s, hundreds of LPs, cassette tapes, 8 track tapes, reel to reel tapes, CDs and a lot of equipment on which to play them, including a juke box for my 78s.

While working there I learned a lot about running a small business including dealing with customers, handling money, and maintaining a file system for old and new records.  I also learned a lot about different styles of music, because many of our regular customers had interests in specific types of music.  I also learned how to deal with the various record company suppliers.  I remember one time Cappy came out of the repair office and told us he had just heard a record that we probably should order.  It was Mitch Miller’s Yellow Rose Of Texas.  Less than an hour later the Columbia Records Rep came into the store with a box of that record.  I guess they knew it was going to be a hit.

Another great interest of mine was radios and audio equipment. I had been fascinated by radios since I was a little kid.  At that time I hadn’t yet built a radio; but I had taken several apart.  I read every book in the 538 Dewey series (electronics) in the East Cleveland Public Library. While working at Ricks I had many opportunities to watch Cappy and learn things about his work. In addition to repairing radios and TVs, he built and maintained sound systems including one with large speakers on top of his Ford Panel Delivery truck.  The speakers had come from Shaw Stadium after he had installed new ones there.  Cappy was also a ham radio operator (W8DXW) and inspired me to become one too.

In addition to working in the store, I spent most of the summer of 1955 helping Cappy and Kitty restore an old farm in Montville, Ohio.  Since the record store was not open on Mondays, we would go to the farm after work on Friday and stay there until returning to work on Tuesday.  On the farm I helped with the garden, drove a tractor and helped to tear down an old barn.  I wasn’t paid for that work, but it was great experience.  I also went with Cappy on some of his sound jobs including the drag races at the Akron Airport, where I met Art Arfons with his “Green Monster” racing car. I also spent many evenings with Cappy in his radio shack talking to other ham radio operators around the world.  My time with Cappy and Kitty didn’t earn me a lot of money; but the experience did a lot to make me the man I became. That is priceless and I owe them a lot.

 

The Cleveland Heights Public Library

Another great interest of mine was reading.  I learned early in life the wonders of the East Cleveland Public Library. I learned how to use the card catalog when I was a student at Prospect Elementary School.  With help from the friendly librarians I became an avid library user.  That interest in libraries followed me throughout my l life.  That may have something to do with the fact that I am married to a librarian and I served several years as President of the Friends of the Beachwood Library.

While I was at Shaw High School in about 1956, I discovered that the Cleveland Heights Public Library was looking for a part time library page at the Lee Road branch.  I lived on Nela View Road, which was in Cleveland Heights, but part of the East Cleveland School District. I was really a part of two communities. At that time I felt more like an East Clevelander.  We moved there so I could continue to attend the East Cleveland schools.  Taking a job at the Lee Road branch library introduced me to the community in which I was later to live for about twenty years.  The library was three miles from my home, too far to walk, which would have taken about an hour in each direction.  Fortunately I could take a number 7 bus from Taylor and Monticello Blvd. transferring to the number 40 bus at Lee and Mayfield Road.

 

                              Lee Branch Library
 

The job paid $ .70 per hour, which doesn’t sound like much; but it was a lot for me at that time of my life.  Working as a library page was a great experience.  It was a thrill to handle all those books and to keep them in order so that I and others could later retrieve them for our reading pleasure.  It also helped me during my later life when my detailed knowledge of the Dewey decimal system helped in my search for knowledge.  I worked at the Lee Branch and sometimes filled in at the main branch on Coventry and Euclid Heights Blvd. for about two years. It was an experience which did much to influence everything I did later in life including my life today

 

My work history while attending college

When I graduated from Shaw High School in June of 1958, I wasn’t sure what I would be doing for the rest of my life.  One thing I was sure of was that whatever I did; I would have to go to college.  One thing I didn’t know was how I would pay for it.  My high school record was not good enough to obtain a scholarship; so I knew whatever I did, I would have to pay for it myself.

There was a mild recession going on the summer I graduated.  It was not easy to find a job.  Fortunately, my friend and fellow Shaw graduate, Al Sattler, had an uncle who was service manager at Dowd Oldsmobile in Cleveland Heights. His uncle arranged for Al, and his friends, Al Clum and me, to attend the General Motors Training Center on Brookpark Road next to the Chevy plant.  The Training Center was run by GM to train workers in the automotive field in the repair and maintenance of GM products.  We had week long sessions on carburetors, electrical systems, body work, and other automotive systems.  After a summer of that training, we were probably qualified for a lot of jobs in the automobile repair field.  For us it was a useful way to spend our summer and for me it helped me in another one of my interests, antique automobile restoration and repair.  However that was in my future, since I bought my first antique car in 1966, a 1929 Model A Ford.

Higbee Department Store

I didn’t enter college in September 1958; so I did some part time work before starting my University career at Kent State University in January 1959.  My first job in downtown Cleveland was as a Christmas season employee at the Higbee department store on Public Square.  I was a stock boy in the notions department.  The work was easy and it gave me an understanding of how large department stores operate.  Most of my 

 

work was done in the stock room on one of the upper floors, I think the 10^th.  I and a couple of female clerks worked upstairs and I would often have to move supplies down to the first floor notions department where a staff of sales ladies sold them to the public.  We all worked under a buyer for the notions department. Notions include small articles such as buttons, thread, ribbon, and other personal items, especially such items displayed together for sale, as in a department store. Our department also sold equipment used in sewing including scissors and other tools of the trade.  I usually worked the night shift from about 5 PM until closing.  During the Christmas season closing time was 10 PM.  I commuted to work taking the rapid transit to the Windermere station and the Number 54 bus up Taylor Road to my home on Nela View. Sometimes the bus was not running and I walked home.  I was used to that because I had walked that distance for six years while attending Kirk Junior High and Shaw High School.

Tuition at Kent was very reasonable, so the money I had earned and saved supported me during the winter and spring quarters at Kent. I lived in a rented room off campus and ate on a meal ticket in one of the dormitories. I completed   my first year at college during the fall quarter of 1959.  I decided that I could save money by driving to Kent in the fall while living at home.  That was a bad decision and helped me determine that I should transfer to Western Reserve University where I could have a better campus experience while also staying at home. So in January 1960 I began my college life at Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. 

 

                            Adelbert Hall at Western Reserve University

 That turned out to be a great decision which resulted in obtaining a great education and finding a life partner in my wife, Jean, who I married in November 1962.  Jean graduated in June 1962 and I decided to graduate in June of 1963 by going part time and continuing to work at my campus jobs.  Those jobs which I held from January 1959 until June 1963 are discussed below.

United States Railroad Retirement Board

At some point in my young life I became aware of the Federal Civil Service system.  Through that system you can obtain good jobs in the federal government by taking a civil service examination.  Many of those jobs are part time or temporary and the pay is quite good. I learned about jobs available and took examinations, which led to jobs that helped pay for my college education.

The first federal agency for which I worked was the United States Railroad Retirement Board. During the summers of 1959, 1960 and 1961 I received 3 month appointments as a GS 4 File Clerk at the Board.  These were well paid and interesting full time jobs. The USRRB  is the equivalent of the Social Security System for railroad workers.  We processed claims for unemployment and other benefits for railroad workers in Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania.  When I started work my duties were mostly filing client folders after claims had been processed.  Later they also had me reviewing claims for benefits.  By working there I learned a lot about the various railroad job categories and the places that those workers were employed.  I also learned that you can succeed in any job through hard work and meeting expectations. I’m sure that I received my second and third appointments with increased responsibility as a result of good performance in the first one.

 

                                       The Public Square Building

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The USRRB office was on the second floor of the Public Square Building. That building was an old and interesting place to work.  It had been on Public Square since 1895 and was demolished in 1990.  The site of the building is now part of the Sherwin Williams development.  As an older building, it did not have air conditioning.  On some summer days the heat was almost unbearable.  To combat the heat salt tablets were provided in the men’s room and there were a few days that we were sent home early.  Those days were few and they didn’t affect my pay, because I was not an hourly employee.

This was my introduction government employment and especially the Federal Civil Service.  I used that service successfully at other times in my career including the next employer listed below.

United States Post Office

The United States Post Office employed extra workers for the peak work load time around the Christmas holiday.  For several weeks at that time mail was delivered two or more times a day in most residential neighborhoods.  In 1959 I went down to the East Cleveland Post Office and applied for one of those jobs.  The post office for zone 12 was on Euclid Avenue near Windermere.  I was assigned to work on mail routes in my own neighborhood.  After that first trip to the Post Office I didn’t have to return there.  The mail was delivered to one of the drop boxes in my neighborhood.  I was given a key for the box and delivered the mail that was left there.

 

                                           East Cleveland Post Office

The job paid well and was a great way to earn money for holiday gifts and to save for the college tuition, which was due in January.  I worked two years delivering holiday mail in my neighborhood.  My last holiday assignment for the Post Office was as a mail clerk at the downtown post office.  That assignment was in the wonderful art deco building next to the Terminal Tower.  I worked the second shift sorting and moving mail around the large facility.  I again commuted to and from work by rapid transit just as I had when working at Higbees and the Public Square Building.

 

 

Western Reserve University

Starting in 1960 I was able to earn money working for the university.  One interesting job I had was washing walls in the girl’s dormitories on Bellflower Road.  Those dormitories were actually old houses, which have since been torn down except for Guilford House, which has been preserved.   I and some other student employees were assigned to work with full time members of the paint crew.  Our leader was an Italian painter who smoked little cigars and told us not to set a bad example by working too fast.  He showed us how to move the bed to block the door so we could take it easy for a while.  Even a menial job like that was a learning opportunity and I am an excellent wall washer to this day.

                      Guilford House at Western Reserve University

Most of my work for the university was at The Freiberger Library.  I worked there during the school year and at times during holiday breaks.  For over three years my work at the library helped pay tuition and some of my other expenses.  I have already mentioned my love of libraries and my experience at the Cleveland Heights Public Library.   

 

                    Freiberger Library at Western Reserve University

My experience at Freiberger included working in most sections of that large library.  I started out as a library page shelving books and keeping the area neat and orderly.  Eventually I worked at the loan desk, reserve desk, and specialty areas such as government documents and photo copy services. My experience working in libraries helped greatly in my future work as well as when I was later working on my Master of Public Administration degree at Cleveland State University.