Changing From Blue Collar To White Collar

A story of starting from having nothing to a having satisfying life

Just as a background, I was brought up in a welfare family. My father left my mother with four young children and no income in the late 1050s/early 1960s. We had no money. When we were a little older and some of us left the house, she was able to go to a jobs program and was able to get off welfare.

I tell this as a background to understand my journey in the job/career world.

My mother did the best she could and was a good influence on all of us as far as being good people and understanding a little of life. But there was no practical guidance on how appliances worked and how to fix them. Just the life skills that were needed at that period of time.

We kids had to start at an early age to earn money for everyday needs. I started at age 11 with a paper route. This was in the northeast United States, so I had to walk outside in the freezing winter and hot summer 7 days a week delivering the news. I learned to handle a little bit of money and the responsibility of working every day.

I also started cutting lawns with a friend at around 13/14 years old. His uncle lent us the money to buy a lawnmower with the promise to pay him back. We had to go by his rules of one-third of the money we made going to paying him back. One-third was to be kept in a jar for the business for gas, oil, blades, and other maintenance. The last third we split to do as we wished. My money went partly to my mom for bills, a little in a bank savings account, and then a little fun for me.

At around 16 or 17 years old, I next cleaned floors and garbage after school at a teen club after they had night dances. Sometimes I would be called in as a “bouncer” in case of trouble because I was tall and had an athletic build. After that, I worked in a gas service station where I pumped gas and did light mechanics on cars and trucks. I learned to work on cars which would serve me well until they ruined cars so that we could not work on them.

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