Over the years Diane had a lot of different jobs, starting
with ironing men’s dress shirts for 20cents each and, of course, baby
sitting. She wasn’t very good at the
latter job and once poured a glass of water over the head of a recalcitrant boy
child of about 9years. She did not sit
for that family anymore – even if they had asked her!
As an adult she worked for a temporary agency that sent
workers out on jobs to replace someone who was ill or the company just needed
extra help. The job operating different
types of copying machines was interesting, but the guys had a great laugh at
referring to me as the Reproduction Clerk. Sexual harassment on the job was common then. One fascinating job was working on an
assembly line. This was in the Vietnam
era and Hyland Labs packaged testing materials and first aid materials to be
dropped from helicopters in the battle zones. There was a layer of foam that fit exactly over the tops of the items inside.
The exterior packaging was two layers of heavy cardboard and about a 3”
layer of Styrofoam. Diane started out on
the line, putting square things in square holes and round things in round
holes. There were ladies on the line who
had been doing this job for twenty years or more. The things were different and the holes were
different shapes, but it was a monotonous job.
After about two weeks Diane told the supervisor she didn’t think she was
suited to the job. He offered her
training on the labeling machine, which sounded interesting. At first it was, but it too was a monotonous
job. By the time she left the company
she could work all the machines on the line and they offered her a full time
job. Diane declined, she knew she wasn’t
cut out for that kind of work.
She continued with the temporary company and did a lot of
interesting jobs over the next three years.
It was nice to be able to not work for a few days or a week, but the
drawback was there were no benefits, she had to work enough to pay for her own
health insurance. So, she went to work
full time w/benefits for an aerospace company.
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