Part Two...
Back then—1965—there were two easy ways to get into the electrical worker's union apprenticeship program; be born into it or marry into it. Due to birth restrictions, I chose the latter. My father-in-law entered into the program through government subsidies after serving in WWII, and spent most of his apprenticeship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory near Knoxville, Tennessee.
It took Carolyn's folks a year to decide that I was barely good enough to keep on as a son-in-law, and that mostly because we had a new daughter.
I left my job as a mill worker for Burlington Industries in July, and began what was to become a long and winding road through the rest of my life. I had been with the mill since January 1963, and had worked my way from $1.25/hr. to $1.60/hr., which included a nickel per hour extra for working the 4:00 pm til midnight shift. I went to work through the union for Kingsport Armature and Electric Company for $1.40/hr. Doesn't seem like much of a pay cut by today's standards, but twenty cents per hour was nearly enough to buy two tanks of gasoline at .23/gal. On top of that, I had to travel 25 miles each way and each day on a crooked two lane highway, so actually, I was taking an enormous hit in the wallet just to have a possible brighter future for the family. Another deduction came in a two percent assessment coming from my gross pay and going to the local union. Also, there was monthly union dues of $15 to be paid to the International Organization. Then there were the taxes to pay, and after all was said and done, I made enough money to make my car payment and buy gasoline. Fortunately, we were living with my parents and they, along with Carolyn's folks, supported us—all or in part—for several years. At the time, journeyman's scale was $3.50/hr., and that was big money for working people in East Tennessee. In the Ohio Valley—parts of which I would become very familiar with later on—the scale was about $5.00/hr.
After just a few days helping different electricians on small jobs, the company transferred me to Tennessee Eastman Company, where I was to work for most of the next four and one-half years.
The Eastman years are another story...
4 comments:
It is crazy how little the pay was back then. When I started working in 1979 the minimum was $2.90.
When my parents bought there house in 1965 my Dad, who worked for the A&P, was making $60.00 a week. Their mortgage was $69.00 a month.
It is insane when we look at prices today.
I know, Mark.
My dad said that after coming home from WWII, he almost had to work for the same wages he got in the army; $27/month.
We built our first house in 1969 for about $14k, and the payments were $127 per month for 20 years, and that included escrows.
Before RR took office in '81, my wife never had to work and we lived fairly well on my income. Didn't take long for the "trickle down" economy to bust that bubble.
Politics aside, this country and the whole world is in for a rude awakening, and I think it will be soon.
I think the rude awakening is just beginning. It is time to hunker down a little. However I bet most people in the U.S. at least do not really see it coming.
I could be wrong.
I hope we are both wrong, but there is no hard cash in the coffers of so many countries. They (and we) can't continue to keep borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. China will soon control the purse stings for all of us, I'm afraid. I believe China is behind the high oil prices, because they seem to be buying all the surplus they can get at any price they have to pay, and using our hard earned money we've spent on their shoddy goods. And all those bicycles over there don't use a lot of gasoline. Just thinking about that gives me the willies.
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