The Sermon on the Moon

Last night's hazy moon


I feel terrible! I am now snotting like a fiend and my chest is even sorer. Even geezers like myself who had flu shots last fall are infected with these miseries; I hope I can fight off pneumonia.
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I read that Ford and the Auto Workers have reached an agreement to cut wages and benefits. Will new car prices fall? Dream on!
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The chief of the United Nations, Ban ki-Moon has called the United States a "deadbeat" nation. Why is the US promising to pay 22 percent of the UN's operating budget anyway? There are 191 other member countries so our share of the costs should be less than one percent. While the members of the European Union are laughing their economic asses off at the plight of we fat American wastrells, they still depend on us to carry their begging asses on our shoulders. What country is most responsible for allowing all of Europe and parts of Asia, including Japan and South Korea, to be independent of foreign rule? Who is the biggest buyer of their exports? Who kicked Hitler's ass out of France and Mussolini's out of Italy? Who fought World War II on two major fronts, and won both of them? No nation on this earth has ever sacrificed so many of the lives of their own soldiers to save the soverignty of other nations like has the United States of America! And for you, Mr. Ban ki-Moon, who saved your country's sorry ass from your nothern bretheren? Who buys your Kia and Hyundi cars and sorry electronic products? You deserve someone like Kim Jong-il to liberate your country from the American infestation and I could care less if it happens, and if it does, you more than likely will seek sancuary in the US, you pathetic hypocrite!

Yes World, the United States of America is down right now, but we are by no means on our knees. We will be standing here offering our hand to you when you are again flat on your asses!
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I better shut up before I become really mad; I've already edited out the best parts of the above tirade!
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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...