I used to go there all the time. After high school I applied for a job there and I passed the general test fine, but they told me I flunked the mechanical test.
I have never had any skill in that area. I was not the kid fixing my car, or did anything mechanical-lol.
Sort of ironic as my grandfather, brother and two nephews were all plumbers.
My first main job was at a paper bag factory, cement type bags, in Emeryville. Ames Harris and Neville. I started as a pick up boy, then moved to "Shafter" putting rolls on the machine while it was moving.
When my seniority came for me to move to operator, both the company and I knew I would not be good at that and that was when I quit and entered Contra Costa community college. I am sure they were relieved-lol.
I have been lucky in life.
The first luck was not getting that job at Standard Oil. The next bit of luck was just as I was ready to start college I was at a party and one of the guys there told me he could get me into the "asbestos union". Egads-lol.
That was the union all the kids wanted to get into as they made something like $600 a week? Which was a fortune in those days and they all had new cars and boats, etc.
I remember telling "Charlie":" I am going to college", and turned it down.
Clearly the best decision of my life-lol!
I saw you went to Berkeley. I remember going there when I was working at the factory and saying to myself:"30,000 people go here and they are all smarter than me".
That sort if negative image of myself at the time is what a lot kids have and it is so wrong and why I am a zealot about education and community colleges.
Once I got into college and got my feet under me, I had no trouble with college at all and did quite well.
We need to have free public schools from pre school through college so we can help all the kids like me to realize their potential.
That would not only help the kids, it would help the society and our democracy! |
