Looking Back / Planning Forward

I'm very nostalgic these days. Planning for the "next" retirement has me in a swirl of memories mixed with future planning. My entire life, from the summer after high school graduation to the present day, has been geared to "The Job," with very few exceptions. There was a nearly six-week period in 1966 between quitting the school board secretarial job to claiming the executive secretarial position at Emporia State College. I WAS starting to sweat a bit, as I had made the claim when I left the school board after 6 months that I would have a better paying job within 6 weeks! It was rewarding to my psyche that, after doing well on the Clerk Typist test, I had the choice of two jobs--data input at the county mental health facility (what fun would that have been?!) or Executive Secretary to the Head of the Art Department at the College, both of which paid considerably more than the school board.

The four years at the Art Department were certainly a ride. In addition to dealing with everything required by the charismatic Head of the Art Department (from his correspondence, monitoring his schedule, to promotion and arranging shipment of his art shows), I supervised all manner of correspondence, schedules and reports for 12 faculty members, all creative creatures requiring various sorts of handling. On-campus paper work could be done by student interns, but anything going off-campus was to be done by me. After four years at this high-maintenance job, I discovered the "cap" to my Clerk-Typist I salary was an astonishing half of what it was for Printer! I visited the printing department to see what they did for so much money, and discovered it was primarily typing. Since I have typed like the wind since high school, I campaigned to transfer. The personnel director tried everything he could to keep me from doing so--said he had never had anyone score 100 on the Clerk-Typist test before! I persevered, however, telling him, "But it doesn't pay!" Thus I became a typesetter, which was my career for the next 29 years.

When I retired at 64 in November, 1998, from G&S Typesetters in Austin after 23 years, and moved to Seadrift, I spent the whole of 1999 actually "retired," struggling a bit with the concept that my time was my own. It was an adjustment for sure, as I had the disquieting feeling that surely vacation was over, and I should be returning to the job!

In 2000, I worked 6 months with the Census. In 2001 and 2002 I held down a couple of part time jobs (not enough money, not much work) followed by 9 months co-managing a Port O'Connor motel (good money, too much work!). When the bloom was off the rose with that last job, it coincided with the Seadrift librarian being ready to retire, and the job at the library was, as Goldilocks says, just right.

Now, after eight years and 6 months as librarian, manager and chief cook and bottle-washer at the Seadrift library, it's time to put finita to what is surely my last stint as an employee. I fully intend to pursue my writing in numerous online venues. I've neglected my photography in the last couple of years also; road trips around Texas will get my camera in high gear once again. I will be able to make more trips to Yoakum to visit my friend in the nursing home. I look forward to longer visits to Kansas and family, and my own version of Sleepless in Seattle will be enabled.

At 76, nostalgia is, of course, a big part of my days. So much to look back on and relive, MOST of it positive and rewarding. A movie I watched on TV recently had our heroine musing at the end: "You can't go back to who you were before what happens to you." It's true. You either grow stronger, wiser, OR you spiral off into disaster. What makes the difference? If I knew that, I'd be the author of a best-selling book and rich to boot. The trick is, of course, to not let the spiraling off into disaster happen. I don't know how I escaped it myself.

Most of my trials, some of which involved life-threatening events, left me mad as hell and I wasn't going to take it any more! (again?) Wherever I worked and lived, I always developed a network of loyal, supportive friends, that leapt unfailingly and unflinchingly to my defense and aid whenever needed. If one does not have that, I'm not sure how one would cope.

Now, with this new era of my life beginning the first day of October, 2011, I'll just gear down a tad, and see what mischief I can get myself into, without the structure of a job to rein me in. Look out, World!

CJ, who's still Livin' on the Bay