We have a thread for what our professions were during our careers. How about, what did your parents do for a living while you were with them as a child? Of course, if you want to expand on that to talk about what they may have done before or after you were with them, that's fine too. While I was growing up, my father worked at a shipbuilding factory. Odd as it may seem, I have no idea what he did there. I was on the premises only once. When the company was bringing a historic old ship up from Lake Michigan, employees were allowed to bring their families to see the wreck as it was brought up from the water. Other than that it was clear that my dad was well known by most everyone there, I still didn't learn what his job was. He wasn't in management because he went to work in work clothes. One of his two weeks of vacation was spent at the Boy Scout camp since he was a Boy Scout leader, and he also managed a Little League team. He also farmed several 40-acre plots of land, some of which he owned, and others that he leased. At one time, I believe he farmed full-time with draft horses because we still had one of the humongous draft horses, who was retired. The horse's name was Bill, and I remember him well. Since our barn had stanchions for more than a dozen cows, I will assume that he once had at least that many milk cows, although we only had one during my memory, maybe two when I was really young, but I'm not sure about that. During the winter, his second job was logging. He owned some woodlands as well as fields, and he logged some during the winter. One of the woodlots was not far from the house, and I can remember hearing his chainsaw going well after dark some nights, even though he had to get up at 5:00 am for work. He also shoed horses, but I think he did that for favors rather than for cash, since it's always nice to have people owe you, and he would buy horses at auction to be resold later. If they didn't sell, he kept them, so I don't know how lucrative that was. My mother worked only around the house and at church. Since she had five boys and no girls, and we rarely helped out around the house, I don't suppose it was an easy job. She also kept what she called a garden, but it was probably around an acre in size. Dad would plow it in the spring but she did everything else, although we did get roped into helping her in the garden sometimes. She grew enough to keep us in vegetables year-round since she canned a whole bunch of stuff. When dad wasn't growing potatoes as a cash crop, she'd take over another piece of land and grow potatoes, too. Dad rotated his crops, but he grew potatoes more often than any other crop, and since the ones that were very large or very small didn't sell for as much money, they went in our potato cellar which, at the start of the winter, would be so full that we could get the potatoes we needed without even walking all the way down the steps. Okay, your turn.
@Ken Anderson My brother Paul was born in 1928, a year after my folks married; he died at 5 weeks of age from pneumonia. My sister Lois was born in 1930, the Depression hurt my folks pretty badly. My dad had become an apprentice Tool & Die Maker in the early 1920s, though he only was schooled through the 8th. grade. He was "Employment Critical" during WW-II, as well as too old for the draft, but worked over one year solid 6 days a week, 10 or 12 hours a day making dies which produced war parts. He built the first Jeep dash panel blanked in one hit. BIG die set, there was a picture of him around the house when I was a kid, standing by that die set; it was bigger than a dining-room table, over a foot thick! He had muscular arms which looked like footballs! My mother had worked in an office when they met, probably about 1925 or '6, became an at-home mother when my brother was born, remained as such throughout the Depression, then I came along 12 years after my sister, the classical "mistake", I always thought, though in later years when first discussed, she denied it! She never drove a car, never had a driver license, raised me and my nephew, born when I was 5, walking to the stores for all shopping needs. My dad was 41 when I was born. By the time I was old enough to know what the hell was going on, he talked of retirement a lot, hated spending money. Nonetheless, he NEVER once bought a car on payments, always saving to buy with cash. They bought our brick bungalow in Berwyn, Illinois about 1941, paid cash, $4,200. I was born there and lived in it, marrying and buying it from my folks in 1966, when they moved to Michigan. We saw that my dad, who retired in January, 1966, was being stricken with a gradually debilitating disease which more or less baffled the doctors, who finally proclaimed it Parkinson's Disease. They moved back to Illinois in mid-1967. He died in May, 1972. That summer, my wife and her brother & sister and I(they were minors) left Chicago area forever. After my dad died, my mother, left alone, took driving lessons and got her DL at about 67! Wife and I were divorced in 1976, at which time my mother chose to come out west and live with me while I completed Engineering Degree requirements at University of Nevada. I took a job in Canon City, Colorado, she followed me there, then dis-satisfied with the job, I took a position with Dana Corporation as Facilities Engineer in Churubusco, IN. It was there I met my 2nd. wife to be; we have been together since 1978. My mother died in January,1986, two weeks before the Space Shuttle Disaster. She had always marveled at the space program, and I felt relieved she did not experience that horrible event. Frank
Both my parents had PhDs. My dad was a high-level government space scientist before he retired young (late 30s) and went mostly full-time on the ranch. The time away from home and the stress of top secrecy took a toll on him. He did occasional special assignment contract work (mostly math formulas) for NASA up until the moon landing in 1969. After that, he wrote articles for scientific journals. My mother was a home economics professor finally retiring in her 60s. My father was a genius and my mother was brilliant. Both were honor roll students from 1st grade to college doctorate. After struggling to graduate Junior high, it was rumored that I was adopted.
My step-dad worked for a lumber yard as well as taking care of the small farm we lived on. Due to my step-mom's eyes, which were very bad and required a number of surgeries, didn't work at all (that I knew of). My step-dad was excellent with math, but I was, basically, far from being "excellent". He loved his outdoor, labor-filled job.
My dad was a tool & dye maker and salesman at different times. Mom was a Cook and Receptioniat at different times.
Let’s see. When I came into existence my dad worked construction and as a machinist / welder etc. Later on he owned a cabinet shop in Florida, then later started his own construction company whilst at the same time opened a shop for building stair cases and doors. My mother…dunno. She left when I was 5 and gauging from the number of half brothers and sisters I have I think she really didn’t have much time for employment. My 1st stepmother was a paralegal and worked for a lot of attorneys. My 2nd stepmother worked at the U.N. as an interpreter before she met my dad. She became a housewife and bore my sister who was named Holly Tara or as my dad said, holy terror. She did indeed live up to my Dad’s version of her name. My 3rd stepmother was an idiot. A beautiful idiot but still an idiot. After my dad and her split up she became a hooker. A beautiful hooker but still a hooker.
My mom and dad were married around 1925, lived in Idaho, but spent a few years working in the San Diego area , as caretakers on a large ranch. They went through the depression back in north Idaho, and mom would talk about going to town with the fresh milk from their cow and selling or trading it for things they needed. When the REA (rural electrification association) came along, early 1940’s, mom and dad sold memberships to people (they cost $1), and signed them up for electricity. When that happened, my dad was one of the first power lineman for the REA, and he worked there until he retired in 1966. My mom and Grandpa Bailey had a small neighborhood grocery, and that was pretty much where I grew up in my younger years, since she was at the store all day. Mom also bought real estate, and she had rental houses, and later some small apartments. It was my job to answer phones and tell people about the property for rent, and many times, I got on my pony and trotted across town to show and apartment or collect rent. Later, my mom bought an old hotel, and she and my dad lived there and ran the hotel for many years, until they passed away in 1988. Since they still had property in Sandpoint, they went back and forth to take care of everything , but eventually she sold most of the rental properties. This is a picture of the old Charbonneau Hotel, which sat near the Pend O’reille River, and was built in the early 1900’s. It had a sawdust furnace, so each summer, my dad got loads and loads of sawdust from the sawmills, and stored it in the basement to keep the hotel warm in the winter months. There was a big hopper on the furnace and he had to fill that with sawdust and then it dribbled into the furnace a little at a time, and provided both heat and hot water for the hotel.
My father was an electrical/structural engineer and could build or fix just about anything, he worked for a huge corporation for 30 years back when you could be a company man and spent most of his time building power plants. Mom spent most of her time raising us kids but also worked as a preschool teacher, she always reminded me of Mother Goose, she loved all children and I am sure that she left an indelible wonderful impression upon all of her students. I miss them so much.
My dad was born in 1919 somewhere in Pennsylvania. He worked for G.C. Murphy Company his entire life (headquartered outside of Pittsburgh), starting as a stock clerk in high school, then going off to fight The Big One, and then being a store manager the rest of his life (he died of cancer at age 55 in 1975.) His job transferred him to new locations every 5 years or so. We ended up in Virginia when he got transferred from Indiana. When it was time to transfer again, my mother refused to go, so they lived apart. He was offered the position of District Manager (overseeing a bunch of stores) in Atlanta, but opted to take another store manager position in another city in Virginia so he could be a couple of hour's drive away from us. They never divorced, always Married Filing Jointly, etc. Back then these stores were almost like nationally branded independent shops. He had broad latitude (complete control?) over what was sold in his specific store. He had his own buyers, accounts payable staff, payroll, etc. I remember looking over his shoulder once as he went through the cloth-bound manual ledgers showing product costs and deciding what to sell the stuff for. He would just write the price next to each line item without so much as a scratch pad. Even as a 10-11 year old, I was amazed at how he almost gave away some of the stuff, and equally shocked at how he gouged people on other items (for some reason I remember lamps as being a "have you no conscience?" item.) He was highly successful within the company, winning profit awards, sales contests, TV sets, stuff like that. I doubt I had a shred of clothing or a toy that did not come through his store. My mother was born in England in 1925. They met during The Big One. My father's parents were German, and I don't believe such 1st Generation Americans of German & Italian immigrants were put into armed combat roles. My impression is that there were loyalty concerns, as well as the uncertainty that a soldier might not risk pulling the trigger against a potential distant relative, but I cannot swear to the accuracy of that thought. In any event, I know my father was in charge of a bomb disposal unit. They married and came to the states (or they came here and married, I don't know which.) My mother did not work until my father got transferred for that last time and we stayed behind. When I was a child in Indiana she was President of the PTA and "Homeroom Mother" for most of us, baking brownies (always frosted) for special class events. She was not active in the PTA after we moved. When they split up, my father lived a low-key life (really had no life but his work) and sent much of his money back home, while my mother sought employment for the first time in her life in her mid-40s. I remember going to the high school a couple of towns over in the evenings, sitting in the car while my mother took typing classes so she could get a job. She ended up working in the Collections Department of the Sears Credit Central in Bethesda MD, "calling deadbeats" on overdue Sears credit card payments. She eventually became manager of the place. When she hit her mid 50s and was approaching retirement age, they tried to force her out as was their custom (Sears had a pension plan.) They put her in outside sales in their Contract Sales area, thinking she would flounder and fail in such a foreign environment. They were wrong. Contract Salespeople drive around and seek out the project managers of under-construction subdivisions, apartments, townhouses, etc. and sell them on installing Sears Kenmore appliances: kitchens, bathrooms, water heaters, furnaces, etc. Because she was one of the few older women out there, because she had the British aura, and because she was thrown out there during the early boom years of northern Virginia, she succeeded and made good money, and was Salesperson of the Year for several years. (That must have pissed off her bosses.) It was kind of an inside joke because she spent a lot of her time going to second hand shops and the like, then getting in a month-end panic state and closing all her sales within a few days. (To think of the real money she could have made.) She retired from that job around 1990-1991, selling the land and home we had since 1963 (plus the adjoining place she bought as rental property) to a developer, and lived comfortably until she passed away 16 years later of dementia complications at the age of 82.
My dad worked at the Watertown Arsenal during WWII. Prior to that he was a chauffeur for a Harvard University professor. After the war he worked a while for Pickwick brewery then got a job with US Plywood. He started as a worker in the warehouse, then drove delivery truck(i went with him a lot) then became the night supervisor. My mother was a stay at home mo until brother ad I were in teens. Then she spent a short time working at a maid for a fairly rich woman. Then she went to work for Jordan Marsh in Boston selling women's uniforms.
My dad was born in 1914, mom in 1916. Dad was self employed most of his working life. During the depression he worked at what ever he could find to do. Once he worked for a Carnival, as a boxer and a wrestler, taking on all comers for the amusement of Carnival goers. Once my uncle, dad's brother, was working in the area where the Carnival was set up for a ten day period. He stopped by one even to visit dad. Dad was off but another boxer kept harassing Sam, dad's brother. One verbal assult led to another and the boxer invited Sam into the ring after making him angry. My uncle put on the gloves and then put the Carnival boxer in the hospital for a week. The Carnival moved on leaving the boxer in the hospital. My uncle paid his hospital bill and gave him a job, put him on his payroll, until he could save enough money get back home in Michigan. Dad hauled produce from the Texas valley and Greeley, Colorado. He sold produce off a truck to cafe's and small grocery stores, schools, and state institutions, i.e. prisons and hospitals. That was long before Ben E. Keith was established. Dad couldn't read or write and mostly worked for himself. He was good at math. Much of my own education came from my dad, listening to him, working with him. My dad did spend three years working at the Hobbs Army Air Base, Hobbs, New Mexico, which repaired B-25 and B-17 Bombers flown in for repairs, Dad was on the Crash Fire Department. He was the youngest of five sisters and four brothers. His mother died when he was a baby. After the war he worked for Humble Oil and Refining Company for several years. He was promoted to pumper but couldn't read or write and quit the company. He was mostly self-employed at what he could find to do.
My father started working in and around the anthracite coal mines at the age of 16 after completing the 9th grade in 1926. He held various jobs and said the one he liked most was operating a “lokie” defined as a steam saddle tank engine that ran on narrow gauge railroad tracks and hauled about 30 mine cars of coal from colliery to breaker. Short for "locomotive". Below ground he started as a laborer and later graduated to miner in 1947. It required experience in the mines and training in handling explosives. In 1949 he was promoted to assistant mine foreman. One of his duties on that job was to go in on the weekend and check if the pumps were working so the mines would not be flooded and to check the fan was operating to draw out any methane which is explosive and replace it with outside air. He took me once into the mine and to show me how dark it could get, he shut off his light on the helmet. It’s black as black can be. As an assistant foreman he was placed on salary, so because in the 1950s coal was losing its popularity and being replaced by oil heat, he got a paycheck when the mines were slow. The Knox mine disaster rang the death knell of the coal industry here. Tunneling under the Susquehanna, the river broke through the roof and flooded the workings. Some men escaped but 12 are still buried underground never to be discovered. https://devastatingdisasters.com/knox-mine-disaster-1959/ He lost his job in the mines and worked a few years in a cigar factory before fully retiring. My mother, like most of that era, was not liberated so she was the homemaker.
Dad passed away while in his early 30s. Accidentaly death. He was a blue collar guy, mechanic type. Mom was a stay at home mom until then, but was able to go to college to get her degree (with honors) and taught school for many years.