What Did Your Parents Do For A Living?

Discussion in 'People I Have Known' started by Ken Anderson, Sep 19, 2021.

  1. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    May 4, 2019
    Messages:
    4,664
    Likes Received:
    2,741
    I come from blue collar parents, mom 1909, dad 1910, dad worked for Westinghouse for 40 yrs and when his dad died he and my uncle were given the bar and grille the grands owned and he kept the bar going for many yrs after, mom was housewife and worked in the bar in later years. I grew up in the bar world and was always told, get out of there the ABC people could come in, children were not allowed in bars.

    All in all, I didn't grow up with a lot but Enough and lots of Gratitude.
     
    #16
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2022
  2. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2018
    Messages:
    11,056
    Likes Received:
    20,985
    Stay at home mom. Father worked 30 years at General Tire Mfg plant, assembly line for building tires for commercial/construction vehicles.
     
    #17
  3. John West

    John West Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2021
    Messages:
    982
    Likes Received:
    2,366
    Father spent war years going through the entire Pacific theater of war into the occupation of Japan. Came home and worked as an electrician and later, electrical foreman on nuclear power plant construction. Mom was a cook, baker and waitress for most of her adult life.
     
    #18
  4. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2017
    Messages:
    9,363
    Likes Received:
    16,430
    My mother had a few jobs while we grew up, but her last one and the longest was for Southland Insurance company. In downtown Dallas. My dad started off working as a tree trimmer...that is only way i know how to describe. But he got his electrician license and went to work for City of Dallas at Fair Park. He worked and oversaw all and electricals in all the buildings there, even lights around the lagoon. Nothing prestige about their jobs, but honest work and kept us all at a comfortable living.
     
    #19
  5. Jessica Morgan

    Jessica Morgan Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2022
    Messages:
    553
    Likes Received:
    657
    My dad is ex-army, my mum is a retired florist.
    None of my siblings or myself followed in their footsteps, we all work though in steady jobs (✷‿✷)
     
    #20
  6. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    May 30, 2021
    Messages:
    7,249
    Likes Received:
    13,591
    My dad was a parapelegic from polio at the age of 4. I have one picture of him standing on a chair without crutches. He worked at whatever he put his mind to. He was congenial and most everyone liked him. He wanted fairness to everyone. He was the only parent honest enough that I knew, to admit that he did not walk to school, uphill, both ways in the snow. He said he was driven to school in an old army ambulance with no springs and wooden seats.
    Was there welfare back then?
    He worked at every job he could and graduated from U of Chicago business school. When I met him he was a senior exec for Esquire Magazine and affiliates. Like on the tv series Mad Men? No he was home every night at 6 o'clock. He took the train from Crestwood station, climbing the metal steps on crutches into Manhattan every day till they gave him a company car and parking space in front of the building on Madison Ave. He had many awards past that and friends. My mom was a pretty little thing and a housewife. She tried to be Donna Reid, I think, as was the goal of the 50's. Or the wife on Father Knows best. She had pretty bad arthritis but you would not know it as she never complained either. And she was deaf in one ear and going deaf in the other as she aged.
    My father promised himself to put all his kids through college. I protested as I had no idea what to be. When I graduated, I took the first job I could find after hubby and I moved to a new place. It was milking cows. Something I knew nothing about But I liked it. Better than a gym membership! I was a total embarrassment to my Dad.:rolleyes:
     
    #21
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2022
  7. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2018
    Messages:
    1,617
    Likes Received:
    3,949
    My dad spent all of his career in the labs of a major pharmaceutical firm.

    Mom had a variety of jobs including teaching in a business college, being an office manager, being an admissions representative in a business school and, in her later days, as a professional pianist.
     
    #22
  8. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    May 4, 2019
    Messages:
    4,664
    Likes Received:
    2,741
    Mary, what a story about your dad, thanks for sharing. Did he live a long life?
     
    #23
  9. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2018
    Messages:
    21,773
    Likes Received:
    46,282
    Are you adopted or do you mean when you were born? :D
     
    #24
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2022
  10. Lois Winters

    Lois Winters Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2019
    Messages:
    5,215
    Likes Received:
    8,051
    My father was a lawyer and my mother was a chorus girl. She stopped working after my brother was born in 1940 and was a stay at home mom and wife thereafter.
     
    #25
  11. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2015
    Messages:
    37,916
    Likes Received:
    9,008
    I never met my father until i was 24 , only got to see him once and he was killed at 42 so I’ve got idea what he did
    he was only 18 when I was born.

    I remember my step father working for a place that was called Ice and produce where he delivered butter and margarine to shops ,it was carried on the back of a truck with wet bags over it to keep it cool.

    I believe he got into some sort of fight at work when he would have only been late 40’s i don’t remember him ever working after that , my mother never worked at all.

    How things have changed I worked most of my life till I was 65
     
    #26
  12. Joanna Newton

    Joanna Newton Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2021
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    355
    After my father finished his term in the military (medic during WW II) he worked at the V.A. Hospital for quite a few years. She was a housewife.

    He eventually left the V.A. after what I guess these days would be called burn-out (from the work/environment). He then spent quite a few years as a contractor- masonry/construction; she was a housewife.

    Eventually he decided that type of work, and often outdoors in all kinds of weather, was too taxing on his health (numerous medical issues) he decided to open an elder-care home. As she no longer had little kids that needed supervision, she insisted on going into business with him; he didn't really want his wife to work, but went along with it. And that's what they did til they both eventually retired.
     
    #27
  13. Tony Nathanson

    Tony Nathanson Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2023
    Messages:
    1,129
    Likes Received:
    2,339
    My mom was a Hebrew School teacher & drama coach. She also was in the advertising business after she retired from teaching.
    My dad was born in Russia & came to the U.S. when he was around 10. He lived in Chicago & he became a criminal defense attorney. Most of his clients were big mobsters - who paid him a fortune & a free luxury penthouse apartment. When he met my mom, she didn't like living in Chicago & they moved to CA.
     
    #28
  14. Thomas Windom

    Thomas Windom Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2022
    Messages:
    1,810
    Likes Received:
    3,065
    The only career I ever knew for my dad was the army. He served in WW2 and Korea. After the army, he became a civilian marine inspector based at transportation HQ Ft. Eustis. I know my mom once worked as a cosmetician and also in a factory inspecting bullet casings. I don’t think those were for very long. Mostly she was a stay at home.
     
    #29
  15. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    May 30, 2021
    Messages:
    7,249
    Likes Received:
    13,591
    When I was born:D
     
    #30
    Beth Gallagher likes this.

Share This Page