Kamál (Perfection), 11 Kamal (Perfection), 165 B.E. – Monday, August 11, 2008 about 5:59 AM PDT
I remember Grandpa Newland going off to work on Monday mornings. Grandpa worked at the Zinc smelter in Blackwell, Oklahoma until he retired. I do not remember how old Grandpa was when he retired from the Smelter, because after he retired he continued to working on a part time basis.
When the boxcars brought the Zinc ore to the smelter, there were wooden boards in the cars. These boards remained in the unloading area (at least I think that is where they remained), until they were hauled away. The company sold the boards to a retired worker for ten cents a board. The person who bought them could then resell them for a profit, Grandpa did that until he became too ill to work.
Anyway, Grandpa would buy the boards for ten cents each and then resell them for twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty cents each, depending on the condition of the board. That gave him a little money to supplement his retirement and social security check. I can remember Grandpa and Grandma living well on his retirement and social security check. That is not the case today though, I doubt that anyone can do more then survive on that little of an income.
When Grandpa went to work he did not wear a suite and tie, instead he wore overalls and a cotton work shirt. I would watch the shows in T.V. and see the fathers going to work in suites and ties. I would see the mothers in the show staying home. Those T.V. shows never related my family. Those shows never showed a grandparent or mother going to work, only the fathers in those shows made a living for the family. As far as I was concerned, those shows were a fantasy and had nothing to do with real life. Yet I watched them anyway, maybe that is why I enjoy fantasy and science fiction so much; the shows I watched, as a child had nothing to do with my real life.
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