Until her retirement last month, my mother was an ER nurse and got up at five o’ clock in the morning for 35 years. She’s also an awesome cartoonist and has worked as an illustrator on the side. At the age of 50 she decided to become a folk musician in her spare time, and that’s what she does most of the time now. I think it’s a very cool mix of professions.
My dad’s a psychiatrist, even vaguely resembling Sigmund Freud (without the cigar). He’ll be going into retirement in a few years, and plans to go back to university to study art history.
Their eyes met over a patient while making the rounds. (It actually happens!)
My father was a high school dropout who got a job working at a chemical plant. He went back to school full time, got a university degree, became a college teacher, and then went back to the chemical company as an executive. Then he left that to start his own business, which he sold and retired on.
My mother was a schoolteacher for 35 years, and a great one.
My dad worked for foreign freight forwarders after he got out of the Marines until he retired in the 90s.
Mom was stay-at-home when we were kids, but she used to do sewing for a number of women clients (mostly altering their clothing, rarely making clothes from scratch.) After my last sister moved out on her own, Mom started a catering business which she supposedly retired from, although she still does occasional parties for a small select group of clients.
So it makes perfect sense that I became an engineer.
dad:
divisional product manager for Nabisco for nearly 30 years. even today when you buy a package of their cookies or crackers, that’s my old man’s design.
mom:
piano teacher before she got married, superb concertist throughout most of her life, SAHM for her two girls.
Initially, my father was a butcher. At least, that’s what he was doing when he met my mother. After he finished his apprenticeship, he left and I’m not sure which order he had the following jobs in, but I know he worked:
A welder
As a manual laborer for a construction/earthworks company, including laying pipelines.
A concreter
A backhoe driver
That last one is the job I remember him having in my early childhood. After the company he worked for folded, his former boss helped him get a job at the local paper mill, where he trained as a Rigger/TA. Twenty-something years later he still works there, but not as a Rigger/TA. They restructured quite some years ago and demanded their workers multi-skill, so he did night school to become a Fitter/Machinist.
Mum has been a full-time housewife since I was born, but before that she worked at a milkbar/corner store from the time she left school.
Dad: Junior High/High School teacher - Biology and Math - JV Baseball coach. Later on he quit teaching and went into business for himself, doing all sorts of things until he finally sold them all and retired for good when he was 70 or so.
Mom: Junior High teacher/librarian - English and History.
Dad: Mechanical engineer. For most of my youth, he worked for the gas company that supplied two glass factories (one plate, one bottle). The glass companies were Libby Owens Ford and Owens Illinois. The gas company was Owens Libby Owens. As a child, I was mostly very confused. Was it gas? Was it glass? And WHAT was the name?!? When I was in high school, he became director of gas pipeline safety for the state public utility agency.
Mom: SAHM, although she was a secretary at Owens Libby Owens when she met Dad. Once the kids were older, she had a small side business making wedding cakes.
Dad was a middle school teacher and truant officer.
Mom was a hairdresser; also volunteered a lot in schools and churches; now is a Red Hat Society member.
Father: High-school teacher and coach for a long time, then athletic director until retirement. I believe he sold some insurance and ran a small construction company during the 90’s, and some other various jobs.
Mother: High-school English teacher, then librarian at a middle-school. Now she’s a librarian at a high school.
Dad: A genius who could have been anything, and did do a lot of things, but never one thing for very long. Was a police officer, a courtroom artist, a stained-glass artist, a signmaker, a cable guy, a mechanic, etc., etc. Stayed home sometimes in between jobs.
Mom: A nurse with the long-term, stable job, that paid all the bills.
My dad was brilliant, but wavered between factory work, unemployment, and get rich quick schemes. My mom was a Nurse’s Aide from the time I was 6 until now. Her’s was the stable job that paid the bills.
Dad: Railroad linesman but he also was a fireman, shoveling coal, on a tugboat in New York Harbor. To get across the harbor the rails stopped at the water, and cargo was moved via tugboat, the railroads owned the tugboats. This was his favorite job in 50 years of working. He ended up as a butcher for Thuman’s Meats, where apparently men would drink through the lunch hour and go back to the saws and knives, and slice off fingers. He never would eat Thuman’s hot dogs.
Mom: Worked in bakery (liked it) and hairspray factory (hated it). Then was housewife and mommy.
Both were in education. Mom was an elementary school teacher, then elementary librarian. Dad was a high school Spanish teacher, then an administrator at the local Vo-Tech.
Loved it when we were kids, liked it when we started to drive and took her places. She never learned to drive and dad only liked to go fishing. “What do you mean you’re going to _____ ? It’s raining.” Rain should stop all travel by car.
After we left home I think she floundered and never did find new and exciting things to fill her time. Shame but there it is.
