Unfinished Business, Episode 2

So, peoples, to continue on…..After we married, Doug and I, in 1947, like I told you I worked up until 2 weeks before Linda was born, then relaxed and enjoyed my babies until Rob was a toddler. Things started to look "iffy" at Dad’s work about that time, frequent lay-offs during which he’d collect employment insurance benefits, but they were barely enough to survive on. So I went back to work for a few months at a place called Northern Engine, on 63 Avenue, doing mostly bookkeeping, accounts payable and receivable . I mostly remember that place because of the letter of reference they gave me when I quit, (being then pregnant with Rob). The boss was an old fuss-budget, and instead of saying Mrs Naylor is resigning because of pregnancy, he wrote "Mrs. Naylor is leaving our company after an exemplary record of service with us; She is resigning due to DOMESTIC ILLNESS." Domestic illness, my foot! What a fuddy-duddy he was. Fortunately I can’t even remember his name. When Rob was 10 months old, I accompanied my parents, brother Bob and sister Chris to Ithaca, New York, to visit Sandy and Shirley, and to deposit Chris into their home to take up her new job at Cornell. Sandy was then getting his PhD at Cornell, and they were already crowded into their ramshackle apartment, but hey! family’s family, and the more the merrier! Anyway, we were gone three weeks, my good neighbor Kay Sinclair, looked after Rob in her home, and practically had him toilet trained when we got back! Linda and Judy went to the farm for that three weeks, I’m sure they both have precious memories of that visit. So when I got back, I decided I had to get a job to help out the family finances….so I did. Part-time.
That’s when I met the Edmonton Retail Lumbermen’s Association. And for a coupla years in there, also had a second part-timer, as the first and only WOMAN SECRETARY to the Edmonton Highland Games Association. My boss at the Lumbermen’s, Charlie Sinclair, was an old retired lumberman, who mostly sat with his feet up in the office reading the paper, or talking on the phone to various lumberyard managers telling them how busy he was. Meanwhile, all the work was being done by MOI, writing the newsletters, compiling price lists of myriad building supply products, mimeographing, arranging managers’ meetings….credit meetings, maintaining a large credit file, setting up training programs, all the chores associated with the job. I managed the whole thing behind the scenes, so to speak, but after a couple of years of that I decided this is crazy….Charlie does zippo except attend the meetings and gladhand the boys, he gets the pay and I get peanuts. So I told him I was quitting! Then he decided HE was quitting after he realized I meant what I was saying. And he did. So then the lumber dealers all got together and decided I was to be the new Secretary-Manager, drawing Charlie’s salary instead of my pittance.
So for 17 years, I held that job, was respected as one of the few women managers of any sort in the lumber business….continued on with the programs already instituted, and added a few of my own to help increase the efficiency of the industry. I moved the office three times over the years, from 87 Avenue and 109 Street, to Whyte Avenue and 89 Street, to the Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre, and finally to the basement of our own house! Eventually the need for an association dwindled away, the old-timers had been replaced by aggressive sales teams, and competition became more of a by-word than any efforts to co-operate. So I facilitated the winding-down of the organization, in lieu of pay the last 6 months I was there, I took over the office equipment, I still had use for it, because by then I had another part-time job as secretary to the Edmonton Music Teachers’ Association. And big-time church responsibilities! Which, of course, I loved dearly….over the years I had the nebulous distinction of serving as ward Primary president, ward YWMIA president, and ward Relief Society president…plus many years in stake jobs.
Still there was also the desire to have a little more money coming in, even though Dad was such a good worker, did his best to provide for his family, and always turned his whole paycheck over to me to look after the finances and run the household. So somewhere in there, I discovered some previously hidden talents in the catering field. Through church caterings, used to raise money to pay our way as presidencies to the appropriate conferences in Salt Lake each year, I gained the confidence to start on my own as a private, part-time caterer. And this was the perfect answer to the "MONEY" dilemna. We plowed the profits back into the business at first, purchasing second-hand large pots, a steam table, a commercial meat slicer, servings bowls and utensils. Dad built wooden boxes for a lot of our supplies, with carrying handles on the sides, and we plugged away at it for many years, always using our kids as helpers, and when we needed more help , teams of young LDS couples who could always use an extra $50 for an evening of fun, but hard work! Made pots of money at it, which we carefully saved (mostly), and which tided us over when there were the inevitable down-turns in the steel and pipe industry, and Dad wold be laid off for short or long periods of time…..one time he was out of work for 6 months, and we lived very largely on our year’s supply! Supplemented by catering earnings.
I’m sure my children remember working at the caterings! I remember the horror of running out of food once, and having to order in 10 plates of Kentucky Fried to finish the dinner. That story would curl your hair. And remember when Stuart and Steve were carrying the very heavy, steaming FOIL ROASTER of sweet and sours, and it buckled in the middle of the community hall kitchen, and THEY DROPPED IT???? And the time I could have thoroughly poisoned 400 people at Anita Petersen’s wedding reception…..oh man, the good Lord was looking after me that time.
Well, peoples, that’s all the jobs I can remember…..except for the few craft enterprises I entered into, advanced macrame (sold some of those), and my disastrous clock-making business, over 200 of those. When I look back over my adult life, it’s been a lot of work, but a lot of fun, and I learnt many things I never would have otherwise. Each job I had added to my expertise at dealing with certain people, or things, or responsibilities…..all part of this journey we call LIFE. Forget about the destination, ENJOY THE TRIP!