Part 9 (2/2)
This occurred in October when Dad was 74 years old. He was only a couple of weeks away from his 75th birthday in November and had planned on retiring and taking a trip to Florida. I made up my mind to retire before my health would prohibit me from enjoying a few years of retirement. I have always considered myself lucky to have had the chance to work with my father for so many years and get to know him. He once told me that it gave him great satisfaction to have raised nine children n.o.body getting into serious trouble even though none were a great success.
I continued working with Clarence until 1959 when I was offered a job as a painter in the maintenance department at the hospital. It took me almost a year to make up my mind because I didn't want to leave Clarence working alone. It was one of the hardest decisions to make, but I know the advantages of steady work even though I had to start with a cut in wages. The first few years I tried to help Clarence with some of his work on weekends when I could. I have never regretted the move because I would have ended up working alone when Clarence retired. I had only worked at the hospital a few months when I had my first serious illness. I entered the hospital acutely ill and the doctors decided to operate for appendicitis. They found an adhesion from the appendix to the intestine on the other side and I was suffering a bowel stoppage. I was back to work in two weeks, but had to take it easy awhile.
The only outside activities my father partic.i.p.ated in were pitching horseshoes and bowling and he was good at both of them. He was especially good when bowling for money. He and four other bowlers would travel around the area to bowl in pot games and he always made a little money. He also bowled in one nationals tournament in Chicago. After his death I bowled for about ten years on a team with Leon, Clarence and, sometimes, Ken Montanye.
In 1966 I was divorced and Lynn was attending college at Hillsdale, Michigan so I lived alone for three years on Telyea Street. I was working at the hospital and took the same dinner with me everyday: a sandwich of lettuce, mustard and baloney. I ate my dinner at the hospital cafeteria after work each night and had TV dinners or ate out on the weekends. Several weeks after my divorce Pat Wager introduced me to her neighbor who was a widow and I started dating Kate. After the divorce I had the house, a car, some bonds and $18 in cash so I was starting out again financially. I tried to help Lynn with her college education by taking on more work at the hospital. I worked in maintenance four and a half days a week and Monday afternoons I was the purchasing agent for the hospital. I did all the Ordering and delivery of supplies to all the departments in the hospital. In the evenings and Sat.u.r.days I took care of the lawns and mowed the gra.s.s.
I did this for two years and kept very busy.
On October 17, 1969 1 married Kathryn c.o.o.ns and moved into her home an Perry Place. The following year I sold the house on Telyea Street for $14000 to a girl I knew at the hospital. Lynn was now living in Rochester and attending Nazareth College after marrying Dan Avery on February 17, 1968. My grandsons Bejamin and Timothy were born in Rochester on November 14, 1971 and February 25, 1974.
My sister Helen died of cancer in 1974 and my brother Gordon of cancer in 1979. In 1980 Kate and I sold the big house on Perry Place and moved to a smaller, newer home on Chapel Street. This house was just right for retirement with a dry bas.e.m.e.nt, nice garage and workshop.
In 1970 the new hospital was finished and it was quite a big job moving into it. For several days I was the only department member at the new hospital directing all the truckloads of equipment to their new locations while Harold and Brownie were directing the move from the old hospital. Some days it took me over two hours to eat my lunch usually on the run and answering phone calls. The first few years there I did little painting as everything was new so I kept very busy doing maintenance work and book and record keeping for the department. I soon became a ”jack of all trades” which made the work interesting as there was something different to do all the time.
1979 when I was 62 years old I gave a lot of thought to retiring early, but my birthday pa.s.sed and I was still going to work. The work was so interesting in the hospital and I was in good health so I decided to stay until 65. The fear of financial problems makes it hard to decide when to retire, but I now find that I have more money than when I was working. A small hospital pension and Social Security have eliminated all financial worries at least for the present. My 65th birthday was July 23, 1982 and it was a perfect time for retirement. My last day of work I painted a room and worked right up to the last hour, not leaving until the regular time. I requested that there be no retirement party as the boys in maintenance gave me a gift certificate for $80 from Grossmans lumber and I used it to buy lumber and materials to make bird houses. After twenty three years of working with Dad and Clarence, then twenty three years of working at the hospital I figured it was time for retirement. I really enjoyed the hospital work and the chance to be around so many nice people. I was offered the chance to work part time at the hospital after retirement, but I knew that I had had enough and never Thought of it again.
On the first day of retirement it was a warm sunny day and my birthday, so I decided to put the hammock up in the backyard and lay in it. I discovered I had stepped in a pile of dog pooh and had it on my socks, shoes and hammock. I washed out the socks, shoes and took down the hammock to put it away. So went the first moments of retirement. The first couple of years I enjoyed working with wood and built many birdhouses, selling quite a few. I only charged enough to have money to buy materials for more.
For two summers I painted my sister Dorothy's house for her. I only worked a few hours each day and didn't charge her anything for labor as I was doing it Just to keep busy. It is a big house and I realized it would be the last time I would be able to do anything of that size. Working with high ladders was getting difficult.
In the early spring of 1985 1 decided to try oil painting. I sent away for an artists outfit and bought some materials at an art shop.
I had never tried anything like this before so I made a painting studio in the bas.e.m.e.nt and started out with pictures from an instruction booklet. Even the early ones I painted were okay so I decided to continue as long as I could see improvement. I have done more than 150 paintings over the past two years and am still improving. I have sold some pictures and given away the rest. I also build and finish the frames for them. It makes a good hobby for the cold winter months.
This coming July 23, 1987 will be my seventieth birthday and I have enjoyed five years of retirement, keeping active with gardening, reading, lawn care, oil painting, helping my brothers and writing this autobiography.
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