Dad - In His Words

Jobs 1940-43

When I was fourteen in the summer of 1940 my friends and I decided it was time to try and get a job so we would have spending money. Two of us, I think it was Tom Rogers, went down to Walgreen Drugs in Cleveland an applied for a soda jerk job. We didn’t get a positive answer so went back home and waited. In the meantime our next door neighbor Mr. Abbot Silva, who rand the Silva Tree Company asked if I would be interested in working in his business. He offered 50 cents an hour which was really pretty good wages at the time. I took the job and along with Bob Jackett, a member of the Friars Club, we started that summer. We learned to climb trees, tie ourselves in and trim trees. Some days we were up in the tree all day and others were on the ground putting branches into a truck and doing ground cutting.

If we were up all day we usually had someone on the ground stop the milkman as he came by, purchase a quart of milk and sent it up by rope with our lunch and we ate sitting in a rope or on a branch. It was hard work but we stayed in shape and at the end of the week Abbott would give each of us an envelope with $20.00 in it. He never paid by check so there was no such thing as deductions. I did this work in 1942 and actually in 1946 when I came back from the service.

When I entered college in 1943 Dad suggested I try to find some work on campus to help pay for my expenses. I got a job in Valentine Hall where we all ate serving food and cleaning tables. I can’t remember what I got paid but it was enough to pay my social expenses for the 7 months I was in school before entering the navy.