Production Factory

1. Jelly factory – The first night I was assigned to clean out giant tanks where the jelly was cooked. The next night I watched the equipment controls to ensure they were all running smoothly and at specific settings.
2. Factory that made cardboard boxes – Sheets of cardboard were cut to size, then put into a machine that made cuts and folds for flaps. My job was to bundle them and clear the machine when it jammed.
3. Factory that made packaging – The night I was there, I ran a machine that made little insets to be filled with fresh fruit for gift boxes.
4. Computer software – I worked on a conveyor belt stuffing a box with a disk and documentation.
5. Printing company – I packed books into boxes, that were then put onto trucks and shipped.

Boxed and Ready to Ship

I worked in the wrapping area where window glass was prepared for shipment. There were several tasks that had to be performed and I did them all at one time or another:

a. Feed glass into a machine that adhered plastic onto the glass as it passed between two rollers.
b. Removed the wrapped glass from the other side of this machine and stacked it.
c. Load pallets with the stacked glass.
d. Wrap the stacked pallet with giant plastic wrap and wheel it to another section of the factory.

My co-workers were a very eclectic bunch, similar to all the production jobs I held. Some were there to work their way through college. Others had no direction in life, had no special skills and just needed work. A few had had medical tragedies and were content hiding in a low profile job. And me, who needed a swing shift job so I could keep my kids out of daycare. When I was first hired, a bet was placed unbeknownst to me, that I wouldn’t last a week. I guess they all through I was too meek to last, but I proved them wrong. I lasted nearly six months.

My first adult job was working in a bank as a teller. I worked in the afternoons after high school and got school credit. I worked for Oregon Bank. It no longer exists, it was bought out during the crazy time in the late 80’s when all the small banks were going under.

My first job was working the drive-up window. I felt very important being at that window where people came to me for their transactions. I had my own cash drawer and teller machine. If they were making a deposit, I had to make sure all the money and checks added up correctly. If they were making a withdrawal, I had to count the money in front of the window so they could see me. And yes, I got to push out the drawer to the car window. I had little doggie biscuits for the dogs and suckers for the kids.

Another part of my job was to balance check books for people. Yes, people actually still did their statements on paper back then. My favorite story for a messed up check book came from a wealthy lady. She was horribly upset because her account was overdrawn. She just couldn’t understand it. Her husband had left her some checks to use when he went on a business trip and she still had 3 left. How could her account be overdrawn???

When I became more comfortable handling money, I was moved out to the front line. This is at the teller window where you bring your transactions inside the bank. You still handle easy transactions, but you also handled more difficult ones as well. Business owners would come in with piles of money that had to be counted or bags of change. There were machines that did this for you, but more paperwork was involved. You might have someone who wanted a cashiers check or travellers checks. For each transaction, you had slips of paper representing debits and credits which had to be separated into different trays.

Each person had a second job in the bank. You might be responsible for the safety deposit boxes. You had to check people in, open their box for them, then lock it back up. You might be responsible for the loan transactions or be the vault teller responsible for making sure everybody had enough change in their drawers and counting all the bank’s money. Some businesses put their deposits into a locked bag and put it in an overnight drop box. If you were on an opening shift, you might have to open the drop box and go through all the bags, making the appropriate deposits. Today, you might have to go through the night deposits from the ATM machines.

Other departments of the bank include new accounts, loans and investments. As a front line teller you were supposed to keep up on all the new programs and special deals being offered by the other departments so that you could try and sell them to your customers.

At the end of the day, you had to balance out. This means all the transactions for the day must balance. All those slips of paper in the debit and credit bins had to equal a report you ran on your teller machine. If not, you had to go through all the papers in your debit and credit trays to try and figure out what mistake you made.

Did I ever get robbed? No, but the branch I worked at did on a day I was off. I worked as a teller for several years before moving to other departments in the bank.

There is no special training or education for a beginning teller. You work the typical Monday through Friday – 8 or 9 to 5 or 6. Some banks are open on Saturday mornings. If you like working with money and people, this might be the job for you.

She started her business about 3 years ago with just an idea. Over the years, it has evolved; adding the nutrition program first, then the meditation program. She does some marketing online, posts helpful comments on other blogs and forums. But mostly she talks to people, whether it be by phone or email. She prefers this to direct marketing.

When talking to people, she offers a post card rather than a business card. She also attends business networking meetings. Even during our interview, she offered advice for my own health.

The most frustrating part of her business is seeing people destroy their bodies by the foods they eat plus meeting people who are afraid to change. Obviously the best part is the gratitude she receives from those who go through with her program. The changes she witnesses are what motivates her to keep going.

Before beginning work, you had to attend an orientation. Here they described what you would do, how you got paid and they talked about ethical issues like not throwing your books into a dumpster. They do spot checks and had discovered the latter in the previous year. We were also told that we could not leave phone books anywhere near the mail box, we had to bring it to the front porch.

The first day of work, I showed up to have my station wagon filled it up with phone books, plastic bags to put them in and flyers that told about how to recycle your old phone book which had to be inserted into each plastic bag. I got to choose my route. The route sheet had the house numbers on it and how many books you need to get to supply all the houses. You picked up the plastic bags and flyers here.

Next you drive to some semi trucks where the books were. After picking up your books, you were on your way. I had my Thomas Guide (detailed city map) and was on my way to a small city outside Portland. I was advised to pick a city neighborhood because it was a lot faster than driving up and down country roads. This was good advice.

These were the full sized phone books, big suckers. I would stand at the back of my car with the hatch open and stuff the books and flyers into the bags. I figured I could carry about 10 books at a time. So I would park my car and hit about a 4 block radius with books, then move my car. I got so I could fling the books to the porch from about half way up the sidewalk which saved me time. Back and forth I went for around 300 books per day. It was tiring, but I made around $20/hour and lost about 5 pounds. And I felt great!

The following year I tried the same with flyers delivered to doorknobs. Not nearly as official as the phone book delivery, I received a copy of a page out of Thomas Guide with a line around a designated neighborhood. No house numbers, just streets. This job was harder because I had to actually to go up to each door. Lots of steps to climb. These old arthritic knees didn’t like this as well. I don’t think I could do this full time, but it was fun while it lasted. If you’re interested, check your local job boards at the first of the year, this is when the phone books are usually delivered.