A Period of Readjustment
I took the job in the new company and was lucky enough to get a semi-detached house to rent that was about ½ a block from the job. The only bad part about the job in the beginning was, it was the Grave-Yard shift. There was a window that opened next to the sidewalk, so my wife would cook me a complete meal and hand it in the window every night, about 3:am. This started a lot of dissention among my co-workers, as they were brown bagging it and I was getting a full blown, hot meal every night.
They complained to management and also the union and I had to ask my wife to stop.
That was the beginning of other things that I didn’t like about the company’s rules. I got so fed up one night that I simply walked off the job ( ½ half a block away) and sat on my porch until daylight, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes.
The night shift manager stopped over after his shift , and tried to convince me to
come back to work the next evening – basically telling me that I was the only one that had the ability to do the job properly. I said, “Can my wife still bring me a hot meal ?” The answer was flatly, NO, and so was mine. Of course, I was told I would never get another job in this area again, they would black-ball me.
Later that day I called another company and asked if they needed an industrial electrician that was credentialed – bingo – had another job for more money, starting the next day. I was at the new job for about 2 weeks and the maintenance supervisor ordered me to do a job that was extremely unsafe. I went to him in private and explained the hazards of this task and he just laughed and said, if you don’t do it, I will fire you. At that moment, left with no choice, I decked him, and told the others what happened, and left that job too.
I was later to find out, that the other employees had gone to upper management and laid out the story of what really happened, rather than his rendition of it - he got fired. I was not asked to return.
I continued to have similar problems with various work places. At one point, I had 13 jobs in one year and my tax man asked; “How did you manage to work at 13 jobs in one year and have an accumulated amount of time off that added up to 3 months and still make more money than the average working man?” I really had no answer.
It was obvious, even to me by then, I had a real attitude problem that needed to be controlled. I believed I was invincible and in general I had a bad attitude. I had a very short temper and I didn't take any crap from anyone.
Of course I knew everything, all you had to do was ask me, it was much later in life I realized how little I really knew.
I was to work on that as time went on.
During the period of time I wasn’t working, I was keeping busy, working on the side
with my landlord, who was Amish. His name was Jesse Stoltzfus. He was building
small houses and I would do all the electrical work and get it passed by the inspectors.
One day Jesse said he would like to make a special Buggy that had Head lights and turn signals and brake lights, just like cars. He said he would construct the Buggy if I could figure out how to wire it up. Actually, figuring out how to wire it up was easy, getting the parts to do the job was a lot harder. I went to a farm supply and found they had a lot of the things I could use as most was used on street worthy tractors.
Well, we started and within about two weeks we had a running and working model.
Jesse was so proud, he took his new Buggy to Church and showed it off. There was only one problem, the Amish do not use electricity of any kind, except for their milking machines.
The milking machines were operated by a 24 volt DC system and the battery I put in it was a regular 12 volt auto type. I had to come up with a charging device that you could use in conjunction with his milking machine. I had done all this as a favor to a friend, neighbor and a landlord. What I didn’t know was that a whole new industry just erupted for the Amish and it was being built by the Amish and sold to the Amish. I was dumb enough to leave all the electrical prints in his shop and all the literature on all the electrical equipment. Everything anyone needed to make another one was there.
However, I do have the distinction of being the first ever to build a working model for the Amish, that is still being used even today.
Getting back to earning a living, I became so frustrated about the way I was being treated by employers and supervisors, I decided to get into management. I vowed to myself that I would never be the kind of boss that I had endured these last few years.
It was correspondence courses and night school and any thing else that I could get an education from, as cheap as possible, as by now I had 4 children and a stay at home wife.
I became so wrapped up in the educational process that I had worked out for myself that I was just as consumed with it as I was before with drinking, gambling and hoo-rawing around after work. It was so bad that I wasn’t paying attention to the kids or anything else. My wife asked me, one day, to find something that I could include the family in. Believe it or not, I decided to learn to play the guitar and I took lessons to get the most out of it. Actually that worked out a lot better that I thought. We, as a whole family, Could get together as often as we wanted and sing songs and in general, have a good time. As time went on, one of my daughters learned to play the violin, another learned to play the piano and the guitar. She also sings professionally and has some albums out.
In the meantime, I was still doing the courses and night schools as I could. My goal was to become a licensed electrical engineer. I also had a part time job at a Vo-Tech School as an adult education instructor in basic electricity and basic electronics.
Finally, I was 34, going on 35 and decided to make my move toward management. I applied through an agency at one of the Mega-Bucks Companies many miles away. I was told by that agency that my chances of getting that job was slim to none. I said I wanted to try anyway. They managed to get me an appointment.
I was supposed to meet the Plant Engineer at 7:30 in the morning at the main gate of his company. I was not familiar with the city or the company, so I drove up a couple of hours earlier than I should have. I was nervous and needed to have something like a cup of coffee and maybe a donut, something, anything. I kept driving on the city’s main drag and saw a “Dunkin Donuts” place and stopped there. When I went in, there was only one other customer. I decided to sit next to him as he was well dressed and so was I, besides I also needed someone to talk to.
We started out discussing the weather and so on, but as time went on, I shared my real reason for being there and why I was at the donut shop for coffee. He allowed me to continue talking and he would ask me questions now and then. He seemed very friendly and I was in one of those moods where I was extremely open. After about an hour into the conversation, he told me his name was Robert Noel, WOW, he was the man I had come all this way to be interviewed by. He said to follow him and he would get me through the gate and on to his office.
He took me for a tour of the entire facility, which took about two hours and then said,“Do you think you could handle a job of this magnitude?” My answer was, “ I would love to give it a try?” He said he had a lot of other applicants to consider, but he would definitely consider me.
Two weeks went by and I was ready to try again with another company, when I got a call from the agency, saying that I was hired and they couldn’t believe it.
The name of that company was “York Division of Borg Warner” located in York PA.
I was the Electrical Maintenance Manager for all three plants in the city. The Grantley Plant, the East York and the West York plants combined. This was far beyond my wildest dreams and now, proving my self was next hurdle.
Have you ever heard the phrase “It was blessing in disguise”, in 1972 there was a major flood in the city and many large companies were simply shut down due to water damage. York Division had large ovens for special manufacturing purposes and I had let it be known that any company in York that needed to have motors and other equipment dried in our ovens, to just bring it to our loading docks. Up until then, no one knew who I was, but suddenly, every small company knew who to call to get in line to dry their equipment. It got to be so big that, as always, upper management took control, but internally gave me the credit. I was probably the only man in middle management that could ask for an appointment with the company President and get one. At that time, there were over 3800 Employees in the company, including all three plants.
After the flood, the company wanted to build a subsidiary in Madisonville Kentucky and I was asked to go down there from time to time to assist in the construction overview. They had a variety of engineers and project managers working on that job, but somehow I would always be asked for opinions on various things. One of those things was, based on all the equipment that was in place and considering all that I was aware of, could I make an evaluation and projection of what the electrical billing would be for the first month and possibly for next six months. When the first month’s billing came in, my projection was only $3 off the actual billing. The billing for a facility of this size goes into thousands of dollars a month, at that time.
Wow, was that luck or what ???
By this time, there was absolutely no doubt about it, my future was secure with this company and I was looking back to the time I had made the “Promise.”
Have I kept it, I wasn’t sure.
My goal to become a licensed electrical engineer had not yet been realized and I still wanted it. At that time the Navy degree was not recognized. I had to satisfy a state requirement Most men would have been satisfied with what I had, but I was still going to special schools that the company had and others that they didn’t. My thirst for knowledge was a driving force I wasn’t able to control.
Then one day, out of the blue, another manager in York Division told me that he had submitted my name to a person, who was on the board of a Hospital and they needed some one with my particular background, education and experience. He said that the hospital would call me on Saturday of that week at about 2:pm and if I was interested to be home.
I was very skeptical, but I did answer the phone and was offered the opportunity to come to a small town in PA. to be interviewed by Hospital administration and the Property Committee of The Board of Trustees. To make a long story short, I was interviewed two different times and they would not meet my monetary requirements. I kept saying “NO”. I had forgotten all about the interviews and one day, just before Labor Day of that year.
I received a call from the Chairman of the Property Committee of that small town hospital. He asked me if I would meet him at a certain field, on Labor Day outside of the city. I said that I knew where it was and would be there at about 1:pm that day. He said he had a helicopter and would meet me there and that there would be a picnic table in the middle of the field with a large umbrella on it. There would be 1 pitcher of lemonade and 2 glasses on the table. I re-confirmed, I would be there.
I did show up and he landed his helicopter. He walked up to the table and handed me a small pocket tablet and a small yellow pencil, poured some lemonade into his glass and said; “Write down your number”. I really didn’t want to work in a Hospital as I was very comfortable with York Division and knew I was in line for Robert Noel’s position as Plant Engineer. So what did I do, well, I wrote a number that was so outrageously big, I never believed for one moment it would be considered. I never said a word, but I gave the pocket tablet back to him. He got up, looked at the tablet, put the tablet in his shirt pocket and said one word.
“DONE”, I was shocked and of course, I was had, as an honorable man, I couldn’t back out. I said: “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, wait a minute” he said, you have 30 days to report in, I will make the necessary arrangements.
WOW, what have I done, I have just stepped into a world I knew nothing about and
I was really worried. I did give notice, and was also given a letter, written by the President of York Div. of Borg Warner, that if I changed my mind, I could return within the next six months and with a raise. I still have that letter to this day. At that time I was 37 years old and I was still wondering if I had kept my “Promise”.
End of Chapter 5
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