Work and me
As a descendant of Adam, I inherited the mandate, by the sweat of thy face thou
shalt eat thy bread all the days of thy life.
I was very fortunate to grow up in a home where I was taught to work and the value of work.
Growing up my mother taught me to wash the dishes, dry the dishes and clear the table. When I was a little older I was taught to scrub the floors and wax them on my hands and knees.
I was also taught to wash the clothes and later was allowed to iron. First to iron the flat ware and the shirts. I learned how to press suit coats and trousers. When we had holes in our socks, I darned the socks. I learned how to do Bargello embroidery on towels. My grandmother Stucki taught me how to repair runs in nylon stockings and to make rag rugs.
We were expected to make our beds each morning and to vacuum the rugs weekly.
When I was old enough I mowed the lawn with a push mower. We were also expected to edge the lawn with sheep shears by hand.
In the winter I shoveled the walks. I occasionally earned a little money by mowing the neighbor's lawn and also by shoveling snow in the neighborhood.
We had a paper route delivering papers once a week for a free paper, which we deliver to every house and was called the Monitor. The nice thing about that paper was that we did not have to collect for the paper. We were paid a small amount to deliver, but it helped.
I then got a paper route for the Rocky Mountain News. This was an early morning paper. The route was about six blocks from our home and up hill. Every month I would have to go to every house that I delivered papers to and collect the money. I would then have to pay for the papers that I got and the got to keep what was left over. If someone was not happy with the way their paper was delivered and complained to the paper, then I got docked a fee, so I learned to deliver the paper on time and put the paper where the people wanted it delivered.
If there were no complaints for a certain period of time, I was rewarded with a U S Savings Bond.
I earned enough money to buy a used Schwinn bicycle, which I used to deliver the papers. I would fold the papers a certain way, then load them into my paper bags attached to the handle bars of my bicycle. I got good enough, that I could ride down the middle of the street and throw the paper onto the porch of each house. They also rewarded the carriers if they were able to get a new subscriber. We called this a start.
I had some apartment houses on my route. I would have to put the paper under the door or in a box or place where it would not be taken.
My father had a garden, which we would have to dig up by hand and then rake, hoe furrows for the seed, plant and irrigate and weed. At first we planted the garden in our back yard. My father contacted the owner of a vacant lot two blocks from our house and obtained permission to plant a garden there. When we would harvest the vegetables, we would take a portion downtown to the owner's store and give him that as payment for using his land for our garden.
I also had a paper route for the Denver Post, which was an evening paper. I delivered it after school.
When we moved to Lander, I got a job after school sweeping floors at J. C. Penney store. During the holidays I would help out as a sales clerk. My wages at that time were fifty cents per hour. June 1949 to Jan 1950. Dec 1950 to Jan 1951. Dec 1951 to Jan 1952. and June 1952.
I was very fortunate to grow up in a home where I was taught to work and the value of work.
Growing up my mother taught me to wash the dishes, dry the dishes and clear the table. When I was a little older I was taught to scrub the floors and wax them on my hands and knees.
I was also taught to wash the clothes and later was allowed to iron. First to iron the flat ware and the shirts. I learned how to press suit coats and trousers. When we had holes in our socks, I darned the socks. I learned how to do Bargello embroidery on towels. My grandmother Stucki taught me how to repair runs in nylon stockings and to make rag rugs.
We were expected to make our beds each morning and to vacuum the rugs weekly.
When I was old enough I mowed the lawn with a push mower. We were also expected to edge the lawn with sheep shears by hand.
In the winter I shoveled the walks. I occasionally earned a little money by mowing the neighbor's lawn and also by shoveling snow in the neighborhood.
We had a paper route delivering papers once a week for a free paper, which we deliver to every house and was called the Monitor. The nice thing about that paper was that we did not have to collect for the paper. We were paid a small amount to deliver, but it helped.
I then got a paper route for the Rocky Mountain News. This was an early morning paper. The route was about six blocks from our home and up hill. Every month I would have to go to every house that I delivered papers to and collect the money. I would then have to pay for the papers that I got and the got to keep what was left over. If someone was not happy with the way their paper was delivered and complained to the paper, then I got docked a fee, so I learned to deliver the paper on time and put the paper where the people wanted it delivered.
If there were no complaints for a certain period of time, I was rewarded with a U S Savings Bond.
I earned enough money to buy a used Schwinn bicycle, which I used to deliver the papers. I would fold the papers a certain way, then load them into my paper bags attached to the handle bars of my bicycle. I got good enough, that I could ride down the middle of the street and throw the paper onto the porch of each house. They also rewarded the carriers if they were able to get a new subscriber. We called this a start.
I had some apartment houses on my route. I would have to put the paper under the door or in a box or place where it would not be taken.
My father had a garden, which we would have to dig up by hand and then rake, hoe furrows for the seed, plant and irrigate and weed. At first we planted the garden in our back yard. My father contacted the owner of a vacant lot two blocks from our house and obtained permission to plant a garden there. When we would harvest the vegetables, we would take a portion downtown to the owner's store and give him that as payment for using his land for our garden.
I also had a paper route for the Denver Post, which was an evening paper. I delivered it after school.
When we moved to Lander, I got a job after school sweeping floors at J. C. Penney store. During the holidays I would help out as a sales clerk. My wages at that time were fifty cents per hour. June 1949 to Jan 1950. Dec 1950 to Jan 1951. Dec 1951 to Jan 1952. and June 1952.
1950
At one time I worked at the Lander Creamery where I candled
eggs. The eggs were locally produced at an egg farm. They were sent
to be processed at the creamery. The cracked eggs and those that had blood in
them we cracked the shells and put the liquid in five gallon cans. These
eggs were sold to the local bakery to be used in making cakes and cookies.
June 1950-Sept 1950 and June 1951-Sep 1951
During the summers I worked for my uncle Howard Thirkill on his ranch in Eight Mile outside of Soda Springs, Idaho. I would drive the stacker team and occasionally stack hay. I mowed and raked hay and milked cows and ran the milk through the cream separator. I got to feed the chickens and gather the eggs and slop the hogs. I learned how to do farm work. My least favorite job was to clean the horse and cow manure out of the barn and put it into a pile to be later spread as fertilizer on the fields.
After I graduated from high school I got a job working for the lumberyard unloading 2x4 studs from a boxcar. June 1952
During the summers I worked for my uncle Howard Thirkill on his ranch in Eight Mile outside of Soda Springs, Idaho. I would drive the stacker team and occasionally stack hay. I mowed and raked hay and milked cows and ran the milk through the cream separator. I got to feed the chickens and gather the eggs and slop the hogs. I learned how to do farm work. My least favorite job was to clean the horse and cow manure out of the barn and put it into a pile to be later spread as fertilizer on the fields.
After I graduated from high school I got a job working for the lumberyard unloading 2x4 studs from a boxcar. June 1952
I next worked with the Bureau of Land Management spraying
Halogeten weed. That job did not last the whole summer. June 1952 and
July 1952
Then I got hired by the Forest Service to clean rocks off the loop road above the sinks. It was during this time that I fought fires. There was the Dishpan Butte fire and the Wiggins Fork fire. July 1952 to Sept 1952
At the end of the summer I went to Ogden to live with my great aunt Alta Lowe. I helped her with the yard work and her housework. I shoveled snow off the walks and would occasionally baby-sit the grandchildren.
The next summer I worked for the Forest Service doing trail work. June 1953 to September 1953
When I got back to college, I was employed in the chemistry
department from September 1953 to December 1953.
When I got back from my mission, I worked for a private lab analyzing uranium samples. 1957.
I got a job at BYU working for a chemistry professor. 1957
The summer of 1957 I worked again for the Forest Service from June to September. And again from June to August 1958. The summer of 1958 I went back to Lander and worked again for the Forest Service until I got married.
We moved into our apartment and I got a construction job with Bowers construction company building a school during August and September.
When I got back from my mission, I worked for a private lab analyzing uranium samples. 1957.
I got a job at BYU working for a chemistry professor. 1957
The summer of 1957 I worked again for the Forest Service from June to September. And again from June to August 1958. The summer of 1958 I went back to Lander and worked again for the Forest Service until I got married.
We moved into our apartment and I got a construction job with Bowers construction company building a school during August and September.
After I started medical school I got a job at the University
of Utah during the Christmas break 1958-59.
I had an early morning paper route delivering the Salt Lake
Tribune from March until October in 1959 and worked the summer (June to
September) running a refreshment stand on the Salt Lake Country Club golf
course. I quit to go back to medical school.I quit the Tribune when
school started.
During the Christmas break of 1959, I worked at the main
post office sorting mail.
From March 1960 to January 1961 I also got a job as an on
call lab technician at the Veterans Hospital running chemistries and typing and cross-matching blood.
The next summer June to September I worked in the pathology department at Holy Cross Hospital helping with autopsies.
The next summer June to September I worked in the pathology department at Holy Cross Hospital helping with autopsies.
The summer of 1961 I worked in the immunology lab at the
county hospital. My paycheck had printed in big red letters "Taken
out of the poor fund".
I also sold my blood to the county hospital. The blood was used as a standard O positive cell for research.
During my senior year in medical school, (November 1961 to June 1962) I worked in the obstetrical department at LDS hospital every third night helping with deliveries and caesarian sections. By the time I had finished at the end of the year, I had delivered or helped deliver over 500 babies.
After I graduated from medical school I was employed as an intern at the Dee Memorial Hospital in Ogden, Utah.
The next year I was a resident physician in pediatrics at the university of Utah affiliated hospitals. I also worked one night a week at the Dee hospital emergency room to supplement our income.
I was a resident for two years. My cousin Rodney was an insurance salesman. He needed some of his clients to have physical examinations so I was paid to do them occasionally.
At this time I moved to Lander and began to work for myself. This was interrupted by a two-year stint in the Navy, where I worked as the base pediatrician and took call at night on the obstetrical floor delivering babies.
I have worked since as a self-employed physician. I enjoyed working in every capacity. I can honestly say that I enjoy working no matter what manner of work I have been engaged in. I find that work has been rewarding both monetarily and mentally. Although the majority of my work has not been physical, I do enjoy physical labor. I like to get tired and use my muscles.
I also sold my blood to the county hospital. The blood was used as a standard O positive cell for research.
During my senior year in medical school, (November 1961 to June 1962) I worked in the obstetrical department at LDS hospital every third night helping with deliveries and caesarian sections. By the time I had finished at the end of the year, I had delivered or helped deliver over 500 babies.
After I graduated from medical school I was employed as an intern at the Dee Memorial Hospital in Ogden, Utah.
The next year I was a resident physician in pediatrics at the university of Utah affiliated hospitals. I also worked one night a week at the Dee hospital emergency room to supplement our income.
I was a resident for two years. My cousin Rodney was an insurance salesman. He needed some of his clients to have physical examinations so I was paid to do them occasionally.
At this time I moved to Lander and began to work for myself. This was interrupted by a two-year stint in the Navy, where I worked as the base pediatrician and took call at night on the obstetrical floor delivering babies.
I have worked since as a self-employed physician. I enjoyed working in every capacity. I can honestly say that I enjoy working no matter what manner of work I have been engaged in. I find that work has been rewarding both monetarily and mentally. Although the majority of my work has not been physical, I do enjoy physical labor. I like to get tired and use my muscles.
