career | Spirit of Cecilia

by Richard K Munro

Who is MUCH more likely to die on the job? A woman? Or a man?

FACT: 93% of workplace deaths are to men. Why?

Because men take the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs and work the longest hours to make as much money as they can while they can. I know because it was what I did. I could have been in those workplace death certificates. I did some dirty and dangerous jobs.

They say your 20s are the best time of your life but for me, there were years of frustration and suffering and separation from loved ones. But I just stoically carried on. Getting your first full-time job is sometimes very difficult. People are surprised but I would say in my early life I was turned down for every job I applied for. I was too qualified or not qualified enough. It was humiliating and a chastening experience. So I left home and went West. I told my mother I would keep going until I got a full-time job and if I had to go to Alaska or Australia, I would do that. I ended up in Washington State and later California. But by following the economic magnet and moving where there were SOME job openings I got work and for over forty years I always worked. It was hard to leave home (essentially never returned) but working felt a lot better.

After I left the service I had very little money (a few thousand dollars) and an old Chrysler (free and clear). I worked in construction for five years. I started by unloading rail cars $6 an hour I recall (then stacking over 1000 bags of Owens-Corning fiberglass insulation); then I dug trenches under a place called Yesler Terrace with an e-tool.

The first day my partner and I got ZERO PAY. That’s right ZERO pay.

We were paid by the square foot of insulation installed.

But we worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday and finished the job (a job no one else wanted). Monday morning at 5AM we got another job.

And we gained the respect of the foreman (a tough ex-Marine) because we did not complain. We knew the job had to be done and we knew the terms of the contract.

We also knew it was no good to complain; to get more work you had to finish the job you were on satisfactorily. Even the guy I was with was surprised but I told him hauling loads and digging in the dirt was nothing new to me. In fact, the quiet of the Yesler Terrace underfloor was almost soothing compared to the noise and explosions of Marine Corps maneuvers.

We crawled into a little entrance with a long series of extension cords and a light. The kid I was with said to me, “what if there is an earthquake?”

And I told him, “Kid, if there is an earthquake we are dead and they will never find our bodies. But you can’t live forever. Let’s dig and get out of here as soon as possible. We can do this job if we work 10 hours a day.”

We finished Sunday evening about 6PM. We spent most of three days in the semi-darkness digging and then stocking (with tubes of insulation -Certainteed was the only thing we could fit in the trench) then installing the batts. It was a huge job. I think we made about $2 an hour. Piece work in construction or farm labor is the low end of the job market.

Above us were lounging welfare families. The kid asked me what I thought of them and I said,

“I feel sorry for them; they don’t know the pride and dignity of work. Anyone can run away. Anyone can be AWOL but its the man who stays and does the job who can be proud. If you work you get ahead; if you sweat you get; things at rest remain at rest. If you stay here with them you will be miserable and ashamed your whole life. Kid, get a job do a job. Be reliable and on time. Get what education you can and finish whatever level you start. High school, Certificate programs. Don’t have any kids until you are married and when you are married stay married. You may not get rich but you will never be poor if you are lucky enough to stay healthy. Quien joven no trabaja viejo duerme sobre paja……work when you are young so you are not homeless when you are old.”

I never got rich but I have a roof over my head, money in the bank and money coming in.

And it all started because I wasn’t afraid of dirty and dangerous jobs. I had a family to support and it was what I had to do. I still have the scars from those years. But later on, I really appreciated paid vacations, benefits and a regular hourly wage.

By Richard K Munro

I have attended a few colleges in my life and got some benefits from them. The main barrier was COST. American colleges are very expensive. One should only go, in my humble opinion, if one has clear goals. It is important, for some careers, to have a formal diploma or credential. If I were young today I would take a practical course in Nursing or Engineering or Computer Science. Medicine or Law are good careers but very long and very expensive unless one can do them via the military. I many Navy nurses, doctors and Marine lawyers in my day. I would recommend to any young person to do at least one tour of duty or to join the National Guard or Reserves and for many this could be the way getting some college without incurring an enormous debt. I know a young man to worked and studying for ten years to finally get his BS in engineering and now has a very good job. But his first job after high school was in a supermarket in produce. But he kept on studying at junior college at night to get his AA and then finally transferred to a four year college.

When I did become a teacher in my early 30s I was a mature individual and so was able to handle the stress of the classroom and academic obligations. In high school I had studied five years of Spanish and two years of typing and those two skills helped me enormously in my professional career.

As a teenager, I studied some classes near to home at Seton Hall University and also a summer in Soria Spain via the University of Northern Iowa which was very influential in my life. The program no longer exists, sadly. I commuted to NYU via the 77 bus and the PATH train and it was (then) relatively inexpensive. I got a solid undergraduate education (BA with honors) but thought graduate school was too expensive and I really didn’t want to be in the classroom anymore. So my New York education was over. I took advantage of my time in New York to enjoy the museums and culture and baseball games (frankly the thing I miss the most) and made many side trips to Washington DC. (I was in the Marine Reserves and trained at Quantico.)

I wanted to see the world and have some adventure. So I joined the Marines and later lived in Spain and worked as a construction worker in the West. I always studied when I could and did some military history courses via American Military University. I found it very difficult to live, work AND formally study so usually my education was via books as an autodidact. I had some freedom because I always avoided accumulating school debt.

After a number of years in construction and later at the Bank of America I thought it would be best to go back to school to get some formal certifications. I had studied computers and accounting at the American Banking Institute and some of those classes were at Seattle University which at that time was across the street from the bank. I first thought I could get an MBA but then thought a better fit for me was to get a 5th Year Teaching certificate 4-12 which I did by working nights and going to school during the day.

The hardest part was student teaching (which I had to pay for) while working full-time to maintain benefits for my family and support them. In order to be as employable as possible I also got a certificate in English to go along with my Spanish and Social Studies certificate. I worked or studied seven days a week. for two years I cam home at 10 or 11 PM M-Thurs and 7PM on Saturdays. I did not watch television for about two years! I only saw my family briefly most days. On Sundays I was with my family from about 7am to 1pm but the rest of the time I had to read, study, and type school papers. I had dinner with my family only Sundays and after dinner, I stayed up as long as necessary to be ready for the next week.
I took the CBEST (California Educational Skills test) in Math and English and passed it. On April 26, 1989 I was interviewed at the Tacoma Dome by an administrator from Arvin High School (Kern HS District) in California. They expressed mailed me a contract as a bilingual Social Studies teacher Varsity Soccer coach and JV Baseball coach. In the meantime I planned to get my MA in Spanish via the University of Northern Iowa in Soria Spain in the summers so from 1989-1991 I got 30 credits, got a Bilingual Certificate of Competence and a California Clear Credential. That was the most expensive educational project I had ever done and cost about $25,000. I paid about $10,000 in cash in 1989 but borrowed the rest. It took me about 10 years to pay that off but in the meantime I was able to support my family, buy a home and get tenured in the Kern HS District. From 1991-2003 I really wasn’t able to study formally because I was working nights, summers etc. In 2004 an opportunity opened up for a Fellowship to the University of Virginia and I studied there for one year (30 credits) but even with the Fellowship it was extremely expensive as I was maintaining two homes our family home in California and a one-bedroom apartment in Charlottesville. I tried to save as much money as possible by walking to school and not having a car. I rented one occasionally but traveled mostly by bus and train. At first I hoped I might finish my PhD but it was just too expensive, For me to have continued I would have had to quit my job, cash in on my retirement and move the entire family to Virginia. And I wasn’t getting any younger I was 49 in 20O4. So I maxed out my salary scale cut my losses and went back to my full-time job in the Kern HS District. I have since done many GREAT COURSES on literature and history and have been studying languages via DUOLINGO. I intend to do self education for the rest of my life. I am tempted to do on line classes in a more formal setting at times the problem is the cost and of course, I don’t need any more degrees or formal certification, I am retired (I do some part-time translating for lawyers or tutoring) and I don’t think I will ever work again except something I really love to do.

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