Well, it seems like I left out an
important part of the “Auto Laundry” story. My cousin Jim
reminded me about the
story of what Dad went through to get his first job in California. I looked in my OM Monk file and found his transcribed version of Dad's
job hunt and added a rather long winded version of one of my job hunts. Here it is as told by Dad's friend OM Monk:
"Seeing a Help Wanted sign at the Auto
Laundry, JL inquired about the job. He was asked if he knew how to
steam clean an engine? Of course he said yes, even though he had
never steam cleaned anything. This answer seemed to satisfy the
question and he was told to start the next morning. Now JL needed to
figure out how to operate the steam cleaner. So he found another
steam cleaning business and asked to watch the operation. A few
hours of watching them fire up and use the kerosine burning steam
cleaner and JL was ready for his first day of work."
And it seems that the apple does not
fall far from the tree. I had a similar experience when I landed my
first welding job. I returned from my job cooking hamburgers at
Hamilton Stores in Canyon Village, Yellowstone Park in late September
1962. I had graduated the past June and returned to late to start at
at our local Jr College, so I began to hunt for a job. My high
school Mechanical Drawing teacher Irv Glushenko told me about a
welding job with American Rolling that was run by a friend of his. I
went for an interview and was hired. I knew how to arc weld and to
gas weld, but he was looking for a Tig welder. I of course told him
I could Tig weld even though at the time I did not know what Tig
meant.
He surprised me by having me start
that very moment by asking me to go with him to the welding supply
house and help him purchase a Tig welder. Unknown to me was the fact
that he had no welding equipment and one of my tasks would be to set
up the welding shop. Luckily the salesperson was a hands on guy and
he pretty much knew what was needed in the price range we gave him.
He demonstrated the welder on some scrap aluminum and then handed me
the torch. I was truly nervous but having seen that it was kind of
like gas welding only with an arc, I proceeded to give it a try.
After sticking the tungsten arc a couple of times I put down a short
little bead and told my new boss that this piece should do the job.
I worked there until September 1963
when I enrolled in the Welding class at the Jr College so I could
truly learn how to weld and prepare to get certified.
