Starting El Camino Jr. College, But Why?

I was more interested in working, making money and being irresponsible. Issue #55

ifOnlyi…hadn’t learned so many bad habits in my youth, I would never have drunk alcohol at work, ever! Being young and easily influenced can cause you to do stupid things, so always act wisely.

After an incredible summer vacation rafting the Colorado River Rapids, I was still numb from the freezing waters and the fabulous experience.

I continued to work at the family’s business for the rest of the summer, this time doing incoming and outgoing phone sales. It was another position that I trained for. I also continued to work at Gift trade shows.

As you may have read in a previous issue, I started at the bottom of the family business by cleaning our warehouse and toilets. Then, I moved up to loading and unloading 40-foot containers. This was followed by picking and packing orders, and then off to outside sales when I was diagnosed with Shingles after spending 14 days at UCLA Hospital. I wrote about that nightmare in Issue #35.

After that, I moved into computer training in conjunction with the telemarketing department.

I was only moved up once I understood the depths of the positions I was in. My parents insisted I know and participate at each level before I was given the next steps.

While I worked in sales, I was paid a minimum hourly wage plus a tiny commission percentage—not enough to live on my own yet, even though it was a full-time position. It's hard to imagine not having enough, so I worked in-home Catering on Friday and Saturday nights as a bartender.

I met the owner of the Catering company while working in outside sales. She owned a food deli at Farmers Market on Fairfax and 3rd in Los Angeles, a genuinely famous historic place that opened in July 1934 and offers 100-plus food vendors. I was fortunate that she hired me.

On Sundays, I worked as a full-service Gas station attendant at Shell Gas. I would pump fuel and wash windshields all day. It was somewhat of a party, as the owner’s brother also worked there and loved having a few drinks during the day. We were buzzing around, filling up tanks as we got fueled up.

I worked seven days a week for those three months. I needed to make my life something more than what I was limited to in our family business.

Another summer came and went, and Dad was once again traveling throughout the planet, working his butt off for the family business. I continued to miss him very much.

I joined a local Junior College as my grades were not where they needed to be to get into the dream schools I had wished for. I needed to study more for that to happen, so I hoped a year of working hard might get me to where I wanted to go.

My wish turned out to be nothing more than a day’s worth of playing around. If I wasn’t on the tennis court, I was looking for a girlfriend or making plans for the weekend ahead.

My only goal in school was to find a girlfriend I would be happy with. What more was needed?

I still worked for the family business, doing in-and-out phone sales while attending College. I had to make money somehow and legally. Working, attending College, and partying were too much to handle, so that only lasted until February 1979. The semester ended, as did my days of studying there. I quit College after just six months.

Mom was not happy and shortly thereafter fired me from the family business. I had no more cars or income, yet I moved out of the house. That was something I had been waiting a long time to do.

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#…ifOnlyi… short stories are published chronologically and follow my life growing up in California from 4 years old. If you’ve just found me, the stories will come together when you start reading from...Issue #1