OK let's hear from you geezers

[Nictuku]

68. 43 Years

Started in 1978 where I worked in a movie theater on Maui (Wailuku) in the concession stand. My first job. It was fairly short lived because my mom had to drive me from upcountry Kula. It was interesting because it was owned by Seiks. Maui was full of hippies back in the day, it was great.

My next job was after I moved back to Honolulu at 17. Maui life wasn't for me back then. I needed the Bright Lights and Big City (Honolulu/Waikiki), and of course, my boyfriend. It took a while, but I did start working again at 18 at Pancho Goldsteins Taco Stand (a restaurant in Waikiki). My (new) boyfriend owned the place. We went out partying after work every night staying up until 4 am. It was a wild time.

After that, I moved back to the mainland, So Cal in Redondo Beach, and worked briefly at an Aaron Brothers Art Mart. Those years, I was here and there, I think I did some personal assistant work for this lady for a while. And then I began to work for a large Property Management company that had apartment buildings all over Los Angeles. This was the job that ended up launching my career. I had switched companies and they had this magical thing that could do the Pay or Quit and Lease Notices without a typewriter and carbon paper! A Computer! I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. They taught me how to use the Xerox 860 (first WSYWYG screen!) and I became a pro on it, taking over the lady's job who ran it when she retired.

Next I went to work for an environmental agency and was working in their Word Processing department. They had their computer system updated and the people who came in to train us were great, I had a rapport with one lady and thought that I would enjoy doing the kind of work she did (computer trainer) and she got me in to work for a SONY subsidiary, where they had these little word processors that looked like Apples kind of. SONY Word Processors. I taught secretaries and medical transcriptions how to use these systems, and wrote keystroke macros to automate their tasks.

After that, I had several back to back jobs doing different things in the computer industry, training, always learning. Then came Windows (3.1) and at one point I was able to be self-employed working as a consultant for law firms. I moved back to Hawaii while I was doing that. But the consulting work dried up, and jobs in Hawaii had low pay, and I ended up moving back to California, where I temped for a few weeks until I found my major career job with the 9th Circuit Federal Courts. I worked there for 21 years. After 21 years, I had /finally/ topped 100K/year where I got pushed out and offered an early retirement. I took it because I could tell, the writing was on the wall. They were trying to trim their budget, and all 5 of us in our IT Unit took the offer and all left on the same day. At first I was bitter. Felt un-wanted. Unimportant. Scared about whether or not I had saved enough for retiring early (I didn't), and having to face getting another job at the age of 59. But now, after figuring out my finances (I'm going to get a reverse mortgage when I turn 62 next year), and it was possibly a blessing in disguise. The Universe gave me what I wanted. I was TIRED of working. For 21 years, I was up at 3 am, out the door by 4 am, arrived from my commute at 6 am, got home at 6 pm. Ate, slept, and did it over again. I felt like a ZOMBIE. I never got to enjoy my house which is up in the rural Napa hills.

Now I'm retired. Enjoying the deer and turkeys and all the wildlife around the house. I'm on a tight budget, but I am managing (this inflation is very difficult), and next year, if all goes well, I'll be able to take out the equity of my house, pay off the current loan (so I no longer have mortgage payments), and THEN when I get my SS combined with my retirement annuity, I should be able to live comfortably, in this house, until I die.

So yes. I worked my ass off pretty much since I was 16.

If you read this, thanks for taking the time. I was kind of cathartic for me to type it all out. You definitely have me beat Skittles!