Louis Butler - early 1960's
A list of all the jobs Dad held during his life - dates are approximate:
1935-1937 - Arnold Harriman Ranch - $1.00/day
I had great fun on these weekend trips to Fowler. Usually it was nothing real exciting, but just being with Clark and Alice Bell was a great pleasure for me. Many times it was just being with Clark doing one of the many chores around the ranch. One week it may have been fixing fence all day Saturday way out on the prairie many miles from the ranch house. That may not sound like fun to many people, but I always had a good time. Whatever we did, we made it fun and we enjoyed the fact that we were accomplishing something all of the time. This is where I really learned to work and to enjoy it. Uncle Frank made me feel like I was really something, and sometimes I would be paid for the work.* * * * *
July 1938 -June 1940 and September 1940 -June 1941 - 11th Street Grocery and Market - $4.00/week
During my sophomore year I started working at the 11th Street Grocery and Market, which was owned and operated by Bro. Irvin Jackson, who was the Sunday School Superintendent. I stocked shelves, swept floors, filled orders to be delivered, dumped trash, and boxed or sacked groceries. I was to work from about 3 p.m. until 6 p.m., then help clean up and get out about 6:30 usually. Then on Saturday, we worked from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. For this I received $4.00 per week! Earning all of this money I was now able to buy my school clothes.
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image from flickr
June 1940, 1941 -September 1940, 1941 (and part time through the end of 1941) - Arapaho Creamery
I was working at the Creamery selling ice cream, milk shakes, etc, on Sunday December 7, 1941 when we heard over the radio that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and had sunk many ships and killed many Americans. We were at war.
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September 1941 - Lock Joint Pipe Company
March 1942 - Pueblo Air Base
I was attending a business school at the time and got a job with a pipe company keeping books, time, etc. Then in the spring when they started building the air base east of town, I got a job as a clerk in the receiving department with Broderick & Gordon Construction Company making a lot more money.
June 1942 - October 1942 - Rainbo Bakery
When school was out I got a job with the Rainbo Bakery selling day old bread. All of the bread that was not sold was brought into the day-old store. Most of it was sold to farmers for their hogs, but most of it that I sold was not really stale, but the extra bread that was baked and then not needed for the route salesmen. I worked at Rainbo until I went into the Navy in October of 1942.
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October 1942 - December 1945 - US Navy
Enlisted in the Navy and served as a Radio technician in Adak
Enlisted in the Navy and served as a Radio technician in Adak
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December 1945 - 1948 - Pueblo Junior College Custodian (part-time)
December 1945 - 1954 - R.B. Flemons Concesionaire (part-time)
School started again in January and I was part-time at the college as a custodian. I was also working for Flemons when I could get on his concession crew at different events such as football games, rodeos, basketball games, or special events of any kind. While I was at a job at the horse races in Brush, Colorado our twin sons were born on July 3, 1949
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June 1948 - August 1948 - City of Pueblo Recreation Department
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When the school year began in September 1948, I taught physical education at Minnequa Elementary School in District #60 under Julia Braun, principal. My salary notice from the district dated 25 August 1948 reports that I would be paid $2,000 for the school year!
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August 1950 - February 1951 - US Navy
March 1951 - June 1953 - Pueblo School District 60 - Minnequa School
[After my discharge from the Navy]I went to the school district, as they had told me I had a job when I got back. I was supposed to have started teaching 3rd grade in September, 1951, so, I was put on as a permanent substitute until there was a job available. I substituted mainly in the old building east of Pueblo on Highway 96 at the Belle Plain School, which the district had taken over from a small school district. That assignment lasted for a few weeks until a 6th grade assignment opened up when Glen Filer, 6th grade teacher at Minnequa School, was drafted into the Army and I was given his position. I taught this class to finish up the school year.
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Colorado was celebrating "The Rush to the Rockies" in all schools. The Bessemer staff dressed up for the celebration.
July 1953 - July 1960 - Pueblo School District 60 - Bessemer School
. . . one day in early August I opened the Pueblo Chieftain Newspaper and read that I had been appointed as a principal at the board meeting the night before. I had received Bessemer and Hinsdale schools as my assignment. Later the assignment was changed to Bessemer and Strack schools. Strack was a very small school and was closed in June of 1956.
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August 1960 - July 1980 - Pueblo School District 60 - Park View School
Summer 1957 - YMCA swimming instructor
[While Leona was attending summer school in Greeley] I was to work at the YMCA teaching swimming and supervising the pool during the week. I was able to take the boys with me to the “Y” each day. They could swim or play in the gym if it was not in use, workout in the workout room, or read and play checkers, chess, etc. in the lobby of the YMCA. This “Y” had 3 or 4 stories of rental rooms above the lobby, and physical education facilities. It was interesting to watch these little guys, 8-10 years old, play chess, etc. with the older men who lived at the “Y”.
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I continued at Bessemer until June of 1960 when I was transferred to Park View School. Bessemer enrollment had dropped to about 350 students, and Mr. Dunlap, who was now superintendent said that I needed more of a challenge; so I went to Park View which had an enrollment of about 700. It was more of a challenge in many ways.
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August 1980 - March 1983 - Pueblo School District 60 - Bessemer School
I received a call from Jack Isenhour, who was now Director of Elementary Education. Jack asked me if I would consider a transfer back to Bessemer School, because the principal there was in the process of being taken to court because he allegedly had thrown a 5th grade boy against a locker. Jack said that since I had been there before and had a good relationship with the community that they had decided to ask me to take it over again.
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March 1983 - Retirement!
In 1981 the CF&I closed down and the school population dropped from 27,000 students to about 19,000 students and the school district had too many teachers and too many schools. Their solution was to offer personnel nearing retirement age a good deal to retire early. This allowed the district to reduce staff, or retire more personnel making top salaries and replace them with new teachers at the bottom of the pay scale. So, according to their plan, they offered me the opportunity to retire. For four years they would pay me the difference between my retirement pay and my salary I would have earned if I had worked for 4 more years. Before then I would have to retire anyway, so I took early retirement on March 3, 1983.
1 comment:
He didn't mention working nights at the steel mill when he was attending Pueblo College. Maybe he was trying to forget that part of his resume. They were good to him. Sometimes they would let him do his homework or take a quick nap. I've always thought that those few months at the steelmill was a great factor in him finishing school. He knew that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life working at the steelmill.
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