Dreaming

The days at the warehouse dragged on. I was making good money, so that helped to alleviate the boredom. And with two jobs I was able to buy myself a new car, a Corvair Monza Spyder; turbocharged!

Ah! The American Dream…A new car with that fabulous new car smell and a payment book. I was now in debt and so working became even more of a priority. But I was still complaining about it. And one day my complaints were heard by a friend of my sister, Miriam. Miriam lived just down the street from my parent’s house (where I lived) and she also worked at STL.

What I soon learned was that Miriam had repeated my complaints to her step-father…and he had just organized a new construction company and was looking for an apprentice or two. And so one day he came knocking at our door and asked to talk to me. After introducing himself and explaining his purpose in visiting me, he got down to the basics; he wanted an apprentice carpenter and apprentice estimator combined in one person. Would I be interested? It paid $2.50 an hour to start and the trade I would be involved in was known as “Sheetrocking”, or “drywall”. I had no idea of what those words meant, but I did know that $2.50 an hour was good money. And the promise of even more money over the period of the two years it took to become a Journeyman cinched the deal. $5 an hour was the promise in two years time.

After thanking him for contacting me and telling him that I would let him know my decision very soon…I went to my father and asked, “What’s drywall?”