My Jobs!
View her journal entry here.My first job in Logan was babysitting. I had not wanted to do it because I was really needed at home. But my social security did not come from Switzerland for 3 months and I needed some money for food and the bills. Mario also had a job soon in the telephone company. He always gave me his money. First, I had a baby from one lady and 3 children from another. All 3 did still wet their pants and the oldest (a boy) had his fingers in to every food I was preparing.
Mario did not like it to much, but I needed the money. Then people would ask me to come to their houses to babysit; two families I would go to. One was a young couple, where the mother went to college.
My work at: Interiors by Brenda!
View her journal entry here.
6 September 1981
Today is Sunday and I should perhaps not be thinking of work; but so many things have happened there lately, that I feel compelled to write them down for future references.
I started to work for Brenda shortly before my birthday last year. I know now, I should never have set foot into that store, except for one thing: I learned how to make drapes and curtains; which is what I always wanted to do, so I could replace my old ones. Now I know everything about it!
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| Christine Drautz Beorchia |
I really had applied for a sales job at the employment office. But the two stores I got references to I did not like. One of them had cheap material to sell and the other had teenage clothing and i knew that lots of things are stolen there. So I went back to the Employment Office and told them I did not want any of the two jobs.
Next day the man called me and said: "I have something else for you, where you could start right away." I have to mention here that I could have had a job at the Temple again, when it was reopened after renovation, but I wanted to stay home until Michael graduated from high school and go on a mission. I felt that he needed me at home and I wanted to enjoy him being home as long as I could! I am so glad that he stayed home until he got his mission call! I think if I would have been working many things would have turned out differently.
Well, anyway, I went that day to see what it was and I was treated so friendly and nice that I decided to work for a while to see how it was. That was a mistake. I thought I would be working in the store. Instead I was working in the back of the building in a work room that was so dusty and dirty, it made me half sick! My clothes, my hair, my face, and hands were so dirty every day, I wanted to quit again.
But the people were friendly-especially the two girls that were working there! One of them was married and not very happy. Her name was Jane (?). The other was divorced and had two or three children which were being tended by her mother. Her name was Ilana (?) and she was not too happy, either.
Then there was the mother of David, Brenda's husband, which was sitting on the machine most of the time, sewing pleats into the curtains and drapes. I could see right away she was a hard worker and I like that. When I work, I work and not like some people which like to have fun when they work!
Jane was that way as I found out soon. I started to work the next day. We were in the process of making 200 curtains for BYU in Provo. There was enough to do for the three of us and I was 100% sure that I had a full time job. Little did I know!
Ilana was a good worker. She had also a very pleasant disposition and I was very happy to work with her. She was willing to learn and did really her best. One thing she was not able to do very well was measuring pleats. She just could not figure out the inches. I saw her counting on her fingers when she was measuring.
No when you have to figure out the distance between pleats by an 8th of an inch or even a 16th, then it does not help much if you need your fingers to count. I could hear Myrtle getting upset because the spaces between the pleats were not the same. It also took Ilana a long time to figure it out and put the pins into the curtains, during which I had to stand there and wait for her.
So, same day, Myrtle (David's mother) said to me that I should not let Ilana measure the pleats anymore, but I should do it. Well, I did not want to hurt Ilana's feelings, especially after she had told me that everybody was treating her very rude! They ignored her and were very unfriendly to her. I could see that it was true so I tried to work with her and make her feel better by being nice to her.
One day Myrtle told her that I should measure the pleats from now on. I did not like to have Ilana's feelings hurt that way but I had to do what I was told. She told me she could not stand this treatment anymore and I knew she would quit some day.
She also told me that she had a very bad back and I could see it was bothering her very much. Her children also needed her at home and was not too well and she really wanted to be with them. Most of the time Ilana was very quiet.
Jane was just the opposite. You could hear her talk and laugh all day. She would flirt with any man she saw: the owner, Doug, a man was helping to hang drapes, the paint man, the mailman, the UPS man, anyone that showed up in the workroom. I told her many times that she was married and I would tell her husband. But she did not care.
She would go to the telephone many times a day and when Brenda was out, she made conversation for long, long times. Everybody knew about it but no one did say anything because they needed her. She was a fast and good worker. But I could not stand how dirty and even torn her apron was.
Well, nobody and nothing was really clean in that business. The kitchen was used as an office and was a mess! I would have been embarrassed to take anyone in there. The table was so dirty that every time they asked me to have a bite with them, I was glad to get a clean plate! They were very friendly and good to me.
At one time I had only a dollar and 80 cents and a few pennies, a banana nut bread, but not wrapped it yet. On my lunch break I went to the post office and asked the man on one window, "How much is this package?" He weighed it and said, "Two dollars and 10 cents."
I thoughts: I am going to send this package today, even if I have to borrow a quarter! So I wrapped it. Then I counted my pennies. Altogether I had $1.86. I stood in line and when my turn came, I had to go to another window. I asked that man: "How much is this package?" To my believable surprise he said: "$1.86."
"That's exactly what I have!" He did not answer - either he did not hear what I said or did not care! Why should he care if a mother spends her last money for a package to her missionary son. But I was happy that my son would get his package soon and that I was able to pay for it.
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| Michael Beorchia |
Well, things picked up and got better. I think Brenda had a talk with her husband and his mother! We had 200 curtains to do for the university in Provo and that kept us pretty busy. It also brought some money and that alone made everybody feel less tense.
Ilana quit soon because she wanted to stay home with her children. Jane also quit and found a job as a bus driver for the school program like her father. As I said before, she was a fast worker, but one day Myrtle said to her: "Christine is faster than you."
I think that did it - it was more than she could take! Then Myrtle said: "If we had one more like Christine, we would not need three." And they found it in a nice looking, blonde haired girl named Rose Anne from Brigham City. She had been sewing on power (?) lines for two years making coats. So, she was pretty good on the machines and I was better in hand sewing.
That my sewing machine had been stolen 12 years ago did not help matters. The fact that she was better on machines soon went to her head. She started bossing me around, telling me what to do and what not.
There were days I could hardly started it. Would it not have been for the money, which I needed badly, I would not have stayed any longer. But, I also felt sorry for Brenda. The whole burden lay on her shoulders. He, David, treated her really rude and mean sometimes. Then Brenda hired two females for the store: Linda, a very nice lady, mother of two children and with an equally nice husband. Julie was also a very nice girl - simple and naive.
Linda was going to make appointments and take the measurements in peoples houses. She worked very hard because she was hired on commission which means you get a certain percentage of what you sell. She did not stay too long. She got a better offer from the competition and quit.
That firm is also on Main Street, right across the street from Brenda's, and is owned by Nixon's (Daniel's, a friend of Michael's, parents). She told me later one reason she quit was David. I don't know what happened.
Julie got married in September and quit also. Then there was a relative girl with the name of Kathlyn. She came to visit once and later called and asked if she could work for them. So, we were three again in the work room. That was one too many!
I had taken Rose Anne one day to the drive-in and had a heart to heart talk with her. I told her that I could not take the way she is treating me and if she does not stop, I would quit the job. I also told her that Brenda is losing money, too many mistakes were made and that it is not fair to Brenda. After that talk, things got to be better.
When Kathlyn came, Rose Anne influenced her against me. They would whisper together, Rose Anne would make rude remarks about or towards me and Kathlyn started to do the same.
Then after a while things started to change: one day, Rose Anne made a very rude remark toward me (I can not remember what it was), but Kathlyn said in a very upset voice: "?". That was the end of their friendship. They still were friendly toward each other, but it was not the same anymore.
When Myrtle's husband, Roy, died (he was such a wonderful man) everybody stayed the next day at her house, except Rose Anne and me. She started to boss me around, telling me what to do. I said: "Who is the boss around here?" And she answered: "I ? be."
I said: "Good luck to those which will be working with you." Well, she is not the boss! She is working in the back all alone. They hired two other girls for the store. Kathlyn and myself had started another job on the same day. She found a job in Salt Lake City, where she is living close to her uncle.
I went one Friday to the Employment Office because we were only working two weeks every month and I needed more money. (I am sending Michael $300 a month). I know a man at the Employment Office; he called a lady; I went to the ? and was told I could start on Monday.
Kathlyn also started the same day her new job. She called me and we had a nice, long chat. She is happy where she is working now and so am I. She told me that David always had to borrow money to be able to pay us. As long as we were working on the 500 curtains we had to make for the University in Logan everything was alright. But after that there was nothing to do because of lack of material. I thought that perhaps Myrtle would get some insurance money from her husband and could help financially a little bit. But I asked Brenda and she said they had no insurance at all.
I feel really sorry for Brenda if they should not be able to hold the business because she is really working hard for it.
A day before I quit, Brenda called me and said that she is sorry there is nothing to do and that she would understand if I would look for something else; but she would call me back as soon as they have material. Well, another reason why I quit was their son, James. He could get soo mad about little things. Once he was playing around with a wasp, which was at the table, hitting it with a ruler. I could see it was suffering, so I went over, took a Kleenex, and took it and carried it into the toilet. He was so mad, he threw a ruler at my legs. When Steve ? came next day he was really upset with him and told him so. Never had I seen Steve so upset. I thought he would hit him or spank him.
Work at Alco Bag Factory
Poem about work
.... could it be, that the ugly, unloved
duckling some day, turns into a
beautiful swan?
Or that the racehorse, which is now slow
and unfamiliar with the terrain
some day will outrun?
My new job at Alco Bag Factory.
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