My Jobs Growing Up & Then Some.

I started young selling flower and vegetable seeds door to door in Camarillo. I then got a paper route delivering for the Ventura Star Free Press, Oxnard Press Courier, Los Angeles Times and worked for Max Grant, Melinda's dad from our class. I ran vacation relief for Dave Dodson's Camarillo Daily News paper route. This was cool as I got to use his Honda 55 Trail bike to deliver the newspapers.

I remember working a couple of summers picking Lemons and Oranges with Dave Dodson and Keith Busby. We rode the green Bracero bus with the ladders on top. This was hard work as we started before the sun came up.

I started working at Von's on August 3rd 1967 as a box boy. After a few months I stated clerking, stocking shelf's before school and then after school. Who would have known that I would be there for 28 years. I worked my way up to a Store Manager and managed stores from Santa Barbara to the San Fernando Valley. Many of our classmates worked with me for many years at Von's

I took an early retirement from Von's and Managed stores for Mervyn's Department Stores for two years. I moved over to Farmer's Insurance for 2 years as an Assistant District Manager where I recruited new agents, trained them, worked on their marketing program until then opened their new office.

I then went to work for Caterpillar as a Manager of their Engine Division for 10 years. I was responsible for their large truck shop, the marine division which consisted of yachts and other vessels. The largest part was the E.P.G. This is the Electric Power Generation which was our back up Cat generators. We did new installs, upgrades, maintenance and much much more. Our customers were Amgen, Jails, Telephone Companies, 911 Call Centers, Police Departments, Major Corporations, from Brittany Spears in Malibu to Oprah Winfrey in Montecito as many of these celebrities never wanted to be without power. From Caterpillar I went over to Terminix as a Branch Service Manager for the next year until they closed branches which meant layoff time.