On The Job

Dad commented the other day that he thought the "On The Job" segment of our Family History Friday was so boring that he wasn't even reading them (and if dad isn't reading the blog it must be boring).   I don't know if it is because they have all been on the Hodgkinson and Smith side, or if it really isn't interesting to anyone.  I have enjoyed it, and my mom has too - so one last On The Job post from my side.  (Dad will probably jazz up his side.)  John Bennion is pictured above.  He is my great great great grandfather on my maternal side (orange in the fan).  He had come from a long line of farmers - His great grandfather John Bennion, Grandfather William Bennion, Father John Bennion were all farmers and were just hired laborers.  They would be hired for an entire year but were never land owners.  They worked hard but never got rich and barely lived above the poverty line.  John Bennion's father (John) didn't want that for his son, so he arranged for him to be an apprentice with a boilermaker.  The profession of boilermaker in England  were those that produced steel fabrications from plates and sections of steel.  John used this skill until after  his family moved to Utah with the saints.  He had brought enough money  with him to buy a head of cattle and bought some land in the West portion of the Salt Lake Valley which came to be known as Bennion, but was later renamed to Taylorsville.   Way to go John. 

ON THE JOB FOR SUSAN HODGKINSON CORNWALL
Even though the printouts I regularly receive from the Social Security office indicate I haven't worked that much, I thought I would document my various jobs.  My first steady, paying job was when I was 11.  I was employed by the Loomis family in our ward. Brother and Sister Loomis were both in the youth program and they needed someone (who wasn't 12) to watch the rest of the their kids.  I received 25 cents an hour and was usually there for three hours every Wednesday night.  It was the hardest 75 cents I have ever earned.  It just seemed forever for them to come home.  I would be in their basement and it just seemed scary.  What I would have given for a cell phone to call and talk to my mom on those lonely nights.

11 year old babysitter

You might recall that when I was eight we moved to Denver.  We moved to a new area where the building of schools had not caught up with the building of homes.  I went to John F. Kennedy Junior/Senior High school for 6 years.  The junior and senior high were in the same building on split sessions.

 The first three years - Junior High, (sixth grade through ninth grade), school was from 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.  The last three years, High School (tenth grade through twelfth grade), school was from 6:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon (which made seminary start at 4:30 a.m.!!!!)  With these large blocks of time there was plenty of time for employment. 

7th grade

I think all the mothers of those junior high students who didn't go to school until 12:30 were pretty anxious to have their kids doing something in the mornings and some of the young mothers really took advantage of having kids at home.  All during junior high I had a regular babysitting job every Monday and Friday morning.  I may have even received a raise from the 25 cents.

Once I shifted to high school an interesting  employment opportunity came along.  Because I played for the choirs at high school my name was recommended to teach piano at the elementary school in the afternoon.  This was at the elementary school I went to, Traylor.  I would walk over several afternoons from Kennedy.  I had about 45 students.  They would come in in groups of 5 and I would have them for 30 minutes.  As you can imagine there wasn't tons of progress with such little individual attention, but I did it for three years and it was quite a significant pay bump.  I just socked the money away and it really paid for my first year of college and ski trips.  I remember feeling so cool to have a box with my name on it in the school office and walking and getting the flyers out of it on my way to the auditorium for the lessons and having my students call me Miss Hodgkinson. 

Traylor Elementary

Apparently I still had a lot of time on my hands in the afternoons because I got a second job when I turned 16 and could drive.  I worked at Woolsworth in the local mall - Cinderella City.  I loved to work at the cash register.  Yeah those were the olden days when you really punched in every number.  Every Saturday they sold balloons out in front of the store.  We had just put on our ward's roadshow and I had access to a Panda Bear costume.  I asked the manager if he would like me to wear that costume and try to sell balloons.  I felt really special doing that.  My mom would come and take me to lunch on my lunch break.  We would go to der weinderskzel and get the special of the day.   Man I loved the days she would come.  The other thing I got really good at was working at the candy counter.  There would be bins of candy and nuts and we would have to measure them out for the customers.  I think that is where I acquired my taste for cinnamon bears. 

The summer between high school graduation and leaving for BYU, I worked at Saint Anthony Hospital.  My dad was my biggest cheerleader in the job department.  He said that I could get any job I wanted.  He said I was smart, he had made me take typing and I was very adept at that.  (I guess I benefited like John Bennion in having a visionary dad who helped me find work).  I was pleased and surprised when I got the job at the hospital over many other older applicants.  I worked in the dietary office.  One thing was very bad about that job.  I worried all summer how I was going to tell them I was going to leave at the end of the summer.  I simmered and stewed about it.  My dad kept telling me - it happens every day, it won't be a big deal.  Two weeks before I was to leave I walked in and told my supervisor.  I was sick to my stomach.  I went to my desk and started working.  By lunch they had moved another girl up and had filled my position.  After that I trusted my dad,  that starting and stopping jobs was just part of business.   

Being a fast typer really had it's benefits at BYU.  The first year I worked in the Child and Family Development Department.  I worked for Lynn Scorsby.  My main job was to create his handouts for class.  We had to type on mimeograph paper and then run it off on the mimeograph machine.  If you made a mistake while typing, you had to take a razor blade and scrap off the purple ink and then make the correction.  It really made you an accurate typer because the corrections were not fun. 

I took a break from the BYU Provo campus to spend a semester at BYU Hawaii.  There were four of us that went.  I must have needed the money for this adventure, so with the confidence my dad had instilled in me I went and applied for a job.  I got a job as the secretary for the Director of Student Relations.  The great part of that job was that he was the go-between with BYU-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center.  One of my responsibilities was to walk over to the cultural center through the back gates every day and pick up the mail.  It was really fun.

Larry Porter

When I got back to BYU I landed a great job, one that I kept the rest of the time I was there.  I became the morning secretary to the Church History Department Chair - Larry Porter.  He was the greatest boss, the kindest man I have ever met.  I worked 8:00 a.m. until noon, Monday through Friday.  It was a great place to work.  The last two years my good friend Jerri Goble worked for the Department Chair of the Ancient Scripture Department Robert J. Matthews.  Our desks were right next to each other.  We got to know all the professors in the entire religion department. Working for the religion department had some perks.  One of them was being asked to give the prayers at the devotionals.  I was able to sit on the stand, meet Elder Oaks and the speaker (who it seems wasn't quite as memorable as Elder Oaks since I can't remember who it was.)

I had two different summer jobs.  One summer I lived at home when my parents had moved to Holladay.  I applied everywhere for work including a big law firm.  I was surprised when I got a call from a man I hadn't interviewed with or submitted my resume to.  He had broken off from the law firm where I had interviewed earlier that day and they had given him my resume.  It was a two man office and I could walk to work. I learned a lot that summer. It was a lucky  that I had worked from home that summer because that was the summer I was lined up on a blind date and met dad!!!  The next summer I decided to stay in Provo and worked in the morning with Brother Porter, but I was able to add another 20-hour a week job.  It was working for Hugh Nibley.  It was in his later years and the only thing he asked me in the interview was if I could type fast.  I said yes.  He gave me a typing test and I was hired.  What he wanted a secretary for was he would dictate all afternoon.  I was indeed a very fast typer, but unfortunately I didn't know all the large and complicated words that he would spue forth in rapid sentences.  His TA that summer was Richard Hozaphel who ended up being a pretty famous guy himself.  He would tell me - just type as much as you can and I will help you fill in the gaps. He was such a life saver.

The 12 weeks between BYU graduation and our marriage I worked for a temp agency.  I wanted some money, but also wanted the flexibility to not work if needed to work on wedding plans.  The first job I was sent out to was for A T & T.  That is where my dad worked, but I was in a totally different building.  I was put in a corner, in the basement and told to type addresses on envelopes on an old, non-correcting typewritter for 8 hours every day.  It was so mundane.  The second or third dad I decided to try something.  I went to my boss and asked if I could use her phone to call my dad to arrange our lunch date.  When I mentioned his name she was a bit startled.  When I came back from lunch I had a job change.  I was brought upstairs, given a better typewriter and some jobs that required some thinking - GREAT!!!

A few weeks after we got married I went to an employment agency in Pasadena to help find a job.  I took a skills test.  When they saw my typing speed and accuracy (oh those mimeograph papers really came in handy) they sent me on a job interview to McKinsey and Company, a consulting firm in downtown Los Angeles.  I was hired and worked the next year there until Jason was born.  I will save some amazing stories from that job for another post, but needless to say it was high pressure.

As a stay at home mom I had two paying jobs.  I tried my hand at teaching piano lessons. I think the most students I ever had was about 8.   I have a few famous students - one of which was President Harry Terrill.  He didn't practice much, but we had some good visits. It was too hard to teach after Jeffrey was born.  At that time I took on some work typing for a Real Estate Appraiser.  He would drop off the information.  I would type up the comps, have them bound and then deliver them to his office.  That was nice to have the flexibility to type when the kids went to bed.

For the past seven years I have been hanging out with dad at Cornwall Associates.  It always surprises me that it has been that long, mostly because I am just barely getting the hang of everything.  Grandpa was so patient with me at the beginning.  I had heard stories about how tough he had been on secretaries - but to me - he was a dream -  kind, patient and understanding.  In retrospect it was nice to spend so much time with him those last few years.  Now I get to spend time with dad.  We have finished our move (pictures forthcoming) and we feel great about our new space.  I pull out our lunch everyday.  I had a hard time with dad's spartan style lunch - I have enriched it a little here and there.  I have grown to appreciate how hard dad works and how truly gifted and brilliant he is.

I have to mention my favorite job out of all the jobs that I have had - MOM!!!!  It has been the greatest work I have ever been engaged in.  I will be forever thankful that dad worked so hard so that I was able to stay home and be at the crossroads.