My First Career Change: Age 11

The earliest recollection I have of what I wanted to be when I grow is probably elementary school age. I wanted to be a stewardess. This was before we had to call everyone a "flight attendant".  This was a short-lived dream for two very big reasons:  First I had a growth-hormone...
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1271 Views
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"The Famous James"

"The Famous James"
  "The Famous James" English-built Motorcycle - 1946 As with all humans, the Whizzer, after a few weeks, became less than what I wanted.  While the Whizzer was being developed and marketed, the Cushman Motor Company, a small firm that had produced motorized “scooters” for the Army looked at what they...
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2241 Views
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If you could go back and change an event or experience as a teenager what would it be and why?

Wow... this one is making me dig into the memorybanks... I have often wondered what would have happened if I had made Junior Nationals at the Zone Swim Meet in August 1983..  How far could I have or would I have gone? Instead I missed qualifying by a fingernail...Literally .01 of...
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1421 Views
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What did I want to be when I was a teenager...

My career goal was to be an attorney... Mom was going to be my paralegal.  I even went to Auburn and earned my BA in Political Science and Philosophy with minors in English, History and Business. (Yes over achiever I know).  I even became a certified Paralegal with Mom. Then I...
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1551 Views
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What one change would you make from your teen years?

What one change would you make from your teen years?
Well without a doubt we make choices when we are young, and most of the time we are unaware that we are choosing one way or another. Despite our parents best efforts we often choose foolishly! Thinking back, the one thing I would change would have been to be more serious...
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632 Views
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My Darling Jill

My Darling Jill
My Darling Jill Today, when “The F word” has been enshrined by the United States Supreme Court and hard core pornography is but a mouse click away, Erskine Caldwell’s book, “God’s Little Acre” could be read with impunity by any school kid.  But in the `40’s, the mere mention of that...
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2439 Views
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One thing I would change....

I wouldn't change anything I did in my adolescence.

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1826 Views
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Ford Won

Ford Won
When “the war” ended and after the wild celebrations ended, Americans released the breath they had been holding for four long years with an almost audible sigh.    Peace, prosperity, and an end to rationing came almost immediately.   No more denial.   Consumers were like sharks circling a chumming boat waiting for factories...
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1097 Views
2 Comments

How I Got My "Whizzer."

How I Got My "Whizzer."
One of the better jobs was delivering the Tulsa Daily Tribune to its subscribers in Caney.  Being a paperboy meant “being your own boss” and “making however much money you wanted to make” – or so the “recruiter” said when he was looking for a new paperboy.  Like many good build...
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1887 Views
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Col. Lamb Didn't Bleat; He Roared

There was a lot of coming and going of employees in Caney’s cafes, but the line between “boy jobs" and "girl jobs" was clear and bright.  Boys washed dishes or cooked.   I was too young to be a cook, so I became a dishwasher in “Chet’s Café” on Fourth Street.  If...
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1087 Views
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A Railroad Ran Through It

Caney was located at the crossroads of two railroads.  The Santa Fe ran trains north and south while the Missouri and Pacific, the "MOP", brought trains from the East and West.  The Santa Fe had all the glamour.  It had "The Streamliner."  In the `40's most trains were pulled by steam...
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1283 Views
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"Child Labor Laws? We don' need no steenking Child Labor Laws."

Caney had a bowling alley unlike any bowling alley ever seen before or since.  It was in a storefront building on Fourth Street, our “Main Street” just east of Winkler’s Drug store.  It did a boomingly noisy business until television came along.  It also was a business where the owner didn’t...
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1069 Views
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"Down in the Dump(s)"

The hike to the dam was a leisurely walk.  There were plenty of things along the way worth doing.   Those cone-shaped glass insulators found today in flea markets were sat on the crossbars of the telephone poles that alongside the railroad tracks. They shattered with a glorious display of shrapnel when...
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1231 Views
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"Goin' Down, To Duh River"

In early times someone built a dam across the Caney River out west of town, just at the bottom of Standpipe Hill.  It was a rudimentary dam, not much different in construction from those which small boys to dam up rainwater that runs in street gutters.   That dam had only one...
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1228 Views
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Dear Diary.......A Death in the Family

Dear Diary.......A Death in the Family
Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE Dear Diary, Since Dad died in 1962, my life has changed in many ways. I don’t know how much alimony he paid, but just about everything is different now. I guess we were lucky as we have lived on Mum’s salary and have...
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1009 Views
2 Comments

Favorite Teacher or Professor....

This is a tough one.  When this question came out it made me really have to stop and think.  I was EXTREMELY shy as a child but I loved school. My first grade teacher - Mrs. Howell - I was terrified of her.  At that time corproal punishment was allowed in...
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1694 Views
3 Comments

A World At War

A World At War
      The War was Everywhere Affecting Everything Don Carriker - 1944  12 years old At first "The War" seemed to be a fine thing.  There was an excitement and sense of purpose in the air.  Even a kid could feel prosperity blooming.   We moved from our primitive bungalow, with...
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914 Views
4 Comments

Love and War

Shrinks say that war heightens a man’s desire to be near a girl: As near as “possible”.  They say it comes from a primitive desire to preserve the species, to live beyond one’s own life, and from a war induced sense of our mortality.  Maybe that is what caused me to...
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1222 Views
2 Comments

My Adolescence in the 1960's and 1970's

I am a product of my era.

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3113 Views
1 Comment

What Did I Want To Be When I Grew Up

Late fifties and early sixties were "changing times." ....In lower school, the teachers that inspired me the most were the ones that encouraged that spark of sheer desire to solve difficult problems....It wasn't but a few days into the (Computer Science) class before I realized this was the subject for me.  It was so fun, I forgot the time of day. I spent hours and hours hanging around the computer labs working on those first programs.

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1620 Views
4 Comments