Last week I was offered an incentive bonus to accept voluntary retirement. Rebecca and I have been considering when I should retire for about the past three years. It has been careful consideration with lots of prayer. We had already decided as we entered this year that I would work until the end of 2008 or if offered an incentive, I would retire when offered. That has been our recent prayer life. Well, last week the offer came, and I have accepted. My effective date of retirement is March 14, 2008.
Wednesday morning this past week I was sitting in Civilian Personnel waiting for an 8:30 AM appointment. I had my retirement packet all filled out to hand over to the personnel officer who was going to process my paper work. As I sat there waiting, I was led to silent prayer thanking the Lord for this moment of time, (retirement), in my life and the new chapter that is about to begin. My mind started to wander back into time over my working life of about 50 years.
My parents would give me an allowance back before I ever started earning any money of my own. Probably the first earnings I had was when we would set up a cool-aid stand a couple of summers in the fifties. We would make about a dollar a day when we would do that. My oldest brother delivered news papers back in the early 60's, and I would help him to do that for about a dollar a week. We delivered the "Sioux Falls Argus Leader". I thought that was big money back in those days, and for a kid it was. When we moved to Florida, my Dad took a job in construction. The construction business also did a lot of farming in the Florida Panhandle. With my Dad having a background in farming because of growing up on a South Dakota farm, he was used a lot with the farming side of the business. That gave me an opportunity to pick watermelons for $0.50 an hour for a couple of summers. That was hard work tossing melons up to someone standing in the bed of a truck. Once in a while we "accidentally" busted one so we could eat it. I just "love" a good watermelon.
The real transition from being just a kid occasionally making a few dollars, and joining the "world of work" permanently came in 1965. I got my drivers license that year which I couldn't hardly wait to do. I had been driving without a license since I was thirteen. The local IGA Supermarket hired me to bag groceries on Saturday for $0.65 an hour. My first pay check was $4.67. Payday was on Tuesday's, so after school that first payday, I walked all the way over to the store to get my first check. The cashier offered to cash it for me. I can still remember the day like it was yesterday. I put the 67 cents in my pocket, and the 4 dollars in my wallet. After putting the wallet in my back pocket, I slapped it as I was going out the door, feeling like I was rich. Man! I had nearly 5 bucks! What was I going to spend it on?
Just before I turned 16 years old, I got expelled from school. Coming home from school one day the school bus driver made me come to the front of the bus to stand there so he could keep an eye on me, because I was getting into trouble with other kids on the bus. While standing there, I noticed a pock mark on the windshield that was probably made by a BB gun. I started to knock on it with my knuckles, which turned out to be something I shouldn't have done. All of a sudden the windshield cracked about 3 feet across. The bus driver's eyes got terribly big as did mine. He told me to expect to see him in the Principal's office the next day. Sure enough the next morning my name was called over the intercom to come to the Principal's office. When I entered his office the bus driver was there with the principal and the assistant principal. Of course I denied cracking the window. After all, it had that BB gun shot. To make a long story short, the principal wanted to put a board across my "behind". I said very defiantly "you aren't going to paddle me"! He looked at the vice principal and said, " get this boy off this campus right now"! I never went back. Being kicked out of school afforded me an opportunity to work full time at the IGA. Any "dumb" 16 year old would rather work full time instead of going to school. Right? And for the minimum wage! Awesome! Right? Now I had my first full time job, and was making $1.25 an hour. I cleared a whopping $40.40 a week. Mom charged me $10 a week room and board. I blew the rest on whatever I wanted, which meant I saved absolutely nothing. Over the next 4 years working at the grocery store, I moved to being produce manager, and then to being manager of one of the local convenience stores in town with the same employer. By then I was on salary making $85 a week.
In 1969 I had enough debt that my monthly income wasn't enough to cover all my bills. A Friend of mine who I had worked with at the IGA came by to tell me about all the money he was making at the chicken processing plant on the edge of town. He was working a lot of overtime, and was clearing over a hundred dollars a week even though he was working for the minimum wage, $1.60 at the time. Well, I needed more money than I was making because of my bills, so I went to apply at the chicken plant. They hired me and soon I was clearing around $115 a week which got me back above water with my bills. By this time I had a nice car, (a 1967 Chevy Caprice with a 396 turbo jet engine and 325 horses under the hood), a stereo with some record albums, an 8 track in the car, and a couple of girls in my life that I was trying to impress. (Don't know that I ever did.)
The US Army came calling with a greeting in the mail in March 1970. "Greetings, you are hereby ordered to report...". As a private in the Army I earned $124.50 a month, and that was with a $50.00 car payment to make each month. I spent nearly 7 years in the Army with a tour of duty in Vietnam and a final assignment in Hawaii, and lots of other places in the States. I was discharged April 26, 1977 at the grade of Staff Sergeant E6. For the next six years I was either unemployed, or working temporary jobs. In Hawaii I worked at a manufacturing company called Coco Joe's making things for the tourists coming to Hawaii. After that it was a two week stint at the hardware store at the Marine base, and then a temporary job at Pearl Harbor. Finally I moved back to Florida. My first job there was at a Greyhound dog kennel cleaning up after a bunch of "filthy animals". Yuck! I hated that job with a passion. By now I was wondering if I was ever going to get a decent paying job at something I liked doing. Eventually I started going to college in Pensacola and in San Antonio when I moved there. I never finished college. In 1981 I moved from Florida to Texas, because of wanting to marry a young lady I had met at our church Conference in New Mexico in 1979. My first job in Texas was delivering uniforms and shop towels on the South side of San Antonio. For eight months I did that, and hated that too. Four days before we were married I quit the job with the idea of going back to school after our honeymoon. Can you imagine being unemployed and about to get married? I wonder what her parents were thinking. The GI bill provided for more education, and Rebecca had a good job with the government. After being in college through most of 1982, I dropped out in January of 1983 to look for a job with the government. In March of that year the Lord opened up a door for me at Brooks AFB with a temporary job. Just to let you all know at this point, the Lord was with me during all those years, even while I wasn't acknowledging Him for most of them. By this point in time, (Brooks), He and I had a growing relationship which is still growing today. It is an awesome thing to have a relationship with the Creator of all things, and to be aware of His presence. To know Him as "Daddy". To know Him as my Friend! Jesus is my Savior and Lord, and I know Him as my Friend! Can we know anything more important than this? Thanks Dad for all You are to me, and for all you have done, are doing, and will do.
The job at Brooks eventually led me to a permanent job there in the Air Force Drug Testing Laboratory's QA lab. We had over sight of all the samples tested for drug usage of Airmen in the Air Force and some GI's in other branches of the military. I really liked that job. Our first son was about to be born and we needed the money that it paid. In 1986 I was offered a job at Kelly AFB which would give me a nice pay raise. It was in aircraft maintenance in the "Rubber Shop". What a difference that was from the drug lab. At first I hated that job, and felt I had made a big mistake in taking the job. It sure did change the course of my career. In 1995 the Bracc commission decided to close Kelly with a six year plan to do it. In 1999 the work I was doing transferred to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, and I went with it. We initially felt we would move back to Texas when I retired. We didn't like Oklahoma, and felt like they were a bunch of "retards" up here. We believed the "IQ" of Oklahoma vastly improved with us moving here. When ever I met someone with intelligence, I would joke with them that they must be from somewhere else. I would even make them honorary Floridians. As you all know now, I was terribly wrong about that. After about three years or so my attitude began to change. Now I realize Oklahoma is "God's Country". This is "Okie Land"! I would "Sooner" live here than anywhere. (Until the Lord comes back.) I am proud to be an Okie from... I'm the reason God made Oklahoma! Need I say more?
Well, I have worked at Tinker AFB since July 1999. When I retire on March 14, 2008, I will end my government career with 32 years, 11 months, and 14 days. Right now I an exited about that, but I don't know how I will feel on the 14th. I tend to be a sentimental person about things. I am trying to realize the magnitude of the moment. I need the Lord's help and your prayers to do that. As I come to the end of my federal career, I have the uncertainties of what lies ahead. A new chapter of my life is about to begin which starts with a step off into the unknown. But that's life isn't it? None of us know what we will face with our next step in life. But, I know who holds tomorrow. Isn't that a hymn?
I KNOW WHO HOLDS TOMORROW
"I don't know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day. I don't borrow from its sunshine, for its skys may turn to grey. I don't worry o'er the future, for I know what Jesus said, and today I'll walk beside Him, for He knows what is ahead. Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand; but I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know Who holds my hand."
Please don't misunderstand me here. I realize my responsibilities. This is not some "Polly Anna" type of thinking that all will be well if I just think it will be. Jesus is real, and He is my life, Col. 3:4 When Christ, who is my life, appears, then I also will appear with him in glory. Nothing else needs to be said. May He be praised in all I say and do.
I look forward to what lies ahead in retirement from government service, because I am not retiring from life. What does the Lord have in mind? I haven't a clue about the unknown portion of it, but I am excited as I step out into the unknown walking with my Lord, my Savior, and my best Friend. There is much work yet to be done while I wait for His return, Eph. 5:15-17. May the Lord always be praised.
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