JOBS
June 17, 2013
I babysat for some neighbors a couple of times.
Babysitting - The summer of 1952 between my junior and senior years of high school I babysat Larry (5) and Leah Gibson (4) who lived a few houses west of us on our road. I was there during the day while their parents worked. One thing I remember from that was their mother cooked some spinach and thought that I should try it. I tried it, didn't like it and still don't like it cooked, unless it is in with something else, like quiche or lasagna.
General Telephone Company – After the start of my senior year of high school, October 1952, I worked for the General Telephone Company on Church Street in Adrian as a local telephone operator. As a person lifted their telephone receiver it would cause a light to come on at the board in the telephone office. We would plug into that circuit and say “number please”. When they responded with a number the other cord was plugged into and a ringer was activated causing the phone to ring. When the light went off both cords were unplugged. This was a weekday evening and weekend job. I believe we were allowed to work 20 hours a week at that age. The job continued until graduation. One good lesson that I learned was one time when I had a place that I wanted to go and couldn't find someone to replace me I went anyway and didn't go to work. I wanted my mother to call in for me. She didn't. When I arrived for my next scheduled time to work, the boss, Mrs. Watson called me to her desk. She told me that if I was old enough to work, then I was old enough to take the responsibility to be at work. I was very embarrassed and never did that again. I was thankful for still having the job and for that lesson in life. I left there in May 1953.
Commercial Saving bank – A week after graduation, June 1953, I started work at the Commercial Saving Bank on South Main Street in downtown Adrian in the bookkeeping department. Checks and deposits slips were sorted alphabetically by name. No name was imprinted on the checks, making it sometimes hard to read the signature. You just had to learn them. The sorted items were divided into 4 groups and I had one group. A posting machine was used to post the checks and deposits onto the proper customer's ledger card. The checks and deposits were then filed by customer name. I worked as a back up teller in the savings department during lunch hours, vacations and days off. From the posting machine, I went to the proof machine. All tellers activity was run through this machine and the day's activity was balanced at the end of the day. This machine had a large drum holding a lot of pockets depending what the item was. Checks had a designated location where they were sent depending on the location of the bank they were drawn on. The bookkeeping department was on the second floor. Cunningham Drug Store was on the south west corner of the main four corners and the bank was the next building to the south by the alley. I met Orville Poling, who was a teller and we later got married. I worked almost 3 years.
Adrian State Bank- I started working at Adrian State Bank November of 1971 in the bookkeeping department as the general ledger clerk. This job was keeping the records of the bank's books. I learned to run a key punch machine, which transferred keyed in data from a debit or credit onto a punched card, so it could be read by a machine so the items could be posted to the banks' records I was also backup proof machine operator. After about 4 years, I started training in the audit department. I was named Auditor 12/76, Assistant Vice President/Auditor 1/86 and Vice President/Auditor 6/93. I attended several audit training classes and seminars. In early 1995 Mid Am purchased Adrian State Bank. I was named Compliance Officer. I retired January 31, 1996 after more than 24 years.
Tecumseh Assembly of God – Did the church books from February 1999- 2008 on a voluntary basis.