Evening star. [volume], March 18, 1962, Page 9, Image 133

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
From white-collar executive . ’
to garage mechanic... <
whyi
Traded \ !
Lives... v z '
Every year more and more tension-ridden executives are dreaming of getting out of the “rat race”
and finding an ulcer-proof manual job. Meet a man who had the nerve to make the big change
ANONYMOUS... as told to JHAN AND JUNE ROBBINS
ABOUT THIS STOBYI More and
more American men are
wrenched by the desperate M
feeling: "/ Hasn't cut out for A* ) ■
the job I'm in." They want to '
know: "W hat kind of work BBL Bi
that I'll enjoy am I best fitted faul
for? Is it too late to change?"
Many are paying as much as $250
for psychological and vocational aptitude
tests which they hope will tell them what
to do with the working portion of their
lives. Today, workers from late 30's to
early 50's are turning up at job clinics.
They have been earning good livings for
years. But now they crave a change.
” There is no doubt " says Paul Sharar,
executive director of the YMCA's New
York Vocational Service Center, "that a
considerable number of people change
their occupational fields each year. More
and more people are curious to learn uhat
happens to a man and his family
when he switches fields."
Here is the story of a man we'll call
Roger X, a rising executive who quit his
white-collar job al 42 and became an auto
mechanic. His experience will interest
every man who has ever said to himself,
"I've got to get out of this rat race!"
Roger X made a radical change in
his work and his income. He gained
personal contentment al the high 0011 °f a
material step backward to his family. Do
you consider his action selfish and cow
ardly or does it blaze a trail for you?
At the end of his story you'll find a box,
prepared by an expert to help you answer
the question, "When should I leave my
job?" Now listen to Roger X ...
father and his brother owned three drug
stores. They were not pharmacists. My father used
to say, "1 hire and fire them.” I was the first
member of my family to go to college. I was
enrolled in business administration, but I took side
courses in the engineering school. I’ve always been
fascinated by what makes things work.
In my teens I was one of the first hot-rodders.
I earned enough money to buy a car of my own
a 1929 Ford.
At college I wasn’t a top student. The most
successful thing I did was a practical joke. A rich
kid who was in some of my classes was insufferably
proud of his custom-built sports car. He drove it
fast but not well. And though I did most of his
repairs, he never thanked me.
Once when he was away, some fraternity
brothers came to me and said, "Let’s hand that
creep a good jolt. Take his car apart and reassemble
it in the bell tower of the chapel.” I did it. I was
suspended for three weeks, but the joke was a great
success.
Not long after that we got the news of Pearl
Harbor. I was in the R.O.T.C. and I was sent to the
Pacific. After the war I married Donna and settled
down to help run the drugstores. We had two
daughters in short order.
“/ moved up fast"
In 1948 my father and his brother were killed in
an auto accident. The drugstores had to be sold to
settle the estate. My mother and aunt got the
money and I was out of work. So I took a job with
a plant that made cardboard boxes and cartons. My
salary was $45 per week.
"Keep your nose clean and you’ll be a vice
president in ten years,” they told me. I moved
around to every job in the plant. Then they sent
me to Chicago as assistant to the manager of the
Midwest division.
The plant manager tried to help me. He said I
was paying too much attention to the machinery and
the product and not enough to sales techniques. I
kept on working and learning. Three years later we
were moved East again, with a $2,200 raise.
I was made superintendent of the purchasing
division. We lived in a $30,000 house in the best
school district in the county. Donna drove a
station wagon. We belonged to a country club. I
was elected to the school board. I guess I was a
successful man. I should have been happy. Instead
I got absent-minded about my business commit
ments. I was irritable with my family. I ate a lot.
I put on weight and felt sluggish.
“The boss's ear broke down”
One night at a dinner party the boss’s car broke
down. I could tell from the way the motor sounded
that it hadn’t had proper care. The local garage
sent out a kid who barely knew a piston from a
spark plug.
"This car has a beautiful body,” I explained to
my boss, "but they’ve never learned how to make
the right motor for it.”
Working with a packet of pipe cleaners I
swabbed out some of the clogged lines and got it
going. When the motor finally turned over and
began to throb, I suddenly felt swell better than
I had in years. Then someone said, "Now you’ve
really queered yourself!”
Startled, I asked, "Why?”
"The boss swears by that car,” was the answer.
"Even though you started it, you criticized it. I
could see he didn’t like that!”
"The heck with it!” I said. "If I have to
apologize for honest criticism, I quit!”
We drove home and Donna went right to bed.
I went into the bathroom and started to clean the
grease out of my nails. But I threw down the nail
file, ran up to our bed- ciWfamrf m page II
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