In 1952, Dad started work for the government's Atomic Test Site at Mercury, Nevada, just an hour's drive from Las Vegas. he had to fill out a Personnel Security Questionnaire to get Security Clearance for the hush job. In the questionnaire he listed all his past jobs, the list is long and quite revealing.
This is what he listed:
Born Aug. 8, 1907 in St. George, Utah followed by an elementary school education in Las Vegas, Nevada.
His first real job was 12/1925- 06/1931 working for Union Pacific Railroad out of Los Angeles on the bridge and building gang.
It never occurred to me that this covered a 6 year span of his life. Daddy had a photo album that always fascinated us children. the photos were of Dad and his friends as they worked on the laying of rail road tracks. they showed the young Lee on Sundays being invited to dinner with pals somewhere along the line. They showed the camaraderie at play on time off as the men boxed to while away in the afternoon. They showed the sleeper car where bunk beds were stacked in their dorm on wheels.
We have all those pictures of nameless faces and places and good times. Without Dad to tell us who the men are and what they are doing, these photos will mean nothing to his grand children as his well worn album is passed to the next generation.
Since Dad never went to school beyond the elementary level, these years on the road gang was his graduation into adulthood.
Hi, Kim! I am enjoying reading the posting of my faily story. There are some typos that occur with a few of the words. I would fix them for you if I could but I can't. But this date error is too big to let pass. Dad did not begin his work at Test Site in 1932. The place did not exist then. It must have been 1952. I would have to go look up my original writing to be sure.
ReplyDeletesee, how easy it is to do a typo? And I cannot even fix THAT one!
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