I went home to move into the house I had lived in for the years before the farm. The house on Kelley Street. My grandparents had both died since I had lived there. My Mom had sold their house and now we had Martin and Laura. Things were very different than when we had lived there before. I moved into a room in the attic and enrolled at Kellogg Community College there in Battle Creek.
I did two things when I got home from the service. I enrolled in Kellogg Community College which is the junior college in Battle Creek. I also went to talk to Ray Clemens. He was my mother’s second husband and you’ll remember that he wasn’t a real nice guy, but he did have connections. I thought if anyone could get me a job, he could. And he did. He asked me if I’d like to work at the Grand Trunk Railroad where he worked. It sounded like a good deal, so I agreed to go in for an interview.
Ray took me in to see the manager over the Roundhouse. This was a huge building where they would bring the Locomotives in for inspection and repair if necessary. He told me they had openings for electricians and how would I like to work as an electrician. I said sure, but I wasn’t sure I was qualified. I had studied electronics in the Air Force, but being an electrician was entirely different.
He said and I quote: “Do you know the difference between AC and DC?” I said yes, of course. He said, well, you’re qualified enough for this job. You’re hired. I became a Journeyman Electrician, which really just means that you’re in-training. I joined the union and was put on the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. So, I worked all night, got off with just enough time to get home, clean up and change, and get over to school to go to class. I had Wednesday and Thursday off. That was my weekend, so I determined that rather than screw up my sleep patterns, I would stay up all night on those two nights and study. Then I could keep the same routine all week. It actually worked pretty well.
Railroad’s have what they call roundhouses because in the olden days, they used to be physically round. Engines could only travel in one direction, so they would drive the engine into the roundhouse so they could work on it. The entire engine sat on what was, essentially, a huge lazy Susan. When the maintenance people were done working on it, the platform would turn until the engine was pointed back out of the building and it would go on it’s way. Well, eventually, they figured out how to put a reverse gear on the locomotives and so the roundhouse disappeared. But they still called it by that name.
Tomorrow, the job itself.
Dad