When World War II ended, there was a lot of catching up for business’s and working jobs. In the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, things began to get back to normal and the Korean War hit in 1950. Back then, I was delivering newspapers and I recall reading the headlines as I folded papers for delivery.
My first real paying job, that is, a job where I actually got a pay envelope, began in 1953. I worked as a stockboy at the Ben Franklin dime store. It was on Jefferson Avenue, just west of Broeker’s Department store. My pay was 65 cents an hour and I worked after school two hours a day except Friday. Friday I worked until 9PM and Saturdays from 9AM to 6PM. At 6PM we were handed a pay envelope with cash, no checks in those days! I had figured I was going to get $13.65 for my first week of work; however, when I opened my pay envelope, there was only $10. I asked Mr. Knocke (the manager) where the other money was and he explained income tax and social security. Wait, I’m 15, you mean I have to wait until I’m 65 to get that money back? Quite a learning experience!
The next five or six years I worked for Netzley’s Chrysler-Plymouth dealership, located on the corner of Washington St. and Chicago Ave. Then in 1955 I worked for Johnson’s Greenhouse selling Christmas trees and delivering flowers. They were located about where the Jewel store is now just north of Ogden where Center Street ends.
I also worked for the National Tea grocery store on Main Street south of Jefferson Ave. That job was a good one as I was assistant in the produce department. My job was to tear down the whole area every night and reset in the morning. The store opened at 9AM and closed at 6PM except on Friday night, they were open until 9PM. The boss would lock me in the store and I would spend the night, sweeping and waxing the floors and restocking and facing all the staples. Mr. Sampson would come in about 7:30AM on Saturday morning and I would head home to sleep until 11AM and come back and work the noon to 6PM shift. No meat was sold after 6PM on Fridays and all stores closed at 6PM on Saturday night.
During my sophomore year, I bought my first car! Wow, it was a 1940 Plymouth coupe with 75,000 miles on it. My dad made me pay for it out of my savings. It cost $85.
Then I had to get insurance and that cost $125. The insurance cost more than the car! But, I had my first set of wheels! The car had a huge trunk and my sousaphone fit in, so it made going back and forth to band a lot easier.
The only thing wrong with the car was that it did not have a radio! How can a teenager survive without rock & roll music? So I took a chance and went to Netzley’s where I had worked previously and asked Lenny Overcash, the works manager, if there was a possibility that they might have a radio that would fit a 15-year-old car. Amazingly, they did. He charged me $5 for it and even installed it. Maybe they were just glad to get rid of a 15-year-old radio!
My daughter asked one time how I learned to do so many different things. I told her I’d worked a lot of different jobs and tried to learn from each one of them.
And I did, thanks to the many different stores of Naperville!
