A New Beginning

When I retired from teaching elementary school, in 1998, I still had fifteen years until I could fully retire. I ran my own Home Repair business for two and a half years, and then taught a building construction class with the Community College for another two and a half years.

It was the winter of 2005, and my class of ten students dwindled down to six, after the first week. We were partnering with Habitat for Humanity, giving them hands on experience in actually building houses. The snow that came that first week caused a few to drop out. As a result, the class was canceled. It was discouraging to me to be left without an income until another class could be scheduled.

My friend Bunky ran a vinyl siding business. He heard that my class was canceled, and called asking if I would come and fill in for a couple of weeks as sales manager for the warehouse. He had just fired his whole warehouse staff “for selling siding out the back door!” I knew nothing about vinyl siding and just a little about the computer, but I agreed to do what I could. This was Saturday. I went in on Sunday afternoon to learn how to do invoices on the computer, and started work the next day! It was very unsettling to attempt to run the warehouse by myself, but I learned all about it. That was on Valentines Day, 2005, and I continued to work for him for the next six years, until I retired in 2011!

Snowfall takes its toll

Students not ready to work

Friends help each other

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Lillian asked to think of a time in our life when we had a New Beginning! She asked us to write a Haibun consisting of up to three short paragraphs followed by a traditional Haiku.

Join us and read more at: https://dversepoets.com and click on the Mr. Linkey box.