CHAPTER 188 NEVER SPEAK ILL OF ANYONE TO ANYONE. 2002 -2004
I was looking for a job, with no success. Yes, I was going to Manchester and using all the sources they hd available and mailing out a lot of Resume following their formula, but not getting much response. They heaped on networking, but I really didn’t have a lot of contacts to network with. I was doing a number of things they didn’t recommend, like looking at the newspaper want ads and going out and inquiring at stores and fast food restaurants. I just wanted to be working and having some income and I didn’t care what I did.
My friend, and fellow Wilmington Trust excel, Jim Wadsworth wasn’t interested in that path of job seeking. He believed he had to find a job at the save level as the one he loss. This proved difficult. He had been an Assistant Vice-President and making a higher salary than I had, and I wasn’t exactly earning peanuts. But he was 55 years old and had basically never worked anywhere except the Marketing Department of Wilmington Trust. Jobs at that level for 55 year-olds were not a dime a dozen.
I was sixty and had a broader background. I had worked a variety of jobs in a variety of industries besides banking. I had started out as a farmhand, then worked for an oil refiner, food processor, medical center, steel fabricator. No on as picking me up for anything, though. In the past when I left a job — kerpow! Someone hired me right away, and I always got a higher wage on my new job than the one before. That was no longer happening.
During November Laurel went to Rehoboth Beach with some friends.
stories, and reunited with two of my best friends from boyhood. First was Ronald Tipton, who I met at Downingtown East Ward Elementary in third grade. He had exchanged Christmas Cards and notes with my mother since we had split back in 1964. My mom told him I had lost may job and would probably like to hear from him. He write me a nice Email and our friendship basically picked up where we had left off.
Ronald had been in contact with Stuart Meisel and he sent Stuart my email address and we began communicating; in fact we began co-writing plays, even though I was living in Delaware and he in Florida. We did this collaboration over the internet. The first play we did was called, Anachronistic Follies We began it, but didn’t finish. We would finish severL plays in the year to come.
Beneath Stone. This contained 11 short stories, all new. I was getting back into the writing business and six of these tales were published in publications.
I was unemployed now five months, never getting a cent of unemployment compensation. But I did land an honest-to-goodness job with a company called Mercantile Press. Now I had another experience to add to my job history. This was a long established printing business located at 3007 Bellevue Ave. in Wilmington. I had an interview and a difficult time finding them There are apparently several Bellevue Avenue in New Castle County. I think I got lost on all of them, before I found the correct one off of Governor Printz Boulevard in East Wilmington.
Tower fires of 1988 and 1989. This building was poured concrete and the burned out towers remain and probably will so as a lasting, if useless landmark.
Stretching into Wilmington on the West of Mercantile Press was the Project of Riverside. Constructed in the ‘90s as an place to provide cheap public housing, it had fallen into disrepair by he time I went to Mercantile. I could look down from the front stoop of the print company on dark and dingy brick apartments, several with boarded up windows. One day I came to work and found a used Condon on that stoop. There was an alcove around the front door and I guess somebody saw it as an opportune place out of public sight at night. In 2016 a plan to revitalize the project was planned, but I don’t know if it came to fruition or not.
There was little around the Mercantile Press location, a few streets lined with varied companies. There were no stores or restaurants in walking distance. I discovered through someone that we workers could go use the OIC cafeteria a couple blocks away.
had been founded in 1964 by The Reverend Leon H. Sullivan (right) for tuition-free training handicapped youths in jobs and providing them with opportunities for grown.
photographed in 1982 when I was putting together shows at Wilmington Trust for The United Way.
greasy spoon type fair, hamburgers, hot dogs, chili, etc. Because it was a non-profit charity the meals were also very affordable. Most of my fellow diners were suffering various disabilities, both metal and physical, although in truth they had plenty of abilities. I didn’t mind this atmosphere at all, even though some would have found it uncomfortable, I didn’t. It expanded my understanding of people different the myself.
The Mercantile’s President was named Corky Bye. He had been handed the running of the family business not very long before I came there. He was constantly battling his father, who had remained on the board and also continued to work at the plant. Corky’ father, always known as Mr. Bye, died January 1 2019 He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Jane. Mrs. Bye also worked at Mercantile when I was there. I liked her, but she was a feisty woman and no one would ever give her any lip
.
I was the assistant Accountant, a part-time position of 5
hours Monday through Friday. I had a desk behind a partition with a computer. I spent most of my time entering figures into a database. Print jobs were put into large manila envelopes, containing the design and specs and other information. The envelop would be given to designers who passes the templets long to the shop printers to setup and run their presses. The envelop was then stored on shelves that ran from the print room floor to it’s ceiling very high up.
There was a young woman who came to work with us. Her name was Melody and she and her husband lived a couple blocks from me. She and I became friends, I thought, and we would talk about this and that. I learned always keep you mouth shut, don’t trust anyone.
One time I got a phone car from Shirley’s husband asking the she come right home. She wasn’t immediately around and I said I would. He said have her come to the Wilmington Hospital emergency ward. It seemed he had been mowing the lawn and accidentally cut his toes off. When Shirley showed up, I told her and she really freaked out. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned his severe toes. Anyway, she changed toward me after that, as if I was responsible for her husband’s carelessness.
Shirley was my boss, she was the chief Accountant. Melody had problems with Shirley and would come to me with her complaints. I should have just listened and let her whine, but I told Melody I agreed with some her assessments of Shirley. Next thing I know, Melody and Shirley have become close friends, always walking together. Maybe it was all coincidence, but suddenly I was called into Corky’s office and let go. He said it was a matter of cost, that the business had to cut corners and I was redundant.. He wrote me a very nice letter of recommendation, but I was out and unemployed again. It was May of 2003. I had lasted a year and a quarter.
The next job I would take was a big mistake, even though I kinda went back where I began.
Meanwhile. It was. In this time frame that Noelle was made Active Army. She had been sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for Special Service and Aeroborne training.
returned to Fort Dix and her Reserve Unit.
George Bush had talked Congress into war against Iraq. Saddam Husain had invaded Iraq’s neighboring country of Kuwait. but once they dropped thew surprise bomb, she was called to Active Service and deployed to Iraq.
communications specialist.
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