My New Job
Title
My New Job
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"I have bragged about having worked since I was 14."
Date
2014-11-21
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Identifier
MY_NEW_JOB
Text
MY NEW JOB
I have bragged about having worked since I was 14. My first job was in the summer of 1942 as a delivery boy for a millinery factory on 38th Street in New York (for $8 a week). When I started high school in September, I found a part time job with the Newspaper Division of the NY Public Library. Onward and upward. Clerk in a stationery store during college, substitute teacher, organizer for the ILGWU, and in 1956, I went to work for the Jewish Labor Committee. In 1962, married, with three children, I moved on to a position as education director of the laundry workers union. Then came AFSCME, the US Commission on Civil Rights, the Mass. Department of Employment and Training, and finally the Mass. Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division, from which I retired in 1997, at the age of 70. You have my entire work life in one paragraph.
When I retired, I could not imagine what to do with so much free time. I planned a trip to Romania and Kishinev. That took a lot of time. And every couple years we took another trip for which I spent time researching. I started taking classes as part of the Evergreen program at Boston University. I took classes given by Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and Brookline Adult Education, including a class called Telling Your Story, which got me to writing my memoirs. I have been trying to learn how to use my computer and my cell phone. There were also theatre, movies, TV, getting together with friends, and visits to doctors. I studied Yiddish, and became more involved with the Workmen’s Circle, and the Jewish Labor Committee.
But then I realized what MY NEW JOB was: READING!
And that has been what is taking up most of my time since retirement. It starts, as all my jobs have started, in the morning, usually a little after eight. However, I don’t leave the house. I open my door, stoop down, and pick up the New York Times. I put it on my dining room table, make breakfast, sit down, and start reading. I read the first page, the editorial and op-ed pages, and go through all the sections. It takes well over an hour, and I haven’t scratched the surface. I leave the paper on the dining room table for Fran, with the hope of returning to it, and move on to my computer.
For the next couple hours, I am reading “on line.” My reading may be interrupted by phone calls, or I may interrupt myself, by sending e-mails in response to e-mails. But then, back to reading. I can spend the rest of the day going through all the wonderful mail that I receive, but I try to restrain myself. I am overwhelmed with Jewish stuff: Tablet Magazine, Jewish Daily Forward, JTA Daily Briefing, Mosaic, Israel Policy Center, Israel Religious Action Center. There are lots of centers, and they, and the other on-line publications contain links to fascinating articles that I feel I simply must read. I also want to keep up with the political world, so I read the Daily Kos, and all the other e-mails from all the labor, liberal and progressive groups that have me on their mailing lists. I can not neglect my organizations, so I read the e-mails from the Workmen’s Circle, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Newton Center Minyan, and the Yiddish Book Center (another center). By now, it is past my lunch hour, so I put my computer on “sleep” and prepare lunch.
While having lunch, I reach over for last Sunday’s Times, since I did not finish reading the magazine and book review sections. After lunch, I realize that I haven’t finished the book we are supposed to read for my Workmen’s Circle book group. I move over to the living room and stretch out with the book for an hour. It is now mid-afternoon. For months I have promised myself that I am going to straighten out my study. My bookcases are a mess. As I pick up book after book, trying to place them in an appropriate place, I start skimming them, and a few more hours go by. And then, get and read the real mail.
I still take classes, and most recently I took a class on short stories at Boston University, reading a bunch of short stories awarded the 2013 O. Henry Prize. And once a week I head to the Senior Center (another center) for our discussion group. The discussion leader distributes an article each week, which serves as the topic for discussion. So I read another article, in addition to the articles I read in the magazines we receive, and which I take out of the library.
During my paid working life, I put in more than 40 hours a week. Looking over how many hours I put in on my current job, it turns out to be a lot more, and I do it seven days a week. When I am not reading, I am writing, and after I finish writing, I have to go back and read what I have written. It is a tough job, but someone has to do it.
11-21-14
I have bragged about having worked since I was 14. My first job was in the summer of 1942 as a delivery boy for a millinery factory on 38th Street in New York (for $8 a week). When I started high school in September, I found a part time job with the Newspaper Division of the NY Public Library. Onward and upward. Clerk in a stationery store during college, substitute teacher, organizer for the ILGWU, and in 1956, I went to work for the Jewish Labor Committee. In 1962, married, with three children, I moved on to a position as education director of the laundry workers union. Then came AFSCME, the US Commission on Civil Rights, the Mass. Department of Employment and Training, and finally the Mass. Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division, from which I retired in 1997, at the age of 70. You have my entire work life in one paragraph.
When I retired, I could not imagine what to do with so much free time. I planned a trip to Romania and Kishinev. That took a lot of time. And every couple years we took another trip for which I spent time researching. I started taking classes as part of the Evergreen program at Boston University. I took classes given by Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and Brookline Adult Education, including a class called Telling Your Story, which got me to writing my memoirs. I have been trying to learn how to use my computer and my cell phone. There were also theatre, movies, TV, getting together with friends, and visits to doctors. I studied Yiddish, and became more involved with the Workmen’s Circle, and the Jewish Labor Committee.
But then I realized what MY NEW JOB was: READING!
And that has been what is taking up most of my time since retirement. It starts, as all my jobs have started, in the morning, usually a little after eight. However, I don’t leave the house. I open my door, stoop down, and pick up the New York Times. I put it on my dining room table, make breakfast, sit down, and start reading. I read the first page, the editorial and op-ed pages, and go through all the sections. It takes well over an hour, and I haven’t scratched the surface. I leave the paper on the dining room table for Fran, with the hope of returning to it, and move on to my computer.
For the next couple hours, I am reading “on line.” My reading may be interrupted by phone calls, or I may interrupt myself, by sending e-mails in response to e-mails. But then, back to reading. I can spend the rest of the day going through all the wonderful mail that I receive, but I try to restrain myself. I am overwhelmed with Jewish stuff: Tablet Magazine, Jewish Daily Forward, JTA Daily Briefing, Mosaic, Israel Policy Center, Israel Religious Action Center. There are lots of centers, and they, and the other on-line publications contain links to fascinating articles that I feel I simply must read. I also want to keep up with the political world, so I read the Daily Kos, and all the other e-mails from all the labor, liberal and progressive groups that have me on their mailing lists. I can not neglect my organizations, so I read the e-mails from the Workmen’s Circle, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Newton Center Minyan, and the Yiddish Book Center (another center). By now, it is past my lunch hour, so I put my computer on “sleep” and prepare lunch.
While having lunch, I reach over for last Sunday’s Times, since I did not finish reading the magazine and book review sections. After lunch, I realize that I haven’t finished the book we are supposed to read for my Workmen’s Circle book group. I move over to the living room and stretch out with the book for an hour. It is now mid-afternoon. For months I have promised myself that I am going to straighten out my study. My bookcases are a mess. As I pick up book after book, trying to place them in an appropriate place, I start skimming them, and a few more hours go by. And then, get and read the real mail.
I still take classes, and most recently I took a class on short stories at Boston University, reading a bunch of short stories awarded the 2013 O. Henry Prize. And once a week I head to the Senior Center (another center) for our discussion group. The discussion leader distributes an article each week, which serves as the topic for discussion. So I read another article, in addition to the articles I read in the magazines we receive, and which I take out of the library.
During my paid working life, I put in more than 40 hours a week. Looking over how many hours I put in on my current job, it turns out to be a lot more, and I do it seven days a week. When I am not reading, I am writing, and after I finish writing, I have to go back and read what I have written. It is a tough job, but someone has to do it.
11-21-14
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “My New Job,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 25, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/282.