When I was fourteen my two older brothers had to leave the house, then my mom told me, "Son, your brothers went away to try to find a job. I hope God will bless them and that they will be back home soon." I asked her "why did they leave?" She smiled at me and said, "I know for you it is hard to understand this." Then she said, "Son, God said many years ago that each one of us has to work to be able to get our daily bread." At the time I did not understand what she told me. Anyway I knew that working everyday is important to us.

When I was fifteen, very early one morning my mother said to me, "Son, we do not have anything to eat." Then I knew why my brothers left home, she was crying around us. I remember my brother, Thomas, was looking at us. After that my mother went to the field to bring something for us to eat. We still needed food. While I was looking at the sun light, I heard a voice that said, "Do something for your mom and be proud of her."

To understand the meaning of working, I had to spend days learning how to work. While my mother was working on a farm, Thomas asked her, "Why are you working every day?" She said to him, "By working every day, we get food, if we plant tomatoes, peppers, corn or beans we will get them to eat. When we plant any kind of seed we will harvest the fruit." Then we both understood the meaning of working.

I can never forget the day. I earned some money by working. I was mopping the floor, when my mother said, "Son, you have to go and help this man to find his donkeys." I spent many hours trying to find his donkeys. Finally, the sun set. I found those donkeys. The next day the man came to our house and said, "Here's thirty pesos for you, thank you for bringing my donkeys home." I did not know what to say to the man. My mom said, "Get the money, that's for bringing his donkeys home." The man looked at us and said, "That's right, by working you will get a lot of money in your life." I got the money from him and I said to my mother, "Mother, this is for you." She said, "I feel proud of you because you understand the meaning of work."

She repeated, "Don't forget what the Bible said about work." I said to her, "You said we have to work all our life to be able to get our daily bread." She said, "That's it my son."

The first thing to do is to get all the readings from the air compressor then get the reading from the boiler. After doing that I walk down to the truck shop to do the waste treatment test.

By the time I get through with the waste treatment test it is ten o'clock. Time to take a break. I have ten minutes for break. I have a drink and a snack then back to work. The next thing to do is climb the fuel tanks to get the fuel level reading. Then I am off to check the propane tanks for the lift trucks.

By that time it is eleven o'clock. I start taking out trash from the break room to the compactor and clean the floor sweeper. After that I load the compactor on to the trash truck. Then I go to the landfill and back in an hour. In the summer I cut grass and paint some of the buildings.

By that time it is three o'clock: time to sweep the floors in the plant. It will take a couple of hours to run the floor sweeper all around the plant. Then comes five o'clock. Time to start my guard duties. For the next three hours I am in the front office answering the telephone. I have to wach the parking lot and check people in and out of the plant.

By eight o'clock I will have twelve hours in for the day. Now it is time to go home for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow I will come back and do it all over again.

Where and how do I find a job that I can do now that I'm over fifty years old? Go back to school to learn a new trade but what trade do I try to get into? I can't start over at my age.

I'm not dead just yet: I have worked in many fields but nothing appeals to me. I worked in restaurants, department stores, and cleaning houses for a meager living. To make enough to support myself I must make over the minimum wage.

So back to school to acquire some insight on what an employer expects from me. This is hard because of all the young people out of work that have more experience than I. Searching the newspaper for the ad that appeals to me, drives me up the wall. When I went to school they didn't prepare you for the job market for the present day of computers and electronics. I shudder to think what a computer can do for me, but I don't know if my brain can take it all in at one time. It may take years to master this new age of machines.

Something that takes my twelve year old grandson two hours to work takes me two weeks to do. It boggles the mind of this grandmother. He tells me it is easy, but I wonder if I will ever remember all the keys and what they stand for.

Most employers want part time help and that is all right with me. It just means I will need two or three part time jobs. What a confusing mess that will be, not knowing where, when, or what job I will be going to at a given time.

I now know what the picture of the kitten hanging onto a rod means when it says, "HANG IN THERE HELPS COMING."

I work for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). I spend much of my time repairing and maintaining the roads. When it snows, I spend long and trying hours clearing the roads, but it gives me a good feeling to know I have made the roads a better and safer place to travel.

I also work at home, keeping my house and yard looking good. This requires many hours of my time. However, I like to be active, so I get a great deal of pleasure working around my home.

Now, as I said above, "...at play", which may sound strange to say that I work at play, but my wife and I spend our vacations traveling around the United States, helping to build churches. Sometimes it does not seem like play at all because it is very hard, dirty, and hot work. Still, the places we have seen and the friendships we have made make all of the work worthwhile. Knowing we have accomplished something to further God's Kingdom, and hopefully make this world a little better place to live, make it all worthwhile.

Being a school bus driver runs in my family. My grandmother drove a school bus for thirty-five years. My aunt drove a bus for fourteen years, and my cousin is driving one now.

It takes a special person to drive a bus. I have been driving one for fourteen years. This is a good job. You are only gone about two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. Then you are off to do what you want during the day. You are home when your children are off from school, so you don't need a babysitter.

The bad part about this job is that you have to go through training in the classroom and behind the wheel of the bus, with no children and with children on board, but it is not too bad. After you pass, you go to get your C.D.L. license to drive on your own.

On the bus, you have to be Mom, Dad, and sometimes a nurse. You have to take First Aid once every two years, in case you need to use it. I hope I never have to use First Aid.

I like this job because you are off in the summer, and still get paid for it. We get paid all year long because our annual salary is divided into twelve equal payments.

Does this sound like a job for you? If it does, please go to the school transportation department of the county you live in and ask about the possibilities of being a school bus driver. You will be rewarded in the long run!

I go to work to get my paycheck, then I go home. I go home to my job.

My job keeps me outside in all types of weather. The summer months are good ones. There are hot days that we wish we had a water leak. Summer time water lines don't seem to break or have any type of problem. The most problems we have in the summer months are with private contractors that dig up water lines or break a main line. We also put in a lot of new services for new homes. But on the other hand winter time is another story. It's amazing how nature can destroy water mains. In 1987 we had a 16" water main break. This was a very serious problem, for many reasons. One, the temperature was down to 10 degrees, very cold too. It was at the West Main St. bridge. The bridge was under the railroad tracks. The bridge had a sheet of ice from the water leak causing cars to slide all about. But most of the water was going down on the railroad tracks causing the water to freeze as it was falling from the bridge. That caused the water to form a 10 foot icebrg. At that time the waer couldn't be turned off because of improper valves. So we had to cut a 4 feet by 8 feet long dig on Main Street. We had to work on this 16" main under the pressure of water shooting 20 feet in the air and coming down as snow. I will never forget that day because we worked 24 hours around the clock. My supervisor Lawrence and I put two 8" clamps together to make one 16" clamp. We had to make this work, until we received the right 16" clamp from Seattle, Washington. The water ran for two weeks with the temporary clamp on. We stopped the water from coming on to Main Street, but we couldn't stop it from going on the railroad tracks. Every day for two weks we had to send a backhoe under the bridge to break the iceberg so that the trains could pass through. Once the clamp came in from Seattle we repaired the 16" main and had no problems since.

There are a lot of old water lines that we can't shut off, so we have to dress in rain gear and fix it under water pressure. Such as on Water Street, when an 8" main burst. Our team is W-7 and we were called out to fix the leak. This was one of the lines that couldn't be shut off, so Lawrence and I got prepared and dressed in rain gear. Tim Scruggs supplied all the tools that we needed to complete the job. Tim Cersley was in training at this time, all of this was new to him. So he did a lot of observing and passing tools that were needed. We had to cut open a 8 by 8 hole to clean off the 8" pipe. Lawrence was standing on the pipe, while I was cleaning around the main to get it ready for the clamp to go on. All at once I heard something pop! The waer pressure threw Lawrence 4 feet across the dig! So I tried to hold one foot on the pipe while I was cleaning it off. The next thing I knew I was in the air, and I landed on Lawrence's head. I had to think fast, so I grabbed the clamp and put it around the main and slided it over the hole and shut the water off. Everyone called Lawrence and me heroes, but we were only doing our job.

Two weeks later, on Christmas day at 6 AM. we were on Water Street once again. This time the problem was a lot worse. Once again the main line couldn't be turned off so we had to work under the water pressure. The temperature was 24 degrees. We found out that this time concrete was at the main break, meaning we had to cut the concrete out in order to get the clamp on. Tim and I worked as a team inside the water. It wasn't easy, but as we worked together we found a way to put the clamp on. After working so long in this water at the temperature of 24 degrees everything had begun to look like shiny crystal.

I find my job very challenging which I enjoy. After the water leaks are fixed, we have to draw up four different paper reports on what we had to do to repair the leaks. I really thank the Adult Ed. and LVA tutoring program, because I feel proud to pick up my pen and paper every day to fill out my reports. My main goals are to continue going until I receive my G.E.D.

Three years from now my supervisor Lawrence will be retiring. I have plans and hopes to take his position once he leaves. Once again my dreams and goal are beginning to come alive thanks to the Adult Ed. program and the LVA tutoring. I now feel that I'm getting very close to my goals.

That day I worked really hard. I unloaded three truckfulls of mulch and spread it around the flower beds. I worked until 5:30 pm. I had to show him that I could work. A job to me is very important in my life. I try to do my best when I'm working.

That evening he drove me back to Charlottesville to the Employment Office. He asked me, "Will you be here tomorrow morning at the same time?" I told him, "Yes, sir!"

He picked me up at the Employment Office every morning at 8:00 am and I worked very hard for him every day. After about two months he asked me, "Albert, can you drive?" I said, "Sure. I just don't have my permit." I explained the complicated story about why I couldn't afford to get my drivers license back. The problem was that I owed a sizable amount of money to an insurance company that had to do with a fender-bendr I had twenty years ago. He said, "That's all it is?" I said, "Yeah." He told me he would check into it and let me know. Later he told me, "Albert, I'm going to help you get your drivers license so that you can drive for me." I couldn't believe my ears. That someone out of the clear blue would do so much for me. I couldn't believe it.

He has treated me like one of his own children. His wife, his mother, and his kids all love me. They told me, "Albert, you are part of our family." I broke down in tears. I never had anyone in my life before like this man and his family who make me feel like a man again. I feel dedicated to them. They have given me a big opportunity in life to make something of myself. They have shown me so much love.

Today I have a drivers license and I own my own car. I drive up to Earlysville every morning and do whatever needs to be done at the kennel. I never expected that all of these wonderful things would happen to me. That's why I take my work so seriously. I never want to do anything to jeopardize my job.

Questions and comments to Susan Erno