Thank you list, Part III...

is people who I've encountered in my work life, and it may be too long for one list.  It begins with my grandfather, who put me to work when I was not yet a teenager, collecting parking money.  His restaurant was in the Santa Monica Canyon and on weekend mornings, he would charge people to park in his lot so they could walk to the beach.  I collected the money, made change, and directed the people where to park so as to not interfere with the parking for the patrons (it was a big lot).  He taught me that all work is honorable.  He also taught me how to make pickles, and a lot, lot more.  He taught me another lesson much later in life, when he'd retired.  He hired me to come to his house to turn over all the dirt in the backyard.  He needed it turned over so he could use it to plant a garden.  He insisted on working right alongside of me, even though he was probably in his late 60s.  He ran a small business out of his house right up to the day he died.  As I said, he taught me all work is honorable.

My next boss was my father.  He hired me at the age of 12 to work on a project and not only did he put me to work, he put me in charge of overseeing the efforts of four teens he'd hired to work on the project.  He taught me that you have to check the work of others regularly until they demonstrate the ability to require only spot-checks.

I went with a friend to a Jack-in-the-Box with a friend who wanted to apply for a job.   The manager who talked to him talked me into applying for one as well.  My friend wasn't happy when I got hired and he didn't.  That man taught me you won't get anywhere if you don't at least try.

Then there was the store's assistant manager, Eileen.  She was smart.  She was pretty.  I had a crush on her.  But I also respected her ability.  When she was selected to manage another location in Santa Monica, she asked me to transfer there with her.  She planned to promote me to shift-leader because she trusted me.  As a result, I was working 38 hours a week my second semester in high school.  I learned a lot from her.  I also learned that choices can be expensive.  I went to a concert with a friend on a work night and in the morning I was too hung-over to go to school or to work.  School was no problem.  I had only two classes and I was earnings As in both (out of character for me in high school, but true).  However, there was no one to replace me as shift leader that day.  I attempted to call in sick, but Eileen knew I'd gone to the concert the night before and told me to come in and work no matter how I felt, or else she'd fire me as a no-show.  Which she did when I just chose to stay in bed.  Choices have consequences.

I worked for a short time after that as a shipping clerk.  The boss was a great guy, right up until the company picnic.  He'd heard I was a good basketball player and wanted to play me one on one.  I tried to avoid it, but he was insistent.  Then he insisted we play for ten bucks.  I finally got frustrated with his badgering and agreed.  I beat him 11 to nothing.  He was humiliated.  So when it came time to choose which of the three shipping clerks got laid off, even though I was much more efficient and productive than one of the other two, I was let go.  The lesson?  Don't let someone push you into doing something you know will not end well.

After that I worked as a bus boy and server in an upscale Beverly Hills restaurant for a short time.  It was not comfortable working there because my father and wife #3 came in all the time to eat dinner.  So I went out and applied for a job at a McDonald's not far from where I lived.  I got hired right away by Bob Mark, the store's manager.  He was a good influence.  He taught me that it is just as important to work smart as it is to work hard.  He also tried to talk me into giving up my military dream, to attend "Hamburger High" and "Hamburger U" and become a store manager.  I said no because I was set on entering the military.

Then it was off to basic military training.  I struggled at first until I was sent into the office of TSgt Vinson, the training supervisor.  He had two options.  Send me home (where my father said I could not live if I washed out of basic training) or recycle me a second time so I might have one last chance to finish basic.  He quizzed me relentlessly on my "memory work", which I knew all of.  Then he asked me why I was having such a hard time and I didn't know.  He finally told me it is just a game and if I'd play the game I'd be fine.  He explained that we were being made to fold our underwear into six inch squares not to torture us, but to teach us attention to detail.  If a screw in the plane of a fighter jet needs exactly 2 and 3/4ths turns, that's important.  This was the lesson we were to learn from all of the nitpicky things we were being made to do.  I finished basic training easily.

Then it was off to technical training.  My tech instructor pushed me to excel, recognizing I had a good work ethic and was a bit smarter than my classmates.  As a result I was the first honor graduate in the history of my course.  My student training advisor, SSgt Robert E. Lee (no relation) taught me a number of lessons.  When I was a student leader, one of my jobs was to make sure our hallway was waxed and polished perfectly like glass before we left for class.  We'd do it all in socks, and carried our boots outside and put them on there to avoid any scuff marks.  But we got knocked down on inspections because scuff marks were found.

We learned that a former student, awaiting discharge, was the one using our hallway, because the door at the end of our hallway was the closest exit leading to the base exchange and airman's club.  I went to SSgt Lee and asked for advice.  He told me to "counsel" the man to get him to stop and if verbal counseling didn't work, I might need to find a more persuasive method.  I ended up having to get more persuasive, but it worked.  He never again came down and messed up our hallway.  What I did is not something I'd do today, but it too was an important lesson.  The lesson is, when someone gives you no choice, you either take an action you really don't want to take, or you walk away.  Today, I would just walk away when all non-physical alternatives fail.

My thanks to all of these people.  Next list will pick up at my first duty station, where I met a number of people who were great influences in my life, positive and negative.