Jon's Summer Jobs

 


Like most college kids, Jon needed to work during his summers to pay for the school year. One job took him back to where the Sampson brothers, Johnnie and Vake, had started, into a saw mill. He recalls the job:

I think I've previously documented working for the Forest Service (on “slash & trail” crew & fire lookout ) the summer between high school and the start of college. But for the summer between freshman & sophomore years of college, I worked as a “turn-down man” at a little sawmill perched on the bank of the Siuslaw river, east of Florence. In those days, the “turn-down man” worked opposite the “sawyer,” who controlled the carriage which took the log being sawed through the saw. That is, when the log first went through the saw which cut off a flat slab, the “turn-down” man flipped it onto its now flat side. It was work--for the first week or so, I took a slightly larger lunch every day.

Toward the end of my career as turn-down man, I noticed a saw-bit box attached to the wall behind where I stood (as turn-down man). Within that box (among the sawdust, etc.), was a round box of Skol snuff (or chewing tobacco). Since I was now an “experienced” sawmill worker, I decided to try some. I almost fell off of my work station into the river.

For the summer between sophomore & junior years of college, I had made a deposit(?) on a “sample case' of”'fine arts” i.e. crystal, china, & flatware, to carry with a group from college to Denver to sell this stuff. The leader of the group was Dan Arnsmier (who later married Chet Huntley's daughter). Dan could have sold ice to Eskimos!

My folks would have nothing to do with the traveling salesman idea (kind of like when I wanted to buy a motorcycle earlier). I ended up working for Berry Creek Construction from Florence doing "top coating - tar & chip” of county roads on the outskirts of Portland. The boss (Lloyd) didn't believe in lunch breaks, so we either ate sardines & crackers, or grazed along the road (berries &/or fruits were in season)

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When that job ended in a few weeks, Dad “hired”' me to be the cook, housekeeper, & care-giver to Mom for the rest of the summer.  Her funeral service was on the day John Kennedy was elected that fall.

The summer between junior & senior years of college, I went to ROTC summer camp, my first military service in what was to become my professional career.

Susan adds:  Jon doesn't tell us so, but that sawmill work was dangerous.  There is a sick joke that makes the point, but it  is better demonstrated than read. How does an Oregon sawyer order four beers?  He walks into the bar and holds up two fingers. (That's all he has left.) 

jl