Genesis
of Careers
Adaptation
in a Changing World
The home I was born in and lived in
for most of my eighteen years of my life was a cold water flat over a
laundry. It had a kitchen, dining room,
and two bedrooms. The cooking and the
only heat in the winter came from a cast iron wood and coal burning stove in
the kitchen. Illumination was by gaslight until electric was installed in 1931.
The toilet was an outhouse in the yard until a toilet was installed in the
hallway of the flat 1932. From the kitchen I could see Governors Island and the
Statue of Liberty in the harbor. Red
Hook was a shipping, ship building and
repair area of Brooklyn. The ships of
that era were steamers whose boilers were fired by coal. Coal supplies for ships were piled on docks. Often at night, carrying a burlap bag, I
would climb over the fence and steal coal for fuel for cooking and heat. When
the United Fruit Lines arriving from South America, with bananas and other
fruits, would dump their unsold cargo into the bay. I and other boys would swim and bring back bunches of bananas or
other discarded fruit to our families.
Sometimes ships from Argentina would dump their excess side of
beef. A few of us would tow a discarded
side of beef ashore and divide it among us. I would sneak portions of meat to
my mother who would never reveal its source to my orthodox father.
At twelve my first attempts at
trying to earn money was to make a wooden shoe shine box. I took rags, half used brown and black shoe
polish cans, and two brushes made from a bristle broom that I cut in half. I
walked from Red Hook to Boro Hall to find a spot near the subway or Myrtle Ave.
elevator where I hoped to find people who wanted their shoes polished for two
cents. The good spots near the exits were taken by out of work men and older
boys who chased me away. I set up shop
by trolley stops and made a dollar and
fourteen cents in two weeks. That
business enterprise was terminated when an older boy with a shoe shine box
smashed my box, threw my brushes down a sewer, confiscated my polish cans and
beat me.
At thirteen, after school, I worked
for a laundry to pick up and deliver laundry with a push cart. My salary was a dollar for a six day week
Then I worked at a variety of jobs, any work that would yield income, most were
of short duration followed by frustrating periods of unemployment. For two years, during my high school
vacations, I biked and hiked to relieve the burden on the family and from a
home in turmoil and in the process of breaking up, but also to avoid yielding
to a sullen submission to a national Depression.
Boys High School was a top academic
school. I took a trolley, or hitched on
it, to Boro Hall where I took the
Fulton El to Boys High. I excelled in sports
and academic subjects. I was a seven
letter man and captain of the cross country team. The only team sport was lacrosse, all the other teams were
individual team sports. I earned the
Suma Cum Laude and upon graduation the Four Year Plaque for the student with
the highest academic and sport achievements. I had the opportunity for
scholarships to many universities, but my father said that I was to work, turn
in my salary to the family, and go to school in the late afternoons or
evenings. On a scholarship I started at
Columbia with the intent to become an anthropologist. I was a pet student of Dr. Franz Boaz. When he died, I transferred and accepted the Haydyn Scholarship
at N.Y.U. I received credits in
anthropology and archeology from the University of Nebraska as I worked for the
University and the Smithsonian on the excavation of the prehistoric Ponca
Indians. .
Genesis
of Careers
It was difficult for me, a Jew, to
make progress or a career in anthropology or archeology, so I switched my
education to major in mechanical engineering.
During this period, prior to World War II, I worked in machine shops
first as a lathe hand then advanced to a tool and die maker. This was to may advantage. When I received my degree in engineering the
tool and die experience enabled me to get an engineering job at Essential
Industries, a firm making the tooling of the Vought Corsair fir Chance
Vought. Innovative application of my
designs came to the attention of chief engineer, Raymond King. I became assistant chief engineer, and when
he left, I became the chief engineer. That led to other administrative
positions and when the war started I was with the War Manpower Commission in
the Training Within Industry Division, as a war production trainer in Job Methods
and Job Relations. During the war I was first with the Military Engineers and
later, because of my flying experience with the USAAF. I became
a training officer then a squadron commander and major. .