What did your folks do for work, from early to late?

[OKRuss]

Interesting thread!

Dad was an ironworker by trade. Worked for Allied Steel in OKC hanging red iron, welding, cutting, etc... Started his own non-union steel construction company in OKC in 1982. Sold it in early 2000's. Health issues from being inactive. Lung replaced at 72. Passed away Oct 2020 at 78. This is why we moved from Colorado Springs to Tuttle back in 2017 to help Mom out and spend as much time as possible with Dad. Miss him.

Mom was a stay at home wife when we were young. She worked part time at the church doing administrative stuff. When me and brother got older, she took a job with a local law firm to do title research out at FAA for airplanes being bought/sold. I'm guessing she worked there close to 20 years. Mom turned 80 last year and doing pretty good health wise. Lives by herself on 10 acres with a big house. Won't be long before this is too much and we'll look for a place where me, wife and her can live. Dad passed away in the house so I just can't live there(Mom offered us up the master suite and she'd stay in the spare bedroom). Too many emotions.

 

[RidgeRunner45-70]

Dad worked for his dad bucking hay in Eastern Colorado, then went to Korea, upon his return he went to work at the gas and electric utility reading meters for the next 48 yrs and retired. Mom did laundry for neighborhood folks.

 

[jakeman]

Dad - Farm, WW II, oilfield. Died aged 44.

Mom - homemaker, office worker, retired from Soil Conservation Service at 67. Celebrated her 94th birthday in October.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

Dad - Farm, WW II, oilfield. Died aged 44.

Mom - homemaker, office worker, retired from Soil Conservation Service at 67. Celebrated her 94th birthday in October.

I'm sad for your Dad but thrilled for your Mom!

 

[icarus_85]

Mom was the oldest and had only one brother. She grew up working in my grandparent's little neighborhood grocery store. She graduated HS in 1952, then went to a small college not far from her home. During her sophomore year in college, she married my dad who had returned from the Korean War and started college. Dad was 3 years older than my mom. Mom finished her second year and began having children. Later when my brothers and I were old enough, she worked as a secretary and social worker for Oklahoma DHS. My mother got MS in her early 40's and pass at 55 years old in 1988.

Dad was born in 1932 and was the youngest of 6 brothers and a sister. When he was a boy, he worked on the family farm picking cotton and raising animals. He later worked at a small gas station/garage while in HS. He graduated HS in 1950 and moved to West Texas to work in the oil fields with his older brothers. He was barely 18. Before that summer was over, he went back home to join up with several other boys who were shipping out to fight in the Korean War. He was there just under 3 years and came home. He married my mother and started college. He got a degree in accounting and applied to OCU Law School in 1956-57. He received his law degree and started his first job at the old Oklahoma ABC (Alcohol & Beverage Commission Board), now known as the ABEL Commission. Later, we moved back to their hometown. He worked in his own practice for a while and then was elected Associate D.A., and finally was selected as an Associate District Judge. His last job was as a practicing attorney until his untimely death at the age of 49. While in Korea he contracted rheumatic fever unknowingly damaged his heart. Later, after heart surgery to repair a valve, his health never really recovered and he passed in early 1982.

My parents both passed at a relatively young age, but they instilled a good work ethic in me and my two older brothers. I turn 61 in April and remember all the good things about them. It warms my heart.

 

[tynyphil]

My dad was there as well and he too got frostbite but only in his hands.
He was radio operator for General Hobbs 30th Division and arrived Day 3 at Normandy.

so he said....his feet were saved by a "new drug"....penicillin. He was in the 254 Regiment, 63 Division. Ended up as a Sargeant.

 

[Okie4570]

Interesting responses and stories, common theme with every reply, everyone's folks either worked hard, or worked even harder. Seldom seen work ethic in today's era for sure.

 

[cmc tom]

Dad grew up during the depression, walked the rr tracks after school to pick up " clinkers" so they had heat and could cook. Joined the navy in 42, made 4 pacific landings. Came home, met and married mom. Raised 3 kids. Ran his own small trucking company. Sold out and then worked for Chicago Bridge & Iron. Retired early, moved to FL for mom's health. Died Feb 19, 01. Exactly 56yrs after landing on iwo jima.
Mom was stay at home. Raised us right. Died in 82. Only 52yrs old. Miss them both every day.

 

[T. MIKE SMITH]

My folks were farm kids, but I guess my grand dad was a tough old cuss, so my dad joined the army at 16- this would have been in the 20's. He was in and out of the service and wound up in CCC in the mid 30's where he met my mom- she was the second of 10 kids, so I think she had to help her mom a lot- her dad did kind of reward her though, because she wanted to be a nurse, so he sent her to a small women's college in their area for a year. Well her and my dad meet up and eloped. They started a family in 1935 and by the time WW2 came along they had 3 kids and my dad had already served 10 years or so in the army. Didn't matter- he was drafted and wound up in Patton's 3rd Army at the Battle of the Budge till the surrender. He was informed that his unit would be sent home for rr and sent to the Pacific Theater soon. Well, the H bomb got dropped so he was done and couldn't hardly wait to do anything else. Tried farming but couldn't make a go of it. There were 5 kids by now, so he went back to the Army and was reinstated as a buck sergeant and sent to Ft. Reno, OK. They were still raising horses and mules, which he kind of liked since it was rural, and they could hunt and fish in the Canadian River and the ponds. My mom didn't get to pursue her nursing idea until the 60's when my brother and I started school. My dad retired in 1959 at age 50 from the army and worked security until he came up with cancer in mid 60's which took him in 68. Mom retired from nursing in the early 80's and lived to 84. The main thing from all this is, we learned from birth that you got to work to make it. I will be 68 this year and I guess I still think it, because I still work.

 

[Raido Free America]

My parents generation, kids that had to grow up during the greaty depression, had a very hard time indeed! None more than both of my parents. They both lost a parent as a child, and were forced to assume a heavy responsibility at a young age, during hard times, so bad, many adults couldn't survive! They were cheated out of being a child, but it wasn't all bad! This generation, by being forced to learn how to cope with hard times, aquired the VERY SKILLS, self relience, self confidence, patents, charity, compassion, and determination, they would soon need to win the battle, that saved the free world from REAL TERNARY, AND SLAVERY! They EARNED the title, the GREATEST GENERATION! My 90 year old father, a wounded WW2 combat veteran, after my mother passed away, bought a set of .22 pistols. He tried to make holsters for them, but that didn't turn out well. He then went to Mock Brothers saddlery that is near where he lived in Sand Springs, and ordered a double rig hosters and belt, for these pistols! These guys do great leather work, and this was a great looking rig. It occured to me years later, that he was never allowed to be a boy, and have stuff like this, but he, and mom, always worked hard to make sure we had the things they never had! I have three brothers, HONORABLE MEN ALL, TOTALLY DUE TO HAVING GREAT PARENTS!