Down But Not Out

‘Painfully obvious they were looking for the younger shake-‘n-bake folks at substantially less money’

I assume we would begin at the end. “Terminated” suddenly on a Friday afternoon by the new owner of an auto repair business I had successfully run for over 7 years, Sept. 10, 2010.
 Prior to that enjoyed a career as a retail sales and facility manager for the Winston Tire Co. from Jan. of 1988 thru Dec. 2002 after 23 plus years as a supermarket manager back in my home state of Michigan. WOW! Jobless after over 47 years of continuous employment which of course included paying into unemployment funds, social security, etc … Two functions required my immediate attention, filing early for social security AND unemployment.

As to job search, certainly I “made the rounds” of all my contacts and aquaintences within our industry locally. Lots of good talk and ideas exchanged, but, painfully obvious they were looking for the younger “shake ‘n bake” folks at substantially less money. Ah! Age discrimination alive and well. Don’t blame or condem them, far too many years in their shoes.

Over the past 9 plus months have filled out well over a hundred online employment applications as well as attending what can only be termed as the occasional “cattle call” where a company drags in numerous applicants for physco babble type interviews aka “tell me why you are the best candidate here today”. Gone with the wind are the days of an actual job opening being interviewed for by honest and ethical folks with a respectful personnel department representative.

Loyalty? Dependability? Integrity? Work ethic? Forget it! Those are qualities considered old-fashioned and out-dated by today’s movers and shakers. 
But alas … all is not lost. And we’ll keep searching as long as the good Lord strengthens me to do so. God has blessed wife and I for well over 43 years now, we know He’ll continue to care for us until it is time to go home.
 B of A is threatening to take our house of 22 years, having denied a home loan modification application back in March (just like they have to millions across our once great land). We’ll see how that shakes out before Christmas, I’m quite sure.

Thomas, via comments