Alan Hicks:
CLASS OF 1974
Minnechaug Regional High SchoolClass of 1974
Wilbraham, MA
University of LowellClass of 1978
Lowell, MA
Cathedral High SchoolClass of 1974
Springfield, MA
Thornton Burgess Middle SchoolClass of 1970
Hampden, MA
Green Meadows Elementary SchoolClass of 1967
Hampden, MA
Alan's Story
School
I remember being very tall and somewhat overweight compared to most of the kids throughout school. This coupled with severe acne in high school did not make for a very happy experience. I am proud that I worked hard in high school both academically and after school to get both college scholarships and finance my own way through college.
I was one of the "shadow" group in high school. I had some friends in all of the cliques but didn't completely fit into any of them myself. When I left for college I was determined to "remake" myself and change.
College
College was some of the best times of my life. I lived on campus in the dorms for four years. I was too poor to own a car and graduated owning little more than a bicycle and a calculator. I joined the college newspaper where I drew weekly cartoons and eventually became the Art Editor. I tried out for the varsity bowling team and eventually made it my senior year. The highlight of which was staying the weekend at West Point NY to bowl in a match with them. I made many friends for life, several of which came to my wedding over 23 years after graduation. Some of the things that went on there such as the giant snowballs (10 feet across) blocking the road during a inter-dorm snowball fight, and the inter-dorm water fight with buckets and dorm firehoses were unbelievable.
Workplace
My first work experience was for the princely sum of $1.95hr as a janitor five evenings a week after school. I worked on the cleaning crew in the basement at Mass Mutual. My brother also worked with me. I used my Dad's second car to get there and one night we got out of work and it had been stolen from a secure lot. Later it was recovered in Amherst.
The summer after high school graduation I worked on the clean up crew in the meat room at Friendly's Ice Cream factory. The cleanup water hose fights with fire-hose strength streams were the most fun. Overall the savings from these two jobs put me through the first year of school. The summer after freshman year of college I was rehi...Expand for more
red at Friendly's factory and was put to work on the loading dock, then I was moved to the ice cream freezer, and finally to the prototype coleslaw room. I was then laid off. I was frantically looking for work until I got a job driving a Mr. Softee truck. That was another experience! I got robbed twice that summer for small change. But I made enough that summer to pay for another year of college.
The summer after my sophmore year I worked at M&S Tomato repackaging on Lyman St. with 30 Puerto Ricans. My next door neighbor, Mr. Ciampi, used to own the company, and his nephew was a supervisor there. I worked 80hrs a week for minimum wage lifting 30lb boxes of tomatoes from pallets to a conveyor belt. By the beginning of August when they shut down I was physically ripped!!!. I got a job at Riverside Amusement park as a game booth operator for the remainder of the summer. I earned enough to pay for my junior year of school.
The summer after my junior year I worked 3rd shift at Plastic Packaging in Agawam. Making plastic potato salad dishes. Later I advanced to the printing department. I had to spend the summer after my senior year on campus to take two more courses to graduate. As a reward to myself, my brother and I took a two week trip to Maine just before Labor Day that year.
My first profesional job started at Honeywell Small Systems division the day after New Years 1979. I roomed with friends from college at various places until I bought a condo in Nashua NH in 1983. It turned out that Paul Allen from Wilbraham class of 74 lived right above me. I did diagnostic software development there until December 1990 when I was laid off as the minicomputer industry died off.
I took a job at Cabletron Systems doing diagnostic software in November 1991. At first I had a 1.5 hour one way commute from Nashua to Rochester NH. Eight months later they opened a engineering facility in Merrimack NH where my group was transfered. I worked at Cabletron (now Enterasys) up until May 2005. I am now at GSI Group in Wilmington MA.
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