John Stewart:
CLASS OF 1983
North High SchoolClass of 1983
Eau claire, WI
Barstow Elementary SchoolClass of 1983
Eau claire, WI
John's Story
Hi, for the few (ok, very few) people curious enough to ask, I have a bit of a story I will both share and edit here...
In 1983, I left school an immature, emotionally stunted child. I had no skills for the outside world. I enlisted in the Army and was discharged after eight weeks, enrolled in what is now C.V.T.C. and dropped out. Without ambition or any sense of how to set goals, I bumped along a rough downhill path. I enrolled in U.W.E.C. part time and earned a sophomore standing before falling in love (again) and moving to Minneapolis. After a week of sleeping in my car, on sofas or at my girlfriend's brother's house, my gf (thanks Cindy) rented a one bedroom for us in Richfield. I worked temp jobs for a few months before finding factory work in New Brighton. I continued shopping cart retrieval (a temp job I could work on Sat. & Sun.) until coming home one cold March Saturday evening to discover my mother's father died. I felt terrible. Not for the news, (Grandpa's lung cancer relapsed and spread quickly) but because I wasn't available to take the call. My gf received the call and looked shell-shocked when I returned that evening. To this day, I've not asked my mother what it was like to tell my gf. After the funeral, I stopped working temp jobs and made due with less money.
I think in 1988 or so, she and I moved to Madison. I hated that factory job and decided it best if I'd return to my Engineering degree at U. W. Madison I really upset my gf as her career in Minneapolis was just taking flight. In retrospect, I had a huge fear of moving there alone and don't think I could have taken care of myself. At the time, I told her anything to convince her to go there to live with me. I made excuses and I still had no clue as to exactly what responsibility, character or true honesty was. Unfortunately for her, I had no means to tell her of these qualities I had yet to cultivate within myself. I enrolled part-time at UW Madison and worked part-time for Modern Specialty Company as a laborer on a large-scale coin route (I moved, reconditioned and serviced video games, pool tables, juke boxes and the like). After the first semester passed, work's demands grew to where I was faced with a decision: work full time and drop classes or continue school and leave the company. School won and I lived off of credit cards and loans for the remainder of that semester.
Between spring and summer semesters, I accepted a position at a bicycle shop near campus primarily as a member of the sales staff. With passing time, my technical skills were noticed and my responsibilities increased. The work was tolerable and the owner was comfortable working around school schedules. I found difficulty in school with fully comprehending Calculus and had little success with the explanations from the Teaching Assistants of the professors. I grew increasingly frustrated by the English skills of the people I had access to for instruction. So with falling Math grades, I left college again.
My employer allowed me to work additional hours and offered additional responsibilities including automotive repair / restoration work on a few of his personal vehicles. In hindsight, I think he wanted improved control over the money he spent on his fleet. I increased my skills and improved my techniques in each of the three work areas and found sales to come very easily. I was at great ease selling bicycles and had confidence in both my product knowledge and the business I worked for. My failure at this time combined my personal life with my professional life. I began resenting my employer for hiring a business manager (With a business as large as his, he should have had one many years before I joined his team, and today I no longer harbor any resentment towards him.), increased my pharmaceutical recreation and dated customers. These actions prompted my gf to both leave and to later get even (I can't blame her).
Working nearly full time without benefits lost its luster for the woman I was dating and she told me so (ouch). I continued with a pattern of short term casual dating, six day thirty-six hour weeks, and chemical escapes. I had no savings, no motivation and no plan. I remember asking my employer for a review and a chance to renegotiate my benefits and was told to ask the business manager. I felt vulnerable and somewhat betrayed as the company owner hired me a...Expand for more
nd I had been with the company longer than the manager. I took a left turn and left that for an exciting one-month career in automotive sales. What an eye-opener! I entered a depressed industry as a commissioned sales person with no prospects, no training, no income and no way to succeed. Payday was on the first of the month and without savings, I ate Ramen noodles very often. My pleasant memories of the bike shop and the feelings of personal satisfaction from successfully repairing the owner's cars prompted my decision to move into the service department (for a different dealership).
I was in the door with forty hours, medical, dental and 401k. I now look at that first auto mechanic's job as my baptism into the auto industry. I gained an awareness of how a boutique family business ran before I knew of business operations. For me, the best part of working there was being on the night shift with Sherry. She taught me so many techniques that without them, I would have far less success in repairs than I currently have.
At one point, I did some "side work" for an old friend who worked across the street from me as a lab manager at an eyeglass retail store. After returning his car, I sat in the lab and talked to him about his options. A woman in a lab coat walked in from the retail area, interrupted our conversation and spoke to my friend about business. My friend then introduced me to her, the optometrist. I had a light petrochemical coating and was a bit disheveled but managed a handshake and "a pleasure to meet you". The following week, my friend called to tell me that the woman in the lab coat was asking a bunch of questions about me and he felt uncomfortable answering them. I asked for a bit of clarification and discovered she thought I was attractive. Without much recollection of what she looked like, I thought I would have an eye exam to get a better "look" so to speak. What a bad idea, I had almost no opportunity to look at her during the eye exam. What saved me was my timing. Through sheer luck I scheduled my exam just before her lunch break and before I left her office, I asked her what her lunch plans were. The day quickly filled with surprises; I had a lunch date with an exciting woman, we asked each other numerous questions of our likes and dislikes while flirting and the woman I was dating showed up to switch cars with me!
The woman I was dating was separated from her husband and had custody of her three beautiful girls and was, for all practicality, unavailable. I told her that the woman I was at lunch with was available and I wouldn't be seeing her as a paramour anymore. The woman in the lab coat and I saw each other exclusively and, after meeting each other's parents, exchanged vows during an intimate ceremony in McFarland, WI on beautiful Lake Waubesa.
I remained at that first dealership through three service directors. During the third one's tenure, I received a glowing review but no benefit increase. I was told that without any certifications, the company's policy was "no raise". I immediately signed up for eight ASE certification tests, passed each one and asked to renegotiate my benefits. I was asked to wait until next year (that took away my motivation). After a disappointing year, followed without a review and a whisper of a salary increase, I learned another lesson of the automotive industry: move to the money. I packed up and moved my implements to another dealership. I learned much more, took on further responsibilities and enjoyed the new, clean and well-lit location. Like clockwork, the service director gave yearly reviews and with each, a fair salary increase. This was only temporary as that director left to open a hardware store. The replacement was much like I've found everywhere in this field. Without much detail, I'd like to spare everyone the adjectives swirling within myself and just say that most are less than upstanding; the rest are promoted, hired away or die at their desk.
To be continued...
Please, look for me on Facebook. I'll finish the saga there! Bye:)
And just for everyone's information, I receive no benefit from Facebook; I use their site only because all of the "premium" (read as pay for use) features on Classmates are FREE on Face book with LESS advertising. I know that it takes a bit of effort to begin, but I've found that for me, the struggle was worth it.
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