Jim Blystone:  

After the military, I worked at several different vocations, until I settled on automotive repair as a proffesion. I absolutely loved what I did. I never got rich, but made enough to be comfortable. After many years, my services were no longer required, as several of my friends and I were downsized. I had a pretty good buy-out from Sears, and lost every penny to an ex-wife. Bad memories of that woman. I took a job on a temperary basis, and was seriously hurt, and disability for three years, before I went to work for the Emissions testing station in Cascade Park. In less than a year, I was promoted to station manager. Made less money that automotive work, but had a lot of fun, and worked very hard at remembering how it felt to be abused as an employee, and treated my people with the same respect as I expected for myself. I had a lot of fun on the job, even though I usually worked a 100 hour week. Nearly lost my wife to that, because I was never home. After that job, I went to work for an automotive warehouse as a delivery person, and was soon promoted to warehose manager, where I stayed until the company folded in Portland. I took a job as a temp for a while, until I could go back to college. I became a Medical Assistant, after recieving my AA, again. After applyning at more clinics than I can remeber, I found a position with the North Valley hospital in Tonasket WA, as a phlebotomist. Had a lot of fun doing that, and made a lot of friends with the MANY patients I delt with. Held that position for ten months, and was let go when the howspital distric shut off the money for several positions. I then went to work for the local ACE hardware, and nine months later was promoted to manager. Had a great time there, and met nearly all of the population of the town. But, because of all of the years that I worked and walked on concrete, in combination with a ruined knee from Viet Nam, I was forced by pain, to re...Expand for more