MY FINAL WORKING YEARS- 1969 - 1982
Jesus' disciples went back to their old occupation of fishing when they didn't know what else to do. Similarly, after resigning at Minnehaha Covenant Church, I decided that I should go back to some sort of work with which I was familiar.
My last day at Minnehaha was to be August 10th. After announcing my resignation to the church board on June 16th, 1969, I immediately began to look for a job. I learned that the position of Personnel Director at Deaconness Hospital was open, and applied there. I got as far as an interview, but someone else got the job. I also explored possibilities in the state service, and took two examinations for which I qualified. I received good grades in both exams, and enjoyed the whole process--both the written and oral examinations. The oral questioning was especially interesting.
Meanwhile, I helped with the annual Bible camp, held that year at Silver Lake Campground. The camp wasn't as effective as I had hoped, but not a failure, either. I preached at Minnehaha every Sunday as best I could. I was very depressed, and felt that I had been a failure as a pastor. I prayed for some definite leading from the Lord, but couldn't see anything to do but take a job. This change was by far the most difficult thing that had ever happened to me.
The 10th of August came and went. The church gave us a final reception and a generous cash offering that helped a lot. We needed to move out of the parsonage by the end of the month. We found a suitable duplex apartment on the north side of town, and moved our household goods there on August 30th.
A friend of Jane at Whitworth College offered us the use of her family cabin on Marshall Lake, about sixty miles from Spokane. That was a real break, and we decided to take advantage of it. Then, just as we were ready to go to the lake for a rest, I received a call from Olympia. An office there asked me to come for an interview for a position as Budget Officer III.
We went up to the lake cabin, and I drove from there to Olympia for the interview. When I reported to the State Personnel Office, where the interview was to take place, I was asked if I would instead consider a position as Personnel Officer III. This position offered a higher salary, and was with the Department of Social and Health Services! So I quickly investigated that offer, and learned that I would be headquartered in Spokane. I would be doing the same sort of "field personnel" work I had done in the Air Force years ago! I accepted the job without question, and cancelled my appointment for the interview for the Budget Officer job.
Part of the arrangement for the new personnel job was that I begin by spending some six weeks in Olympia, learning the ropes of Washington State personnel work, the personnel rules and regulations, the organization and main people in the Department of Social and Health Services, etc. That was fine with me! I could start on the job right after Labor Day. So back to the lake I went, with all that good news. The starting salary was almost twice what I had received as pastor at Minnehaha. I really think the Lord had this position all ready for me!
After a week at the lake cabin, we moved back to town. We quickly got settled in at our apartment. The location, on Everett street just north of the North Town Shopping Center, was convenient. I could walk to the shopping center for shopping for light items, and groceries.
When the month of September came, I packed a suitcase or two and headed for Olympia. I found my new job very pleasant, with good people to work for and with. I found a place to live in a little travel trailer located in a motel parking lot in the small town of Tumwater, about three miles south of Olympia. The rent was low, and I had complete privacy. They even provided a little radio for me. I prepared my breakfasts, and packed a sack lunch some days, to eat at the office, as several others did. I found lunch time a great opportunity to get better acquainted with others. Often, though, I ate out at a restaurant with staff people. Usually I ate my evening meals at a nearby restaurant in Tumwater.
Learning the personnel rules and procedures for Washington state was not difficult, and soon I was feeling right at home. I can honestly say that I always got along well with the people in the Olympia offices of Social and Health Services. I made good friends, too, with many in the state department of personnel, with whom I had to work closely.
The four or five weeks of training and orientation (not six, as originally planned) went quickly, and I then set up an office in Spokane. This was in early October, 1969. Desk space was found for me in a large room already occupied by three minor agencies--Services for the Blind, Services for the Aged, and Support Enforcement. The other men all shared the services of one secretary. Secretarial help for me came from another office in the same building, in another room.The girls there were busy, but gave me good help.
My boss, Mike Baldwin, came over to Spokane to see me get settled. He took me to a scheduled Regional administrators' meeting, to get acquainted with the administrators of the Social and Health Services offices in the counties east of the Cascades. My territory was a very large one, and I was the first person appointed in the state to serve as a "field personnel officer," to help administrators and employees with all kinds of personnel matters right on the spot. It was very helpful service, if I do say so, and several other state agencies later copied the idea.
I met the Administrators of the two regions I would serve at that joint meeting in Spokane. Those two men, and some local office administrators, were suspicious of Personnel, and of me. It took several months to overcome their reserve. When they became convinced that I was there to help, and could get personnel matters handled efficiently and confidentially, I worked well with nearly all.
I had a personal phone line, as I did much of my work by telephone. In fact, in the first few months of my work, my boss became pretty excited over my phone bills. They were the highest of anyone in the agency, he said. He became convinced that it was necessary and efficient, as the personnel paperwork and problems were handled so much more quickly.
Right away I began extensive travelling, visiting all my offices monthly, and sometimes even more frequently, as necessary. There were five social and health services offices in Spokane alone, and about fifteen other offices located at county seats, in the eastern half of the state. In addition, I served as personnel officer for Adult Probation and Parole, Juvenile Probation and Parole, and the regional Vocational Rehabilitation office, to name a few. Visiting these offices took a large share of my "free" time--that is, when I wasn't on the phone!
I did enjoy the travelling around to the various offices, and enjoyed the travel so much I often wondered why I should get paid for such work. Some evenings I spent in driving on to the next town on my itinerary, thus reducing the loss of office hours while on the road. Often while visiting one office I would receive several phone calls from other offices, asking for advice and help of one kind or another.
I soon found I needed a newer, more economical car, and bought a new Datsun 10 sedan, probably the most satisfactory car I have ever owned. I travelled at high speed most of the time. I put 56,000 miles on that little car in the two years I drove it.
Our children were all in school that fall--David and Mary at Whitworth College, and Martha at Rogers High School. Mary became engaged in November, 1969, and was married early in 1970.
Working as a personnel officer took far less time than pastoring a church. I had much more time in those days for fishing, hunting, and other activities. This was pleasant, though at the same time it disturbed me. I constantly feltI should be more involved in the Lord's work. Early in the year 1970 a new Canoe Club was formed; Jane and I were charter members, and greatly enjoyed the several river trips the club took that year. Then late in the year, one evening when I was staying in a motel in Olympia, I received word that I was a grandfather! Mary had given birth to a baby girl, Christianne Noel.
Early in 1971, at Jane's urging, we began to look at houses for sale. I admit I was very reluctant; I have always hated to go into debt for any reason. In February we found a dandy house in our price range, at 4820 North Allen Place. We made an offer on it on February 27th, and were a bit surprised when the owners accepted our offer. The house was very comfortable, had a double garage, and a fine large yard with several fruit trees already established.
We moved into our new home on May 1st. That seemed to trigger a series of bad events. Early in the morning of May 4th, I had a serious accident with the little Datsun. I was able to drive the Datsun back home, but the Volkswagen I collided with was a bad wreck. Fortunately, no one received serious injury.
Then only a few days later, David accidently started a nasty fire in the basement of our new home! We all woke up with the house full of terrible smoke, and a lurid fire glow coming from the basement. We had wonderfully prompt help from the fire department, though there was much smoke damage throughout the house. The fire destroyed Jane's beautiful big braided rug. She had worked two years or more on that rug. It measured about twelve by fifteen feet! The insurance took care of everything just fine, but the rug could not be replaced.
Late in 1971 I began working at a new hobby--painting. The next fall I began a series of art classes at Whitworth College and Spokane Falls Community College. After driving the little Datsun for two years, and 56,000 miles, I decided early in 1972 that I should have a heavier car for road work. The Datsun was very light, and sometimes would swerve sharply in heavy winds. On March 4, after looking at several different autos, I drove home with a new Dodge Dart sedan, with the "slant six" engine. Jane approved, as she was also indulging in a project--new carpet for our living room. I'm sure our neighbors must have thought we had found a gold mine! (The new car, including the sales tax, cost less that $3000, though that was a lot of money in those days.) On May 10th my sister Jean called to tell us that our Dad had died that morning, in a nursing home in Great Falls! We drove to Great Falls on the 11th. The funeral was held in the Methodist Church in Glasgow on the 13th. Dad's body lies alongside our Mom's in the cemetary there. My brother Robert had flown out for the funeral, and rode back to Great Falls with us.
Now that we had that new, heavier car, my personnel assignment and territory were changed in May. With the addition of another personnel officer located in the Tri-cities, my field was reduced to only eleven counties, requiring considerably less travel.
A big blow to Jane that October of 1972 was the death of her sister, Margaret Hoxworth. Jane flew to Kansas for the funeral. Jane inherited a modest sum of money, a number of good stocks, and silverware and dishes, etc. She and Mary went to California to bring the things back.
In November we began to attend the First Free Methodist Church. They were very evangelical, which I liked. Invited to preach at the evening service there on December 3rd, I had a good response to my sermon on Mary, the mother of Jesus. I preached there again later. Then we changed churches again! This time we joined with the Baptists, at Central Baptist Church, whose former pastor had been a good friend of mine in the Evangelical Ministers' Association. This was in January, 1973. As you see, we were really browsing around. We worshipped there, taught the college age Sunday School class, and I led in the mid-week Bible study meetings for more than a year.
In April that year (1973) we bought a new 18-foot Grumman canoe, specially designed for running rapids and fast water. It was much larger and more stable than our former seventeen footer. The new canoe carried us on many wonderful trips and I used it a lot. for fishing. One notable river trip was with friends, Conn and Myrna Wittwer, a grand float trip down the Flathead River from near Ronan, Montana, to the little town of Paradise, on the Clark Fork River. We camped out three nights along the river.
During the fall I took a drawing class at Whitworth, with a fine teacher, Mrs. Haas. That drawing class greatly increased my little skill, and gave me new enthusiasm for art work. Another new interest was to come in 1973--we took up cross-country skiing! We had many, many good times on ski trips in the next several winters. It was not only good fun, but good exercise.
We were still busy at Central Baptist all this year. I preached once or twice when the pastor was away. I again led the mid-week Bible study all winter, with fair attendance and interest. January of 1975 brought lots of snow, demanding heavy shovelling of the driveway and walk. I even had to get up on the roof in late January, to keep the snow level down to reasonable levels. We enjoyed the snow, though, getting in much cross-country skiing.
In 1975-76 our daughter Martha was working on the wonderful Freedom Train, touring all around the United States. She was administrative assistant to the director, and really enjoyed her work.
During these years we moved from one church to another. 1976 found us visiting other churches. We just couldn't seem to settle down anywhere. I know that I was too critical of them. For me the biggest event of this year was my attending the reunion celebration at Hinsdale High School. Our class of 1936 enjoyed the spotlight--it had been forty years since we were graduated. I drove to Hinsdale alone, taking the little camper and the canoe. I arrived the day before the big events, and did some canoeing on the familiar old Milk River.
Next day I enjoyed visiting with many old friends--the Carter girls, Earl Britsch, and several members of my graduating class. I enjoyed every minute of the reunion. Also, having my own private living room, kitchen, and bedroom (in the camper) was great.
On my way back to Spokane I stopped for a visit with my sister, Jean. Then, despite a big electrical storm coming up in the west, I decided to drive on toward home. That night's driving was something else! At one point I had to stop, pull off the road and park the rig facing the wind, to avoid having the canoe blown right off the camper. When the wind went down a little, I started on. Brilliant, blinding lightning flashed all around me. I thought that at any moment I might attract a bolt, with that aluminum canoe on top of the camper acting as a lightning rod. Nothing happened, however, and I drove on over Roger's pass to camp at the city park in Lincoln.
In our spare time (!) that summer we were busy preparing for the opening of Jane's quilting shop, the Sampler. She had left her job at Whitworth, and with Mary's help, was going into business. The new business was exciting if not very profitable. I helped often with that, selling, putting up new fixtures, and making routine entries in the accounts, under Mary's supervision. When Jane took on selling a line of fine sewing machines (Elnas and Whites) I became a sewing machine mechanic, too. I took special training in Portland and Seattle over the years while the shop was operating, to keep up with the servicing of the new models coming out. Another big change took place at my office. My former secretary, who never was very satisfactory, decided to leave. I then asked Nancy Hijiya, a Japanese lady who worked in the big Spokane DSHS office, to transfer over. I had told her once before that if I ever had a vacancy, I would like to have her work for me. She turned out to be an excellent helper, very hard-working, efficient, and quick to learn the personnel rules and procedures. Before I retired she had become very skilled in personnel matters,and always seemed happy in the job. I still continued my regular visits to the offices assigned to me.
For some reason I made no entries in my office diary for January of 1980, so I can't recall at all what happened then. The record shows that in February we had switched churches, and were now attending Shadle Park Presbyterian. I was soon busy there. I was finding plenty of work to do at the rental place at North Standard. Changes in renters always involved cleaning, repairing, and repainting, especially after students left. Jane was very busy with her quilt shop, too.
Early Sunday morning, May 18th, David's birthday, I went outside for a few minutes. It was a quiet morning. Suddenly I felt something like a distant concussion, almost a "shudder," as if there had been a heavy explosion somewhere far away. I told Jane about it, but thought nothing more of it. We went to church as usual. Early in the afternoon I was down at the rental place working on something. A huge blue-black cloud was coming up in the west, like a big storm. Then Richard Stubbs, renter of one unit, came out and told me that Mt. St. Helens had erupted, and that the ash cloud was coming our way. The explosion I had felt (more than heard) in the early morning was the volcanic eruption!
The late afternoon and evening was one of the strangest times in my life. Instead of rain, we began to have a gentle shower of volcanic ash, fine light gray stuff, which settled everywhere. We all kept inside, as the health authorities were issuing warnings to everyone by radio to avoid breathing the ash, for fear of silicosis. No one really knew what was going on. We received only a quarter to a half inch of ash here in Spokane, while other areas received much larger quantities--up to three inches or even more.
It took us several days to get things going again. We were afraid to run our cars, lest the engines be ruined. After two quiet days, mostly staying indoors, I walked to work Wednesday morning. I spent most of the day cleaning up around the office, sweeping the ash into the street, and so on. All offices were closed. At home I hosed the ash from the roof, and gathered up one wheel barrow load after another of ash, placing it in the compost area. I had to shake the vegetable plants in the garden, to let the dust fall off them.
This summer of 1980 we began a new outdoor activity-- backpacking. Don and Marilyn encouraged us in that. After an initial trial trip over in Idaho, we invested in backpacks, light-weight stove, and other light weight gear. We used borrowed tents. It was great fun and wonderful, though heavy, exercise. There is something "freeing" about loading everything you need on your back, and leaving civilization (that is, the car) behind for a few days. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would still undertake it if it were not for the doctor's warning of potential heart trouble while in some remote spot!
In late August I decided to take early retirement, with most generous help from John and Mary. I was to work until the end of September, 1981. I used my remaining time at the office in sorting and culling files, trying to leave things in good shape for the person who would succeed me in the job. My secretary, Nancy, well trained, would be of great help to my successor. The Regional DSHS Office, and the personnel and training office where I worked, gave me grand farewell parties, and fine gifts. I hated to leave, in a way, but was happy to know that I had done at least a decent job!