It was slim pickings looking for a job the old fashioned way. Walking the streets and responding to newspaper ads was the way to go back in the '70s. Was turned away by many. A driver's license might have helped, but Muni was still my mode of transportation. It was not until I took a chance and tried my luck at a brokerage firm, Dean Witter & Co, did I find success. I had my interview with Barbara Brown of HR and secured a job in the mailroom. Although my stay was a short one....four months, it was a very productive learning experience.  The only incentive to stay was the company I kept and possible potential for promotion.  But it seem like it would take forever, and at $444/month it was literally not worth staying since the government job that I was hoping for became a reality.

Highlights while working at Dean Witter included...

• Bumping into Aptos alum Rayne Rembold, secretary to one of the brokers.  She was the talk of the mail room and all the mailroom staff would talk of their time when they passed by her office dropping off mail.

• Being in charge of records retention in their downtown basement made my skin crawl every day when I had to access the records destined for destruction or put boxed files on the shelves. I was exposed to the rats the size of gophers and cockroaches that appeared to fly every time I opened to door and flick on the light. Fortunately I never brought any pets home from the office.

• Once a month the staff was called into work during a weekend to do an "Audit Box Count". The mail room staff was assigned the job of microfilming records. We were still paid, but I can't remember if it was time and a half or just straight pay.

• A fun part of the job was to being bonded and assigned to transport securities, bonds, checks, cash and mail downtown. Other financial brokers and banks were the destinations. All was done on foot and was simply part of the day's duties.

• With my limited drafting background and my Architecture merit badge, I volunteered to design the preliminary plans for the new mailroom. I never saw the final plans nor did I ever see the new mailroom if it ever became a reality.

• There wasn't a cafeteria in the office, so lunch was either bagged or we could find something to eat at a nearby restaurant or take-out place. The place of choice was a sandwich shop on Kearny called "Bill's Place". Whenever I felt like treating myself or when I was too lazy to make lunch at home, I'd get a sandwich and wash it down with milk or chocolate milk from dispensers in the breakroom.