[GH85Carrera]

For sure. I was hired for my first job while sitting in a classroom in high school. He whispered in my ear if I want a job, come see him after school, and he handed me a business card. I worked for him for 5 years and when I told him I had to have at least 12,000 per year salary he refused. I gave him two weeks notice on the spot.

I was in Montgomery, AL and started looking at a map, and trying to figure out where to move. I thought about Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Oklahoma City. I chose OKC first only because my grandparents lived there, and I knew I could stay at their house until I found a job and an apartment. So the first weekend of unemployment I drove 900 miles to OKC, I picked up the phone book (remember those) and looked for photo business. The first place I went hired me, so I was hired on Monday morning and ended my unemployment. I went looking for an apartment and found a real gem, no I mean a dump, for $90 per month. I went to all the utilities, stood in line, and got those turned on and paid all the deposits for a first time customer.

I had to drive back to Montgomery, gather my stuff, get back to OKC, get moved into my dumpy apartment, and ready to go to work on Monday morning. I started there at 12,500 per month $57,867.33 in 2023 money and worked there for 27 years until digital photography killed silver halide photos.

So yea, the fork in the road was telling a cheapskate I needed a raise, and him refusing. Then the decision to come to OKC was the easy one. I was sure I could go hang out at my grandparents house on Sunday, and use their washer dryer to do my laundry and grandma would ask if I might be able to stay for Sunday lunch. That was a 1 millisecond decision. Granny's cooking beat the heck out of my cooking. Soon I was mowing their lawn, and used their garage for routine maintenance on my 914.