Bosses I Have Known

I've had quite a few jobs and every boss I had was unique. One of my first bosses was the

kindest person I ever knew. He was in the insurance business and I did the office work while

he went out looking for more business.

He was of the Jewish faith, but at Christmas he sent out Christmas cards and gave presents to

people. He sent the insurance money in to the insurance companies even if his customers had not paid him yet for their insurance. I remember one local family had a house fire that killed one person and other family members were jumping out of windows, but he had paid the insurance for them before they wrote him a check. Who would do that today? I don't think a solitary soul would be so kind and trusting.

Sometimes, when I only worked part time, he would pay me for full time. He was fatally injured when his car hit a bridge abutment because he had fallen asleep at the wheel. The whole front page of the local newspaper was taken up with praise for all the good works he

had done in his lifetime.

Then I had another boss who was just the opposite. Stingy, egotistic, judgmental and I found

it hard to sit in the same office with him, so after a year I found an excuse to quit. I was doing

twice the work for half the pay I should have gotten, so he didn't want to lose me. Of course.

Later I worked for our local newspaper in the composing room. I got the store ads ready for

the press. I loved the work. I also did art work when they needed some done. The foreman was a very nice man, but the production manager used to turn the air blue when he was on the

phone telling somebody off. One night when I was out having fun, he came walking down our

main street, a little on the "happy" side with his arm around a woman who was not his wife.

He was transferred to another paper in another state after I left the paper. Somebody murdered him!! He was driving his car when somebody took a pot shot at him and got him right in his chest. He hit a light post and died at the wheel. That murder was never solved. I always liked to think he was carrying on with some other man's wife at the time. Maybe?

My last full time job was as a fashion illustrator for a downtown ladies clothing store. My drawings were picked up by the newspaper and appeared in the ads. That isn't done anymore.

The boss was a nice man to work for, but his business wasn't doing well. I watched him becoming a nervous wreck as his business was failing. He was married to a beautiful lady, but he was paying a lot of attention to one of his employees. So what happened? He went bankrupt, both he and his employee divorced their spouses, married each other and left town.

Oh, how I miss the days of the working woman!