After working three different fruity (and vegetably) jobs, I was finally ready to move on. Paul and I were living the high life, in our little rental house in Osage, IA. Actually, we only had part of the house. An elderly lady, who must have been kinda deaf had the other part. A couple times we heard her TV very late at night and worried briefly that she was dead. But no.
Our house was owned by Shirly and Henry - he was French Canadian and they met on Love Boat and got married at age 60ish. Exciting and New! (from the Love Boat theme in case you didn't recognize...). It was a cute and well kept up home in a neat as a pin town. Those northern towns with their German influence were so nice back then - very few run down places with furniture on the porch and appliances out back!
Osage is home to a family owned woolen mill - Fox River. It was named after the Fox River valley in Wisconsin where the plant started. I think they moved it earlier in the 1900's to escape the labor union. I don't recall if I heard of an opening, anyhoo I put in an application and shortly later was called for an interview. They were starting a computer department and liked my IBM System 32 and 34 experience! Yay a local job.
I would work with Karla, a chick that was only 23 or so years old. Of course I was like 25! We keyed orders into the computer after sales people did hand written orders. We also did payroll - some of the people were paid by the piece, like $.10 per sock they sewed the toes up on. Each Friday we did a back up on a magazine filled with 10 floppies - 7 inch, remember those?
Karla turned out to be quite moody. Each day I would arrive in the computer room (climate controlled) on pins and needles until I determined what the mood was for the a.m. Some days she was downright frosty and wouldn't talk. I quickly learned to follow her lead. Other days she was gregarious and fun. Outside our office was the sales and support staff. Lots of nice women of various ages. My boss turned out to be a neighbor or ours Becky Halvorsen. Word had it she had a thang with the boss, Mr. Lessard.
Fox River was fun company to work for! They had picnics each summer and golf outings. We got cheap socks and gloves!
Plus they didn't pitch a fit when shortly after I started working for them (the year was 1985) I found out I was preggers! I had suffered a miscarriage in the fall of 1984 - it had been tough. I wasn't supposed to try to get pregnant until January. After that date, it didn't take but a couple weeks and I was "with child". That child turned out to be Amy, born October 14, 1985.
Our house was owned by Shirly and Henry - he was French Canadian and they met on Love Boat and got married at age 60ish. Exciting and New! (from the Love Boat theme in case you didn't recognize...). It was a cute and well kept up home in a neat as a pin town. Those northern towns with their German influence were so nice back then - very few run down places with furniture on the porch and appliances out back!
Osage is home to a family owned woolen mill - Fox River. It was named after the Fox River valley in Wisconsin where the plant started. I think they moved it earlier in the 1900's to escape the labor union. I don't recall if I heard of an opening, anyhoo I put in an application and shortly later was called for an interview. They were starting a computer department and liked my IBM System 32 and 34 experience! Yay a local job.
I would work with Karla, a chick that was only 23 or so years old. Of course I was like 25! We keyed orders into the computer after sales people did hand written orders. We also did payroll - some of the people were paid by the piece, like $.10 per sock they sewed the toes up on. Each Friday we did a back up on a magazine filled with 10 floppies - 7 inch, remember those?
Karla turned out to be quite moody. Each day I would arrive in the computer room (climate controlled) on pins and needles until I determined what the mood was for the a.m. Some days she was downright frosty and wouldn't talk. I quickly learned to follow her lead. Other days she was gregarious and fun. Outside our office was the sales and support staff. Lots of nice women of various ages. My boss turned out to be a neighbor or ours Becky Halvorsen. Word had it she had a thang with the boss, Mr. Lessard.
Fox River was fun company to work for! They had picnics each summer and golf outings. We got cheap socks and gloves!
Plus they didn't pitch a fit when shortly after I started working for them (the year was 1985) I found out I was preggers! I had suffered a miscarriage in the fall of 1984 - it had been tough. I wasn't supposed to try to get pregnant until January. After that date, it didn't take but a couple weeks and I was "with child". That child turned out to be Amy, born October 14, 1985.
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