(A continuation of my bio from post #4)
So, I’m driving back to California from having left seminary in Chicago, pretty sure I will not be returning to finish my Masters of Divinity degree (M.Div) or to become an ordained minister. It’s been a while since I left home in California for college and seminary, five years in fact. It is a fun drive, going by way of St. Louis and Albuquerque, places that would play a part in my future life.
As soon as I’m in L.A., it’s off to Yosemite National Park in northern California, as during my year in seminary, I had signed up with a program called “A Christian Ministry in the National Parks), an organization still in existence. I will be on the ministry staff for the summer there, doing whatever duties I am assigned, along with a “secular job” (that was the package deal with the program).
My ministerial job was to be the chaplain at the park hospital. I didn’t even know they had a park hospital before arriving there. I did visit people there and enjoyed the experience.
That summer my mother was diagnosed with cancer, so I headed home a little early, before my summer commitment was completed. She lived two more years, so I was glad to be home for that time. I was on my search for an airline job, and I finally landed one (pardon the pun), after having a couple of short-term jobs, working for a church friend in his bulk mailing service and as a cashier at a Mexican restaurant.
Eventually I got a job with an international airline, TWA (Trans World Airlines) I was excited to finally have the job that would allow me to see the world and give me the money to do my flight training and possibly be an airline pilot. It was a foot-in-the-door, low level job to begin with ( a dishwasher at night in their flight kitchen/dining unit as it was called).
A few of my friends there went on to become big shots in other fields, but it was sort of fun having these humble beginnings. One became a CEO or President of a cruise line and another became a founder with his wife of an international evangelistic organization.
After six months of work I got laid off. I was qualified for airline employee travel after six months, so a friend and I decided to take three weeks and fly around the world, as TWA and Pan Am both had round-the-world routes back then. The employee service charge for the ticket was $57 and an additional $57 if we wanted to upgrade our flights to first class. So, for $114 we got our tickets and took off. We did get first class on most of our flights!
This was one of those “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunities and I grabbed it! This was the beginning of a habit that has served me well in my life, seizing the opportunity when it comes along. I had now secured the job I dreamed of as I drove away from Chicago and seminary just two years earlier.
As soon as the trip was over I was recalled to my job and I remained with the airlines for thirty-three years (the last five as an employee of American Airlines after a takeover/merger in 2001.
I did put my dream of becoming a pilot in action and got my pilot licenses. I became a private pilot, then a commercial pilot, and got my flight instructor and ground instructor certificates. I joined a flying club where club members were part owners of a fleet of airplanes which we could rent to ourselves for a very cheap rate at the time. I took friends and family members on flights all the time. A favorite trip to Catalina Island to have lunch at the “airport-in-the-sky” and have buffalo burgers. They had buffalos roaming around the island.
I did do some flight instructing work at a local airport, hoping for pilot jobs to open up with the airline. As it turned out, my airline pilot dream was not to be. The timing just was never right. When I was ready, they were not hiring. This was another lesson learned in my early life, that some things are not meant to be, deal with it!
I was at least doing work I enjoyed (I had advanced to airport agent work working the boarding gates and ticket counter, etc.) I met many famous people. I was traveling the world and flying in my own plane in my off- duty time. I cannot imagine just having a “regular” job, it was not for me. This was exciting and life was good, very good!
(To be continued with probably one more posting on my bio, then on to other topics)