After leaving the Head Trauma Center, I went to work full-time for Agway as this job was closer to where I was attending college. This is also how I met my wonderful husband. When I had to work Sundays, I would go to church in the town where I worked in instead of my home church, and that is where our story started. But, more about that in my personal blog some other time...
Back to Agway. I was hired as a bookkeeper, and I had the 'joy' of converting an office/retail store from the old paper ledger method of bookkeeping over to a full-functioning computerized POS Retail system and accounting system.
I know it sounds 'sick' but I had never had so much fun as I did cleaning up that place! "What? Me! Organize your entire office? Well, okay. If you insist." Right! I was in heaven, people! For those of you who know me well, this isn't a stretch for you to imagine, is it?
Okay, so after the office and retail part of the business was off and running, I learned the difference between PVC pipe and Conduit pipe, how to fix basic electrical & various plumbing problems (like how to fix a leaky toilet and what a Johnny Ring was and how to install it properly), what to feed a calf versus a lactating cow and what horses need to eat.
Once I had those tools "under my belt" (pun intended), they let me loose in the paint and wallpaper department where I was in charge of computing how much wallpaper and/or paint a customer needed to paper a room or a house. More numbers....yes! Bring it on!
Next, they let me out into the nursery, where I learned how to teach people to take care of any type of plant they might have. Funny thing is, I could teach others what to do, but to this day I have a brown thumb. Hmm, you can lead a horse to water.......
Are you wondering where the cow with mastitis comes in yet? Well, at Agway, we also sold medicine for cows suffering from mastitis/dry cow, and other ailments. We kept much of this medicine in the store's refrigerator. So, when farmers needed one of these medicines, they would simply go to the refrigerator and get what they needed.
Well! All of that changed once I had my oldest son and went back to work. I had to express my milk at lunch time. Oh my! Those good ole' farmers cracked me up!
Okay, so I would express my milk at lunch and put it in the fridge... logical, right? Well, once word of this got out (via the first farmer to find out what was being stored next to his penicillin) the farmers refused to open the fridge! They would make me go back and get the medicine for them!
I would ask them, "What's the big deal? You milk COWS for a living, for heaven's sake! A little bottle of breast milk isn't going to jump out and bite you!" But no way! They weren't having anything to do with being anywhere near my br..br...breast milk!
So, I had to learn which medicine treated what in order to be sure that they were getting what they really needed. It still makes me laugh to this very day!
I could sit for hours and type story after story about what I learned working for Bill & Joan Beck at that Agway store. I worked there for over 7 years, so I learned, saw and heard plenty. If I had to sum up the most important lessons that I learned there, they would be.....
- Be kind to everyone, whether they deserve it or not. - Thank you Joan for that lesson.
- NEVER work with your spouse if you can help it! - Thank you Bill for that lesson. Although I didn't learn that particular lesson myself, until my husband and I were almost divorced; but I eventually figured it out.
- Finally, always stand up for what you believe, even if people ridicule you for it - Thank you to the local science teacher for that lesson. For as many times as he made fun of me, I learned to stick to my guns, so to speak, and let compassion and understanding do my talking for me. Repeat after me...God loves him just as much as he loves me... God loves him just as much as he loves me....
Next up, life lessons learned by a stay-at-home mom! Stay tuned....
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