THE WAY IT WAS

     The talk all began with the Caitlin Clark pay-gap controversy. All over the various news media lately has been talk about the fact that Caitlin is not going to draw near the payment as a WNBA player as any player in the NBA makes. That's strictly a salary comparison......nothing to do with "outside compensation."

     All at once, out of the woodwork, comes a handful of stories from Boone natives regarding the pay scale they had at various occupations, mostly part-time, during their younger years.

     We can't use all the material received but will try to scan some of it. Its interesting.

     Almost all the material comes from guys who were in the BHS class of 1964. However, Loren Frazier, BHS-58, also contributed.

     Dick Musser said, "one supervisor I had complemented me with, "you do the work of two men, Laurel and Hardy."" Dick worked in the summer rec program of those years, then was an assembler of bikes, lawn mowers etc.for Mongomery Ward at their catalog store. Rusty Barry, "a delightful lady" was his supervisor. He commented, "I don't know how many times I reversed pedals on the bikes." Dick was a BHS tennis player and Bill Ott at the YMCA hired him to provide some lessons to newcomers also.

      Pat Ahlstrom, at 12 or 13, picked up trash at Memorial Park for a dollar a day. He then latched on at Fisher's Shoe Store, working a half-hour, five days a week for $5.00. At 16, he started baling hay and then hooked on with Boone Construction, filling potholes and helping at building sites. Rolfes eventually hired him for $1.50 or so an hour and he also squeezed in some yard work for $1.00 or $1.50 per hour. Pat said that he and Toby Anderson even tried the door to door sales thing with some "junky" stuff but, admittedly, that didn't go well. "I was grateful for every job I got and appreciated those who hired me."

     John Hendricks said he started "walking beans" at  fifty cents an hour at age 12. He swept floors at Kruse Clothing, then moved up to Pottratz Construction before spending time as a "gandy dancer" with the Fort Dodge Line.While in med school, he worked vacations for night cops of the Boone Police Department. He also worked as a phlebotomist during med school.

     While attending Boone Junior College in the mornings, Mike Nyman worked at Stanley Storage afternoons for $1.65 an hour. He said his best part of the day though was, "having lunch in the small, six stool diner across from Stanleys. It was called Hamburger Heaven and I would have three burgers (they weren't very large), a bowl of chili, a piece of cherry pie and a glass of chocolate milk, all for 95-cents. Now that was living."

     Mike Loehrer worked at Dairy Queen for 50-cents an hour, plus whatever he could manage to eat. He said weekly take home after taxes was $18.50. During his junior/senior years, he worked at Percival's assembling freezers. He started there at $1.67 an hour but got a boost to $1.76. Mike said, "what I found was incredible was that ALL of the employees made that same amount and most were married with families." Mike said his most rewarding job was on the section crew of the Fort Dodge line. But then, as a student at Coe College, he got a job as a brakeman on the railroad. He made $4,000 that summer which covered his $3,000 tuition fee at Coe. His first teaching/coaching job paid $6,850. Mike bought his first car, "directly off the show room floor" for $2,600. He said he saw the same style car a couple years ago that was priced at $35,000.

     Steve Roeder said, "I got $1.50 an hour my first summer at Mid-States Steel and a big raise to $2.25 an hour my second summer there. I remember from my days working at J.C. Peterson that a pair of Levis cost $4.25 and a nice silk tie was $1.00.

       Loren Frazier started shoveling snow and cutting grass before becoming a paper boy when he was a fifth grade student. At age 14, Floyd Adams at Fareway offered him a quick job sorting out some tangerines that were questionable. He had to wipe up the good ones and, because of his age, he wasn't allowed to leave the back room. Apparently Floyd was impressed. He hired Loren fulltime as soon as he became 15. Boyd's Dairy came next and then he was an assembler for Percival's. He said any employee at Percival's will remember working under Floyd Karr. After Navy service, he was a Seven-Up truck driver and for three years, was a Boone policemen while attending ISU. By the way, Loren commented, "we had three kids and I was proud to graduate from ISU before my oldest child started kindergarten. No taxpayers paid off my college loan either, I didn't have a loan. I paid my own way with my wages earned and savings from my time in the Navy."

       All of these "guys" made similar closing comments......"I often think we were pretty lucky to grow up in Boone Iowa."

K-----K

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