The ups and downs of earning a living!

• Employment that didn't last...
• Real life Mecanno sets

Others provided ongoing challenges and the opportunity to make good use of my nit-picking nature. Two of the best were:

• Jaguar Service Dealer
• Physics Research Technologist

• So, as a pensioner, what do I do now?

The first year out of high school was a mixed bag of work types.
I spent July to mid September working on a small mixed farm for one of my uncles. By the end of the summer I was healthier and stronger than ever before or since.
For the balance of the first twelve months I experimented with being an electrician's helper, a shipping clerk, unemployed, and then a junior clerk in the spring rush season at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. When the end of the advertised period was near I applied for, and got, a job as a Junior Clerk at the Bank of Nova Scotia in Bedford. A few days before the termination notices were due at the R.M.V. they offered me a permanent job - which I had to turn down because of my acceptance of the Bank job.

A year of manual ledger posting, coin counting and rolling, filing, ledger balancing (yes, to the last cent) was followed by a transfer to Dartmouth and a pay raise of ten percent - from $1,000.00 to $1,100.00 per YEAR!

In Dartmouth I was assigned to the position of Teller, being one of four. Lots of money to count, balancing a Teller sheet every day (allowing for a running total of up to $2.00 before getting into serious investigation), learning the touchy handling of combination locks on cash compartments, and the most important lessons of dealing with the public.
Finally the miserley salary seemed inadequate to compensate for the status, and the only other jobs which started at that low pay rate were the no-diploma school teachers.

The next job, in mid 1953 and at the age of twenty, was with Canadian Industries Limited, Agricultural Chemicals Department. Again it was as a junior clerk but the pay was somewhat better than at the Bank.
Ledger posting (by hand) was again the main theme, combined with proofreading invoices against shipping orders and reconciling our ledger totals with computer printouts from head office. (This was one of the more interesting parts, mostly after realizing that errors were made by them as often as in our office.)
Off season work involved updating mailing lists and, at my suggestion, making changes in the system which led to improved efficiency with the mailouts. A stint with the fertilizer manufacturing plant at Pier 9 (the building later occupied by Volvo, I think) broke the growing boredom for a while and then a move to a new office helped temporarily.
However, the dull routine was taking its toll and after an early (6 month) pay raise for better than average performance, I was told that my work was slipping (which I already recognized as the result of the boredom).

Real life Mecanno Sets

By this time (1956, age 23) I knew that office work was not for me, at least not in a "cubicle type" environment. I was currently on my third MG sports car and was in demand by my fellow sports car owners for tune-up and repair work (mine always ran the best and strongest even though they were not often the prettiest).

After considering further education and confirming by some formal testing my ability to handle it, I decided to first try supporting myself with the Mechanic training and experience that I had accumulated since 1953.

A complete "bare frame" stripdown and restoration of my 1942 Harley Davidson -Civilian Model 45 C.I.D. side valve, extensive work on most of the moving parts of my first two MG TDs (1951 and 1953) and helping my "teacher" with assorted car or truck repairs - all of this had made me understand that this was what I wanted to do.

I spent a few years alternating between freelancing and working for other British Car dealers and Repair Shops. Aisthorpe and Son (service station and British car repair), Provincial Motors (Jaguar, Austin, Riley and Triumph), Jaguar of Eastern Canada (Montreal), Cole Motors (Jaguar, Land Rover and Rambler Dealer) all provided periods of employment, as did the Nova Scotia Light and Power - Transit Division (Electric trolley bus maintenance shift work), Department of Transport, Canada - Airport Maintenance (snow plows, runway sweepers, etc.).
Then I decided to expand my horizons with Jaguar.

First question - what is a Service Dealer?

First answer: The same as a full automobile dealership, but without the requirement to stock and sell the cars.

This means no expensive vehicle inventory, no showroom, no sales staff, and none of the related headaches for a young man trying to get a business off the ground with no capital and no loans.

It also meant the ability to offer Jaguar owners full warranty service and genuine Jaguar parts. Many small parts were stocked, larger and more costly ones were available overnight from Montreal. (It also meant more net profit, as the parts were at full dealer discount!)

Jaguar Cars Canada Ltd. and I were both very satisfied with the arrangement, as my customer list included at least half of the Jaguar owners in the province of Nova Scotia. A regular customer from Yarmouth (230 miles to the South West), an occasional visit from another in Sydney (over 300 miles to the North East) and infrequent visits from yet another in Amherst (near the New Brunswick border) defined the extent of both the province and my customer base.

Second question - why?

The second answer is a bit more complicated.
The Jaguars themselves were designed for people like me. Beautiful to look at and to drive, they needed periodic attention to several finer points of maintenance and repair to maintain their edge. Most mechanics (but not all) were capable of keeping them working most of the time but to maintain their peak performance required an understanding of their special nature - a challenge that kept me and my customers on good terms with each other.

This led to the ownership of my first Jaguar, a 3.8 MkII (Automatic trans) when one of my Halifax customers was faced with both bankruptcy and a major bill for the repair of a Jaguar engine which had been run dry of coolant.

It was in pieces in my shop when the finance company arrived. After considerable negotiating, I took over the payments and retained possession of the vehicle. It was a great car, and very difficult to keep in check on the open road. Fortunately I was alert and cautious enough that my Jaguar speeding ticket, two weeks after getting the car on the road, was the only one that I ever received!

I should mention that the Jaguar population was inadequate to keep my work schedule full. When fixed properly, they were capable of running well for extended periods of time. This allowed lots of shop time for the British sports cars (MG, Triumph, Austin Healey, Sunbeam, Morgan, etc.), sedans (from the tiny Austin Mini to the Rolls Royce) and even the Mercedes 300SL convertible that belonged to a mechanic friend.

Unfortunately the challenge faded after a few years. When the puzzles had been solved the special touches became routine. Even the Rolls Royce engine overhaul, once done, presented no further promise of challenges. (The problems of doing it were a story in themselves.)

By the time that the challenge started to fade I had also become aware of the downside of quality workmanship for backyard prices. My income was barely at the survival level. Where do I go from here?

The transition was a gradual one, continuing the Jaguar and British car repairs as a sideline even after taking an ever-changing full time position that brought in a regular income. (In fact, the British cars have never been completely abandoned.)

The best, and by far the longest lasting, of the "never a dull moment" work category was my twenty seven years (twenty nine if you count my two years there as a student) with the Dalhousie University Department of Physics.

I had decided that I needed more education so I spent just under two years with Dalhousie Physics (undergrad classes 1964-65 and 1965-66), supporting myself with the British car work described above. The decision to stop before finishing a degree was prompted by a run-in with a rather arrogant professor (not in Physics) who treated most students as an unimportant nuisance.

Then, in the late spring of 1966, a friend pointed out a Dalhousie ad for a Research Technician. After two years of Physics classes, the first one being taught by the Department Head, I knew that I would like working there.

My application was chosen and, on the first working day of August, 1966, I started what turned out to be a twenty seven year career - ending with a top level job classification of Technologist II.

So, what do I do now?
It is over ten years since I left my room in the basement of the Sir James Dunn Building and I have been back to visit much less often than I intended. Too many "projects" at home and in the community provided demands and distractions, and there was always "tomorrow".

I still miss the stimulation of working there and many of the people I worked with. The usually rapid turnover of projects, the variety of tasks and the range of equipment used to deal with them, sometimes invented or modified to suit the new requirements - all were enjoyed.

All is not lost, however. I still invent and construct or rebuild a variety of equipment for projects of my own - and often find that the challenge of preparing for the latest undertaking may be more fun than the work that I do with the equipment when it is completed.

The most recent change is the decision to abandon the projects that involve heavy lifting (and the definition of "heavy" shrinks every year).

As for working for money, don't come looking for me unless you have an interesting project in the field of "technical" photography. I do still have a variety of photographic equipment and decades of experience in the "advanced amateur" field.
I may even have a few samples of my work on my "Hobby" page sometime soon.