Your account does not include highlighter on images.
Searches Highlighted on Image
National Sponsors
| May 7, 2015 News Letter Journal |  |
|
©
News Letter Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 6 (6 of 18 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
May 7, 2015 |
|
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader 
|
6 --May 7, 2015
editor@newsO'.com
I was never able to picture working at one place for 40
years, the same as I couldn't picture living in the same place
my whole life. I tried a little bit of everything, and that made
it interesting, starting with a high school waitress job after
school like happens to so many kids. I guess I'd have to say
that Ohio offered me the most variety.
My children were in school, my husband was gone TDY
about three weeks out of every four, and just how much time
can you spend scrubbing the kitchen floor or puttering in the
front yard?
I could have sworn that my husband had a whole other
family in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, they spent so much time
down there pushing novice paratroopers out of C-130s the
Screaming Eagles were at that point the Puking Buzzards of
the 101st Airborne so I looked for a part-time job.
First I got a job in a little hamburger joint. We were fur-
nished white uniform dresses, a wee
apron and a charming little hat. We
had to wash, starch and iron these uni-
forms, and they were miserable. I was
pretty new and had started to relax
a bit by the end of the week. We got
to eat our lunch there and everybody
took a bowl or plate into the back
room, and mostly they all sat on those
very large cans of lard that were used
I).;,~ (;,~fl~:,n,~,~ in the fryer.
1 Remember When So I had got me a bowl of chili,
and went back to sit and eat it and
, plunked my butt down on the lard can
and the lid collapsed, sunk into the can, the chili went
i~ato my lap on my white uniform, my legs stuck up in the
~ir and I was yelling pretty loud. Finally, after what seemed
~brever, a stunned crew came and pulled me up out of the
lhrd can. I had to go home to repair myself and my nerves,
6nd I was crying. I was also fired.
"Okay, you go on home, but don't bother to come back to
~ork, you are done!"
' Not too long after, I went and applied for another job in
another hamburger joint. I told the boss that I was clumsy,
I~ spilled stuff and I made wrong change. His mouth kinda
twitched in half a grin and he hired me! I worked there for
@ite a long time and I so enjoyed it.
', Columbus, Ohio was, at that time, considered the most
gverage city in the USA, and a lot of survey work went on
there. I thought that looked pretty interesting. It had flexible
l~ours, they paid mileage and it wasn't very hard.
;; No problem. They designated the area you would cover,
how many interviews you needed to do to get an average,
and gave you instructions and questions to ask. One time it
was about Kosher food and another time it was ladies under-
vcear and so on, different companies wanting to know how to
ihaprove their products.
; By the way, if you go to your pantry and pick out a can
6f food, look for the circle with a "K" in it on the label. That
l~eans it has be, on:~pp~ved as K~h~r q }.i . , "',. ~; t .i
[~ Door to door work in those days mostly meant that you
t~tlked to the housewife, so I never,rea ,tly/wCrfied about my
~fety, but one day I got a house where the.man let me in,
then told me his wife was out and he wanted to know what I
was really selling.
' "Haven't I seen you before, honey, and how about taking
off those dark glasses, lady, so I can see you better ..."
i That was it. I quit right there on that day-- at that
minute. I turned and fled.
I had a short stint at a Western Auto store as the "toy
~irl," taking care of the toys that came in for Christmas
,,hies, but it ended when the holiday ended.
', Then I saw an ad for factory work at Western Electric.
you could go down and take a test, and if you passed you
,ould be hired. That was very different. The only problem
was, the week before I had been tucking in the couch cover
when I heard a little "pop" and when I pulled my hand
out, my middle finger hung down at the joint and wouldn't
straighten out.
I had gingerly got in the car and drove out to Lockbourne
Air Force Base to the hospital and went into the emergency
room. It didn't hurt, mind you, but it was also useless.
The medic who looked at it said it was a "baseball"
injury -- ball players get it when the ball hits the end of a
finger. Oh boy! Two interns got on it and each pulled on one
end of the finger, but it did not work. I went home, resigned
t~ the weird finger.
I A couple of weeks later, the knuckle started to itch and
Ii scratched it and slowly the finger came up all by itself.
On to Western Electric. One of the tests was on dexterity.
We were each given a board with some holes in it, a bunch
of screws and a screwdriver -- common screws, too, not
phillips.
Most of the girls couldn't get a screw in because the
screwdriver kept slipping out of the slot in the head of the
,screw, but not me! I am a farm girl, raised with boys, and I
knew how to use that screwdriver. I beat all the other girls by
five screws -- and I got a job. (I don't want any snickers at
this point in the narrative.)
I worked there for nearly a year. We built electronic units
for direct-dialing systems and we soldered connections all
day long. I loved the soldering! I even belonged to the Union,
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the IBEWl
Well, that's it for Ohio, hope I didn't bore y'all to tears!
Denice Pisciotti
NLJ Reporter
On a stormy evening in the
1950's, Curtis Wineteer moved
to Newcastle with his pregnant
wife, Leona, and their two sons.
Cliff and Lance.
He came to the community
to take a job driving a truck
for Johnston Fuel Liners. That
fateful move turned into 30 years.
of working for the company
in three different states, but it
wasn't apparent fight away that
Wineteer had found a home with
the company.
"The night I moved up, it
rained all night and if my wife
had said one word I would
have went back to Chadron," he
admitted. "We moved into a little
22 foot trailer that I had bought
from a cousin, and it didn't have
a cook stove and it didn't have
any facilities for the bathroom.
My wife, bless her soul went
along with whatever I had to do."
While driving truck in
Nebraska, he had met a driver
from Johnston Fuel Liners who
recommended him for a job with
the company. At the time, drivers
were hired primarily on the word
of another driver.
Johnston Fuel Liner drivers
wore nice uniforms which
included a jacket and tie,
described Wineteer and were
known as Knights of the Road.
"They were fully dressed and
could go to a funeral if they had
to," he recalled.
After driving for Johnston
Fuel Liners for five or six years,
Wineteer got an aliment that
didn't allow him to drive a truck
any longer, but instead of quit-
ting, he began training drivers
for several years and eventually
worked his way up in the orga-
nization.
Times have changed since
tl~n, and Wineteer admits he is
giad he is not a driver in today's
~0rld. He appreciated the kind-
r~..ness of the drivers when he was
one of them, and laments the fact
that it is a different story now.
"Fuel Liners was very fussy
about who they hired. If Wilson
Burnette walked down and saw
your car was messed up and
dirty as heck, he'd can ya! He
figured if you kept your car like
that, you'd keep the truck that
way," he described, noting there
was a reason for the company's
insistence on cleanliness and
good upkeep of vehicles. "We
drove Kenworths, and Kenworth
was known as the number one
truck builder. We were lucky !"
When a terminal manager was
needed in Chadron, he returned
to his former hometown with his
family and worked for Johnston
Fuel Liners in Nebraska for five
years. Then the company made
him a sales manager in Rapid
City, where the family lived for
about a year.
It was about that time that the
company found itself embroiled
in turmoil, as a number of the
workers wanting to unionize, and
Wineteer returned to Newcastle
to be general manager for the
operation here.
"I went to Pierre (S.D.) every
month and contacted the contrac-
tors, getting them to assign us a
haul. Then we would haul their
stuff" Wineteer explained, noting
that the number of assignments
could stack up considerably.
"I have seen 43 loads of road
oil go out in one day!" declared
Curtis Wineteer came to Newcastle to work for Johnston Fuel
and stayed with the company for more than 30 years. Now he
Retirement Community.
Denice Pisciotti/NLJ
Liners as a Knight of the Road,
enjoys living at Mondell Heights
Wineteer.
At one time or another, all
three of Wineteer's sons also
worked for Johnston Fuel
Liners, and his youngest son,
Darrel; worked his way up in
the company in the years prior
to 1988, when the terminal was
sold to Weston County School
District #1. The location is now
used to house the school dis-
tfict's transportation department.
During World War II,
Wineteer was drafted into the
United States Army but he didn't
go overseas. He was stationed at
Fort Lee, Virginia. He said he
hated every minute of the two
years he spent on the east coast,
but felt lucky he never had to go
overseas, instead staying state-
side as a buck sergeant charged
with testing equipment.
"We even tested shoes! A
guy would put them on and
would walk, walk, walk on the
track. I worked in the shop on
the maintenance end," Wineteer
informed.
When he was driving truck,
he would often stop at a caf6 at
the west end of Chadron to have
coffee, and that is where he met
Leona Jackson. They married at
a church in Chadron on July 2,
1949, when she was 16-years old
and he was 22.
"Leona and I couldn't find a
room that night, so Leona and I
slept in a sheep wagon for our
honeymoon in Hill City. I bor-
rowed $50 from a friend to go
on our honeymoon," Wineteer
smiled.
When they lived in Rapid
City in the early 1960's, Leona
went to school to become a hair
dresser, which allowed her to
work at home and take care of they were in need of repair, and
their three boys. She operated the he remodeled the structures to
Hair Care Salon for many years, make them more inviting and
"She jerked hair until she convenient for customers.
passed away," he recalled with For the last threeyears,
a smile. Mondell Heights Retirement
Wineteer andhis wife enjoyed Community has happily been
traveling, and as a representative the place he has called home,
of the contractor association he but as often as possible he still
was able to treat her to trips to visits his old stomping grounds
Jamaica, North Africa, Spain, in Chadron, where he gradu-
Salvador, Minorca-- a small ated from the prep school in
island in the Mediterranean-- 1945. The last time he was at a
and Honolulu twice! class reunion he said he couldn't
For many years, Curtis believe how old all his class-
also owned the laundramat on mates have gotten.
6th Avenue and Main Street "I like Newcastle. There are a
in Newcastle, along with the lot of things we can do. If I had
Roadside Motel. When hebought to live any place, I would live
both buildings in the mid 1970's, fight here," Wineteer grinned.
Weston
May 7
May 7
May 7
Weston County Manor
May 7 AI and the Gang 2 p.m.May 8
May 8 Greedy 10:30 a.m.
May 9 Namit 11 a.m. May 9
May 9 Happy Hour 3 p.m. May 11
May 10Trivia 11 a.m. May 12
May 10Mothers 3 p.m. May 13
May 11Anna Miller Museum 3 p.m. May 14
May 12Ceramics 10:30 a.m. May 15
May 13Crossword 10:30 am.
May 14Food Fancy 10:30 a.m. May 16
May 15Greedy 10:30 a.m. May 18
May 16Movie 2 p.m.
May 17Proverbs 11 a.m. May 19
May 18Ladies Coffee 1 p.m. May 19
May 18Tony's Tunes 3 p.m.
May 19Ceramics 10:30 a.rn. May 20
May 20Catholic Study 10 a.m.
May 20Out for Lunch 11:30 a.m. May 20
May 21AI & the Gang BirthdayMay 20
Party 2 p.m.
May 22 Movie 6 p.m. May 20
May 21
County Senior Services
Trip to Tin Lizzie
Hearing Aid Institute
VFW Ladies Auxiliary Mtg
4p.m
Blood Pressure Check
9:30 am.
Open Rec Room
AARP Meeting 1 p.m.
Artful Gals Meeting Noon
Manor visits for lunch
Hearing Aid Institute 8 a.m.
Beltone Hearing Aid Clinic
9-11 a.m
Open Rec Room
Visually Impaired Support
Group Meeting 1 p.m.
Mexican Train 1 p.m.
Helping Hands Foundation
Board Meeting 7 p.m.
Weston County Senior
Services Board Mtg 9 a.m.
Toenail clinic 9-11 a.m.
Mondell Heights
Visits for lunch
Lion's Club Noon
Trip to the Lodge
Propane Tank Parts
Bottle Exchanges and Fills
Commercial & Residential Tanks
Your Local Propane Gas Supplier
746-4405 • 78 Hwy 450 • wescogas.com