How long did your parents work?

[MichaelB]

Our first house didn't have indoor plumbing, so I find flush toilets to be great!

When we lived in Caracas water shortages were common, leading to extended periods of unflushed toilets. I agree, flushed toilets are great!

 

[Walt34]

This was the '50s/'60s ...

I know. I later worked with a guy who didn't have indoor plumbing until he was in high school, I just found it very hard to imagine that. Especially in the winter.

It made me realize anew how lucky I was when I didn't know it.

 

[jimbee]

When we lived in Caracas water shortages were common, leading to extended periods of unflushed toilets. I agree, flushed toilets are great!

Our problem wasn't a water shortage, more of a money shortage (we didn't have any). I agree with your flush toilet assessment.

 

[jimbee]

I know. I later worked with a guy who didn't have indoor plumbing until he was in high school, I just found it very hard to imagine that. Especially in the winter.

It made me realize anew how lucky I was when I didn't know it.

Yeah, winter in an outhouse sucks.

 

[MRG]

Being a spoiled child of 1950's and '60's suburbia, I never knew the joys of the outhouse or not having electricity so it was little more than a novelty on the rare occasions when we went somewhere where that was common. But the idea of having to live full time with it gives me an appreciation for what we did have.

We visited family cabins that had outhouses. It always prompted DF to tell stories of red corn cobs and white ones.

There was also the duties of emptying the waste bucket. My oldest sister had memory of it being hauled to the middle of the lake. I guess it didn't hurt anything in the middle[emoji854]. Today there's a flush toilet and a state of the art septic system.

 

[jimbee]

We visited family cabins that had outhouses. It always prompted DF to tell stories of red corn cobs and white ones.

There was also the duties of emptying the waste bucket. My oldest sister had memory of it being hauled to the middle of the lake. I guess it didn't hurt anything in the middle[emoji854]. Today there's a flush toilet and a state of the art septic system.

Ours didn't have a bucket, it was a pit. We did have a coffee can of lime in the outhouse to help control, well, you know. It also need to be properly vented.

 

[bbbamI]

My mom worked from the age of 12 years to 20 years picking fruit, chopping and picking cotton. She stopped working when I was born (well, she worked but didn't get paid taking care of dad and yours truly). After I left the nest, she worked a seasonal job at the cotton gin for 10 years. She died at the age of 73.

My dad quit school at age 12 to go to work. Fifty years later, he retired. He's 88 years old now and is doing exceptionally well.

 

[braumeister]

Our first house didn't have indoor plumbing, so I find flush toilets to be great!

DW didn't have indoor plumbing until she was 12 years old, and since I grew up in NYC I found that just amazing.

 

[street]

My dad retired full time about 58 years old. I couldn't beleive he was retiring!! I thought everyone needed to work at least to 62 or 65 and was very concerned that he stopped work. He worked for the county and a small rural country hardware store. Didn't make much money in his working years. After that he worked summers for wildlife service. Only did that for about 4 years thou.

My mother was a teacher and spent 40 years teaching country schools and then in a very rural setting for about 28 years of that 40 year career. She retired about 61 years old after a scare of a heart attack.
They had a great retirement life together mom passed away at 92 and my dad passed away at 88 years old.
They saved what they could but there wasn't a dime left when mom passed away.

 

[Ramen]

Such great family stories here. And no real career patterns. Just the obvious fact that you never know how life will turn out. I've also thought about lifespans, trying guess how many years I might have left. The average among my four grandparents and a few uncles and aunts is 77 years (though my parents have surpassed this now). For me, that's 24 more years -- less time than I've spent working. The more I think about this, the more I'm figuring I'd better just go ahead and ER now and enjoy whatever is left. As for birthdays, my sister and I are 2 years and 5 days apart. No comment from our mom on this.

 

[RobbieB]

Ma worked until I was born, Pops worked from college to age 65.

 

[bluelight]

My father retired at age 52 after working for 34 years, including military service. He bruised his back when he fell on the job and never worked again.

I retired at age 62 after working full time for 44 years. I was actually a little shocked when I realized how much longer I had worked.

 

[stepford]

Dad: Graduated from college at 21 during WWII and went straight into the defense industry - where he stayed until he was laid off at 68. He'd have worked forever if they'd let him, but nobody was hiring 68 year olds so he called it a day.

Mom: Mommy track popping out kids from age 24 until she got sick of it and went to work for the state at age 42. Stayed there until mandatory retirement at 66 - then found a part time gig until 71-72.

I guess both of them were from the era when you just worked until you couldn't. While they enjoyed their retired years, the idea of retirement as a goal simply did not compute for them.

 

[Rambler]

Dad started working at 14, after school, as a dishwasher and later as a cook. Then he went into the army for 4ish years, married mom and worked until he was 67. During the last 20 years of his job, he also had a side gig catering food for weddings, Lion’s Club meetings and whatever he picked up by word of mouth. After he retired from his main job, he kept accepting catering gigs whenever he could get them for about 10 years. After that, he just did the Lion’s Club meetings twice a month. He moved out of state (when we did) at age 82 and finally gave it up at that time. He’s 85 now, and has slowed down quite a bit, and his cooking skills have also declined some, so it was time to stop. Mom was a SAHM all the time that I was home, but went back to work when the youngest went to high school. She retired at 62. I retired at 51. I have one sister and one brother who will have to work until they are on their death beds. And I have one sister who went back to work when her youngest was in middle school. She and her husband have been relatively successful and will probably retire around 62-65. My paternal grandfather died at 60, before he could retire, and my maternal grandfather had a massive heart attack and then a massive stroke at age 57 and couldn’t go back to work.

 

[1242Vintage]

Dad worked nearly 40 years. He talked about retirement but never got there, suffering a fatal heart attack at age 56.

I have taken his story as an important life lesson ... take care of your health, retire and enjoy what you have earned. Both wife and I retired last year at age 56 and enjoying life.

 

[Koolau]

When we lived in Caracas water shortages were common, leading to extended periods of unflushed toilets. I agree, flushed toilets are great!

We keep a 32 gallon plastic storage box of water plus a 2 qt. dipper in each bathroom. Handy for our not-infrequent power fails. Gravity feed is good for a few hours, but after that, there's no water. It's worse for the sewers, but I think they all have at least some back up power for the pumps. It had occurred to me that they don't supply back up power to the fresh water so that the sewers won't back up when their supply of diesel is exhausted. That sounded pretty smart, but I have not confirmed this as an actual strategy. Truth is we're not too big on strategy here in the Islands. We go with the flow - oops! Sorry about that. YMMV

 

[jollystomper]

My Dad grew up in a foster home outside of the USA and started working from the age of 8, as all of the kids in the home had to help out financially. He got enough education to get a job working in a business as a clerk when he was 20. When he emigrated to the US at age 33 he worked various clerical positions while we studied to get first his HS equivalency and associates degree and to improve his English which was not his native language (fortunately he had a knack for languages and was fluent in about half a dozen) He got a job as a lab technician at age 40 and worked in that field for 30 years until age 70. He probably could have retired at 66 once the last of his kids (7) graduated from college, but kept working until 70 to maximize SS survivor benefits for my mother.

My mother was primarily a SAHM. Although she only had formal education up to age of 14 in her native country, she was smart and self taught herself a lot. She worked periodically when her and my Dad felt extra income was needed. She had a gift for math; she applied for a job doing check processing at a major bank and apparently aced the exam they gave. She would do that periodically, back when check processing was done at night by people. She also had great cooking and seamstress skills and would earn money using those skills. She waited until all of her kids graduated from high school before getting her HS equivalency diploma.

My Dad sadly only enjoyed retirement for about 2.5 years until he died at 72. My mom outlived him by 20 years. She never worked for money after his death, but did a ton of volunteer work.

I worked summers from age 14 and my full time job out of college with Megacorp lasted 39 years. It was a piece of cake compared to what my parents went through . They both died before I retired, but they would have been very happy that I was able to.

 

[Bamaman]

MegaCorp overreacted to the 2008 market crash and retired all employees 55 and older. Best thing to happen to me at age 58 1/2 after working 36 1/2 years. And they paid out the nose to get rid of us.

My father worked 39 years at our power company in personnel, and he retired at age 59. He jokingly said ER came because the largest coal fired steam plant in the world kept having boiler failures. He would have to come up with 450 union workers (steamfitters and boilermakers) in 3 days to start 6 month repairs. He lived 28 great years after retirement but diabetes put him into renal failure and 4 years on hemodialysis.

 

[brett]

My father retired at 58/59. He was in poor health. He had been off work for five months. On his first or second day back his VP asked him how he was. My dad said he was ready to go.

His boss said go home, six leave for six months. Then co e back and we will give you a medical pension. 35 plus years.

He moved to the west coast. 18 holes of golf three times a week. His health improved overnight. Lived to 87...never spent one day in a care home.

Oddly enough, I retired at the same age.

 

[Venturer]

My Dad retired at 62 as supervisor of maintence then would be called often to "help diagnose" problems at said plant for a "hefty" fee. He also had a portable welder on his truck and expanded his shop after that and would do contract welding as his hobby. When he died at 74 at his visitation most of the great comments revolved around his skills that way,and it seemed like the whole town came by. The minister said that he was of the opinion that Jr. could have "welded anything but a broken heart". My mother retired at 57 after her 1st bout with cancer,which she went on to beat it 3 times until it finally beat her at age 68. I am now the same age as my mother was and 6 years younger than my father was. Both sets of grandparents passed away in their mid to late 70's so I may have a few years left. When it does come my time their isn't much I can do about it so I'm just living my life as well as possible for the time I have left.

 

[Venturer]

My Dad retired at 62 as supervisor of maintence then would be called often to "help diagnose" problems at said plant for a "hefty" fee. He also had a portable welder on his truck and expanded his shop after that and would do contract welding as his hobby. When he died at 74 at his visitation most of the great comments revolved around his skills that way,and it seemed like the whole town came by. The minister said that he was of the opinion that Jr. could have "welded anything but a broken heart". My mother retired at 57 after her 1st bout with cancer,which she went on to beat it 3 times until it finally beat her at age 68. I am now the same age as my mother was and 6 years younger than my father was. Both sets of grandparents passed away in their mid to late 70's so I may have a few years left. When it does come my time their isn't much I can do about it so I'm just living my life as well as possible for the time I have left.

I hope I didn't sound to morbid but reading all these replies just got me to thinking about my life in general. Thanks to all for so many differant subjects in this forum.

 

[scrabbler1]

My dad worked from the early 1950s until he retired in 1994 at age 63. He was on the verge of being sent to Korea in the early 1950s but his boss was able to convince the Navy folks his work was vital to the war effort (his employer produced goods for the Defense Department), so he was discharged and sent back home to continue his work as a tool and die designer. He just turned 90 last month.

My mom was in and out of the workforce over my lifetime, working off and on in the textile industry as a clothing designer through the early 1980s, sometimes working at the plant, sometimes freelance, working from home in her own design studio. But the textile industry was moving overseas to Hong Kong where the labor was cheaper, and her design work dried up. She smartly retooled, taking a 9-month course at a local trade school to design electronic circuit boards . She re-entered the workforce in 1984 and kept working until 1991, when she was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. She went out on disability and fought her illness valiantly before passing away in 1995 at age 59.

 

[pacergal]

Dad was a farm boy, so he worked in some capacity from about the time he could walk! After his time in the Army, he and Mom married and moved.
Mom was SAHM until I was about 4th grade, then she went back to school, got her degree and worked until age 58. Dad retired several years later at age 65.
Mom died age 79, Dad 86.

 

[skyking1]

Mom was 59, Dad retired at 60. She lived many years after but dad was gone in 3 due to a bad heart. He died in my arms when we were out shopping, and that as much as any other thing has driven me to retire sooner than later.

 

[NateW]

My dad was a college professor and geneticist. He unwillingly retired at age 51 (this put his working career at about 24 years) following admission to the hospital for a biopsy of a suspected brain tumor.

I was in my mid 20s and visiting my mother Christmas week in Tucson, AZ (my parents just separated) when he got the bad news from his neurologist. The previous week my dad saw the neurologist who sent him for brain imaging. The week before that he complained of headaches and had a metallic taste in his mouth and was just not himself.

Mother and I flew back home to the east coast on Christmas Day. The next day Dad had the biopsy performed. After reviewing the biopsy and additional imaging reports, the hospital neurosurgeon took my mother and me into one of the little family meeting rooms at the end of the hallway in the surgical ward and said my dad had an inoperable geoblastoma multiform about the size of a large lemon and added my dad had 6 months to a year to live. That was the shock of my life. With radiation therapy, rudimentary chemotherapy and palliative care he lived 5 years with mother and I caring for him. He was kind of ok at first but things gradually got worse and the last two month of his life were pure hell that I would not wish on my worst enemy. Unfortunately, almost no progress has been made over the last 40 years towards a cure of this type of cancer.

What my dad went through made me realize how fragile and uncertain life is and I believe unconsciously, my motivator to ER.

My mother worked on and off as a research assistant for my father and after his illness got her teaching masters and became a highschool teacher to support herself. She retired at 62, having had enough of wo*k. Although she made some wise investments with Dad's $50,000 life insurance proceeds, she subsisted on SS, my dad's small pension, and a small teacher's pension.