Unemployed?

 

Mom/Margie remembers: He worked there when I was in elementary school and we lived in Murray. At at the first of the year, in the lower grades, the teacher had each student stand and tell what their father did for a living. I would say that my Dad worked at the "Unemployment Office." They probably thought, "poor kid, her Dad is out of work!"

While Grandma Rex did have to rely on unemployment for a time (as many did in the Depression days) as the newspaper article above shows, he did actually WORK for the government in the unemployment office. Here are a couple of excerpts from his history. It was December 1940 and the young couple, with a baby girl (Nelva), had moved back to Mt. Pleasant, parking their little trailer house at Rex's parent's home.

I started drawing my unemployment checks and did some trapping of muskrats. After exhausting my unemployment benefits and still no job, I decided to go to Salt Lake and look for work. I had become acquainted with the Morrison-Merrill Lumber Co (while working with the construction company). They had once told me that if I ever needed a favor to let them know. So I went to see them and informed them that I needed a job. They asked how soon I could start and I told them at once. I went to work that day and was assigned to work in the storage yard unloading the lumber from the railroad cars. A short time later, I was told to spend my time loading the customer’s trucks. Four months later I received a letter offering me a job with the Dept. of Employment Security as a Junior Clerk. It paid $80.00 a month, which was $20.00 less than I was getting. I talked it over with the lumber co., and they suggested since it was more in line with the work I was interested in, to take it and they would hold my job for me if I wasn’t satisfied. I started working for the Dept. of Employment Security on August 26, 1941. My first assignment was in the Fiscal Department stockroom as the mail boy. In a few months, I was transferred to the Claim Section. There I moved up to Intermediate Claims Examiner and on to Senior Claims Examiner. The war, by that time, had reduced the unemployment to a low number. So they asked if any of us knew how to use a typewriter, and I told them I could. They then transferred me to the Statistical Unit as a relief operator on a key punch machine.

Then World War II was in full swing, and Grandpa Rex was drafted into the army. He moved his family back to Mount Pleasant so Zada could be near the inlaws ... another baby girl (Margie) had been added to the family, and a little boy (Merrill) was on the way. After fulfilling his service for about two years, Rex was able to come home.

On January 2, 1946, I went to Salt Lake City and back to work at my old job. At the time of my retirement, which was the age of 60, I had the classification of Computer Operation Supervisor at the salary of approximately $21,000.00 a year. I was credited with thirty-four years and eleven months of service, getting credit for seven months of unused sick leave. I was able to retire for $975.17 a month for life with a guarantee of ten years to be paid to my survivors in case of my death. With about $24,000.00 paid up life insurance until age sixty-five, then going down to about 2% a month until it reaches about $8,000. Upon my retirement, the office and my fellow co-workers gave me a nice dinner and gift of golf clubs, bag, card and golf balls. I tried playing, but I am not too good at it – someday maybe?