My Joe of All Trades

My husband, Joe, has had a very interesting career background. Early on he was in the Air Force, a milk man, the Orkin Man, he worked on the toll road, was a truck driver and several other jobs. He tells me that when his first little boy was born...he realized that he had to get serious and learn a trade. He felt the responsibility on his shoulders to take care of his growing family and wanted to give them the best life he could. He decided to take a job as an apprentice meat cutter. This led to his working in the meat department at the Jewel food stores. Later on his uncle opened a supper club- bowling alley in Elgin, Illinois. It was called Frontier Lanes. Joe went into a partnership with his uncle at that time. They built the business together and were very successful. After working at this business...he became disillusioned and felt that there was more to life than working at this, sometimes, dangerous job. He went to Albuquerque to visit family and on the way back, driving alone, he asked himself..."What do I really want to do." It came to him out of the blue...he wanted to be a doctor. Thinking about it for a long while...he realized that he was too old to start the education that a doctor had to have. The next best thing was to become a registered nurse. So, at the age of 42...he went to college and studied to become a nurse. Now, as you can see...Joe is a big guy...and in those days male nurses were few and far between. Patients later looked at him and some said he looked more like a truck driver than a nurse. He was in classes with all women. They were mostly young girls and didn't have the life experiences that Joe had. He found that he loved learning. He excelled in his classes and became a favorite study partner for the other students. He graduated from college with a 3.8 grade point average out of a 4.0. His nursing jobs were  fascinating to him.At the end of his career he was the night nursing supervisor for Elgin Mental Health Hospital. He was in charge of the whole hospital...an 800 bed hospital with 250 employees.He retired at the age of 58. When I met him...I have to say that I was fascinated in his life story...going from a kid who dropped out of school to join the Air Force to  going back to school at the age of 42.
Well, he hasn't lost his skills as a meat cutter. Yesterday found us in the kitchen with two pork shoulders and a whole pork loin to cut up into different cuts of meat. The above pictures show him with his saw...making me butterfly chops, sirloin chops, chops for stuffing and several roasts, .......he can give medical advise and keep our freezer full at the same time.His hobbies are singing and woodworking....an all around Joe of all trades.
Balisha