Getting Educated

Since both Kathy and I had taken Child Development at Modesto Jr. College to get our Associate Degrees, I thought it would good career decision to open a Day Care center.  We looked around the various communities of San Diego County, and eventually and naively placed an offer to purchase a house in Lakeside, near an elementary school.  In my mind I worked through remodeling the house into a functioning Preschool.  But once we were in escrow, it became apparent that we were in no position to qualify for a loan even to purchase the house, let alone pay for the expenses to remodel. it  That experience ended poorly as we lost our $1000 earnest money and I ended up paying about a hundred dollars to an attorney in the ward to help get us off the hook.

Meanwhile I acquired a job at the LDS cannery / Bishop's Storehouse bundling newspapers which had been collected to be recycled.  I believe I was making $1.92 per hour.  Eventually I went back to work at Columbia Pest Control (where I had worked before my mission) where I was paid about $2.50 per hour to help tarp and sand bag houses for termite fumigation.  Howard Kent, a member of our ward while I was growing up as a teenager (he is about Melvin's age), was my supervisor.  It seemed that every day we had this conversation: "Dale, you need to find a job that will support a family.  You need to get a trade."  One day he suggested that I contact George Wimsatt, owner of Wimsatt Carpet in El Cajon, which handled the carpet installations for Sears.  Coincidentally, George Wimsatt had been my Scout Master during a part of my scouting years.  George Wimsatt told me to give my boss two weeks' notice, and then report to work.  I learned the trade of carpet installing.  I also learned to drive a forklift and work in his warehouse.  A part of the job involved taking out the old carpet.  And if it was a return-to-vendor, we would have to take out the carpet from the whole room in one piece, instead of cutting it in manageable strips like we would when we were gong to throw it away.  One day I strained my back as we removed a large living room of Axminster carpet.  I spent a month or so going in to physical therapy before work each day, or every other day.  That got me thinking about having a backup plan.  Kathy and I decided to go back to BYU and finish our Bachelor Degrees, in case I could no longer rely on using my muscle to earn a living.

At Brigham Young University I was able to work off all but the first month's rent by doing handyman work for the landlady.  I installed an asphalt (composition) shingle roof on one of her houses.  I re-tiled a shower, installed carpet and vinyl, etc.  I bought an old Ford van which I used to haul tools and things.

While in Provo I helped a local church member replace the carpet in one of the local chapels. This was back when the carpet was stretched over jute pad.  I acquired a carpet stretcher to be able to accomplish this project.

While finishing up my classes to get my Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, I was encouraged by a classmate to pursue an MBA degree.  He pointed out that many of the classes taken for the undergraduate business degree applied toward the MBA, so it could be accomplished in one more year.  So I applied and decided to go to Cal State LA.

That last summer in Provo, I worked for Allman Carpets, a carpet shop in American Fork, UT., before moving to Inglewood, CA where we lived in a "triplex" between our landlady and another LDS family.  It was about 10 miles from where Uncle Melvin lived.  Uncle Melvin decided to join me in the MBA adventure.  We would take the bus to Cal State LA a couple evenings each week for night classes.  The Allmans had a son who owned a carpet shop in Torrence, about half an hour drive south of Inglewood.  I managed to get work there.  I also did carpet repairs and replacements for one of my professors who had some apartments.  So we had some income while working on my MBA.  Kathy was also taking some graduate classes at Cal State LA.