Brewer Chronicles - HOISTING MY ANCHOR




I started hauling my anchor soon after graduating from high school. I had gone to Cincinnati to test for an engineering apprenticeship program for General Electric Jet Engine Division. I did well on the tests and interview and was notified that I would be starting work and school at the University of Cincinnati in the fall.

In the interim, I got a job at Travelers electronics factory in Orleans. Those that had a privilege of working there in the summer of 1961 will attest to the ‘sweat shop’ description. I commuted and worked with some great people, but frankly management was challenging.

I married my high school sweetheart, Charlotte, at the end of June (the absolutely best decision in my life), and we moved into an upstairs apartment on the southwest corner of the square. I think Dave Ramsey established a lot of his ideas from our lifestyle at that time. Fried baloney gravy was breakfast, and cheap meat with a vegetable (usually donated) fed us the other meals.

After being laid off at Travelers, I went to work at Midwest Natural Gas (laying neighborhood residential gas lines).  A part time job at Fisher’s Texaco at 60 and South Main helped also (he worked there when the weather was bad). Mr. Fisher also paid me to help with his crops at the south edge of town. Basically, when the weather was nice, I had three jobs. When it rained, I had NO job. We seemed to have an unusually wet summer and fall.

Due to the economy and military procurement decisions, my apprenticeship kept getting delayed. Compounding the situation, my wife was pregnant. As the winter approached, my opportunities to work were diminishing. I opted to join the Air Force.

We stayed at the farm the night before I went to New Albany to test and take my physical. We had to leave VERY early to be there before 6 AM. Mom was going with us, but Dad was still in bed.  It was time to say goodbye.

The parting hour had come. It was in that tense hour that a certain timid, proud, half defiant farm boy discovered his Dad – realized fully for the first time the friend he was leaving behind!

Hand met hand, a smooth soft one in a great calloused one. There was a grip that was different; there was a look that I had never noticed in those gray eyes before-  a yearning that I did not understand then, because I had yet to become a father. Then he said with a bit of a quaver in his voice that I had never heard there before as he thrust a little some bills into my hand. There was a tight little squeeze, a trace of a tear that was quickly brushed away and then ‘man to man’ we understood each other. As I looked down into that face that day I noticed as I never had before the steel gray hair, the toil-bent shoulders, the majesty and quiet power of the man who for all the years of my youth had worked for me and fought for me and planned for me. This man had mentored me as best he knew to take my place in the world and to bear his name with honor. I stepped over that threshold into the next phase of my life.


It was a long day at the processing center. The tests were very easy (thanks to Walnut Grove and Salem High Schools). The physical was daunting (how many times do I have to ‘grab my ankles’?). Almost too quickly, I had passed and preparing to be sworn in at 6 PM. Everything around me was a swirling blur. Before I knew it, I was saying goodbye to my wife and mom while being rushed onto a bus. A short time later, I was herded onto a turboprop AIRPLANE (my first time) for a flight to Dallas. As I looked down at the disappearing lights of Louisville, I could feel my anchor totally weighed. I was underway.

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