Two for One Sale

Everyone in blogland is very lucky today. It's two for one for Joann's Blog Adventure entries. Someday, when I get some time, maybe I might even write ten blog entries in one day!

1. Treasures Found
My brother Jerry has Down's Syndrome, and he works at a sheltered workshop. Pleasantview Industries called today, and asked for his social security card. This required rooting through a lot of stuff.

Contrary to popular belief, I know where all the important papers in my office are. I went through all of them, to no avail. Then I went into Nadia's closet and went through some of my mother's papers that we've just stored up there.

Treasures Found in Mom's Papers:
10. Jerry's original hospital birth certificate (unfortunately doesn't work for I-9 purposes.)
9. A lovely picture of my parents and brother, at a happy time in mom's life.
8. A medal from my dad's service in the Navy.
7. My Dad's graduation certificate from Trade Tech, where he got his aircraft mechanic certification.
6. My Dad's diploma from Eastwood High School in Syracuse, NY.
5. A newspaper article on my Dad's mother, who was one of the first class of married women allowed to attend and graduate from nursing school.
4. An order form for a book on the Peruvian Japanese interned in WWII (this is how my family got from Peru to the U.S.).
3. My Dad's honorable discharge from the Navy. For some reason, my mother would keep this in her purse. She also had made about 6 copies of the discharge. She must have feared that they would order him back.
2. My Dad's "head shot" (a polaroid) and handwritten resume to a casting agent. He was in a United Airlines commercial in 1991, when they used real employees.
1. An 8x10 of my Dad and his bowling team in 1966.

I have already scrapbooked the resume/headshot and also the bowling team. I did a nice black and white vintage looking page for the bowling team, and got to write on both pages about some of the memories of my Dad. I feel like I got a little treasure, with so much memorabilia just waiting to be paired with pictures and scrapbooked! I am really excited and highly motivated to do some family history scrapping.

2. Jerry's New Job
The reason why the workshop called is because Jerry is going to get a new job "in the community." He currently works at Pleasantview doing assembly, folding, etc. He is able to work far above this level, but he has had some bad experiences with jobs.

When Jerry had just graduated from high school, my Dad had a friend who owned a restaurant. The friend thought that Jerry should be doing more than just staying home (good thought) and offered him a job hosting at the coffee shop. The family was thrilled. After about a month... Jerry was fired for continually hitting on the boss' wife.

When Jerry first started working in Torrance, he was in the mailroom at Mattel. This was a hard job. You had to deliver mail all over the Mattel campus, and it required heavy lifting of boxes, etc. He had recently come down with diabetes. After a month... he faked a fainting spell at work and was moved to another job. (He then started working with the Redondo Beach graffiti removal squad. During the two years he worked there, he referred to it was "confitti removal." He still hates to see bus benches with "confitti," checks underneath them for gum and shakes his head).

Jerry moved in with us when my parents died, and when we moved to Santa Clarita, Jerry started working at Pleasantview. This was far below his capabilities. After a while he got a chance to work "in the community," supervised by a job coach. He worked at AXO Industries (661), in shipping and receiving. He stole his job coach's lunch and denied it after being caught red handed. He stole $50 worth of candy bars from the box, and flushed the wrappers down the toilet so no one would find them. After a month... he was fired and back to Pleasantview.

At Pleasantview, Jerry would kindly go to get everyone's lunch on Fridays at Telly's hamburger stand. He would collect the orders, and the money, and go and get the food. It turns out that he would never have to pay for his own lunch. He would overcharge the rest of the developmentally disabled workers at the workshop so he got lunches free.

Now, two years later, Jerry is going out to the community again. This time he will be unleashed on Smart & Final. He'll be supervised by a job coach. Now, clearly Jerry is able to do the work. But I am a little worried. He's going to be around potato chips, soda, beer, and candy all day long. I certainly hope he doesn't gain 15 pounds, and Smart & Final find themselves short $1000 worth of merchandise his first month.

Well, they are going to order Jerry a new Social Security card, and then he'll start his new job... pray with me now!