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5
During the more than twenty-SIX years of retirement at the time of this writing, my income was supplemented by several part time jobs, one of which was at a local funeral home. When I worked for Customs, we did not earn Social Security. Since I wanted to earn Medicare, which was a part of Social Security, I spent five years working just one day a week at the Roel & Curry Funeral Home in Tampa. Later, l worked for about three years in the Pro-Shop of the Hall of Fame Golf Course located near Tampa Airport. The golf course was later closed to make room for the International Plaza Shopping Mall which is now located on the site of the old golf course.
CHAPTER FIVE
Trying to figure out what to do with my spare time and earn some extra cash, which was needed to provide a little better life for my family and me, did not pose too much of a problem. It seemed there was always something that an enterprising young man could do, and over the years it turned out that my various ventures did not really provide the funds to which I had aspired. It is true that I made a little money from my part time jobs, but not enough to have justified the labor involved, in many cases.
The first part time job I decided to try was that of repairing and installing doorbells. As a mail carrier, I came in contact with many notes placed on doorbell buttons stating “Out of Order”. Other delivery men, such as milk men, parcel delivery men, paper boys, etc., aided me in my search for these signs, and as a reward for their tips, they received a portion of the proceeds, but only if I was successful in repairing those bells. It was cigarette money for them. In addition, I would pick up small appliances, such as lamps, toasters, etc., for repair.
Once I held five different jobs at one time. The first, of course, was my main job as a Mail Carrier. Secondly, I was a radio announcer at WQIK, a country and western station in Jacksonville, Florida. I opened the station by turning on the transmitter at four a.m. and going on the air at four fifteen a.m. I was supposed to be relieved at six a.m. by another announcer, but all too often he did not arrive until six fifteen a.m. or later. This presented a problem to me because I had to return home, change into my uniform, and report to work at the Post Office at seven a.m. I usually made it to work on time, but on a few occasions, I was a little late. The third job was that of repairing doorbells.
Fourth, I sold cemetery lots for a local cemetery. And fifth, I repaired the small appliances I had picked up during the day. This entailed many hours of my time, and provided me the opportunity to obtain just a few hours sleep each night.
My part time career as a radio announcer came after I applied for that position at a station, WJVB, located at Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
There I met Ted Uzzle, who was the program director at the station. He allowed me to tape a few commercials, and eventually led to me relieving the regular announcers when they were sick or on vacation. I did not receive any compensation for my efforts, except when I was relief announcer, and this lasted for about a year, but it allowed me to gain experience, and to get my foot in the door. Later, I received my first job as a paid announcer at another station. Since then I have worked at four or five radio stations, the longest at WQIK, where I worked for about five years. This was very enjoyable to me, and I did not consider it work, but more or less a hobby.
When I transferred to Customs in Miami, I went to work for a fifty thousand watt station named WMIE. However, very shortly thereafter, I was transferred to Tampa, and had to resign that job.
In Tampa, I worked a couple of years at WZST, also a country and western music station. Bear in mind that all of my radio work was on a part time basis. My work was performed while I was working in the Entry Division, but when I became an Inspector, working overtime, it was necessary to end my career in radio. However, the years I spent doing “my thing” are some of my favorite memories.
I mentioned previously that I had constructed crossword puzzles and they were printed in the “Jax Air News” at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville. After I retired from Customs, I developed a new form of crossword puzzle which also incorporated the feature found in the word puzzle called “Scramlets”. My puzzle was called “Category” and I constructed over fifty puzzles. Business card advertising was sold and placed alongside these puzzles, and then they were placed in doctor’s offices waiting rooms at no charge to them. Later I composed a message from the doctor, placed that doctor’s business card advertising thereon, and sold them to the doctors. They were designed to be a “quickie puzzle”, one which would not take too long to work. Each puzzle consisted of 7 X 13 squares, and contained certain squares in which letters to the “puzzle category” applied. After learning the “puzzle category” by working the puzzle correctly, certain designated letters within the puzzle pertaining to a definition of the puzzle category had to be re-arranged to determine the answer. As an example, a copy of one of my puzzles appears on the next page. Although the puzzle was unworked at publication, I have worked the copy of the puzzle in this book so that its format is plainly evident.
Once when my sister Margaret was visiting Inez and me in Tampa, we visited a music store in the Countryside Mall, and she more or less talked me into buying a pricey electronic organ. This was my third organ, and I had already taught myself to play it prior to this acquisition. I composed the music to four different songs, and the words to only one of them. Even though these songs have never been published, I believe that they are quite good, and I still have hopes of doing that some day.
After I retired in 1981, I wrote a family tree book titled “MacDonell / McDonell Family Tree”, which was my mother’s maiden name (MacDonell). This book, containing over 850 pages, was completed in 1988, and listed over one thousand names of my ancestors and descendants.
The format of this book did not follow the usual format of family records, but rather was based on a format devised by me in order that the reader could follow his line of descent more easily than the established method. In my opinion, this goal was accomplished, because I traced the lineage of each living member listed in the book, and showed therein that lineage. It made it considerably easier to determine the names of your ancestors and descendants. It was published and sold to fifty eight relatives who ordered it prior to its publication. The original book was published with a soft cover.
In 1999, I was informed of two new branches of the MacDonell family, and so I re-wrote the book to include these new members. The time involved in making this amendment was approximately another year and a half. The amended version was published in a hard cover edition, and another twenty eight copies were published, of which I still own three copies. Even after I published and distributed the amended version to its purchasers, I was told that there were others in the same branch who were not listed. They were not listed because I was not told about them. In order to include them, I put out an addendum of thirty-seven pages to the amended book, and sent copies to each purchaser of the amended book.
When I wrote the amended copy of the family tree book, I composed a poem to place within the pages thereof. It follows:
MY ROOTS
By Robert N. CRONK, Sr.
An acorn from an oak, grows into an oak,
A lamb from a sheep, grows into a sheep,
A person from a Saint, becomes a Saint,
But what am I to be?
I’ll be as strong as that old oak,
And meek, just like that sheep,
I’ll be good, yes, Saintly good,
Look at my FAMILY TREE.
MY ROOTS are healthy, firm and strong,
Ancestors, silently guiding me,
Urging me to do no wrong,
For they are me, and I am ye.
I wanted to compose something that would be apropos to the subject, or contents, of the book, and I thought that the above poem filled the bill nicely.
In 1990, when the Gulf War started, I decided to write a book of the events occurring daily. I actually started to write this book when I discovered that major changes were being made in Russia dealing with the break-up of the Soviet Union. Consequently, I switched over from the Gulf War to the events happening in Russia. It took me three years to complete this book of approximately 900 pages, consisting mainly of newspaper articles. It was titled “The Disintegration of the Soviet Union”, and I had three copies made with a hard back cover. I am still in possession of all three copies. This book was never published for sale to the public, because of the fees involved to the news syndicates to allow me to publish their property. These combined fees amounted to over $1,600.00, and I simply could not afford that., without having a ready made market.
Entering the Children’s Stories field, I attempted to write a children’s story about “The Jaybird Who Had Acrophobia”, and I wrote such a story in its entirety.
However, l have recently read the unpublished story and have determined that its word usage is too advanced for the audience to which it is directed, therefore I am going to re-write the story using more simple wordage. When I do this to my satisfaction, I hope that it will be possible to publish it. It will be absolutely necessary to greatly condense the story, and perhaps have graphic illustrations to enhance its effectiveness. At any rate, it is not acceptable in its present state.
Another story, started by me many years ago, has never been finished. Somehow, it was placed in hibernation never to be heard from again. I still have my manuscript of the portion of the story that was written, but I am afraid that it too must be edited. Perhaps I will try to finish it some day in the future. It is titled “Thornton’s Diner”, and in my opinion could very well be a success. Although it does not contain any objectionable language and only one or two references to sex, it might have a rough road to travel by today’s standards. I also hope to complete this book some day, if I don’t die first.
The book you are now reading, the Autobiography of Robert Norwood Cronk, Sr., is my third completed literary endeavor (completed in the year 2001). Since you have been reading this book, no further explanation is required to describe its contents. It will most likely not be offered for sale, but will probably be published at my own expense, and copies thereof distributed to my children and to a few other interested parties, such as my sister and to selected relatives and in-laws.
It seems that many times the Coca-Cola Company comes out with various contests advertised on the outside of their 12- pack cartons, almost one contest following another. Most people would be content to simply enter the contests and wait for the next one, but I am a little different. I convinced myself that I could devise a contest that would become one of the best offered. And so I set out to do it.
I came up with an idea which involved many winners, not just a few, and one that could be implemented countrywide. If desired, it could also be implemented regionally, in other words, say three or four different contests run simultaneously, conducted in various areas of the country. The name of the contest is “ELIMINATION” and involves the major league baseball teams. It is an elimination type contest. In each participating region, starting at the beginning of the season, 10,000 tickets, each listing the same two teams, one National League and the other American League, are printed on the inside of each 12-pack carton. Each 10,000 tickets would have a different combination, until all possible combinations are printed.
All cartons over the 10,000 for each two teams are marked “VOID - TRY AGAIN”. Customers finding tickets inside the 12-pack cartons which list two major league teams would retain them for possible prizes, and the “Void” tickets would be discarded.
The proposed winner’s list consists of the following:
Prize No. No. of Prizes Amount Total $ Per Prize
Grand - 1 - $ 250,000 - $ 250,000
1st - 2 - 50,000 - 100,000
2nd - 10 - 5,000 - 50,000
3rd - 25 - 1,000 - 25,000
4th - 50 - 500 - 25,000
5th - 100 - 100 - 10,000
6th - 9,812 - 25 - 245,300
____________
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY $ 705,300
There are 14 teams in the American League and 16 teams in the National League. In order to print 10,000 tickets of each possible combination, it would require a total of 2,240,000 tickets all across the United States. These possible winning combinations could be allotted, according to the population served, to each Coca-Cola bottler in the U. S., thereby affording everyone in the country an equal chance to find a possible winning ticket on the inside of their 12-pack carton. In addition, the high number of possible winners would be a definite advantage to the Coca-Cola Company by creating a tremendous amount of interest in the contest. All cartons not containing a possible winner would be marked “VOID - TRY AGAIN”, and discarded.
The object of the game is to end up with a winning combination of the two teams that would play in the World Series.
Every one of the 10,000 outstanding winning tickets across the country would be worth a minimum of $25.00 and the holders thereof would know it immediately upon completion of the Championship game for each of the leagues (American and National), that team going on to play in the World Series. The two teams listed on the winning tickets must represent the two teams playing in the World Series. It would make no difference who won the World Series, but only list the two competing teams. These would be the final winning tickets, and the only ones with a payoff.
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