The job at the grocery store continued to go very well. It was a neighborhood grocery and Mr. and Mrs. Moore were great to work for. We had a butcher, stocker, myself and Mr Moore who ran the operation. I did all the deliveries and collecting initially but later, i got out of doing all the deliveries. When i started to work there, i did not know how to drive. There was a fellow that had worked there and just prior to leaving taught taught me how. His name was James Smith and wore glasses as thick as the bottom of coke bottles. While teaching me he would stop sometimes in the middle of a block and i would ask if this was where a customer lived and he would say no its a stop sign. I don't know how he made it but in those days there was not much traffic. One of our customers who lived by the store worked at the city hall and she got my driver's license for me so i didn't have to pass any test etc. Mr Moore bought a new Studebaker truck and i really enjoyed driving it.
Our butcher, Harold Franks ask me to go with him to join the National Guard. I agreed and we went to Camp Robinson and took our physical. He was not accepted due to high blood pressure but i passed ok. I was assigned to Ambulance Company of the 125th Medical batallion as a cook. My mos. number from the Army classified me as a Baker. The unit was a part of the 39th Division. Everything went fine and i made the summer encampments and drills which afforded some extra income. I had moved up from cook to Mess Sgt.
The problem with my service came in the mid 50's when Mr Moore told me one day that he was having to give his Son In Law a job and would not be able to keep me on. His Daughter and Son In Law was having to drop out of College and needed work. He told me to start looking for another job but i would have 2 or 3 more weeks of work. I started looking and every contact i would make i would be told that because i was in the Guard and the Korean War was going on, there was too much danger of being called into active service. Needless to say, after leaving the store and no income was making life difficult. Thanks to my wife's parents we did not go hungry and they were most supportive. They had purchased a home out in the area called Sherwood and we had moved into it. It was November, 1050 when i answered an ad in the paper for workers needed at The Visking Corp. in North Little Rock. Visking had opened the plant in 1947 and was making non woven fabrics from fibers and cellulose. I went to the plant and was interviewed by the Personnel Manager, Bob Weathers. Again i got the same story that it cost too much to train someone and then for them to be called into military service. ( To be continued)