White Privilege

White Privilege: Having it easier due to skin color.

My early work life: After graduating high school, I got a job working in a machine shop assembling check-valves for oil and gas. It was June 1961 and the building was a metal building. The equipment I was working with was next to the welding and heat testing equipment, it was about 100 in the mornings and close to 120-125 by late afternoon. The only relief was at lunch laying under a shade tree. I assembled the valves and tested them under heat and then put them in an old coke box with ice water to test the cold. My hands ached from the cuts and constant griping and tightening of the valves. I was happy to get the job making $1.00 per hour and counting the days to when I could quit and start classes at U of H – I was going to be an architect and make lots of money. I did not miss a day of work because I needed every $8.00 (before taxes) I could get for school. I had saved enough for my classes and books and I work part-time at service stations doing mechanic work to pay for meals and dating. I borrowed $200 from my dad for some expenses for the second semester with long lab classes for engineering drawing. I continued part-time work, sometimes late hours. After completing my first year of college, I got another summer job hoping to earn enough for the next year of college.

I started working for Gulf Oil in June 1962 working in the mail room for $230 per month – just over $1.32 per hour. The work was a lot better than the summer before and the chance to work for a very large corporation at 19 even impressed my dad, not that he would tell me. They had a program where they developed their employees for other positions based on their work habits and abilities. They gave tests for various openings as they came up to those employees they believed might be a fit. I took a logic aptitude test that turned out to be for an opening in EDP (Electronic Data Processing). With the job at Gulf working out, I decided to keep my job and take classes at night at U of H. Part of my new job was driving to the Port Arthur Refinery and Cedar Bayou Petro-Chemical Plant on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. On those days (before there was an I-10) I would leave the downtown Houston office at about 5:00a.m., make my first drop-off at Cedar Bayou and then get to Port Arthur by 7:00a.m. While there, on paydays I delivered the checks to the various banks in Port Arthur and neighboring towns for the refinery employees. While in the office, I took self-study courses in FORTRAN and helped the Engineers with tasks and calculations. There was an IBM 1401 onsite and a FORTRAN Compiler where I learned some FORTRAN and some SPS Programming. I would leave Port Arthur at about 4:30 – 5:00p.m. unless some Engineers were coming to Houston for the weekend to do system testing. They would either send their stuff with me or ride to Houston with me. Those days were long – starting at about 4:30a.m. and getting back at 6:30-7:30p.m. My classes were Tuesday and Thursday nights with classes over after 9:00p.m. and then driving across town to get home. During Month-end closing processing, I worked Saturdays and Sundays as scheduled by my boss. Eva and I got engaged on Valentine’s Day in 1964, with the Vietnam War and a lot of the guys from high school going there, we decided to get married in March 1964. With both of us working we did not have much time for socializing. The overtime pay at Gulf paid for a lot of our expenses and that was good because neither my wife nor I had much when we got married.

In June 1964, I quit my job at Gulf Oil and started work at NASA in Computer Operations in Building 12 working on a brand new IBM System nick-named the Klunge System (IBM 7044/IBM7094II computers directly coupled). The first high-powered scientific computer system that handled the input (cards and/or tapes), processing, and output of reports on high-speed printers. Staring as a beginner when this whole process was being developed gave me a chance to work hard and long hours to prove I could learn quickly and contribute. I ended up writing the procedures for cold-starting and warm-starting the system and the trouble-shooting of some system hang-ups. At the end of 6 months at NASA, I was given a promotion to manage the computer center on the 3^rd floor in Building 30 (same building as RTTC Mission Control). For much of the next 18 months, I worked 16-18 hours a day – 7 days a week for months without a day off. I supervised the operations for the 3 computers 24/7, working 2^nd and 3^rd shifts and overlapping the day shift mornings and evenings. I was living 49 miles from NASA and driving back and forth every day. I trained about 20-25 operators during those 18 months, many of them getting jobs a short time later in Houston due to more companies getting mainframe computers and needing operators. The work was stressful at NASA – no room for errors with lives at stake. Working under ZERO-DEFECT rules, an employee could get a 5-cent increase every 30 days that they went without making any mistakes. Under the government contract – the first 40 hours were straight time pay, hours over 40 kicked into 1 ½ time pay, work on the 6^th day of the work week was 1 ½ pay, and work on the 7^th day of the work week was 2-time pay. My wife and I had no married life during those years; however, I saved enough money from all of that over time that we were able to buy a couple of lots and we built our first home, moving in on Christmas Eve 1965 at age 22.

I am sorry, but none of what I have described was due to White Privilege. It was hard work, the grace of God, and never giving up no matter how tired or stressed out I got. I could share what others did or did not do with the same opportunity but that does not matter. Much more to the story in other posts.