We’ve talked a good bit about my volunteering.
Right.
And most of it was in two categories.
Like?
Well, it was civil rights in the 1960s and into the Seventies. Then it was the public schools in the 1970s and into the Eighties.
Okay.
And then it became senior-citizen issues in the Eighties and beyond.
So I’ll talk about that now.
Fine.
First, let me point out that Westinghouse did me a big favor. Remember how I went from Westinghouse-Newark to the Army and then to Westinghouse-Baltimore?
Right.
Well, the corporation considered all that as years spent working for Westinghouse. Even the Army years.
Great.
It helped because at Baltimore they had an early-retirement offer. If I had at least 30 years with the company I could take early retirement at age 58. And when I reached 58 I had 36 years. So, what should I do?
I decided to take then up on the offer. I figured that time was more important to me than the added income would be. And that eventually proved to be true.
It happened that I had joined AARP shortly after turning 50.
While many people join the organization for the benefits, I was looking forward to volunteering with them.
I learned of a local chapter by way of press releases I saw in the paper.
But the chapter met during the day, so I couldn’t join until I retired. I retired in August, attended my first chapter meeting in September, and joined on the spot. That was 1988.
So that was your involvement after retirement. AARP?
That was the start of it. I later got involved with other senior-citizen organizations. But we’ll get to that in time.
Okay.