do what you have to do

My mother wanted to be a nurse when she was a kid. She shared that with me once. I think my mother would have a been a great nurse.  It was just her nature.  When you are a kid the world seems simple.  If you want to be something, you just go to school and learn about it.  Then you can graduate and work in that career.  That sounds simple.  But life does not always work out so simply.  

My mom married my dad and left the world she knew behind in California. She had no family support in Texas.  I'm sure that was hard.  I think my mom resented my dad in a way.  She loved him and she wanted to be married, but he kept her in a limited life.  He only wanted a wife. He never asked her what she wanted out of her life.  He expected her to raise the kids and take care of the house.  That is what she did.  She only had a high school education and lived in a small town with little job opportunities. During hard times my mom would work to bring in more money.  She had dreams of her own, but she put them aside.  She was a married woman, not a career woman. She quickly found herself raising small children.  That included me.

 She took what ever minimal job she could get.  She worked as a cook, as a cleaning lady and had previously worked at a shop that overhauled electric motors for use in the oilfield. Imagine, my mom working in a motor shop. These were not gasoline motors. They were large electric motors used in the oil field.  The large motors are driven by electric current.   The motor contains magnets and a copper coil that turns a central shaft.  The electricity passes through the coils, the magnets begin to spin and rotate the shaft.  This shaft is connected by belts to a pulley that pumps the oil pump. The large motors are quite heavy and are incased inside of heavy die cast shells.  The motors are bolted to a frame that makes the oil pump one “unit”.  The term “unit” is apart of oil field vernacular.   

The motors would burn out and have remanufactured.  This included re winding a new coil in side the motor.  That is what motor shop did.  They would remove the burned out copper and reset the magnets and rebuild he motor.   It could be steady work for those who wanted to do it.  The shop was owned by a neighbor friend of my dad.  It was little more than a empty store front in down town Electra.  It had large bare windows. The windows were cracked and held together with tape so the window would not shatter.  The building was bare inside.  The walls were peeling paint and the concrete floor  were bare from the removal of the linoleum tiles. There was a pair of large doors that lead to the street side.   There was little fear of theft in Electra.  If some one was to steal and old motor, what would they do with the heavy thing?  If they tried to resell it, everyone would know where it came from. Plus most of the old motors inside the shop where useless until they had been rebuilt. They offered her the job, but it would be hard, dirty work.   My mom was willing to do anything for a paycheck.  She shared the philosophy of most parents: do whatever you have to do.  

It was a labor job but my mom was no stranger to hard work. She learned quickly and tried hard.  Mom only worked there for a short time, I think because the men in the shop made it hard on her and one man tried to make a pass at her. 

I wish Mom was still around to ask her more questions about her about her life.  I can only talk about the things that I remember her telling me.  I try to remember this story an inspiration.  Espeically when I face my own obstacles and I have to "do what I have to do" in my life.