“Well, I’m a Vietnam veteran. I was drafted into the Vietnam War, and I was a medical corpsman. And my career going through life was as an accountant. And now I’m retired. I work part-time for a senior community and recreation. And this is my little guy, Alfie. I adopted him from animal rescue.
My degree was in accounting. That was what I was the best in. I liked working with figures, and you know, math. Of course, when I went to school, nothing was automated. Everything was manual, so it was a different kind of accounting than what they do today. I just liked working – investigating, like auditing. I was an auditor in a lot of industries, and I was looking – I mean, we had a couple situations where there was some embezzlement, and I was involved with that: determining, or finding the person that had done it. I was in banking then. And I was a bank manager for a while. And an insurance manager. My last job was as a pension analyst with the grocery industry, and I was there 18 years.
I’m a recreation coordinator. I was just looking for part-time work, and somebody offered me a job there. So I went out and interviewed, and I liked the feel of the community. It’s beautiful in Mission Viejo – kinda like Orange, where you have lots of trees and people are friendly. It’s like a real close-knit community. Basically, I set up travel for the seniors, and then I’m in an office where I have to interview and issue passes for new people coming in and buying property. It’s a senior community where it’s all individual homes. It’s a gated community, and therefore, I interview the residents, be sure that they have all the accurate paperwork to live there, issue ID cards and decals for cars. I set up traveling. So I coordinate that. I do get to travel with them. We went to Disney Theater up in LA. We’ve gone to Welks Theater in San Diego. And Laughlin. Pageant of the Masters – it’s down in Laguna Beach. It’s a program that they do every year, with people that are modeling pictures. If you’ve never done that, you have to see it. It’s incredible.
They’re friendly, and they love what I do. I mean, I get hugs from people everyday. In addition to that, they’re always bringing me food. And like I said, they’re always telling me how great I am. Why leave? I get great Christmas gifts from everybody, and they make me homemade food all the time. They all have gardens out there, so I get tons of tomatoes and fresh fruit all the time to bring home. I went to French cooking school way back 30 or some years ago. I enjoy cooking, so I’m always cooking. Usually French food or Italian food. I mean, I don’t really have a preference – I’ll eat anything. I mean, when people say to me, ‘Where do you want to go eat?’ I don’t care because wherever we go, I’ll find something. I worked with a Japanese lady, and she always brings me Japanese food. She says I’m the only one who eats everything, and I do.
When I retired – I was retired for six months, and then went back to school just to keep myself busy. I took a couple classes just to keep myself busy. I took animal care, got certified in animal care. Took some additional classes in computers. I did volunteer work for animal rescue. Then, I realized that wasn’t enough. So, now I work three days a week at the senior community and one day at a law office.
My passion is my animals. I have two cats and a dog. They love me. I mean, they’re always there to greet me when I come home. In fact, probably, they’re better than some people: They don’t judge you, and they’re always loving. Alfie will be three years old Christmas day. He was born Christmas morning, and I adopted him from animal rescue. I fostered a cat, and after I started fostering it, I ended up getting attached to it. Alfie and the cat get along real well; they sleep together – with me, of course.
I’m pretty content. I own my condo here, and I’m in a real good position there. It’s almost paid off, and I’’m enjoying life. I have a lot of close friends that I meet in South Orange County, so I meet them. I’m pretty content. I’m in a happy spot. No stress. And I’m in a job where I love going to work every day. I always say, ‘Thank you, God, for finding this job for me.’ Now that I’m retired, I have social security, I have lifetime pension from my previous employer, and it’s like, if I don’t like something now, I just leave. It’s a different attitude now that you don’t have to work. And so, I go into work everyday loving it. If it gets to the point where it’s going to be stressful, then I’m gone. I’ll go somewhere else.”
Excerpt may be edited for clarity.