b'Would you tell me what your starting salary was when you began working for the city as a school safetyagent? For our members who are starting out now, it\'s helpful to know how salary has changed over time.About $7,000. When you retired, you were a Level Three, you were a supervisor.Yes, I was a Level Three.What does it mean to you to be a union member?I don\'t think I appreciated being a union member when I was working. I appreciate it to a great extent because of thework that the union did and fought for us. But I think that the real proof of how effective and how good a union is, is whenI retired. With all of the pluses, bonuses and all of the things that retirees have, I had an ah-hah moment and said: "Ohmy God, this is what it means." When you are working in a union, you pay your dues. Now I\'m not paying any dues andthis is what I get. I get so much. When I retired, it was a big change from going to work every day, multitasking at highspeed. All the activities at the union really saved me from depression and being a shut-in.What have you really enjoyed doing that the union offers?The first thing I enjoyed was the tai chi and the other thing I really enjoyed was the theater.What did they offer through the theater?You go to a performance. You have different people who are in theater talk to you.I always like doing that and sothat was a plus to me. In photography, I learned how to use a camera and that was a plus. Tai chi was something that I didvery often. Then there were political discussionswhere you sit down and discuss things, but I didn\'t do that very much.Its great just to have the opportunity. Another thing is the trips they have for retirees.Travel?Yeah, we go to various places for the day. The one place that I loved was Mohonk Mountain House. When I was working, I used to go up there because I had friends that lived up there. It\'s such a beautiful location. I still love that place. We get to go to many places on the day trips.Well, we say you retire from work, but not from the union, right?Do you meet people that you knew from before? Have you met new people?I met new people. I said I would work with you on involving more people from school safety. They\'re not as active inthe retirees as the people from housing and hospital are.If you went to the borough meetings, you would probably see some people from school safetyOh really? I\'ll have to try to go there.158 '