b"retirement. This job was killing me. I used to come home some nights; my whole body was hurting. I said: I'm not goingback to that environment after double hip replacement surgery. The floors in the jail are concrete and the worst thing inthe world is to stand eight to 10 hours a day standing on concrete.You also have to be careful of slipping when the floor is wet. I fell a few timeDo you remember what your starting salary was when you began?That first year, maybe I made $25,000, the first full year.What were you making when you retired?When I retired, maybe I was making $30. $30,000. It may have been a little more. The boss of the cooks, she didn'tlike us, so she didn't want us to make any money.Did you get any promotions?We did, but it was flawed, it was more cronyism than anything else. The people who were promoted got laid offwhen they consolidated all those kitchens. They let them go and they wouldn't let them go back to the old title. I saw a lotof people lose their job that had more time in the job than me. They said if you weren't in that title for five years, you hadno seniority. I'd already been in the department for over 10 years. If I had moved up, I would have lost my job. Peoplewere very bitter. A number of people lost their homes. The union wasn't able to do anything about it?The union couldn't do anything.What does it mean to you to be a union member now that you've retired?Now that I've retired, the union is a fun place to be. I like coming down here. One of the reasons I like coming downhere is I went to high school around the corner on 13 Street. I went to Food Maritime [theFoodand MaritimeTrades VocationalHigh School.] When I come down to this area, it makes me feel young again. It brings back a lot of memories,makes me feel good to come down here.I attend the retirement meetings, the classes. I come to the jazz class, photography, the political class, tai chi. It'ssomething to do and a lot of other unions don't have this. I've been speaking to other people who I know who retired.Their union doesn't do this for them. I bring my brother down here. He was a corrections officer, but his union doesn't doanything like this. You get out of the house; it gives you something to do. One thing you notice thats different from working is you always had somebody else to talk to. The biggest thing with retirement is I dont have anybody to talk to.Working for Correction, you're around people all the time, theres always somebody to talk to. It's not a good thing to bedisgruntled on your job. You don't have to like it, but you need it, so make it work. Even with the inmates, a lot used tolove to work for me. I spoke to them, I interacted with them. We all did our dirt in life, but I didn't get caught. Id say thatmaybe I know how to run just that little bit faster than you and they caught you.Some of them laugh, some didn't: Youknow something Hepbourn? You're right. Growing up, we all did stuff that we weren't supposed to. Some of our friendsgot caught. You got to know when to stop because if you keep on, you know what's going to happen. 182 "