Changing Careers and Loving It

on Christmas morning.

When customers ask how she made her pottery, Jenna gives them a quick demonstration and shows them the pottery wheel and the kilns in the back room.

Whenever her son and daughter visit, Jenna takes them to her combined store/studio and shows them her latest pieces. They remember when Jenna showed them how to do arts and crafts especially on cold, snowy days when school was closed. It was perfect for doing fun, creative projects. A doodler as far back as she can remember, even in elementary school, Jenna knew that her flair for artwork would be useful.

I like talking to Jenna about how she makes her wheel-thrown pottery then paints them according to her vision of the piece. What’s great is she dabbles in creating whimsical pieces of pottery. She fashions silly characters out of clay and gives them nicknames. Adults and kids alike enjoy seeing her creations and Jenna is pleased that she can channel her creative ideas.

Jenna always wanted to own a business and being a small business owner in her home town is working out great. Her husband helps her when he’s not working his full-time job and she’s happy to have him there.

My friend, Daniel, was getting closer to retirement but felt like he wanted to take on one more project before starting that next chapter of his life. He and friend Rick became partners in a bicycle shop and eventually hired two full-time employees to help out. They repair bikes, sell them and rent bikes to customers for a week at a time. Daniel is handy at doing the repair work and Rick likes doing the sales. Rick said that the accessories - the streamers, bells, mirrors and bags - are almost as popular as the colorful new bikes.

Daniel said one day a woman came into the shop saying she wanted her bicycle fixed for practical reasons and for sentimental reasons, too. Her bike was 60 years old and it needed a good tune-up. She was given the bike as a girl and she rode to and from school on it with a basket on the back. That basket held her books, her lunch and anything else she wanted to tote along. Years have passed since she was an elementary school student, but now that the woman has more time to ride it, she wants to do so. Daniel fixed it for her and she returned to the shop to give it a test ride. It rode great and she was so pleased with how it turned out.

Daniel and Rick were happy with their decision three years ago to become small business owners. They enjoy working with bicycles since it’s such a fun hobby and providing steady jobs to local residents is pretty cool, too.

Ever since childhood my friend, Fran, has loved animals. Her family had lots of cats and dogs over the years so it made sense to me when Fran said she was opening a dog and cat grooming shop. She hired two helpers and putting their shingle out, customers quickly started arriving.

When Fran sees the cats and dogs entering, she smiles and starts grooming and primping them. When she is finished and the animals look all spiffy, Fran pets them and shows them off when their owners come to pick them up.

Sadie, an Old English Sheepdog, goes to the groomer every couple of monthsSadie is shampooed, dried, brushed and gets her fur trimmed. Her summertime haircut keeps her cool. The cat lover among the group, Fran schedules eight cats in one day to be washed, brushed and have their nails trimmed. On those days no dogs are groomed.

Fran says she wished she had opened her pet grooming business years before but she’d had other jobs and the right time for that came when she was in her late 50s. Fran calls it her ideal job because she is in her element. She’s made a good choice!

BY TOM MARGENAU

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about the history of the Social Security number. I was surprised by the number of people who enjoyed it. And more than a few of you asked me for more columns with a historical bent, so I thought: Why not the history of Social Security itself?

As you might guess, there are more than a few books about the history of Social Security -- books that run to hundreds and even thousands of pages. So how am I going to squeeze that history into the relatively few words I get in this column? Oh well, I’ll try.

Most people recognize that the concept of a national social insurance system in America grew out of the economic crises that followed the Great Depression and out of the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president in 1932. His “New Deal” programs were enacted to help bring the country out of the economic depths of that time. And of course, Social Security was one of those programs.

But it’s not like the country was initially willing and eager to welcome this new kind of government-run old age pension system. And opposition didn’t just come from expected sources like conservative Republicans. Most employers and even many unions just didn’t trust the federal government to be able to finance and manage such a huge and comprehensive program.

Of course, many people were involved in making Social Security happen. But one often-overlooked person deserves a great deal of credit: Frances Perkins. She was FDR’s Secretary of Labor, and it was her perseverance and powers of persuasion with not only labor leaders, but also with members of Congress, that finally took Social Security off the planning table and onto the floors of Congress as actual legislation in January 1935.

But once there, the bill didn’t exactly breeze through Congress. In fact, on March 20, 1935, The New York Times ran a story headlined: “Hopes Are Fading for the Social Security Bill.” Then FDR stepped in. He called the leaders of Congress over to the White House and gave them a pep talk. Not long afterward, those members of Congress swallowed their doubts and passed the Social Security bill by a substantial 37233 margin.

Then the bill bogged down in the Senate with various members of the upper body trying to tack on amendments (such as making the program voluntary rather than compulsory). Eventually, all these issues were ironed out, the bill passed, and FDR signed the Social Security Act on Aug. 14, 1935. (And that means we are celebrating its 88th birthday!)

Speaking of that original Social Security law, many readers tell me that