As I was growing up, I made money on my own. From very early on, I've been a hustler...in a good sense. I classify students into three categories: a small group of students that no matter what anyone does, those students have already made a decision that they're not going to make it in school and they're going to do their thing and they're going to drop out of school. They've already made the decision as early as middle school in some cases that school is not going to be part of their lives. Then you have a large group where most students are. They're sitting on the fence and depending on which way the wind is blowing or which way the help is coming that's the direction they go into. And then you have the other small group composed of those students that no matter what happens to them, no matter what anyone does to them, those students are going to make it, one way or another. They're going to fall on their faces 20,000 times, and 20,000 times, they're going to get up. And they're going to make it. I fell into that group.
As early as eight years old, I was looking for ways to make money. And as early as eight years old, I used to go a campo [country] (Spanish) and pick blueberries in Jersey. I don't know how many of you have picked blueberries. I'm not ashamed to say it. I picked blueberries, I used to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to be at the bus stop by 5 to be in the field by 6. And I picked tomatoes, peaches, cucumbers, strawberries, potatoes, I picked them all. That was during the summertime.
I'm kind of an expert on blueberries. There are regular blueberries and Jersey blueberries. Jersey blueberries are big and the plant is small; regular blueberries are small and the plant is big. There would be rows maybe two, three blocks long. A picker would get a can, tie it around his waist, and work down a row, just pluck the blueberries off the plant into the can. Once it was filled, he would go to the crate which had 12 pints, and empty it there. Once a tray is filled, he would go to either the truck or to where ever, hand in the crate, and get a ticket. One ticket was worth a crate.
During the wintertime, I worked in a shoe store, I worked in a grocery store, I worked in a warehouse. I used to shoeshine, I used to have my shoeshine box and I had my own corner, the right corner now, not the wrong corner. One time when I couldn't find a job, I said to myself, how can I make money? There was nothing coming in, and I was sitting on the steps of the house wondering. Three doors to my left there was a church, the church that I used to go to. You know, when people go to church, or Sunday school, and they come out, they're hungry. I went upstairs and said, "Mom, I need a dollar." She said, " I don't have it." I said, "Can you lend me a dollar? I promise that I will pay it back." OK, she gave me a dollar and I went and I bought a jar of corn and oil and a stack of one-pound paper brown bags. And I got an empty box, a cardboard box, came back home and said, "Mom, give me the biggest pot you have." She gave me the pot, I threw the corn in there and I made popcorn. And I timed myself as to when the service, and Sunday school would be over. I filled up the bags with nice hot popcorn and salt, and I stood outside the church. I never saw popcorn go so fast. I said, "This is a good business." I started doing that on a regular basis and earned some money. The family wasn't doing that well then. It was a way of my helping out. Every time I got paid, a certain amount went to Mom for expenses and some went to the side for me.
After that, I started working in a hardware store; and I worked there
for about 26 years. I know the hardware business inside out.
