Well, lemme see. . . .

I worked one summer (1953) for Boeing as a draftsman trainee, then the following summer for a picture framer (grunt work:   sanding and painting frames, washing glass, etc.), then I worked for a few weeks selling newspaper advertising (hated that job, but I earned enough money to buy my first Martin guitar). All of this time, I'm going to the University of Washington, studying English Lit and Creative Writing.

In the mid-1950s, I had been singing around a bit, and several people prevailed upon me to start teaching guitar (the blind leading the blind at first, but one can really learn a lot by trying to teach!). Also, about this time, I decided to try to make a career of singing. I returned to the U. of W. and changed my major to Music. This was fairly good timing, because within a couple of years, folk music suddenly burst onto the pop music scene (after having gurgled around in the background for who knows how long?), coffeehouses opened up everywhere, and I got tapped to do a television series. Off and running!

In the mid-60s, the nature of the folk scene had changed greatly (traditional was out, singer-songwriter was in), the British Invasion swamped out the pop-folk scene, and coffeehouses and clubs featuring folk started closing or hiring other musicians.

I went back to Boeing in 1966. Got caught in the big lay-off in 1971 (Boeing failed to get a couple of government contracts they were whining and barking for). But fortunately, after working at "the Lazy B" for about six months, I knew I didn't want to work there for the rest of my life. I took some broadcast training and stepped right out of Boeing into a job as a radio announcer. Over the next eight years, I worked in a number of stations:   two "elevator music" stations (I was news director at one of them), at a rocker (as a "rock-jock!??), as a traffic reporter ("Traffic backed up as far north as the ship-canal bridge due to a disable vehicle on the Mercer off-ramp"), and at two classical music stations (I could pronounce names like "Mstislav Rostropovich" without chipping a tooth). The stations kept changing personnel, and when I griped about this to an old-time radio announcer, he said, "If the ratings aren't as high as they would like them to be—and they never are—more often than not, they figure they need to change the on-the-air staff and get new voices. Whenever you go to work at a new station, you need to do two things:   update your résumé and keep your bags packed!" I love the work, but I hated the insecurity. I really wanted to go to work for my local NPR affiliate, but their on-the-air staff liked it there and refused to move on.

So I got talked into going to work at the telephone company as an operator (from broadcasting to narrowcasting). Reasonably good pay, good bennies, pleasant physical surroundings (carpets, rubber tree plant in the corner), but God, I hated that job! For reasons it would take to long to go into here. Ma Bell went through an identity crisis, couldn't figure out if she was Pacific Northwest Bell, AT&T, U. S. West, AT&T again, Qwest, or once again, back to AT&T. A whole slug of operators and other employees got either fired for trumped-up reasons or laid off during this aberration (mid-1980s). The union (Communications Workers of America) got us a halfway decent settlement from the company—whatever it was calling itself by then—and I was quite happy to be out of there!

In '86, I went to work as a technical writer for a firm that was doing residential weatherization inspections for the Bonneville Power Administration. Good job! I enjoyed that one. But in late 1988, BPA didn't renew the firm's contract, so writers and inspectors got laid off.

While all the above was going on, I was singing at folk festivals and doing occasional concerts.

I thought about looking for another job, then assessed my financial situation, did a little arithmetic, noted that I wasn't rich, but I wasn't busted either. So I said, "Screw that!" and decided to retire. I am now doing a lot of writing, practicing the guitar, singing, learning new songs, doing a little guitar teaching. Bob (Deckman) Nelson and I are planning to do a sort of "reunion" concert this coming fall. I'm also planning on doing some recording. Never done that. Always wanted to get some stuff on wax. Or vinyl. Or plastic, or whatever CDs are made of.

Well, you did ask. . . .

Don Firth