I worked (court reporter) for a US District Court for thirty-six years. Finally I realized that it wasn't fun any more, so I took my (semi)retirement. Between Civil Service Retirement annuity and Social Security and my Beautiful Wife's Social Security, I figured we'd be all right financially.

But wait. I started working full time (as in 48 hours a week) when I was 13. There's no way I could sit on the front porch and twiddle my thumbs.

So I called a court reporting agency for whom I'd done a little pickup work from time to time, and asked:

"Marge, I'm going to retire from the court. Can you give me some work from time to time?"

"Sure, Dave. How much do you want to make?"

(Time for thought: At the time I could only earn $15,000 before my Social Security got cut back.)

"Oh, about $15,000," I replied.

"Sure, Dave, we can do that."

Only one problem there. I was talking about a ceiling; she was talking about a floor. So for some several years I worked a good deal more than I'd contemplated. Luckily, about that time the Social Security limitation on what I could earn was removed. I've been freelance reporting since, eleven years now.

So, taking the court job and freelance reporting together, it's about forty-seven years now.

Dave Oesterreich