All my life there have been two jobs that have really appealed to me, being a cashier and working with computers!  Unfortunately, both jobs required a great amount of speed, which I don’t have, due to my disability!  Imagine my surprise when I found myself in a car with someone (who was going to help me get connected with a job coach and a job) asking me to make change to see how my change making skills were.  I could hardly believe it! I never dreamed I could even try to get a cashier job due to my disability! 

The next thing I knew, I was in a sheltered workshop for what, I think, originally was supposed to be a three-week cashiering evaluation.  A sheltered workshop is a place that hires people with disabilities.  The name of the one I went to was called ARC. 

I will never forget my first day giving it a try!  I was so slow; I needed one of those signs (you see at King’s Island) put up at the start of my line that reads “One hour wait from this point”, or maybe it would have been more accurate to have it read “Two hour wait from this point!”  I felt so very, very, slow! I sure didn’t think I was going to last at this job very long! 

I had a totally awesome, wonderful job coach.  He and I became great friends!  I would invite him to be my guest at the annual Christmas party they had for us every year to make sure we could stay in touch.  My job coach was really funny.   He was trying to help me learn the prices of items and I could tell he was just making up the price. He’s no longer with us, he died in 2014 of cancer.  I would like to take a moment to honor him!  He dedicated his life to helping disabled people!  He was my job coach, and he was a very good one, but he was also a dear friend!  I, and anybody else who had him for a job coach, were all very fortunate to have him! 

As the week went on, it was looking very grim that I would have a long-lasting job there!  I kept ringing up more than people owed!  I was devastated!  I really, really, really wanted this to work out.  I kept trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, why was I ringing up everyone’s order for a larger amount than what they owed?  I was lying on my bed one night while I was trying to fall asleep and trying to think of how I could save my dream job!  And then I had the biggest “light bulb” moment I have ever had in my entire life!  I would like to give all the credit to God, my Heavenly Father because I’m not sure if I could’ve had such a technical thought on my own! The thought came to me, that maybe I wasn’t hitting the button to “cash out” one order before ringing in another!  I was so happy that I had something real to try to fix the problem.  I was so happy to tell my job coach that I may have figured out the problem. I had so much hope!  Guess what? That turned out to be the problem! 

Now, all I needed to do was work on my speed. My job coach admitted to me that he was very worried by how slow the line went on the first day!  Ironically, later in my career, my speed became a problem again, but I was too FAST at that point, and I was told that I wasn’t being fair to the other cashier by not letting her/him have a chance to check out people. 

I started to learn some tricks to help me keep my line moving smoothly.  I would watch people as they came down the line and ring in the item as they picked them out and have them all rung up by the time they got up to me. 

I’m a real stickler for following the rules and I had to do my job exactly right! I got to be known as the “condiment nazi.”  A person was allowed two condiments per item, any more cost two for a nickel.  I would actually sit there and count the extra condiments and charge them to a person’s bill.  People got frustrated with me for charging them for the extra condiments!  I got frustrated because people didn’t want me to do my job right!  My boss would back me up and tell people that I was doing my job.  People learned that I do my job right and I count condiments!

I saw many cashiers come and go!  I ended up being head cashier.  I had my good days, when I could keep up and run all the lines (there were three different lunch periods).  They surely kept me busy! 

One time my job coach and I went on a three-day cashier assessment at a MCL Cafeteria.  One day a customer told me that I was doing a good job and gave me a dollar tip.  I was so happy I could hardly believe it!  However, I was really happy at the workshop, and it proved to be challenging enough for me.  I really loved the people and I felt comfortable, so they let me stay on there permanently. 

My supervisors were both totally awesome, great and wonderful Christian women!  We would pray, sing and talk about God!  In my opinion, they were the best supervisors a person could have in the entire world!  Once, one of my supervisors invited me to leave work early and go with her to see George W. Bush when he was in town campaigning for the presidency.  It was fun and very exciting, especially getting to leave work early! It was so much fun getting to see George W. Bush in person!

Another job I did at ARC was paperwork for the secretary. I would do it the very first thing when I got to work before my cashiering duties began.  Sometimes I would be just “resting my eyes” and on the verge of falling asleep (to be completely honest) and then the PA system would go off and I would jump and be scared half to death. 

I had a really good friend who worked in the cafeteria too, he was the dishwasher. He knew it bothered me when he took a break while I was struggling to get a line through! He was always happy to announce and make sure I knew he was going on a break! He liked to tease me, and I could give it right back.  Underneath it all, I knew he liked me, and our friendship endured. 

I, like all of us, will never forget 9/11.  I had just come into the cafeteria from doing my morning sleep hour (oops, I mean paperwork) when I first heard about the towers in New York being struck by an airplane!  I will never forget how weird it was not hearing an airplane in the sky all afternoon!  What a sad silence that was!  At the time 9/11 happened, I was on the Employee Council, a group selected to bring concerns the employees had to the attention of the director.  We all wanted to help and do our part to aid in the recovery effort, so we decided to put on a spaghetti lunch, and invite people from the public to raise money.

We invited a group of local firefighters to come be our honored guests!  I think (I’m not completely sure) we also held a raffle.  The day went wonderfully well, and we were able to send a sizable check to aid in the relief effort!  We also planted a tree in honor and memory of 9/11.   

The director of the sheltered workshop became a very good friend of mine. One day he called me into his office and told me about a new program at Columbus State, a one-year certificate program to be certified as a habilitation assistant. The director thought the program and I would make a good match.  I was glad he even thought of me for the program.  At that time, I really loved my job as a cashier, I loved the people I worked with and everything about the job!  There’s a saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it“, and that’s how I felt about my job.  In my opinion, I had the perfect job for me!  I wasn’t ready to give up the comfortable, familiar and good, for something brand new and scary!  I don’t like change and I’m not good at it!  Little did I know back then, God, was masterfully and wonderfully orchestrating my future because he knew what lay ahead! Nothing takes God by surprise! So, I told my friend thanks for thinking of me but, I’m happy right where I’m at for now! 

I have a lot more great and wonderful memories of my Arc Days! When I lived in the country with Mom and Dad, we had an in-ground pool, and I would invite the whole staff over for pool parties.  One year one of the staff was also a DJ. He offered to come and DJ at my pool party.  Having a real live DJ at one of my pool parties was TOTALLY AWESOME! 

I got to become very good friends with a lot of the staff!  I had a totally awesome service coordinator!  She was very kind and let me run my life how I wanted to! God sure did give me great people to work with! I met a guy there named John; John was one of those people, who if you knew him, you instantly loved him! He would say, “Cathy Ticknor, my old lady friend.” One day I told John that I wasn’t old, from then on, he would say, “Cathy Ticknor, my young lady friend!” Always, after he said it, he would break out in the funniest little laugh.   I mentioned earlier about my friend who was the dishwasher in the cafeteria, he was a constant joker but when I really needed him, he was there to help me!  I invited him to come spend Thanksgiving with my family one year.  I’ve told this next story straight to his face…the first day I ever saw him, I was afraid of him!  He looked mad and mean, but he was actually a really nice guy.  It really shows you can’t and shouldn’t judge a person from the outside! He really loved my Dad and Mom and he was great to my family when they both passed away!

There were a lot of great experiences that happened to me!  One day a staff member nominated me to go witness the mayor of Columbus sign a bill into law.  I think I remember sitting right beside the mayor.  The staff who nominated me to go, went with me and she made sure I got right in the middle of the action.  I was in a commercial for the workshop when we were on the ballot to get a levy passed.  I remember coming to Church and having a Church member tell me that he saw me on TV.

Although I loved the job and I made a lot of good friends and found myself having a lot of fun, special and unique experiences, there was one thing that really bugged me.   We, the clients, were called “participants” rather than being called what we really were-employees! That’s what we really were! We got paid for rendering our services/work!  Isn’t that the true definition of an employee?  Here’s a definition of “employee” straight out of the Catester (instead of Webster)   

Employee, a person who receives payment for the rendering of services or work to another person. 

Let me tell you another thing, I’ll wake up at 5:30 AM to go to work as an employee, but I have never (and I will never) wake up at 5:30 AM just to merely “participate” in anything!!!! (that statement requires four!!!!) 

Well, you all know the saying “All good things must come to an end.”  Oh, remember how I told you all earlier how I thought my job as a cashier wouldn’t last?  I’m very happy to tell you all that it lasted 14 years!  Then, came the bomb! 

All the workshops (there were four of them- ARC North, ARC South, where I worked, ARC East and ARC West) were closing their cafeterias!  Due to not bringing in enough money to be profitable! The big question was…WHAT DO I DO NOW?