Opening Day for the Orioles

Today is a day when many people in Baltimore phone in on sick leave so they can attend the opening day at Camden Yards. The Orioles are playing the New York Yankees. The first 5,000 attendees age 18 or over will receive a scratch-off Maryland lottery ticket. So, you can go to the game and maybe get enough money from the lottery to cover the exorbitant amount of money you have to shell out for a day at the ballgame.

The last time my son and I went to Camden Yards, we thought that it might be smart to drive to Hunt Valley and take the light rail right down to the ballpark and not have to worry about traffic and parking. We got to the light rail station very early in the day, thinking that it probably would take 30 minutes to get to the park. Three hours later we arrived, 20 minutes after the game had started. On the way, the train stopped at least 50 times.. or it seemed like it to us.

At the park, I believe that my son paid for my ticket and I paid for food and beer. It might have been the other way around... anyway, we wondered how people taking their family to the ballpark could afford it. But, we had a good time watching the game.. of course, at the end of the game we had the fun of trying to get on a full train and spend some more hours to get back to Hunt Valley. (I think we were even on an "Express" train!)

I came to work for the Social Security Administration in 1960, when an important change was made to the Social Security Act, and the Government needed to hire thousands of workers in a short period of time. When I went for my interview, I was asked two very important questions: "How do you like the Orioles?" and "How do you like the Colts?"

I thought that they were talking about birds and horses and of course, I said that I liked them very much. Based on that, I was hired on the spot! (You do know that they had already reviewed my qualifications, so this was just an interview to make sure that I was a living, breathing person.)

Incidentally, before 1960, only lawyers were hired to become Claims Authorizers (the job I applied for). In 1960, not many lawyers wanted to give up lucrative careers in law to get a low-paying job with Uncle Sam. So, Social Security got dispensation to hire people who had done detective work. When I was going to Boston University, one of my many many many part-time jobs was as a Credit Investigator for a major credit company. So I qualified.

I'm very glad that I got my Social Security job.. during the 35 years that I worked in Woodlawn, Maryland, I couldn't wait to get to work every morning. I wonder how many people can say that?