by Tim Nagel
I have been asked how I got my job so many times I have lost count! Everyone thought I had the greatest job “ever”! I do agree, I would not have wanted any other job for 30 years, but every good thing has a price! However, how I got my job I do not think anyone has a better story.
In the late Fall 1966, while trapping, I caught an albino raccoon. Caught by only one toe, I took her home. I knew I had to get a permit from the (ODW) Clinton County Game Protector to keep her.
Ron Laughlin(?) showed up, issued said permit, and during our conversation I asked him if he knew of any job openings coming available within the DOW. He contacted me back in about two months letting me know that there was a Con-Aid opening up at the Newtown Fish Farm. At the time I was a junior at Wilmington College (Bio./Agr.) married with a new born child, and working full time in a auto factory. I wanted to work for the ODW, I finally got an interview for said job with Mr. John Walker (Dist.5). After an hour or so, John ask me “if I liked mud and water” I replied that I loved it. That’s how I got my job starting March 24, l967.
What happened with the raccoon and my vocation can come later if anyone is interested?