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My dad was a farm worker. He used to work out in the fields. He used to take us out
into the field at two o’clock in the morning clipping onions. One time I approach my dad
and told him, “Dad, why are you taking us out there at two o’clock in the morning?”
He said, “Son, the sun is out already.” The sun was still down, you know, but my dad
believed to work out in the fields. My dad worked so hard to support us. The only time
I liked to work in the fields with my dad was when it was payday. They would pay us
out in the fields. We used to form a line, the brothers and sisters, because he would
pay us. And he would say, “Don’t spend your money because the fair is coming.”
In 1974, two weeks before Christmas, my dad passed away. It was hard for me. I thought
my dad was going to stay living with us and grow old with my mom and my dad. Well, when
he died he was 51 years old. It was hard, you know. My mom was still working and supporting
us. She was getting his benefits, but not that much. I graduated from junior high in
1975. Then after I graduated from junior high I had four more years of high school. And
I graduated from high school and I was just home. All my brothers and sisters had jobs.
So I went down there and my mom said, “You are not working?” I said, “No.” I saw
a van go by and I saw the initials on the van. I looked at the initials and I said,
“Man I would like to see where that van goes to.” We knew the family too. My mom
went to go talk to the family and said, “I heard your son is going on this van all the
time.” She goes, “Yeah. He goes to a program called Bakersfield VRC.” My mom said, “What
kind of a program is it?” She said, “It is for disabled clients. They show them how
to work and they make money.” My mom told me about it then the following week my brother
came to pick me up. I went back home with him. One day my sister and I were talking
and I said, “I need to have a dream. I don’t want to get old age and die. I need to do
something with my life.” I told my sister and she was flipping the newspaper and said,
“Hey, this program is nice for you to go to.” I looked at the ad and I said, “I
saw those initials on the van one day.” She said, “Do you want to go visit that
program?” I said, “Yeah.” I went to go visit the program and they had clients
working, they had a contract taking phones apart –Pacific Bell. I saw clients taking
phones apart. I said, “Do clients get paid for doing that?” They said, “Yeah. The
wages depend on how fast they do it.” I said, ‘I would like to do that.” They
said, “Yeah, but are you a client of the regional center?” I said, “What is the
regional center?” They said, “You have to go there first to get a case worker to
open your case.” We made an appointment and the case worker that I had it was in a
little town because they had a branch office there. The regional center we have, we have
like ten branches in the Bakersfield area. For me, because I lived in Lamont, my case
worker was in Lamont. I went to go see him and he said, “Yeah, I can put you at Park
so you can work there, but you have to take a physical first, Roy, at Kern Regional Center.”
They gave me directions to get there. My sister-in-law made an appointment. I got to the building
and I looked up and said, “Man, I would like to work here.” My sister-in-law says,
“This is not a program, Roy. This is where you are going to get your case worker at.”
I go, “Okay.” They gave me the physical and all this stuff. My dream was to work there
at the regional center. They put me at the program and they said “Let’s see how fast
you can take phones apart.” They showed me how to start taking phones apart and they
said, “Man, you do it pretty quick.” And I said, “I am not going to miss no days
and I can’t wait to see what my first paycheck is.” Two weeks came and they were passing
out payroll at the program. When I got my paycheck I started opening it and they said,
“You can’t open it here because the other clients are going to get pissed off to see
how much you make.” I go, “So. It is my check and I earned it.” So I opened it and
I said, “Fifteen dollars!” I took it to the supervisor and I go, “I didn’t miss
no days. How come my check is only fifteen dollars?”