Daniel: My name is Daniel, and I’m 64. I was born in Oxnard, and I had an excellent childhood. Mom was a social worker and Dad was a contractor. I was valedictorian of my senior class. I went to Cal State Northridge on a baseball scholarship — played shortstop. Loved my classes. Paula Abdul was in one. I was sharp in math, but I wanted to play pro baseball and concentrated on that so much I didn’t finish. I still have four or five classes to go. After college I worked for an electrical company. I’d made contacts with all these contractors because they sponsored the summer leagues. When work was slow, I took jobs with Ferro’s, a framing contractor. That was steady work for seven years. But I got tired of the Valley and moved back to Ventura, where I was a mortgage lender — construction loans, refinancing. Because of my math skills, I was good at it but I didn’t care for it. There’s no base salary. Everything’s commission. Some months I’d make $8,000, some months nothing.
https://gulftoday.ae/opinion/2024/07/19/some-in-a-blue-collar-job-are-in-risk-of-homelessness
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