Social security
I got my earnings record in the mail from Social Security and it was interesting because I was looking at updating my resume just because it has gotten so rusty. When I was looking at my old resume and putting together my work history I was shocked to see that I’ve been doing this same work for 15 years (time flies). But then as I was going through my Social Security earnings record I started pegging each time period with what I was doing then. 1975 I earned $338 and was a Sophomore in High School. In 1977 when I graduated from High School I earned $3,159. Then 1983, I earned $16,144 and had just gotten married. In 1987 and 1988 there is no amount because I was working for my brother and the young woman doing the payroll was depositing our taxes into her personal account. We found out only after she wrapped her car around a tree and died and her entire mystery unraveled – like why she always had new clothes, new car, and would order out anything she wanted for lunch while we ate leftovers and that mansion she said she lived in across the lake, not – she lived in a trailer with a shoe box full of money as she had been embezzling her whole life – from her parents through every job she had ever had. So she was buried with two years of my taxes. 1990 I earned $23,541 and had just moved to San Francisco and was married to husband #2. 1991 was husband #3 and $23,730. Then in 1995, I started my current career – my annual salary was ascending until we got to 2007 and then it started ticking down and has been descending ever since.
To think that this record contained so many touchstones to my personal history is amazing.