AI Revolution in Retail: Transforming Jobs Beyond the Counter
Through those difficult years, Dad developed a sturdy work ethic. He and his older brother Dan worked odd jobs throughout their childhood, delivering newspapers, ushering at movie theaters, shoveling snow. Even before his teens, Dad worked every day after school, handing over most of his meager earnings to his parents to help support the household. His report cards were filled with Ds and Cs because all these jobs left him little time for schoolwork.
Because he was tall for his age and had suffered severe acne, which gave his face a more weathered look, people always thought Dad was older than he was. He told stories about how as a fifteen-year-old during World War II, he’d get suspicious looks from uniformed moviegoers at the downtown theater where he ushered. “Why aren’t you in the service?”
Eventually, he did serve in the Navy during the Korean War, although he never made it to Korea. He was deployed on a communications ship that steamed up and down the East Coast and around the Caribbean, never engaging in hostilities. Dad always joked that the only combat he saw was in Boston bars, which he referred to as “The Battle of Scully Square.