“The Industrial Arts Building”
Rae (Tholander) Mangum, Bachelor Degree-1978, St. Johns, AZ
I attended Brigham Young University during the years of 1974
through 1978. I had a dear friend and
boss that I worked for in High School as a housekeeper pay for my tuition and
books to go to this wonderful university. It was hard letting someone pay my
way. I felt a strong need to earn my own way.
My first job I received was working the early morning
janitorial shift cleaning the “Industrial Arts Building”. What a feeling of satisfaction I received
from this job. It was perhaps the dirtiest building to clean due to the functionality
of the building. For this reason alone I loved cleaning it. I remember the
sinks were so full of glues and other materials that had not been cleaned for a
VERY long time. I made it my goal to get those sinks spotless. I remember the
professors reactions was “amazement”. They had never seen their sinks look so
good. I would do all the emptying of the trashes and cleaning the bathrooms etc.
first so I would have the rest of my allotted time to really attack those
sinks. I chose one sink a day to work on.
Then it was the stairs next. After buffing the hallway
floors to a nice shine, I made my second goal to strip those stairs down to the
“bone”. On hands and knees and every possible tool I could find, I made those
stairs look brand new.
I loved having the
really dirty jobs and making them look as though they were never used. The professors
appreciated my work, which gave me a grand feeling of accomplishment. This was
also a fun way to pay my way through school. Fun because I loved making a
difference.
