Jacob
Douma
anymore.
I had a good consulting fee of 0.00 a day. When I rode an airplane to
it was
two days going and two days riding back, and if a Sunday came in between, that was five
days. Five days at 0.00 a day, that's
for doing nothing. One year I made
,000 consulting. After paying Federal, state and social security taxes about ,000
was mine.
You must have wondered whom you were working for after awhile. [Laughter]
A:
So I decided that I don't need the money, and I had worked long enough, 56 years in
engineering, plus five years at the university. That's 61 years, and I've had it.
But the thing that teed me off altogether is when I came back from Regina, Canada. I was
still consulting on two dams for the Saskatchewan Power Corporation. I had to change
flights in Toronto to return to Washington. The flight from Regina was late and when I
reached U.S. Immigration, it was three minutes before the scheduled departure of the
flight to Washington.
The Immigration officer asked me where I lived, and what I was doing in Canada. I told
him where I lived, and that I was consulting in Regina. He said, "Are you a citizen of the
United States?" I said, "Yes," and started to pull out my billfold. He said, "Don't show
me your driver's license. You've got to show me either a birth certificate or a passport.
I said, "I don't have either one because I've been coming in and out of Canada for 25
years, and I always show my driver's license. I show it to the Canadian Immigration
officer, and he always says okay. I have showed it to U.S. Immigration officers for 25
years, and you say okay. Now here's the first time you want either my passport or my
birth certificate.
Again, I said, "I don't have them." I stared him in the face and said, "What do I do
now?" He stared me back a little while and said, "Who chopped down the cherry tree?"
I said, "George Washington.
"All right. You're an American citizen. Go on in."
[Laughter] Oh, boy!
That's stupid. I won't do it again. Next time, maybe I won't remember who chopped
down the cherry tree, and they won't let. me back in the United States. [Laughter]
Q ..
Yes. That gets a little silly.
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