Chris Conty wrote to Harry Levitt about his new job, his son about to enter kindergarten, and more:

I finally found a job in my field, at age 60, after going 8-1/2 years without a real job (Who needs “new cheese,” when my “old cheese” suddenly came back?), 13-1/2 years without one lasting at least a year, and 20 years since I felt proud of my accomplishments; oh yes, and losing a ton of money on an ill-fated start-up!  Since April, I’ve been Senior Acquisitions Editor & Educational Specialist for Industrial Press of NYC (I work remotely from Arlington, MA), a 127-year old business still run by the great-grandson of the founder.  Best job, best boss I’ve ever had: everywhere else, it took at least a year before my “oddball” methods were appreciated (thanks to great results); here they’re telling me how perfect my feedback has been right away!

Way too much travel — selling backlist as well as signing new products — because I’m really their first person focusing on the college market — the one revenue source that didn’t crash last year (so without the bad economy, I’d have no job!) — but all my good jobs have required travel.  Going to NYC for monthly editorial meetings even allowed me to attend one ’71 Yale Club lunch!

Overcoming the age barrier (very real!) and my “spotty” recent work history took tremendous effort on my part — if there’s interest, I can either post the details on the web site, or be on some panel at next year’s 40th reunion, or both — in the process, becoming almost a minor celebrity in the local job networking community, given all the 50 & 60-somethings who are in the same boat.

Don’t know if I’m still the “oldest first time dad” in the class, as I was at our 35th, but our son Paul Henry is about to start kindergarten.  Never shared that he was joined by a sister, Melissa Ruth, born July 24, 2007, on our third wedding anniversary!  If she goes straight through, it means I’ll still be paying college tuition at age 81!  While having young kids can reduce job offers, in my case it helped: they correctly guessed I’m not retiring soon!

Still, a few sobering realities:
— I’ve had 5 surgeries in the past 6 years, all for different problems; came down with serious pneumonia requiring my first multi-night hospitalization since I was born; use a sleep apnea machine; and take meds for ADHD, etc; I may still look young (rarely ever taken for the kids’ grandpa, thank goodness!), but my joints & organs know the exact mileage on this frame.
— I have my third grade picture as my screen-saver, because of the 15 boys in that class, 2 of the 6 I know about (including myself) died a year apart almost to the day, neither making it to age 60.
— Publishing pays so poorly, that I remain WAY below the “median mid-career professional average without an advanced degree” for Eli’s, reportedly $120-something thousand a year per a recent YAM.
— So I still feel a few residual pangs of that lower-middle class stigma I came to Yale feeling but determined to ignore, and feel sad that:
>> I didn’t fully honor what my admission meant to my dad by making better use of the opportunity to “ascend all the way up in social class,”  (It wouldn’t have been me to do that, but I’m still a bit sad, though not as sad as I am that he died not knowing he’d be a grandpa after all).
>> I wouldn’t acknowledge the extent of the grief & “less than” I still carried for years about feeling alone and not really accepted back then (which I foolishly believed co-education would “cure”; it did help some, after also going to an all-male high school, but not with the “class” issues I continued to ignore).
>> Until very recently. when I took a “multi-cultural workshop” that just happened to divide the group into “haves and have not’s growing up,” and I got my perceptions and feelings back then validated by a Princeton ’71 legacy grad from the “haves,” who told me that “acting obnoxious & belittling” was the prep school norm back then, so these guys were just testing me to see if I would fit in: all I needed to do was learn the rules and then decide if I were willing to play by them or not — it wasn’t personal!

— However, 2 great sources of joy (beyond men’s work, my family and my job, my 3 key late in life gifts):
>> Gerald Zelin, the one classmate to come to Patti & my wedding, gave me such an honoring on that day that I better appreciate now that the “less than” I felt back then was all in my own head; it wasn’t reality!
>> Since graduating, I’ve felt so accepted as an alumnus that I’ve:
(A) Attended every 5 year reunion, loving each one, and keep leaving wishing these were my regular work/ professional, etc. associates;
(C) Joined the Yale club in each city I’ve lived in since 1974, attending as many events as I could (fewer now with kids & traveling job!), and have interviewed at least 100 applicants for local YASC’s since then;
(D) Helped several Yale students or grads learn how to “really” break into the publishing business (if they still want to, after my caveats, and they usually do).

Looking forward to the 40th!  Plan to bring the family!