I. CEO Message
II. HR Message
III. Industry Update
IV. Cochise Introduction
V. Employee Spotlights
VI. Heat Safety Minute
VII. Construction Corner
VIII. West Region Update
IX. Service Message
X. Customer Spotlights
West Region Update – Sid Jenkins
The year was 1982 and President Reagan was in the White House. Rocky III had just been released and gasoline was $1.30 a gallon.
I was on college summer break from North Texas State University and needed to make some quick tuition money before I headed back to Denton, TX. D&H Pump Service had an ad in the local El Paso paper looking for a construction helper starting at $4.00 per hour. It was a little better than the current minimum wage, and it was only a temporary job anyway. During my interview, Leland Rowe, the Parts & Warehouse Manager asked, “Why would I want to hire you if you are going back to college?”. I lied and said I was done with school and looking for a long-term job.
July 13th was my first day of work. I still remember the crew of 5 (including Calvin Bishop, the owner of D&H) headed to a site where they had just installed some underground tanks. There were piles of gravel scattered around the tank hole and Calvin told everyone to grab a shovel and we started backfilling the tank hole with gravel. I thought to myself, “I’m only here for the summer”.
D&H Pump only had 17 employees at the time. I was number 18. The office was located at 1221 Tower Trail on the eastside of EL Paso and the office warehouse was probably about a 5,000 square foot building with a yard for some construction equipment. My understanding was the previous office was a single-wide mobile home.
As far as technology was concerned, everything was done manually but I’m pretty sure we had a FAX machine in the office. Mobile phones were not common yet, so we had two-way radios in the trucks and a base unit in the office. There was a pager that was shared for the service department for emergency calls on the weekends.
Even though it was hard work, one thing that struck me was how close everyone at D&H was and the family type atmosphere that was present. I really started enjoying the friendly coworkers and felt comfortable at my new job. Weeks turned into months and months into years and before I knew it this temporary job had spanned 40 years.