Word: joe
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Tired of Responsibility. At 14, Joe Sorrentino began trying his hand at various jobs, achieving "a record of distinction for failing which even surpassed my scholastic career." On his first day of work at a bleach factory, "I attempted to carry ten gallons of bleach to a truck we were loading. We lost all ten. At 16,1 worked in a sweater factory, where I had the embarrassing experience of being awakened from a nap by the president of the company." He failed as a longshoreman. "My next opportunity came through a furniture company...
...Joe was briefly with a Wall Street firm-as a messenger. At a shoe factory, his job was so lowly that "even the office girls wanted me to address them by their last names." He even worked for 20th Century-Fox, where he sent complimentary tickets for premières to dignitaries. "I now would like to apologize to former Mayor Wagner," said Joe, "whose ticket I gave to my grandmother...
...Joe enlisted in the Marines, but could not stand the discipline and "rebelled, fighting with recruits, rioting in the mess hall, trying to run away through the swamps of Parris Island" boot camp. Judged an incorrigible, he was sent packing with a general discharge. Back in Brooklyn, he was a hero to his old street-gang buddies. But somehow within himself Joe felt ashamed. At 20, he came to realize that "my only chance for a better life was through education." So he went back to high school, for the fifth time, at night, working days in a supermarket. After...
...Barbara. At first, Sorrentino felt he had nothing in common with the suntanned college youths who "talked about summer vacations, beach parties, things I knew nothing about." But he stuck it out and in his senior year, was elected president of the student body. After graduating magna cum laude, Joe went back into the Marine Corps for two years, feeling that "I had a blemish on my record and wanted to make up for that." He did. "This time I became platoon leader, highest scorer in athletic competition and changed my general to an honorable discharge...
...Harvard Law's valedictorian, Joe Sorrentino has received several offers to work for major U.S. law firms. Instead, he wants to serve a term as an assistant U.S. or state attorney in California. Concluding his valedictory address, Joe said: "Do not look for love, tragedy or trauma to explain this change. It was simply resolution from within"-and, he added, proof that "in America such things are possible." As he told a TIME correspondent last week, while studying for the California bar exam: "Many people say the U.S. system is a fraud. But this country is fair and generous...