She really has been behind the same desk for 41 years
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 28, 2014 1:50 AM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Charlotte Jenkins, right, and Grover Hood of the Wayne County Soil and Water Conservation Office go over some paperwork. Mrs. Jenkins retired Sept. 24 after 41 years with the office, where she has sat at the same desk and in the same location for the entire time.
Charlotte Jenkins knows a little something about conservation.
She has sat behind the same desk in the same location since she started working with the Wayne County Soil and Water office on April 13, 1973.
She has outlasted the top of her metal desk -- a new one has, since she began using it, been installed.
And when the Cooperative Extension Service office was remodeled some 15 years ago, she was given an office divider to provide some separation between her desk and the office door that opens just in front of it.
But this past Tuesday, Mrs. Jenkins walked out that door one final time -- as she retired as Soil and Water Conservation office director.
Mrs. Jenkins, 61, has already been honored, for her more than four decades of service by Wayne County commissioners.
"It was an honor, and I really appreciated it," she said. "(The fact that I am retiring) has not sunk in. I have enjoyed all of the time I have put in, but it is time for the younger folks to take over."
And it is time, she said for some "me" time -- time she will likely spend with her grandchildren.
A 1971 graduate of Southern Wayne High School and a native of the Stevens Mill community, Mrs. Jenkins heard about the opening and applied more than 40 years ago.
"I never thought I would have been here this long," she said. "Being raised on a farm, and (the job being agriculture) related, it just seemed a good fit after a few years. I just love it.
"I have been lucky in that I enjoy the job. I still feel relatively young, but I think it is time for somebody else. I like feeling like I have helped somebody accomplish something or we worked on a project to see it through to be completed."
Mrs. Jenkins said she started as a secretary -- answering the phone, taking messages and trying to help whoever came in.
The years since have been a continuous learning process.
"I do some technical work," she said. "I do waste plans for swine operations. I give out soils information and just try to assist anyone I can with maps and information."
Over the years, she learned how to use a computer, but she still keeps an electric typewriter at her desk.
She jokes that a young co-worker didn't know what it was or why it was still in the office.
"You can tell the younger generation," she said. "This used to be the old standby. This was the life and getting an electric typewriter, boy, that was really cool.
"But I just kept it because once in a great, great while I need a typewriter."
She has some advice for whomever is hired to fill the position she will soon leave behind.
"Just don't get overwhelmed, because of all of the acronyms and things they will have to learn," she said. "It will just take a little bit of time. I will come back some and be glad to help some."