Odd Jobs Over the Years

Short on time after a nasty commute and I still have to run out in a bit. Had a thought in mind for a non market post, so here it comes.

Tomorrow night is Friday night, so get those requests in.

Odd Jobs Over the Years
I don't know why but I was thinking about all the different things I have done for employment over the years. Why not make a list and see how it looks? I go by grades because it's easier to remember a timeline that way for me. I am bad with years.

Railroad Construction and Repair - 4th Grade to end of High School

My Father was a Trackman and then supervisor for a large New England railroad. Not an office job. I started off bringing coffee and water to the crew when I was in 4th grade in winter and summer. A crazy growth spurt after 5th grade had me almost my current height in 6th grade so my dad let me loose on the work crew.

In winter and summers when my dad had weekend jobs I would work two 10 hour days laying rails and setting ties. I even got to drive the truck in South Boston to go get coffee. Fun times. What I remember most was it was the most time I got to spend with my dad (child of early age divorce, so sad bla bla). I also remember all the tools like clawbars, joint bar wrenches and jackhammers were all steel so in the summer they got really hot. Blister hot. In the winter they got very cold, the kind of cold that gets into your bones. Later in High School I stopped doing this stuff and in second year of College my father died. Great memories of this job.

K-Mart

In Sophomore year of High School I took a job at K-Mart doing stocking and floor work. My first glimpse at the corporate world. It was not too bad working out back with the inventory, but dealing with customers was sooooo annoying. We all had to be trained on the register and the ONE day I had to ring up (over Thanksgiving sale) this huge lady, well over 300 pounds, decided to both go bra shopping and come through my checkout. I had to take them off the hangers (lol) and fold them and stuff. Um, no thanks. I quit before the Christmas season started up!

Hospital Cafeteria Assembly Line

My mother (a nurse) got me this job at a large local hospital junior year of High School. This may have been the hardest job I ever had. We had to assemble, in assembly line fashion, 200-300 dinners in about 30-40 minutes tops. These meals were trucked up in carts to all the floors, then all was collected and washed before leaving for the night. It was very difficult. I hated it and lasted about 4 months before varsity tennis season started so I quit. Mom was pissed.

Convenience Store and Shoveling

Senior year in High School I got my first taste of the convenience store world. The lottery was the most annoying part. People buy insane numbers of all kinds of tickets and they all lose. THEY ALL LOSE. I saw the same people for months on end and would keep a tally. They all lost huge but kept playing. crazy stuff. During winter I would get up at 3am after snow storms to shovel commercial business areas. All by shovel, we had no equipment. Neither job was that fun.

Construction

After graduation from High School, I lucked out and got a job all summer rebuilding a three family housing unit in Lowell. My boss was amazing and taught me everything about total rebuilds. I did it all; sheetrock, plumbing, framing, stairs, siding, roofing, payroll you name it. On Friday's he had a pool business so we would go around going swimming while fixing pool pumps and liners and such. Maybe the most fun summer I ever had. My boss pleaded with me not to go to college, he wanted to make me a partner! I almost took him up on it.

More Convenience Store

After summer and the start of freshman year in college I got a job at a store across the street from my house. More of the same as before. How many sandwiches can you make before you go insane? 4,365 exactly. Only bright spot was that Micky Ward would come in every other week and grab a sandwich so I got to gab with him about the old boxing gym and stuff.

Grading Elementary Assessment Tests

The summer after sophomore year in College I got a job grading the science section of elementary school assessment tests for grades 5-6. This was a blast. We got in thousands of tests in science that had essay answers and were taught the points on which to grade them. If you ask adults science questions you get hilarious answers, imagine a kid answering! Simple science like evaporation or magnets in essay form were a gold mine of laughs. This was fun. Plus this girl I met working there, that was fun!

Breakthrough Pap Smear Company
Clearly no picture for this one!

Now do not laugh! I had the honor of working at the firm Cytyc (now Hologic) junior year in college that revolutionized the pap smear with their ThinPrep Pap Test. The science behind it was simple, but so smart! This screening has saved so many lives. I was in charge of making the slide samples used to train technicians that do the screening of samples (was very early in the products life). The job was very repetitive, but my first real science job exposure. Plus, the product was a life saver by early detection and correct diagnosis of various issues. I had to leave when my piece of shit car lost 3rd gear Chevy cavalier, only 4 speeds) and getting all the way out to the site was impossible.

Screen Printing

Ok, now a more wild time in my life. Late summer into fall of junior year in college.

I was hanging out with friends from the old neighborhood and I mentioned I needed a job. They set me up at a screen printing shop making T-shirts and other clothes with all kinds of ink printing on them. The main machine was like the one from the picture, all the heads put on another color (we had 12 colors). The huge oven that cooked the ink dry always kept the place so warm it was nice.

The crew was crazy! We would blast Cypress Hill and Beastie Boys all day and it was a great time. Some of the crew were big into the wacky tobacky (have tried a few times, not my thing) and one time I drive the company truck across two towns to deliver a shipment to UPS. After I unloaded the truck I walked to the front and saw that I drove the whole way with a 2 foot water bong, fully loaded, right at the front of the dashboard in full view behind the windshield. Not cool. After the summer I would swing by and clean screens for a few extra bucks which involved tons of paint thinner and gloves got in the way of taking off all the tape. No on wanted to do it but I would for the money and I could come and go as I pleased.

Last Call at Convenience Store
No picture as late junior year and all of senior year in college was not the best time. There was an issue at the store I worked at about "accounting fraud" and missing money. The whole crew was 12 people and it was agreed (by 11 of them) to blame me. Shit, I would tell you now if it had been me, who cares now, but it was not. I have never been anything but honest both in life and here since I started in 2007, no change now. Couple not easy to get to job, a crap car, and a crazy school schedule (I qualified to take post-graduate degree courses for full credit towards advanced degree) and I decided to let it ride best I could until graduation. This was the time when I ate 3 times a week and prayed to get a job after graduation.

But it all worked out. How many jobs have you had? What did you do to get where you wanted to? How hard did you try? How much did you lose, or gain? Important questions.

Have a good night.