-micrometer, image public domain
Jobs I’ve had over my entire life, in no particular order? It was hard to remember them all. And it seemed like there were so many more.
Isn’t it strange that we spend most of our lives working jobs in which we wonder what we’re doing there? I’ve always been envious of those who knew at age 6 they wanted to be a lawyer, doctor, Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
Yes, I know people who are working jobs they knew they wanted to do when they were kids. For me, following my true heart has been a long time coming. Decades have been spanned. But no time wasted.
1. Sharpened dental tools – micrometer in the left hand, metal blade in the right, moving with precision and care against the spinning wheel next to a stack of 15 grades of polishing and grinding stones. You need good eyes and coordination and a humongous box of Spiderman Band-Aids for the nicks and cuts. I’ve still got a scar on my hand.
2. Pumped diesel for semi-trailer trucks – heavy, hard work. The truck dip sticks were as long as I was tall. I smelled like grease at the end of the day. I looked like James Dean – T-shirt, tight Levi’s, those tan workman’s boots. I was in shape back then and played tennis every morning that summer at the high school with a friend.
3. Wound huge reels of magnetic tape on to cassettes – 1972 – clip fat reels of magnetic tape on a steel machine that looks like an old reel-to-reel. Push the red button on Led Zeppelin, the reel winds off until a code on the tape tells the sensor to stop. The cassette is full of tape. Quick, razor cut splices tape. Next cassette.
4. Tended snack bar at a local golf course – ate all the hot dogs and slushy iced Cokes I wanted. I actually liked that job. Worked it right before I left for college. The people were nice. They tipped well.
5. Pumped gas and checked oil – at a city Alert station (back when gas stations still did that). I also painted the curbs white every night because the manager was a meticulous perfectionist. I wore an orange jumpsuit with my name over the pocket. I swear.
6. Supervised about 30 people as a middle manager in a national healthcare company – the greatest job when the company was start-up. I worked my way up from data entry. I took the job as a temp after art school (I was up to my eyeballs in student loans), the longest job I ever had – 9 years. Wasn’t so fun later when the company merged with another healthcare giant in San Francisco. Two different cultures that clashed.
7. Worked as a counter clerk at a Husky station – My first job when I moved to Montana in my 20’s. I rode a welded red bicycle that winter (no car) that I’d bought with $20 I’d scraped together. It was dark and cold when I got off at midnight. Soon I would buy a powder blue VW Squareback from a friend. I loved that car.
8. Dusted the furniture, washed the dishes, ironed the family clothes – That was how I earned my weekly allowance. Oh, how I wish I could have earned it mowing the lawn (I love to mow) and taking the garbage out like my brothers. No – check that. No garbage.
9. Hand picked cherries near Flathead Lake in Montana – Shortest job. I think it only lasted a month. Breathtaking view. Unsteady ladders. One cherry at a time.
10. Babysat the kids – didn’t every young girl do babysitting?
11. Installed microscopic volume controls into hearing aids – Red Fox road, I always loved that name. I did this 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, with tiny tweezers, peering through a microscope, every minute of every day.
12. Worked as an independent freelance writer & consultant – doesn’t every writer do this?
13. Performed data entry for a local fan company – Yes, fans. This was a temp job. Only lasted a few months.
14. Worked at the on campus library (work-study) while I was in art school – One of the greatest jobs I ever had. What’s not to like about shelving books about art & artists in between printmaking and art history classes.
15. Pumped gas at a Chevron station one summer in Montana – I’m just realizing how much gas I’ve pumped in my life.
16. Coordinated project data entry and filing for an accounting firm – no, I was wrong. THIS was the shortest temp job ever. One day. They thought I knew accounting. Crossed wires between agency and client. They called the next day and said not to come back! One day.
17. Shoveled snow – from the driveway of an 80-year-old woman who no longer wanted to do it herself (although she could have). This woman had spunk.
18. Worked as a clerk for a large bookstore chain – seemed like a good idea at the time, a smooth transition between the corporate world and creative writing. Below zero walks and midnight bus rides with the nightstalkers.
19. Cleaned hotel rooms at a Class B Missoula motel chain – this lasted exactly one week. It was the grossest thing I ever did. I hated it. And have great respect for those who can tolerate other people’s stinky dirt and grime.
20. Dug fence post holes and strung barbed wire fence on a cattle ranch – only a weekend in Billings. But it was so much fun. Fresh, clean air. And those mountains. Thick leather gloves recommended.
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
-from Topic post, Job! What Job?
redravine.wordpress.com 
Out of your list, I really like #20. One of the most physically demanding, yet rewarding jobs I’ve had was to build a 3 mile section of fence for the USFS on rocky New Mexico soil. I learned all the technical tricks in spanning gullies, making corner braces, choosing the right wood for stays, and so on. I still get pleasure when I see “my fence” still standing 30 years later.
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What strikes me about your job list is how varied the jobs are and how physical some of them were. Going from being a middle manager in a national healthcare company to pumping gas or picking cherries or cleaning hotel rooms–you’re working class and professional class all at once. I think that’s an interesting perspective to write from when all or some of these jobs are the topic of any writing.
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I found myself laughing out loud when I read your list. There is something so bold and gritty and fearless in so much of this work. And there are so many jobs I’ve never even heard of, or have never known anyone who has done them. Why does that make me happy? I don’t know, but it does.
We had a huge yard where I grew up requiring tons of mowing, which I loathed. I would crank up the riding mower as fast as it would go, missing tons of grass while I flew over it. Many a time my dad would cross the yard and put the mower back in first gear. Always a bummer.
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MM: fence post digging and stringing barbed wire was very satisfying. I don’t know why exactly. I think I would have loved being a rancher on a generational ranch passed down from family to family. I like the idea of it. I know what you mean about the pleasure of seeing the result of hard physical work. I agree.
Sinclair: I’m so happy I could make you laugh this morning! The list kind of makes me smile, too. Now that you say it, it IS very physical and fearless work. I guess I have a sense of adventure and natural curiosity. Hopefully, that comes out in my more sedentary lifestyle now, and in my writing.
Oh, BTW, I would have LOVED to ride the riding mower and mowed your yard. It’s kind of a practice for me to mow. I go into a zone that’s very pleasant. I bet there are many other people out there who know what I mean. 8) So did you have to do ironing or cleaning as chores? Or did you get out of all that?
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ybonesy: yes, I have very working class roots. It was a big deal for me to go to college. I have often worked with that perspective in my personal work and growth. It has been an evolution for me to think I could do something different around money and work.
Even when your family and parents are very supportive of you stepping out of the mold, going to college, going for all your dreams – it’s the “me inside” whose attitude I had to change. I think we become very identified with who we are through the jobs we have (or our families have had for generations). It’s hard to change that on the inside.
I used to think work was something I went to, worked hard at, got paid, went home and lived and did what I really wanted to do. Now my work is something I truly love. Everyone gets to make that choice. It takes work for some of us.
It’s great that you noticed the mixture from the list. I think on some unconscious level, I did, too. I take it as a sign of growth. Thank goodness!
The last thing I wanted to say on that – it doesn’t matter what job you do as long as it satisfies you. Remember Socrates in Dan Millman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior (link)? There are many peaceful warriors out there doing all kinds of work. It’s how we feel on the inside about our life’s work that matters.
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I like hearing about the process of allowing yourself the things that hadn’t been possibilities for others in your family. Letting yourself have the abundance…abundance can feel guilty (who do I think I am? What about everyone else?), I’m glad you’ve been able to embrace it.
Now ironing I didn’t mind…you could watch The Brady Bunch or That Girl! while you ironed. Such was not the case on a lawn mower. We had an ironing gadget that I thought a sweet deal. It was a sprinkler you put on top of a pop bottle full of water. You’d shake water on the clothes to make the wrinkles come out while you ironed.
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That sounds like a holy water sprinkler 😉
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