Your most fun job

[1242Vintage]

Summers during high school worked on the mtce crew for a summer camp.

Learned how to drive a manual transmission truck at 15. And how to start a cranky 1920s vintage garbage truck with starting fluid. Learned how to fix almost everything … plumbing, electrical, structural, broken down vehicles etc. Learned about alcohol and marijuana and use in moderation.

Us mtce crew guys lived the good life. Our bunk house was the wild place where staff parties always started and ended!

I still have a few scars from those days. Sliced my arm one late night on barbed wire and my buddies helped me “fix” it and stop the bleeding by wrapping my arm with grey duct tape. Carry that scar as a reminder of those fun and care-free summer nights.

And for all this epic fun I was paid $60 for each ten day camp session.

 

[Koolau]

Summers during high school worked on the mtce crew for a summer camp.

Learned how to drive a manual transmission truck at 15. And how to start a cranky 1920s vintage garbage truck with starting fluid. Learned how to fix almost everything … plumbing, electrical, structural, broken down vehicles etc. Learned about alcohol and marijuana and use in moderation.

Us mtce crew guys lived the good life. Our bunk house was the wild place where staff parties always started and ended!

I still have a few scars from those days. Sliced my arm one late night on barbed wire and my buddies helped me “fix” it and stop the bleeding by wrapping my arm with grey duct tape. Carry that scar as a reminder of those fun and care-free summer nights.

And for all this epic fun I was paid $60 for each ten day camp session.

Who were the campers and did their presence add or subtract from your "good life?"

 

[aja8888]

Actually, I had two short, summer jobs that were "kind of fun" come to think of it:

1. Trash man on a garbage truck one summer - You would be surprised what people threw out! Back in those days, there were no automated trucks and we had to jump off, grab a garbage can, and pour the contents in the open back of the truck. No lunch breaks.....

2. Assistant on a two man crew that artificially inseminated cattle. You needed a long arm for this job and a deadened sense of smell.

 

[Koolau]

1. Trash man on a garbage truck one summer - No lunch breaks.....

Who could eat after that j*b??

2. Assistant on a two man crew that artificially inseminated cattle. You needed a long arm for this job and a deadened sense of smell.

I would imagine the garbage truck experience stood you in good stead for the AI job (not artificial intelligence) sense-of-smell wise.

I think we have a winner for WORST 2 jobs in a row.

 

[EastWest Gal]

My favorite job:

When I attended community college, I worked part time as an aid in the college chemistry lab, setting up reagents that were needed for the chemistry classes. I worked with one other person, my supervisor, and she was low key and great. I only did it for one semester though. It was very convenient since I was already there at the college. I enjoyed my chemistry classes.

 

[Koolau]

My favorite job:

When I attended community college, I worked part time as an aid in the college chemistry lab, setting up reagents that were needed for the chemistry classes. I worked with one other person, my supervisor, and she was low key and great. I only did it for one semester though. It was very convenient since I was already there at the college. I enjoyed my chemistry classes.

During my Freshman Chem lab the aid placed the wrong chemical into a reagent bottle. One of my fellow students used that chemical in a reaction and got a face full of hot chemical reaction. The lab instructor grabbed the student and hauled him under the safety shower. The student got 2nd degree chemical burns on most of his face but recovered. The lab aid found other employment. I guess it's one of those jobs that can go from drudgery or boredom to stark terror in an instant. Glad you enjoyed your time as a lab aid. Clearly, you were very careful and conscientious.

 

[1242Vintage]

Who were the campers and did their presence add or subtract from your "

Don’t really know where campers came from since we had very little interaction with them.

The maintenance boss would swing by the bunk house in the early morning, roust us awake and assign the tasks that filled our days. Our meals were not with campers.

Campers and their counselors would be out on their activities while we were repairing whatever was broken or failed the day before. I got really good that Summer at fixing basic plumbing issues; leaky faucets and valves, clogged drains and toilets, slow shower drains, etc.

 

[aja8888]

Who could eat after that j*b??


I would imagine the garbage truck experience stood you in good stead for the AI job (not artificial intelligence) sense-of-smell wise.

I think we have a winner for WORST 2 jobs in a row.

Heres two more bad ones:

Another part time job I had out of high school (7 years before I could afford college) was putting up and taking down highway billboard signs. Dangerous work on windy days and with helpers that had a hangover most of the time. Plus, the guy who owned the business didn't like spending money on safety gear. I never got hurt though.

One more was bailing hay in farmer's fields on hot summer nights in Missouri. Throwing 80 pound bales up on a moving truck then after the truck was full, conveying those bales into a silo and being the guy in the silo stacking the bales. Got bit by many horseflies doing that stuff.

 

[kcowan]

During my Air Force stint, I was assigned to work with the Defence Research Board in Metz France for 5 months. Our office was in a French Chateau overlooking the Loire Valley.

We had to love “on the economy rather than on the base” and our landlord had a young daughter who I got to know. Language choice was French or German being on.Alsace-Loraine. I had studied both but chose French.

Paris was an easy drive east on Friday night and we camped in the Bois de Belogne park.

Furthest we got in a weekend was Zurich! We got a week of holiday during the 5-month assignment and we drove down to The Cote d’Azure to enjoy summer with the French people.

Too many experiences to recount here but an amazing set of memories.

One example: I was sent on a one week assignment to Sardinia to see the base of our jets and analyze the “sortie” patterns to Northern Europe. On the beach near Castegar, I interacted with Italian school kids who studied French in school and we could communicate amazingly well.