Odd Jobs
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
It’s time like these…when I’m buried deep in revisions, managing to red-line less than 50 pages in 7 frickin’ hours of work with nothing but Diet A&W Rootbeer to keep me company that I start thinking about other jobs. Not that I don’t love my job. On ordinary days, I love it beyond measure. But today? Not so much.
I started my work-for-hire life in retail, like so many other people. I was just 16, I believe and let’s just say that the highlight of my day was grabbing the intercom at the store and saying, “Attention Kmart shoppers, if you look up and around, you’ll see that blue light flashing in our men’s wear department…”
Yup. I worked at Kmart.
Actually, this was not my first job. My first job was working for my grandfather at the manufacturing company that my father and now my brothers run. I was the “official pencil sharpener.” I think I was 8. I went from office to office, taking everyone’s pencils, sharpening them, then putting them back. I also opened the mail. I didn’t actually take the mail out of the envelopes, but I used the opener to slit them open.
As I got older, my job responsibilities grew. I counted hours on the time cards. I did punch cards for the computer–a computer that took up an entire room, by the way, and had a name that was very long…I know it ended with Magillicuddy…my mother’s idea of a joke. I typed address labels with all the wrong fingers.
When I was a teenager, I drove the forklift. I also worked in the mold department, which has nothing whatsoever to do with that creepy stuff that grows on cheese or in the walls of humid houses in Florida. We make sand castings and they’re filled with sands that are baked into molds…you know what? It’s not that interesting, so I’ll leave it at that…but it was hot.
Then when I turned 16, you can understand why I decided that working at Kmart was a whole heck of a lot more appealing than working in the back of a manufacturing plant where layers of black dirt coated EVERYTHING. (The sand turns black when it is mixed with hot, molten aluminum and brass…in case you’re wondering–the photo to the right if from our plant.)
My next job was at an upscale boutique called Just Juniors. Talk about a step up! I had the best grades of my high school career during that job because I worked nights…alone (ahem…so not happening for my daughter!) and all I did was homework when we didn’t have customers.
Before college, I worked at a department store then called Burdines, but now swallowed by Macy’s. I loved that job. I was barely eighteen and was so good in training that I was bumped up to a higher position that meant I could handle returns. I had no idea then that this was NOT a good thing. I worked the whole summer, but when I pledged a sorority, I realized that an off-campus job was going to be more trouble than it was worth.
In college, I worked at the university’s television and radio station. I was in the fundraising department. After college, I was actually promoted to a full-time position, which I kept while I was in graduate school. Then came teaching. One half year internship and then a year at a public high school. In between, I took a job at a print shop…a job I kept during a good portion of the four years I taught in the private Catholic school that was my alma mater. Then two years at a private Catholic school in Georgia.
Then…
Secretary. Guess where? Yup…at the manufacturing business that started it all. I was there that day on March 14, 1997 at 11:14am when the call came in that I’d sold my first book.
Oh, and a month later, I found out I was having my baby.
So shortly after the birth of my daughter, I became a full-time mom and writer.
Long road. Fun jobs. Some not so fun…but nothing I quit quickly. No fast food joints. No restaurants (though I always wanted to be a bartender…he, he, he.) But I had lots of interactive jobs before I found myself buried in my hidey-hole, staring at white paper and black print and red pen for seven-hours straight and chatting up my 10-year-old neighbor because my daughter was at a playdate and I had to talk to SOMEONE.
So…revision craziness aside…what kind of jobs have you had? Which was your favorite? Which was the worst?
