Thread: What Do You Do/What Did You Do?

I've had a few interesting jobs. I repaired and refurbished pianos, worked as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital, bartended in London, and taught English in China. None paid very much. My favorite was refurbishing pianos, if I had a workshop I could probably still do a good job at it. Unfortunately the owner of the workshop was insufferable, it was impossible to work for him.

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

joined then unjoined the army in the span of about 30 minutes.

I did that exact very thing. Like someone else here, I graduated high school at seventeen and wanted to join the Army. I wanted to work in intelligence and the recruiter was really slick. I have asthma (although as I have aged it's slowly been going away) and that disqualifies you medically, but the recruiter told me to lie about it. I didn't see any red flags with that in my seventeen year old mind and I really wanted to go to West Germany, maybe even Berlin (back then the Cold War was still on but, unbeknownst to everyone, Communism was beginning to implode).

So went through the medical screening and took the oath and was in the Army. They take me into another room immediately and I'm interviewed more thoroughly and fill out more paperwork for the intelligence position. One of the questions was, "Did you lie at any time on any form?" or something like that.

For some reason, I figured since this was for intelligence, I should tell the truth. I'm still not sure why I didn't take my recruiter's advice at this point, but I wrote down that I had lied, that I had asthma.

They told me it's a good thing I came clean, that the physical training could have caused me serious harm, and I was immediately released.

I'm sure not all recruiters were as bad as mine, but I look back on that experience and that seventeen year old boy is almost a stranger to me.

I worked second shift (3pm-11pm) at O'Sullivan's Corporation during my junior and senior year of high school. Also during that time I was taking a vocational school class (Electricity and Electronics) from 12 noon until 2:30 PM.. at which point I had to shuffle off to work. It was only 6 miles away... easily done. I had a car.

It was 1974 - I missed Vietnam by months. Was ready to walk out of high school right into the Navy recruiter's office because at 6.4 and 270lbs there was no way I was going into the jungle. (I should have walked into that office and joined the navy anyway... I'd be fishing now).

I was making a whopping $1.87 dollars an hour working seven days a week. The operation ran 24-7 and a continual stream of .4mm plastic was belched out of this gigantic machine and shipped off to Ford Motors to be sewn into their seats. We ran different colors sometimes, but mostly it was blue.

I had the job of supply and relief. That meant I brought this bohemoth all it's material and then filled in for it's operators while they took their breaks. I ran the forklift that brought billions of pounds of material to the head... it got poured in, mixed, heated, mixed, then dumped between 17 steaming steel rolls that mashed an endless ribbon of plastic 50 inches wide into 300 foot rolls that I won't bore you with the details of how we got them cut and packaged without ever stopping the op.

They did pay me time and half on Saturday and Double time on Sunday. I graduated high school and two years later I clocked in one day... clocked out and never went back.

The dam thing was running when I got there and as far as I know it's still running. I figured it would run fine without me.

I took a job as an explosives handler for about 8 years while I worked side jobs as an electrician. Both paid about the same, but blowing stuff up was a lot more fun than wiring stuff. I got pretty good at both, but decided it was easier pulling wire than driving a rotary rock drill into a hole, loading it with dynamite and cracking it into managable pieces.

I did another 3 years doing both... 1982...

I'd been self-employed for a decade and decided I'd like to do something I liked.

I was a two-way radio enthusiast... CB's... it was all the rage at the time, but I got ate up with the whole thing when I discovered I could build high-power amplifiers for 27mhz out of crap I bought at Ham Fests, and talk to people halfway around the world by altering the normal channels... and finding some of my own.

You'd be amazed at how many people - around the world - are listening... and quite eager to talk to you... out there where you're not supposed to be.

1982-1997

You'd really be surprised at how lucrative an endeavor it was fixing two-way radios, altering two-way radios for the public and for police. Everybody knew where I was... and everybody knew I would I do just about anything... for anybody... for 20 bucks an hour.

I built antennas from scratch that talked around the world exited with .2 watts. I built antennas that bounced signals off the moon excited with 5 thousand watts. I built antennas that listened to Dulles ground control and heard the planes for 500 miles. I listened to BBC world at 26.030... then slid to 26.035 USB and met the father of my god-daughter on pirate radio at .2 watts.

I talked in plain language to a ship in the Indian Ocean - exactly halfway around the world... to a guy named Amir... on .02 watts via a long wire.

1997-2011

Wow, I knew you guys were an interesting bunch. I don't think a boring dullard would one day say to himself, "I think I'm going to start shaving with a straight razor."

Anyway, I started working at 14 (1980) off the books at a small-town North Carolina drive-in. It was an interesting job for a skinny pizza-face, and I got to see a lot of hot babes, hot rods, and the drunks who drove them. Worked a few typical restaurant jobs in high school, including one where I was the"Soup/Salad/Desert Chef" (and dishwasher/cleanup slave) at the fanciest restaurant in town.

After high school I worked at a local Pizza Inn-I was dating the manager's daughter, so got regular raises-that is, until I broke up with her to date the beautiful, older head waitress. She later became my wife, but died after 11 months of marriage during a 2nd failed liver transplant (long story).

I then started working at the Stouffer's/Nestle plant in Gaffney, SC for the heady sum of $6.45 an hour. I did a little of everything there, and if you had any Stouffer's between '84 and '96, I probably had something to do with it. I worked at various times as a cook on the long conveyer ovens, on the other end in the raw meat room, qa tech, warehouse/production supply, etc.

At some point, after a couple of failed college attempts and getting tired of the nowhere grind punching a clock, I was driving home one night about 2 in the morning when my car pulled itself into the parking lot of my high school alma mater, where I sat for a while having a general epiphany. I went back to school to get my education degree, then spent the next 6 years working full time, going to school almost full time, then starting a family (and, oh yeah, sleeping a couple of hours a night too). Though it damn near killed me, I got my degree in '96, and have been teaching high school English ever since, mostly to seniors. I give everything to my job, and it takes everything back out. I love it, but it is the hardest job I've ever had (and that includes handling 12 tons of hamburger meat in a shift in my younger days). Sorry for the long post-next...

Military??? Has something to do with using a dirty and dull jagged edged weapon to rip the life out of an worthy opponent. Or maybe it is just the challenge of being close to doing it to your self each day! Remember, pain is good and extreme pain is extremely good.


Charlie
Reno, NV

Cardiac Surg for 40 yrs (clinical perfusionist) Ran the heart lung machines and all related equip,
Stanford trained,was there for the first heart Plant,they got real boring after the first 10 or so.
retired from that about 6 years ago,still run a small offshoot buis I kept doing blood recovery for trauma cases,Spine surg,Hips,Vascular, prostates,ectopics,anything where people could lose alot of blood.
I like Blood pays my bills.

well guys i would have never guessed we has such a great and interesting set of work backrounds, to all the US military past and present i thank you and i hope to join your ranks.

Originally Posted by Deerhunter1995

well guys i would have never guessed we has such a great and interesting set of work backrounds, to all the US military past and present i thank you and i hope to join your ranks.

I'm sure you'll do fine in the military. If you have any DoD specific questions, now you have a good resource in SRP to find someone who might know the answers.

very true and im sure as the finale countdown to my departure nears ill be asking more and more questions and looking for words of wisdom from vets past and present.

my biggest chunk of advice to you is dont believe everything the recruiter tells you as the gospel truth, remember they have a quota, and will do what they need to do to fill it, and if your recruiter isnt quite as morally bound as others, you will be told some stories.