Continuing from the last post with the miscellaneous jobs I’ve held:
Movie theater usher/concessions/projectionist – The spring of my senior year of high school they renovated the old Wal-Mart and made a movie theater with 8 screens (the previous movie theater in Warrensburg only had 2 screens – how small town is that). My mom worked with the wife of one of the new movie theater managers so she was able to get me an interview (and probably the job as well) when the new theater opened. It didn’t have stadium seating or anything fancy, but it was still a much better job than Burger King. I started out as an usher/concessions attendant, but then was promoted to a projectionist after a few months. Working at the theater was awesome. I loved watching movies and you worked with college kids. New movies would be delivered on Wednesday or Thursday in 6-8 film canisters. As a projectionist you would splice the 6-8 film reels together and had to watch it on Thursday evening after the movie theater closed (you watched it to make sure you didn’t accidentally splice reel 2 with reel 5 and miss 45 minutes of plot in the movie). If it was a movie people wanted to see other employees would stay with you to watch it, you could invite friends, people would bring in drinks and it would be a good time. On the flip side though, you also had to stay (usually by yourself) and watch the bad movies you put together that nobody wanted to see, like Harriet the Spy or The Horse Whisperer. My boss at the movie theater used the perks his job provided to the fullest extent. He would barter movie passes or invites to the Thursday night projectionist sneak-preview to the local dry cleaners, Domino’s & Pizza Hut, Jiffy Lube oil changes, etc. I don’t think that man paid for anything in Warrensburg. I didn’t mind though, because the Domino’s & Pizza Hut people always brought over a lot of food and weren’t too rambunctious. Working at the movie theater the summer after graduating high school was really fun. My schedule was really messed up; I’d work until midnight or so, go out with coworkers and stay up until about 6AM, then go home and go to bed and sleep until noon and then turn around and to it all over again. Another perk of working at the only movie theater in town was that you always saw people on dates and you sometimes saw people going to the movies together that you didn’t realize were together or shouldn’t have been together (at least in public due to personal commitments). You also had the usual situations of people making out in the back of the theater and you had to break that up. As a projectionist it was always fun to go up in the booth and shine a flashlight on the offenders in the back row right when they were really getting into it.
Window scraper – The summer after I graduated college I needed a temporary job just for the summer because we were moving to Alabama in August. A friend told me I could work with her husband doing some painting in some new duplexes that were being built. No problem. I was thankful to have a job and looked forward to making a little money. What I didn’t realize was that I was hired on as a windows scraper. Here’s how it would work: the construction company was building duplexes very quickly in the summer in order to get them ready for the college students returning in the fall. Once the apartments were ready to be painted (interior), they would paint the walls quickly with a spray and move on to the next room. Paint would splatter on the windows so they needed someone to scrape the paint (with a razorblade) off of each window in the apartment. I’m not kidding – hand scrape the paint off of windows with a small razorblade. And it wasn’t just a few drops of paint – those windows were covered. After scraping just 2 windows I asked if it would be easier to have me go before the painters and tape off the windows so paint wouldn’t get on them, and then remove the tape and covering afterwards. That seemed logical to me. That plan wasn’t accepted; I guess it was easier, cheaper and faster to paint the walls quickly and then pay me to scrape off the paint from the windows. You quickly realize how expendable you are and how crappy of a job you have when it’s easier to pay you to scrape paint off of windows all day than to take the time to tape off the windows. My fingers hurt so badly after the first day that I had to quit that job. I really do appreciate my friend getting me the job, but that sh!t was depressing; fresh out of college with an IT degree in the year 2000 and I was scraping paint off of windows.
Bartender – Ok, the term bartender may be a bit of a stretch. After my quick stint in the construction business (1 day as a paint scraper), I needed to find another summer job after college graduation. Another friend hooked me up with bartending at the local Elk’s Lodge. It wasn’t too mentally taxing; the job consisted of basically using a bottle opener to open the beers for the Elks Lodge members. Surprisingly, Elks Lodge members don’t really order wild drinks like a Flaming Dr. Pepper or an appletini – pretty much just drink Miller Lite. On Saturday nights there would be wedding receptions or high school reunions at the Elk Lodge, so I did get to bartend those. Those were entertaining because they’d have a DJ and it was pretty busy and you’d actually serve drinks other than just beer.
I’ve held other jobs during my tenure in the workforce, such as working at the college library and various computer-related jobs, but those were pretty standard and not very interesting. I do appreciate the various jobs I’ve had because I think I learned something (maybe not job-related) at each one of them. One recurring theme at each one was to stay in school and get a degree I could use so I wouldn’t have to do the job I was currently doing for the rest of my life.
Song/Album of the day: BB King’s “Live in Cook County Jail.” People always talk about Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison album being the definitive album recorded at a prison, but BB King’s is just as good (at least to me). You know it’s going to be good when, during the 1st track as they’re introducing everyone to the audience/general population, the inmates boo loudly when the sheriff is introduced. If you like blues, you’ll like this album.
Movie theater usher/concessions/projectionist – The spring of my senior year of high school they renovated the old Wal-Mart and made a movie theater with 8 screens (the previous movie theater in Warrensburg only had 2 screens – how small town is that). My mom worked with the wife of one of the new movie theater managers so she was able to get me an interview (and probably the job as well) when the new theater opened. It didn’t have stadium seating or anything fancy, but it was still a much better job than Burger King. I started out as an usher/concessions attendant, but then was promoted to a projectionist after a few months. Working at the theater was awesome. I loved watching movies and you worked with college kids. New movies would be delivered on Wednesday or Thursday in 6-8 film canisters. As a projectionist you would splice the 6-8 film reels together and had to watch it on Thursday evening after the movie theater closed (you watched it to make sure you didn’t accidentally splice reel 2 with reel 5 and miss 45 minutes of plot in the movie). If it was a movie people wanted to see other employees would stay with you to watch it, you could invite friends, people would bring in drinks and it would be a good time. On the flip side though, you also had to stay (usually by yourself) and watch the bad movies you put together that nobody wanted to see, like Harriet the Spy or The Horse Whisperer. My boss at the movie theater used the perks his job provided to the fullest extent. He would barter movie passes or invites to the Thursday night projectionist sneak-preview to the local dry cleaners, Domino’s & Pizza Hut, Jiffy Lube oil changes, etc. I don’t think that man paid for anything in Warrensburg. I didn’t mind though, because the Domino’s & Pizza Hut people always brought over a lot of food and weren’t too rambunctious. Working at the movie theater the summer after graduating high school was really fun. My schedule was really messed up; I’d work until midnight or so, go out with coworkers and stay up until about 6AM, then go home and go to bed and sleep until noon and then turn around and to it all over again. Another perk of working at the only movie theater in town was that you always saw people on dates and you sometimes saw people going to the movies together that you didn’t realize were together or shouldn’t have been together (at least in public due to personal commitments). You also had the usual situations of people making out in the back of the theater and you had to break that up. As a projectionist it was always fun to go up in the booth and shine a flashlight on the offenders in the back row right when they were really getting into it.
Window scraper – The summer after I graduated college I needed a temporary job just for the summer because we were moving to Alabama in August. A friend told me I could work with her husband doing some painting in some new duplexes that were being built. No problem. I was thankful to have a job and looked forward to making a little money. What I didn’t realize was that I was hired on as a windows scraper. Here’s how it would work: the construction company was building duplexes very quickly in the summer in order to get them ready for the college students returning in the fall. Once the apartments were ready to be painted (interior), they would paint the walls quickly with a spray and move on to the next room. Paint would splatter on the windows so they needed someone to scrape the paint (with a razorblade) off of each window in the apartment. I’m not kidding – hand scrape the paint off of windows with a small razorblade. And it wasn’t just a few drops of paint – those windows were covered. After scraping just 2 windows I asked if it would be easier to have me go before the painters and tape off the windows so paint wouldn’t get on them, and then remove the tape and covering afterwards. That seemed logical to me. That plan wasn’t accepted; I guess it was easier, cheaper and faster to paint the walls quickly and then pay me to scrape off the paint from the windows. You quickly realize how expendable you are and how crappy of a job you have when it’s easier to pay you to scrape paint off of windows all day than to take the time to tape off the windows. My fingers hurt so badly after the first day that I had to quit that job. I really do appreciate my friend getting me the job, but that sh!t was depressing; fresh out of college with an IT degree in the year 2000 and I was scraping paint off of windows.
Bartender – Ok, the term bartender may be a bit of a stretch. After my quick stint in the construction business (1 day as a paint scraper), I needed to find another summer job after college graduation. Another friend hooked me up with bartending at the local Elk’s Lodge. It wasn’t too mentally taxing; the job consisted of basically using a bottle opener to open the beers for the Elks Lodge members. Surprisingly, Elks Lodge members don’t really order wild drinks like a Flaming Dr. Pepper or an appletini – pretty much just drink Miller Lite. On Saturday nights there would be wedding receptions or high school reunions at the Elk Lodge, so I did get to bartend those. Those were entertaining because they’d have a DJ and it was pretty busy and you’d actually serve drinks other than just beer.
I’ve held other jobs during my tenure in the workforce, such as working at the college library and various computer-related jobs, but those were pretty standard and not very interesting. I do appreciate the various jobs I’ve had because I think I learned something (maybe not job-related) at each one of them. One recurring theme at each one was to stay in school and get a degree I could use so I wouldn’t have to do the job I was currently doing for the rest of my life.
Song/Album of the day: BB King’s “Live in Cook County Jail.” People always talk about Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison album being the definitive album recorded at a prison, but BB King’s is just as good (at least to me). You know it’s going to be good when, during the 1st track as they’re introducing everyone to the audience/general population, the inmates boo loudly when the sheriff is introduced. If you like blues, you’ll like this album.
I didn't know you bartended at the Elk's! Next time my dad drags me to all you can eat taco night I'm SO bringing you:)
ReplyDeleteI will totally go to the next taco night. I haven’t been there since August 2000. I doubt that the lodge has changed much; the Elks seem to be a pretty static group. As a side note, it was your sister who got me the razorblade paint job that summer with Casey.
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