My worst job ever

Leave it to Rory Blyth to stir up some well-bottled memories of my youth.

But anyway, reading that post got me thinking. I think I have 2 of the "crappiest jobs ever" ... one was a Paperboy and the other was a Popcorn wagon attendant.

I shall reminisce in the terrors that were my first 2 jobs...

When I was 12 I decided to take a job as a paperboy. My neighbor friends all had a paper route and I somtimes helped them. It was fun and easy. Until I decided to suit up. Since 3 of my friends already had routes near our houses, I had to get a route 3 miles from my house. Where my friends had 20-30 papers on their route, I had more than 60. These papers were delivered at 4:00 am on my doorstep every Wednesday and Saturday morning, and I swore I could hear the driver snicker as he dropped 2 heavy bundles of paper on my Welcome mat.

It took me nearly an hour to fold the papers and shove them in those paper carriers (I had 2 to fill -- one went on my shoulders and one on my handlebars). I finished at around 5:30 and had 2 hours to deliver the papers. I pedaled like crazy until I reach the neighborhood, which was a trailer park. If you have never graced a trailer park with your presence before, let me tell you that THEY ALL LOOK ALIKE. I was never going to memorize this route! On top of that, everybody who lived there was old and wanted their paper perfectly on their doorstep, which is right inside the carport. This meant that I had to set my bike down FOR EVERY HOUSE and walk the paper up there.

On top of all of this responsibility: I had to collect. I had to make several trips to the neighborhood to collect money: $4.00 for each house. I got to keep $1 of that. This means in a one month period I spent about 60+ hours delivering papers and trying to collect money. I made $60 for the entire month. This makes me want to cry even now. But I was a trooper and that amount in my mind equaled "one super nintendo game EVERY MONTH!"... how sad is that.

---

The next candidate for worst job ever was a popcorn wagon attendant for an outdoor museum in Dallas. It was called Old City Park and they had a popcorn wagon outside. It was about the size of the trunk of my Altima (read: SMALL) and I sat next to a hot-ass popcorn machine. Inside the wagon it was probably 10 degrees hotter than the Dallas summer heat outside. On a good day my wagon was only about 105 degrees F.. The saddest part of this: I got paid $4.25 / hour.

--- ahh, I feel much better now (sort of).....