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The Weirdest/Craziest Job You Have Ever Done

Posted by khalling 8 years, 10 months ago to Business
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I hope there are a few spies who come forward. Anyway, Aj's post on robots is the muse for this post. This is going to be a wild ride. ok I'll start with a sad job-but I will save my most controversial job for later-I want to see what you all can bring to the table.
to pay for college tuition, I sat in a back room at the bookstore and tore off book covers. Yes-from most beloved novels to Aristotle. We sent the covers back to the publisher's and we torched the books. Yes! Torched them! If you were caught "stealing" the body of a book to be torched (!) you were fired.


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  • 15
    Posted by dbhalling 8 years, 10 months ago
    I was a janitor in high school, which does not sound too weird. However I performed the work at night and it was a pathology lab. One of my tasks was to take out the trash - not too weird, but on any given night there might be a gangrene arm or leg in the trash. I had to carefully wrap the plastic bag around the appendage. Sometimes it bag was not large enough at the bloody end of the appendage would stick out. Then I would take the trash down the elevator. In the basement there was a cement floor and a poorly lit hallway that echoed with each creak of the wheels on the cement floor. I ended up at the incinerator. I would open the heavy blast door, where there were usually some cinders burning from other tenants' of the building’s trash. Then I would throw the bags of the trash into the incinerator When I got to the bag with the amputated appendage I hoped (prayed) the bag would not split open and the bloody end rub on your hands or stain the sleeve of your best flannel shirt. Once the trash was in the incinerator, I closed the heavy cast iron door and hit the ignition switch, which caused the natural gas burners to kick on with an eerie glow from slits around the blast door which were not completely sealed and sizzle with the burning flesh.
    However, this was not the only hazards of the job, there were needles in the trash and that is why you had to be up to date on your TB shots. So lifting the trash bags could result in punctures from needles of diseased people.
    But wait, that’s not all. Once every six months or so I was required to go to a store room in the basement of this six-story building, load up a cart of brains that were store in jars of formaldehyde (I think). Take the cart to the incinerator and toss them in. The law required that the brains be stored for two years or something.
    Who helped get me this wonderful job – my DAD, who was a pathologist.
    Best damn job I ever had. It got me out of the house, I could do it any time after about 6 pm and I was able to spend as much of my pay check as a wanted on girls and beer and still save about ½ of my paycheck.
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  • 12
    Posted by Technocracy 8 years, 10 months ago
    When I was 14 I used to work at the local country club shagging balls o the driving range. Cash money and no paperwork since 14 was too young to officially work.

    The job consisted of riding around in a cart in the "impact area" and poke a hollow tube with spring clips on the end over the balls as you drove past. You then dumped them out the other end into a basket on the floor beside you.

    What made the job interesting was the fact that since it was a standard golf cart, no protective gear of any kind. You were automatically the target of everyone on the line.

    You quickly learn the skill set of driving erratically while picking up golf balls with an aluminum tube at full speed. It was both fun and a bit of an adrenaline rush when someone got close. You wind up dodging without even seeing what is coming.

    The only carry over I ever found from that was dodging suicide squirrels that change their mind part way across the road.

    Nowadays they pull a pickup machine behind the cart, and the cart is enclosed in plexiglass like the popemobile to protect you.

    I have to think it is not anywhere near the fun it was when I used to do it.
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    • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 8 years, 10 months ago
      I have to agree with that. Although I think the people that drive those new enclosed pope-ball-mobiles must twitch by the end of the day after all of the clanking when the balls clang off the cart. Lol!
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  • 12
    Posted by $ minniepuck 8 years, 10 months ago
    I worked for the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones. I was a food runner for the suites in the old stadium. My suites were on one end of football field and the food pickup location was at the other end. I had to put the food on a heavy cart and haul ass to the customers, which was fine. What made me resign after just one game was when they ran out of water for us runners. I just figured a job where I had to walk 15+ miles in a day without water wasn't worth it.

    The other job that fits this description was writing inspirational speeches for executives in major corporations ($billions). Back then, I was a 16-year-old intern originally hired to make copies, get coffee, and take staples out of stuff.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 10 months ago
      whoa! more info on the speech writing! what did you write?! you have GOT to throw us a bone. 16. wow.
      we knew this woman who was a speech writer for Reagan! unfortunately, I could not stand her. for one, she hit on Db all the time. she's a real estate salesperson in Colorado.
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  • 11
    Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 10 months ago
    There was a post I'd sometimes catch back in the early 80s while a prison was under construction.
    I'd sit in prison cell in a yet to be completed cell block staring at populated dorms.
    The idea was that should any inmate escape the dorms, I would blast any climbing a fence with a shotgun aimed through a cell window.
    There were two such posts--one for the east side and the west side cell blocks.
    No one tried to escape and those posts disappeared when construction was complete and inmates lived in the cell blocks.
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  • 11
    Posted by iroseland 8 years, 10 months ago
    I cannot say that any jobs were actually crazy..

    Back in College I was a variety of things ( as long as they paid money ) so I ended up being a janitor for a while... That taught me an interesting and useful lesson on how to interact with facility staff. I treat them well and like they are there. As it turns out most folks treat them like furniture. So, they are full of amazingly useful information.

    After that I was a late shift data tape librarian at Ameritech. Most of the folks I worked with were ex-MaBell employees and it was interesting to hear about how things used to be run well..

    Eventually I applied to Midway Games ( they made MortalKombat ) . I was pretty sure that there was no way in hell they would be interested in talking to me so I wrote the cover letter like it didn't matter. I wrote a paragraph going over the job requirements and how I already have done that. Then ended by essentially double dog daring them to call me. ( I actually used those words. ) A week later, I got home from a very good day where I set up the initial phone scree with a job that would have required me to move to Luxembourg. I was pretty excited, I knew what to expect from Luxembourg and I was fine with it. But, I got home and there was a message on the Machine from HR at Midway. They liked my cover letter and wanted to talk. Two weeks later I was driving to my first day there.
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    • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 10 months ago
      reminds me of a friend who was a successful Navy
      nuclear powerplant engineer. . and his interview
      with Hyman Rickover.

      Rickover welcomed him into the office and, without
      letting him sit down, challenged him:::

      "Do something to irritate me." . my friend stood
      there and thought, "What could I do?"

      he reached out and swiped a bunch of stuff off of
      the right front corner of Rickover's desk, like his
      walnut nameplate, a cup of pencils and some
      memorabilia, straight off into the floor.

      Rickover hired him. -- j
      .
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  • Posted by Flootus5 8 years, 10 months ago
    In the mid-eighties for a couple of years I kept the nose above water by telling rich doctors and lawyers to not invest in rampant gold scams. Yavapai County, Arizona is a hotbed of these phony scams - everything from the standard line that "my ore doesn't fire assay" to special recovery techniques that only the scamster is privy to, to "my ore is rich with 14 heretofore unidentified elements".

    Remember Mark Twain's definition of a gold miner: "A liar standing next to a hole in the ground".

    I would meet the scamster, go to his property in the field, take my own samples, get them fire assayed at a reputable lab, and report to the rich doctor/lawyer that you will not get rich on this promoted mining property. They were always wide eyed grateful and then would refer me to yet another doctor/lawyer falling for yet another scam. In the course of all this I met some really wacked out crazies out there in the deserts. I am probably lucky I was not thrown down an old shaft followed by bags of lime. Some of these characters were dangerous, one shot a guy sitting in his car ahead of him in the drive thru banking lane, another openly threatened the life of the Arizona Governor back then. The only one that had it worse was the State Mine Inspectors that had to go out and inspect these "operations".

    I could write a book on these stories. Hmmmm.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 10 months ago
      that is weird and cool. how did you land such a job?
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      • Posted by Flootus5 8 years, 10 months ago
        As a geologist, from 1983 through 1987, the longest lasting official employment I had was 10 months. Not too good. In '84, I wracked my back once again and was in the chiropractor's office. When he was done tweaking my bones, he grabbed me by the arm and took me in back and asked if I would take a look at this mine near Prescott he was already sinking money into. I did, took some samples, did some mapping and reported back to him. At $100/day plus expenses, he thought it was well worth the money not to sink additional thousands into the scam. And from there it went by word of mouth to others falling for the scams.

        The interesting part with this one was when I went back to the "lab" these two guys had in their garage in Prescott, Az. They had a small kiln with the elements burnt out in it, a microscope with coke bottle lenses, and lived in an adjacent old "Mother in Law" type house next to an alley. While I was there their "partner", this seedy pencil thin mustache character arrived shortly followed by an extremely expensive Cadillac down the alley. Into the garage came this immaculately dressed distinguished elderly gentleman. There was no time for introductions and the seedy partner and Cadillac guy had no idea I was a geologist, just a scruffy bearded mountain man in flannel. So, I got to listen to the entire sales pitch they made to this obviously affluent fellow. And I kept my mouth shut.

        The affluent guy left and seedy mustache guy jumped around rubbing his hands in glee and said "I think we have our White Rabbit this time". The two guys that I had visited the property with were mortified at this display. I never knew who the affluent guy was and I went back to my chiro with an eye popping tale to tell him. Interesting, that evening the two guys called me up and apologized for even being involved in the scam. They actually came from a respectable mining background history and had gotten suckered in to this by seedy mustache guy. I actually later hired the younger son to help me map thousands of feet of old underground workings high in the Bradshaw Mts. in central Arizona. I at least had an influence keeping him on the straight and narrow.

        I put an end to this phase of my "career" by returning to Nevada and getting a real job with real gold mining companies.
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        • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 10 months ago
          This is fascinating.

          Why don't you write a novel? The main character is 'you' (cleverly disguised under a different name), and does just about what you actually did. This gives you a venue to relate the tales, under different names, but dodge any unpleasant repercussions because it is 'fiction. You would need to add a main plot arc to tie it all together...

          Jan
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          • Posted by Flootus5 8 years, 10 months ago
            Now that is a really interesting idea. Got to think about a plot arc tying many of these incidences together.

            And then there was the guy down on the Colorado River that was employing the wisdom of King Solomon to treat and recover gold from ores. Used the special power of women in the process. Whoop, getting too salacious for this venue. I'll just leave it where the unpaid women chased the guy down in the desert to get what they were due!
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            • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 10 months ago
              What a great element that would be in a novel (no one would believe it was real)!

              Jan
              (Inclined to think of the rich Cadillac guy as being an element in the uber arc - maybe he was not as dumb as he seemed...)
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  • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 10 months ago
    For two summers, 1988 and 1990, I was a member of a Renaissance acting troop touring Britain and performing in stately halls and mansions and in castles. I was one of the live steel (rebated) broadsword fighters, one of the dancers, and I did craft demos of armor.

    We performed completely 'in period', which means that if someone commented on the machine stitching of a hem, the reply was, "Yes, my lady's tirewoman has marvelous even stitches, does she not?" (Sometimes it became quite a game to try to stay in period when one of the tourists asked questions.) My part was that of "Jennifer Oakes", a young scallywag who had been found aboard a ship (yes, documentable) and who was trying to be reclaimed as a proper servant.

    When we were not 'on stage', I was the fight choreographer, driver of one of the vans, and armorer (needed to be repaired occasionally). I was also part of the 'keep her sane' staff of the director, which in one case involved me holding up a shield and having her hit it with a sword until she was exhausted.

    FYI. American tourists are every bit as bad as we are writ up to be. We learned to cringe when a bus full of our countrymen pulled up. (We were all speaking with British accents, so the tourists did not realize that we were not American.)

    Jan, has a lot of fun stories
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    • Posted by Zenphamy 8 years, 10 months ago
      I like that 'keep her sane' staff. I can think of several projects I had where I could have used that staff. But holding the shield while someone needed to 'keep sane'?
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      • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 10 months ago
        She picked up a wooden version of a sword, held it in both hands like a baseball bat, an whaled away on the shield I was holding until her face was red and sweat was dripping.

        I was shouting words of encouragement, such as "Smack that bastard!" and "Hit him again." (We were having trouble with the manager of one of our venues changing 'our deal' as soon as we actually got there - an being very unpleasant about it as well. Most people treated us well, but to a few folks, we were just 'scummy hirling entertainers' and they expected to treat us like dirt. Since we were all capable people (a lot of professionals - psychologist, lawyer, upper management, etc) we did not react well to this.) The manager of the troop was/is a very high-caliber person and quite organized (and a Randist); changing our deal in a high-handed (rude) fashion was something that she did not take lightly. I have rarely seen her so angry, but it was quite justified.

        I was glad to help.

        Jan
        (Ed to add more text.)
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    • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 10 months ago
      did you videotape any of this? . bet it would be
      fascinating today!!! -- j
      .
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      • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 10 months ago
        I do not think so - nowadays it would be on everybody's phone and then on youtube right away. Back then, we were doing well to get stills (and not many of them). There is a website (though the Company is pretty much retired): http://pasttimeswithgoodcompany.com/ptim...

        (This is from one of our British tours. (I am sitting down; I wear a red doublet.)

        Jan
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        • Posted by 8 years, 10 months ago
          how awesome you all look!
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          • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 10 months ago
            Thanks. It was an incredible group of people. At the time, the British 'equivalent' of Past Times was very low level - people running around in polyester fairy tale costumes, speaking modern English. We pretty much blew them away when we came over in meticulously sewn period garb (some were made from clothes shown in actual paintings), speaking Elizabethian English and trading gossip about the goings-on of the Court of Elizabeth-I.

            We gave some seminars and workshops whilst we were over there (1990 and later). The end result is that now Britain has a fine re-enactment community and does not need to import Americans to show them how to present their own history.

            Thanks for looking at the photo. (Some of the women's costumes weighted more than my suite of armor did.) It was fun, but hell.

            Jan
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  • Posted by ChrisCrossen 8 years, 10 months ago
    When I was in high school (about 1960), I worked one night a week (all night) at a local printing plant that printed Sunday color comics. There was always a fine mist of ink in the air from the running presses. I went around the building with a bucket of kerosene and rags and cleaned all the fluorescent light tubes. I would take them out, wipe off the accumulated ink with a kerosene-soaked rag, dry them, and put them back. It took most of the night to do them all.

    They eventually moved to a larger location and the three 4-deck presses had to be dismantled. Before they could be taken apart, years of accumulated ink had to be scraped and kerosened from them. Another kid and I crawled into these things, lay on our backs and scraped and cleaned. At the end of the day, I would take a bucket of kerosene into the shower and use it to first clean the ink out of my hair and off myself before showering with soap and water.
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    • Posted by JoleneMartens1982 8 years, 10 months ago
      Ugh! I have so done that, but not as long. I was a jogger stacker at a crappy add printings company. The lines were down a lot and anytime they were, we would have to clean parts of the printing press with chemicals and rags.
      Horrible job! In two weeks I ruined half my clothes and could barely use my thumbs or grasp anything. I quit to go to a concert.
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  • Posted by Zenphamy 8 years, 10 months ago
    My very first job in the Navy fresh out of boot camp was to clean the Officer's Head. I thought no problem, that won't take very long or be hard. Then the Chief explained that I had to stay in that little two holer plus two urinals all day. I had to greet the Officer's when they came in, stand out of the way-then when he was done, immediately clean the toilet or urinal he had just used.

    Reading db's comment reminded me of my Grandmother having a leg, up to mid-thigh, amputated. My Uncle decided that the leg needed to be buried in Grandma's grave plot so that when she passed, it would be there waiting for her. He assigned the job to his oldest son and me. After 2 pints of whiskey, around midnight, in a small, old, country cemetery way out in the middle of some Arkansas fields, there we were, drunker than hell, two shovels getting down to six feet, burying the leg. We didn't even try to get home after, just slept in the car till morning. A really awful hangover to wake up to, covered in dirt and mud, we made it back to my cousin's house. Neither of us would talk to my Uncle for the next six months.
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 8 years, 10 months ago
    OMG that's awful, Kaila! Ugh...

    Ok, I worked as a limousine driver in Richmond, VA to pay college tuition. Because I was extremely familiar with the Washington, D.C. Metro area, including BWI airport, I got some pretty good runs. The most.... energetic.... client, was a woman I picked up in Richmond, drove up to BWI to collect her boyfriend, and drive them back to her house in Richmond. Sitting at red lights was providing the surrounding commuters with some entertainment, and the limo was bouncing and jerking, all while sitting at a light.... She gave me a HUGE tip, which included a bottle of Crystal Champagne and a bag of weed with two rolled joints in it...

    Then there was apprenticing on a 100' schooner, the Mystic Clipper. That's where I developed my enduring love for not only the open water, but coffee.
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    • Posted by dbhalling 8 years, 10 months ago
      Hey this is a G rated site - tell us more.
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      • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 8 years, 10 months ago
        Hehe! That wasn't the only time that happened, I'll say that... Panties on the floor, unopened booze which I was given, bags of...illicit substances, which I tossed. Not into that, really!
        We had a band once and they were really great. Fun group. :-)
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        • Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 10 months ago
          There is a book called Look Me in the Eye about an electronics engineer who ends up working for Pink Floyd and sees all kinds of craziness like that, even though he's not into it either. He went from a boring job working in a toy company to la vida loca with rock stars with similar antics to what you saw.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 10 months ago
      awe, non mooch-the life you have lead for such a polite lady who packs :)
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      • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 8 years, 10 months ago
        I have seen my share of weird stuff. I also was a proofreader for a court reporting firm in DC, and because we did the hearings in the Pentagon, GSA, and on The Hill, I had a security clearance of a high level. I also had a Karmann Ghia at the time which once belonged to a General. He never took off his parking permits which included his rank, so I used to get saluted until I figured out why. I then dispatched the stickers to the waste bin...
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        • Posted by Zenphamy 8 years, 10 months ago
          What? Didn't like the salutes? That would have been a hoot.

          There has to be some interesting stories in all of that. How long does the secrecy last?
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          • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 8 years, 10 months ago
            It was pretty damn funny actually. I was maybe 23, so CLEARLY not a general... I saluted back, too. I thought it would have been bad form if I didn't.

            Well, NRC was also a "client", so indefinitely for them. I really don't know, as I haven't thought about that job for years... huh..
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  • Posted by cjferraris 8 years, 10 months ago
    Well, this isn't a job I did, but my mother did.. She was a cosmetologist (high-end hairdresser). Someone had asked her to fix the hair for a friend of hers that passed away. She did it for free because it was her friend. She had never done one for someone who had passed, but figured it shouldn't be that bad. Well, she gets to the funeral parlor and proceeds to start preparing her for the funeral the next day. As she's brushing her hair, the body started moving because the person who had passed could not be embalmed due to religious reasons. Now she was getting very uncomfortable but back then, they tied the toes together and since this woman was an amputee, when her leg fell off the table, my mom freaked out and ran out screaming.... After that, she never did another funeral....
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  • Posted by sdesapio 8 years, 10 months ago
    Excuse my ignorance, but why were you ripping off the covers and sending them back to the publishers? What was the purpose?

    Craziest job... I couldn't have been more than 17, and it didn't last more then a week, but I cold-called selling pencils in the name of veterans. It was a small dark hole-in-the-wall. We literally had a wall of phone books from around the country that we would go and grab from, and just start randomly calling people. The pitch was that the money would go to help vets in distress. It didn't. I left.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 8 years, 10 months ago
    Hello khalling,
    I worked as a roadie for a rock band back in 1979-1981. Some of the things I saw people do... I didn't fall off of a turnip truck, but I was still surprised at what some girls would do to get introduced to members of the band. Oh the mammaries... er, um memories... Sorry. Did I write that out loud? :) I wouldn't say it was weird, but some of those groupies sure were crazy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92sEgZSm...
    O.A.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 10 months ago
      I was waiting for your roadie story OA. give us one particular "incident" or is it like Vegas?
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      • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 8 years, 10 months ago
        Well those were strange days indeed. It was the age of sex, drugs and rock & roll. I remember waking up in places and not knowing how I got there, though it wasn't drugs for me. It was the beer on the bands bar tab. I remember once we worked a place where drinks were not gratis; we drank so much it was like a scene from the blues brothers; we had to scram after the show because we owed more than we were going to be paid and no one had and we didn't have enough cash! There were always girls trying to bribe us in the most salacious ways if we would only get them backstage. Temptation! It was fun, but I am so much better off living a more sedate life. I still have friends in the business that learned to slow down. the ones that didn't... well their stories aren't so attractive. Once we were very lucky because we almost had a Great White story with out of control pyrotechnics.. Wild times!
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      • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 8 years, 10 months ago
        I should elaborate a bit regarding the bar bill story. We did drink plenty, but the complete story as I recall it, is that we put out the word we were playing at this particular club and filled the place to standing room only and at the end of the night after the club emptied the club owner tried to cheat us out of our share of the cover charge. That is why the band member that set up the gig told us to load out and move out ASAP. We never worked there again.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
    It's 1952. I'm 18 and in Miami Beach eating lunch at a chicken restaurant. A fellow sits down at my table and introduces himself. He looks vaguely familiar but references several people I know from high school. He asks me if I'd like to make $100. Are you kidding? In '52 that was big bucks. Just help him load up a cabin cruiser, accompany him to its destination, unload and come back. Shouldn't take more than six hours. For a hundred zorts, I am your man. The next morning a 8 AM I am at Haulover Beach where there is a pile of wooden crates and a boat. I help him load up. Man those crates were heavy.
    All loaded and off we went. We cruise south into the Gulf of Mexico when I hear a gurgling sound. I look into the cabin where the crates are and we're taking on water. I tell the guy to call the Coast Guard because in about 10 minutes we will be under water. He refuses. I push him aside and go to the radio. I don't have a clue as to how to work it. Doesn't matter because by that time the water shorts out the wires. The water is now at deck level and we're barely afloat. Luckily, a Mexican fishing boat comes by and picks us up just as we see the last of the boat go down in a stream of bubbles. The only sailor who could speak English said they were heading for Apalachacola, Fl. and we'd be OK there. I wasn't familiar with that town but later I realized it was as far away from Miami as you could get and still be in Florida. I questioned the guy about what kind of cargo was lost. At first he refused to tell me, but finally, I guess since they were at the bottom of the Gulf it didn't matter, it was rifles. I'm thinking, was he a gun runner and for who, and it is got to be illegal. When we docked, he disappeared. As I tried to figure out what to do, he zoomed by me in what I suppose was a rental car. I had enough money for a Greyhound ticket to Miami. I got to my hotel late that night, hungry, and no $100.
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    • Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 10 months ago
      Free (possibly black) market at work, eh, Herb.
      Too bad the businessman was so ignorant about watercraft. Did he ever say what the destination was? That might give some clue about the cargo. Two hours one way travel would limit the destinations, but might also include a rendevous at sea.
      Any thoughts about the weight to size of the boxes and what was in demand in 1952?
      I am glad the boat came along to pick you up and you are here to tell the tale.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
        At 18, my brain was often short circuited from the rest of me. He told me rifles. At the time, all I could think about was that it must be illegal which was why he'd rather drown than call the Coast Guard. There were no vests that I recall on the boat, and I don't know what caused the leak but it must have been pretty big because it filled up the cabin in about 10 minutes.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 10 months ago
      double WOW. that would make an excellent short story, herb. I'm stealing it for Hank ;)
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      • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
        I guess this put my memory in gear. We are standing knee deep in water on a sinking cabin cruiser with nothing in sight as far as I could see. Just over the horizon a trail of black smoke. I thought that maybe I wasn't going to die after all. The boat stunk of fish, the hold must have been pretty full. To this day, the smell of fresh fish is actually a pleasant one to me.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
        OK by me. Here are a few additional details. I was there during the Hay Fever season. I stayed at a hotel that I'm sure is no longer there called The President Madison. The restaurant which no longer exists had the cutsie name of Picken Chicken. After questioning my friends later, no one seemed to know this guy so the mystery remains as to how he knew me or my friends. By the way, salt water is not good for clothes or wallets.
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  • Posted by Kittyhawk 8 years, 10 months ago
    While I was in college, I took a summer job as a camp counselor. Out in the boonies, our accommodations were a bunk house made of nothing but two-by-fours and screen. A week or so into the job, all of the counselors were called in for an unexpected meeting, at which we learned that the family who lived at the start of the only road leading in to camp had been murdered. I considered the safety of the kids (as well as my own safety) to be my responsibility, so I hunted for any weapon, found a cast iron pan in the bathhouse closet, and slept with one eye open, with the pan under my bed, for the rest of the summer. At some point we were told that the family had been killed by someone they knew, and we at the camp weren't considered to be in any unusual danger anymore. But it sure felt like being in a classic horror movie for a while there.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 10 months ago
      AH! you beat me to my weirdest job kitty! dang it! oh, and also, very tragic incident.
      the summer of 77 I was a counselor in training at a girl scout camp in iowa. I was 15. All girl scout camps within a certain geographic location were informed that a horrible multiple rape/murder of young scouts happened in OK. at the time, they sought a recent prison escapee for the crime. They set all the counselors up to do all night watch and patrol. They gave me a flashlight and two way radio. I sat in the dark and then patrolled my camp unit, checking on each tent of girls for weeks. 15, middle of the night, alone. scariest thing I have EVER done. but not as scary as what you faced. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_gi...
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      • Posted by Kittyhawk 8 years, 10 months ago
        I'm shocked that we have such a similar experience in common! I'm sorry for stealing your glory. Wow, I have to say yours sounds scarier with the prison escapee, and doing nighttime patrols alone! And I'm so sorry for all of the victims.
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    • Posted by Zenphamy 8 years, 10 months ago
      What a bummer for a summer camp.
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      • Posted by 8 years, 10 months ago
        they paid me but I can assure you it wasn 't min wage. Non profits enjoy a slippery path from worker to volunteer that private businesses cannot travel
        Why do you think we are now rife with NGOs? Dems don 't want to pay their workers min wage, they just want you to pay yours. I 'm actually in a forum right now where the argument is -if you can 't afford to pay your worker a living wage then you shouldn't start a business.
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  • Posted by SamAnderson 8 years, 10 months ago
    I had a great job in college one summer working for a catering company that serviced ~30 stadium type concerts at three venues over a May-August period (mid 70's). We catered the roadies during setup, set up for the bands (I wish I had saved their backstage demand lists..some pretty outlandish requirements: like "M&Ms, but NO yellow ones", and typically a booze list that would more than stock a small package store), then we managed any needs backstage pre and post show. We saw them all that summer: Chicago, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Boston, Kenny Loggins, James Taylor, the Doobies, Foreigner, Jackson Browne, Peter Framptom, Eagles, Dan Fogelberg, etc. etc. We had backstage passes, typically got a tour t-shirt and also got to watch the concerts, and well, as to what happened afterward, I'll I've got to say is what you've heard about drugs, sex an rock n' roll is all true, although we were working our tails off doing clean up, not participating. I did get to briefly meet many of the artists backstage in the 1-2 hours before the show, and that was interesting. I remember thinking "now I know why Kiss band members wear makeup on stage." Handsome is not the term I would use for their natural born mugs, although they did put on a great show. Anyway, we also got paid ~$5/hr. What a deal! Plus I was the instant envy of my friends that fall when they saw my concert T-Shirt collection and found out "what I did last summer".
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    • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 8 years, 10 months ago
      What a great job! I know you worked your tail off, but what an experience! Those were some amazing bands you got to see.
      I often wonder what my kids will do, and if they will have experiences as unique or memorable. And what they would think of some of the things I've done. They know some, not all. ;-)
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    • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 10 months ago
      and we just had a friend at the radio station and sat
      in the front few rows with the press. . I Am Envious!!! -- j

      p.s. I did get to shake Sneaky Pete Kleinow's hand,
      though. . my favorite steel player of all time. . snif.

      .
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  • Posted by edweaver 8 years, 10 months ago
    I was a spy. Well not really but K wanted a few spies to come forward so thought I would give her hope. LOL

    I grew up on a farm so I did many jobs but they did not seem weird or crazy to me. They were just part of living. From shoveling chicken coops to calf pens, stacking hay and milking cows there was never a dull moment.
    Then I worked for a feed company. The craziest thing I ever did for them was hang on the roof of a grain bin by a rope that was tied around my stomach, while running a hand held power saw cutting holes in the steel roof to install ventilation covers. No it was not really dangerous. [sarcasm] That was in 1980 at minimum wage and I had no complaints. I had a job which were hard to come by at the time.

    Also crazy, selling accident insurance door to door. A job I hated but it the taught me the most about life and people.

    Oh and starting my own business so I could become one of those people that "did not build that". It was no work at all. I never worked a single 40 hour week...since most were 80. :) But when the government finally help me built it to somewhat of a success, they decided that I was not giving them enough so they took more. That may be the craziest job I ever did. lol Oh... that is not really funny.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 10 months ago
    When I had my biofuels business, we had jobs to convert chicken poop and cow poop into usable energy to power the corresponding farms, but Uncommon Sense beats me on this one because we didn't win the contract for cleaning up pig poop.

    If you hate those postcards saying "This house just listed or sold in your neighborhood.", one of my former bosses had the idea and hired me to implement it back before computers were personal. We turned his Century 21 office into the highest selling office in the US. It was an honor to work for a producer of the highest order.
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