Driving around, my brain randomly thought about my first job. I was hired as a student assistant with the Upper Dublin maintenance crew. I was paid $5.75 an hour and my job was expendable. In fact, I was more of a detriment than an asset. Consider the time I was sent to buy ballasts from Denny’s and instead bought them from Decks for about 8x the price. As a 15 year old, returning the mistake was not an easy task. My second year I got to drive the van around which was a challenge in itself. I left the job in my 3rd year after almost electrocuting myself and getting yelled at by the electrician that “this isn’t a fucking game”.
I would arrive at work at 7am and then all the crew would read the paper until 8, on the clock I might add. Dave Thomas was in charge and he walked with a limp. He was a nice guy and used the word schmega to describe any sticky substance internally laughing every time. Matt Toner brought me to his house one time to help him beat a level in the game Thief. John Judge drove me around for 2 hours not saying one word. His job was pretending he had a job. Phil was the plumber and he drove me to the junk yard one time and told me to saw a pipe that I had no idea how to do. Luckily I didn’t cut a finger off. My first day I was told to sweep the dust in the library. I wasn’t sure if it was a real job or not, but I swept for hours that day moving dirt from one spot to the next. Another time I installed all the tiles upside down when Dave left me alone to do his job. Never again.
The 50 bucks a day provided me to go golfing with Bud at Twining each afternoon which cost $18. It was worth it because I didn’t need any money to live. The job taught me relatively nothing other than local municipality workers do their best to do as little as possible. Don’t get me wrong though, these guys are needed because there are lots of problems. Was it a great experience? I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s still funny to think back to those days and reminisce about why I ever did that to begin with.
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