What was your most unusual job?

[frogmarch]

Mine was also my shortest term of employment.

When I was 18, I applied for, and got, a job as an alligator wrestler at Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota. My position as Gator Gal lasted less than five minutes - the time it took owner Earl Brockelsby after interviewing and hiring me to tell me that when I wasn't wrestling gators, I'd be feeding live mice to the snakes. Not my thing, and I said no thanks. (I had nothing against snakes, but I wasn't about to do that to cute, widdle mice!)

Earl Brockelsby liked snakes.

[rsdsharp]

1. Probably the most unusual was being a chimney sweep.

[frogmarch]

3. That job would scare me!

Heights aren't my thing either.

What kinds of things, if any, did you find in the chimneys? I've heard of birds and bats and other critters being found in them.

[rsdsharp]

10. The second job I did, I turned away from the hearth for a second,

and when I turned back there was an upside down squirrel right in my face. Fortunately, it was already dead, but it scared the hell out of me.

Most of the time you didn’t need to go onto the roof, but I got to enjoy it, especially on a nice day on an easy roof. I did once find myself crawling up onto a low entryway roof, pulling up a ladder with a ridge hook, pushing that up the main roof and using that to get to the ridge, three stories high, and then inching down the ridge line to the chimney to install a cap — in the winter. I found myself questioning my choices on that job.

[frogmarch]

13. The dead squirrel would have freaked me out

and that high roof? Forget it. Glad you survived!

[Pobeka]

2. Helped take a steam calliope around to county fairs.

It was actually pretty cool. Some "days" were literally 24 hours. That was a crazy summer.

[frogmarch]

5. I had to google "steam calliope"

because I'd never seen one, not even in pictures. I also googled calliope music. Wow on both counts!

It does sound like a cool job - but yikes, 24 hours!

[2naSalit]

4. Most of my jobs were unusual.

I did have a few that weren't like cashier and motel maid, restaurant cook. That's about it for normal, the other stuff is a pretty long list.

[frogmarch]

7. We're waiting...

so c'mon, tell us some of them.

[2naSalit]

20. Well...

Aside from being a 105lbs female truck driver for many years I also groomed snowmobile trails 40 hrs a week in the mountains and along the continental divide in a great big machine all winter long; AV tech for early days of distance learning broadcasts at my university; parimutuel (sold bets at the horse races); Trail pass checker for ski events at a famous ski trail system; park ranger for NPS; public outreach and ed tech for another agency re predators in the wild; drove river rafters to a remote river in a large wildness in a bus pulling a trailer; managed a hemp farm for a crop season...

And a few things I'm just not willing to mention here as they require complex descriptions.

[frogmarch]

56. Wow!

That's a diverse array of jobs! Every one of them sounds pretty darned exciting. Thanks for telling us about them.

[2naSalit]

59. As I said...

It's a list of strange occupations.

[Prairie_Seagull]

73. Wow is right.

Now we just need to hear some of the stories I am sure you have. That list you have got to have stories.

[2naSalit]

74. Do I ever!

I need to write a book or three, it's such a daunting thought. I need help writing something that enormous... seriously, it could get too big.

[Prairie_Seagull]

76. I don't want to get to philosophical here but,

life is our stories. If you ever get around to writing it let me know. I will buy the trilogy.

[2naSalit]

77. Thanks.

[RSherman]

6. Had to read the obits

As a bank teller (years ago) it was my job to read the obits to see if any of our customers had died to try to link them with inactive accounts. I was also locked in an upstairs room to count/wrap the coins from the thruway tolls.

[frogmarch]

9. Oh, geez,

that doesn't sound like a fun job. For me, it would've been another five-minuter.

[underpants]

14. I used to work around insurance salesmen.

Obits were the start of everyday for them.

[Walleye]

8. Net puller and fish picker on a commercial salmon boat in Alaska

[frogmarch]

11. That job sounds exciting, if

for no other reason than to be at sea. Bet it was hard work, though.

[Walleye]

12. It was fun, and when the fish are running you make good money

Definitely the hardest work I’ve ever done. My hands never really recovered

[MOMFUDSKI]

15. After doing office work for 30 years

I started working with my husband in his siding, soffit, fascia, gutters, and windows biz. Started at 50 years old and stopped around 62. Loved it! There is no corner office as wonderful as the Florida outdoors. Worked on many waterfront homes and had lunch with manatees hanging around the dock. Learned to bend fascia on a brake and miter gutters and cut soffit on the saw table with a power saw. One day the stucco guy let me try my hand at applying stucco. He is still laughing as am I! All in all, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

[frogmarch]

57. You found your calling after

years of working in an office, and it sounds as if it was worth the wait, including lunching near manatees.

[bottomofthehill]

16. Parachute packer

A dirt strip in Ridgley Maryland, over the bay bridge. The place was actually called Parachutes are Fun. 5 bucks an hour and a free jump a day.

[frogmarch]

26. That sounds like a fun job

except for the jump! :O

[bottomofthehill]

30. I made about 40 bucks a day

The free jump made the deal. It was 99 dollars for a day of training and your first jump, then 55 dollars a jump after that. If you worked an 8 hour day ( packed 25 parachutes) you got a free jump from either the Beachcraft ( the big plane) or one of the 2 Cessnas they took the seats aside from the pilots out to make room for 3 bodies.

I put an elastic on the outside of the chutes I packed and would always jump a chute that I had packed myself.

[Tikki]

17. I worked at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics at the UCLA Venue as a security guard.

I still have the blue beret and webbed belt with buckle and the Stars in Motion pin.

I worked the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift.


Tikki

[frogmarch]

27. Awesome!

Did you like the all-night shift? Were there lots of troublemakers?

[Tikki]

49. My favorite was the guy at the Alpha gate who passed out...

by the bus stop and somehow buried himself in the ground cover.

When the security finally realized someone was inside the bushes the inebriated man kept telling the guards that “we are ok”.

We looked and looked for another person anywhere nearby and finally realized whoever he came to the Olympics with left without him a while before.

Tikki

[frogmarch]

58. My first laugh of the day!

Thanks!

[Faux pas]

18. ...

Working in a machine shop that made bubble windows for vans. I was a 33 year old, 135 woman. I started out on the frame bender that used steam pressure. The woman who was attempting to train me was about 6 ft 2 and 235.
Lol after 2 or 3 attempts it was obvious that the bender was going to toss me across the room every time, she moved me to a drill press. That was so much easier. I had to quit after a week because I got allergic bronchitis from the paint and oil fumes everywhere 🙃. After that I got a nice office job at a weekly newspaper. The End.

[frogmarch]

28. Except for the bronchitis,

it sounds like it was kind of fun. Oh, and also except for getting tossed across the room by the bender! Or was that fun? Not, I bet.

[Faux pas]

54. It

was exciting because it was 1978-79 and I was doing a job that usually a man would have. My trainer and I were the only women in the shop. I would have loved to be a carpenter or an auto mechanic those dreams were too big for that time.

[underpants]

19. I had nine W-2's one year

1988. Plenty of $5/hour jobs around so if I didn’t like something I’d just pick up the paper and get another job.

Weirdest job was probably one I had after college. I worked for a family run place with truly insane games being played. Firings all the time. We still refer to it as “the cult”.

[frogmarch]

29. Whoa, nine!

OK, now I'm dying to know about at least one of those truly insane games!

[underpants]

33. I got W-2's from corporations I had no idea who they were. One weird one was a phone bank

I’d get that I made $125 from Eastern Service Corp. I made that up but I had no idea.

Okay so I got a job calling people in the middle of the afternoon to ask them to watch a new TV show and we’d call them back with a survey. Basically a focus group. Lots of calls, mostly older people and people laying on the couch (stoners). A special channel that usually didn’t have content on cable. The show was “Navy Seals” starring OJ Simpson. As I’ve read, OJ became a member of the Board or some PR position with Swiss Army Knife which was featured on the show. The serrated edge knife the LAPD saw in his bedroom but never tested was a big single blade (not a multitask one)that fits perfectly what could have been used in Nicole’s murder. When that came out during the trial period gave me chills.

[bluedigger]

21. Working in a shoe shop gluing on high heels.

Working on a factory floor with hot glue and a hydraulic press. My boss wanted me to stick around because I had "potential" but I decided to go off for my freshman year at college instead.

[frogmarch]

32. Going to college was the right choice, I'd say.

If you'd kept working with glue, you might still be sticking around there.

[NBachers]

22. I tried my hand as a Berkeley Barb salesman- give them some collateral, get papers to sell, buy back

the collateral and keep the rest. It was an enjoyable outdoor job with a friendly clientele, and beat panhandling for spare change on Telegraph Avenue.

[frogmarch]

34. Cool!

I hadn't heard of it before, so I googled it. :O

http://www.berkeleybarb.net/

[VGNonly]

23. Built hiking trails

Worked two seasons at Cedar Point, the amusement park.

Worked rock concerts, the roadies told us what to do.

[frogmarch]

35. They sound like great jobs!

And fun! I'm picturing the hiking trails as the one I'd like best. What was yours?

[VGNonly]

41. The Shawnee Backpack Trail

was the most interesting. Our group did about 10 miles. We also built Camp 6, said to be the prettiest and most isolated spot in the state of OH.

Cedar Point was the most fun. The work itself was extremely boring, but the endless party atmosphere of the off-hours was great.

[Wicked Blue]

24. Hawking the bulldog edition of the NY Daily News at bars

around New Brunswick, NJ at night. Did this for a couple of months in the early 1970s. Nice tips. I think the customers wanted to see the racing results.

[frogmarch]

61. Now, that's a job

I'd have liked. Being around people, and nice tips to boot!

[littlemissmartypants]

25. Minnie Mouse at the mall. ❤️

[frogmarch]

36. Wow!

Please show us some photos of Minnie you!

[littlemissmartypants]

38. I only had one and it was so long ago I'm not sure where it is. I was 19 or 20 at the time.

I had a lovely costume though, right down to the white gloves. I couldn't talk just wave and respond to the occasional unrestrained toddler hug. It was fun bringing smiles. ❤️

[frogmarch]

62. Yes, I'll bet it was.

If you come across the picture of you in your delightful Minnie Mouse costume, please post it!

[littlemissmartypants]

44. One of my other college jobs was as the model for the Fine Arts School.

One of the nude drawings (which they all were) won first prize in a contest and earned the artist a small scholarship.

I did contrapposto, gesture, which is changing position every 3 or 4 seconds, and reclining. That's literally reclining on a draped sofa or similar piece of furniture like a vintage chaise lounge draped with fabric. It required not moving a muscle sometimes for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. I had body parts go numb on more than one occasion.

The worst part though was being pointed at/on with a long stick, literally a pointer like teachers used to use. I got used to it but It definitely broke my concentration and made me feel objectified but... c'est la vie.

That would make a more interesting picture. ❤️

[frogmarch]

63. Well,

that's a job no one would have asked me to do, but I'd have considered it an honor if they had. No pointer, though. My high school geometry teacher shook one at my face once, and I grabbed it and threw it across the room. But I digress. Your having been a fine arts school model is awesomely cool!

[MLAA]

31. My first job was stuffing the jelly in jelly donuts. Another summer job was working at a Kmart

pet department. One day I put a sign on an empty tank that said invisible fish 25 cents. Didn’t take long for a kid asked for one. I made a big show of trying to catch one and putting it in a plastic bag with water. I stuck a price sticker on it and off he went to check out. A little later my boss came by telling me it was really funny but don’t do it again. Then over Christmas break I worked again. The mgt wanted each department to do ‘commercials’ over the PA system to push products. When it was our departments turn I got one of those Christmas ornaments that you turned on and it chirped like birds. I cranked it up as loud as it would go and put it next to the phone/PA system. Whoa the store rocked with shrieking bird sounds. Didn’t take long before It was suggested I not do any more commercials.

[littlemissmartypants]

40. I worked at Krispy Kreme. One of my four different jobs I had to work my way through college.

The first time I had to fill donuts the sensation of the pastry swelling in my hands freaked me out and I threw them at the ceiling. Of course, everyone got a laugh out of it. The thought still creeps me out. ❤️

[MLAA]

42. Haha.

Last edited Fri Dec 9, 2022, 09:00 AM - Edit history (1)

I went to college in Atlanta and there was a large Krispy Kreme ‘factory’ near our campus and we would make night runs. You could see into the back where the donuts moved along conveyor belts!

[littlemissmartypants]

45. I was there early in the morning like zero dark thirty. The cops were

There shortly after. I always had three pots of coffee ready. I went to my morning classes after I changed out of my uniform. In the afternoon I worked at a Korean grocery. ❤️

[MLAA]

52. What city was this in?

I had the 6 to midnight shift at the donut shop.

[LakeArenal]

37. I was....

Chris Clover

[littlemissmartypants]

39. Cool! ❤️

[louslobbs]

43. Road manager

for exotic dancer/porn star Amberlynn (Laura Lynn Allen). I was responsible for club bookings, airline and hotel reservations, costumes and dance music. We became really good friends and when we traveled, we would share a hotel room because she didn’t like to be alone and sometimes we even shared the same bed….not a problem since she knew I was gay and trusted me. We both had a sweet tooth and after the last show, we would raid the hotel vending machines of candy and eat like pigs till our flight back to Los Angeles. We haven’t seen each other in years, but we do send each other birthday and holiday greetings to this day.

[frogmarch]

64. Aw, it's nice you and she

remain friends. Do you send each other birthday and holiday sweets to go with the greetings?

[louslobbs]

78. We don't

but she has been invited down to Palm Springs on numerous occasions to get away from LA and stay with us, but it never seems to happen unfortunately. I’ve always cared for her and probably always will. Lots of fun times for sure…..lots of upset as well though. Codependent relationships can be really difficult 😣

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

46. I worked for a veterinarian at a horse show, collecting urine samples for drug tests.

Only worked one show.

[RainCaster]

47. I cooked urine one summer

This was a government job, boiling human urine down and separating out the heavy metals. All this to measure the radiation exposure at nuclear power plants.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

50. You may win ... nt

[frogmarch]

65. I can only

guess why you only worked one show.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

79. It wasn't hard work. There was a 3 foot pole you attached a widemouth pint jar to and

I just followed the horse until they relieved themselves. It was a job I picked up while in college.

[Stuart G]

48. I made "MIDAS MUFFLERS " at a factory in Chicago...and another ...I worked at A YMCA as a hotel

supervisor and it was my job to give notice to people that they were being thrown of the rooms that they
were paying for (yes it had rooms that people lived in) and were ...NOT PAYING THEIR RENT...so I was....

the "Thrower Outer" at a YMCA that had rooms to rent...

[frogmarch]

66. The Midas Muffler job

sounds good, but the other one doesn't.

[zanana1]

51. I was a pickle packer at a Heinz plant.

I had to pound the pickles so they'd fit in the jars. Yeah, one week.

[frogmarch]

67. A real pickle pounder

right here at DU! I mean pickle packer.

I had no idea there was such a job or that pickles had to be forced into their jars. Poor innocent pickles.

[Duppers]

80. 😂 Made me laugh but you weren't joking?!

I thought they would have had machines for that.

[zanana1]

82. This was in the 70's.

The pickle packing machine had yet to be invented.

[onethatcares]

53. picking fly poop out of pepper

Last edited Fri Dec 9, 2022, 12:33 PM - Edit history (1)

then my eyes went bad.

Cereally, my first year out of school i worked at 37 jobs and 17 of them sent me W-2s. That was 1969 in the rust belt of Pennsylvania.

I made candy, cough drops, gears for tanks and envelop machines, painted houses, set up carnival rides, made cabinets, framed houses and apartments, plowed snow, sold furniture and men's wear, washed dishes and bussed tables, set up yarn machines for knitting socks, ran presses making appliance fronts, worked in warehouses, delivered furniture, began learning furniture refinishing (professionally, wish I would have kept that one), did roofing and siding.

And those are the ones I remember.

[frogmarch]

68. Wowzers!

You were busy! Um, there was such a job as a poopy pepper picker?

[Iggo]

55. I worked for a company that cranked out multiple hard copies of files for legal discovery.

Last edited Fri Dec 9, 2022, 01:45 PM - Edit history (1)

We weren’t supposed to read what we were copying. And we weren’t supposed to tell people what cases we were working on. And those were the rules.

EDIT ADD: For a visual, you know those guys in the movies when there’s a parade of people bringing in boxes and boxes of files to an attorney’s office? Yeah, that was us.

[frogmarch]

69. I'd have been good at that job,

I think. Anyway, I'm good at not paying attention to things.

Next time I see a movie or a TV show showing people taking boxes of files into lawyers' offices, I will think of you, Iggo.

[WestMichRad]

60. Making mannequins

As an entry level employee, I sanded the seams off the plaster molds and sprayed them with paint primer. Mostly worked on torsos. They were passed along to others to add the finishing touches.

The best part of the job was a colleague who loudly sang Frank Zappa songs while we worked. This among mostly middle-aged women co-workers who were bewildered by the lyrics.

I lasted all of two weeks before landing a much higher paying job at a specialty metals processing factory.

[frogmarch]

70. rutabaga, rutabaga, rutabaga...

Who isn't bewildered by the lyrics?

The job sounds okay, but Frank Zappa? I am happy for you that you got another job. I'm pluckin' the ol' dennil floss...

[Mr.Bill]

71. It was unusual in 1969.

I worked at a deli in a grocery store and we sold lousy Pizza by the slice. We had an Amana Radar Range, which was one of if not the first microwave oven available to the public. I think it cost around $1,200. We used to heat up the Pizza slices in it. It was very powerful and coud do the job in ten seconds. Some people bought the Pizza just to see the novelty of the process and how quick it was.

[frogmarch]

72. Oh my gosh, a microwave oven in '69?

I didn't even hear of such things till the mid-70s and didn't own one till '79.

The one you had at the deli was more powerful than any of mine have been. Ten seconds for a pizza slice? The microwave oven I have now would take at least twice that.

[Mr.Bill]

75. Yeah, they figured that out quickly.

That amount of power required a registration sticker from the FCC because microwave ovens basically use FM radio waves. At least that one did.

I can literally say I have been cooking with a microwave oven for over 50 years.

[hunter]

81. I worked for a computer mainframe manufacturer whose entire business was collapsing.

It hadn't occurred to me to ask why they were hiring a naive guy like me who hadn't yet graduated from college. I wanted to work with computers!

They had this huge open floor factory that was three-quarters abandoned. Only the working areas of the factory were lit to save electricity and the fluorescent lights flickered so it was really spooky in there. The large 1950's "modern" cafeteria was still open and serving a minimal menu of sandwiches and coffee but few people ate in cafeteria because it was so depressing. Most people took their lunches outside in nice weather or into the "executive" lunchroom, which had windows and was now open to all.

The only staff remaining were those hanging on because they were close to retirement, those who hadn't found new jobs yet, and fools like me. Everyone else had been laid off or had abandoned ship. All that was left of the company's business was a few odd government contracts, mostly servicing ancient computers.

The best part of the job was that my boss let me pick through salvage and take stuff home. The security staff were very confused by that and would simply roll there eyes whenever I walked out with bags full of random electronic components that were otherwise going to the dump. Forty years later I still have quite a few of these components in my mad scientist lair.

I soon decided to go back to school. A few years after I left the entire factory had been torn down and replaced with a mega-church.

[frogmarch]

83. It sounds as if

you were hired because they liked your enthusiasm and knew you'd be a good employee, and I'll bet that's also why they let you take home bags of discarded parts. It's so cool you have a mad scientist lair! It's sad that the factory was torn down and replaced by a mega-church, though. From what you said, the factory building was in bad shape, but geesh... a mega-church?

[hunter]

84. Here in the U.S.A. it's likely "prosperity gospel" Christian churches are a bigger industry...

... now than computer manufacturing.

Looking back I enjoyed the work, no matter how awkward I felt at the time. As an extra pair of hands I never knew what I'd be doing from one day to the next -- anything from putting on a bunny suit to assist in the clean room to moving huge power supplies to the loading dock.

[Kali]

85. fairly unusual for folks on this site,

cowboy/ranch hand

still doing it

[3catwoman3]

86. Two very small side jobs while I was stationed in Japan...

...with the Air Force nurse corps.

I was an extra in Japanese historical television show, as were several other Americans from the base. I was costumed as a nurse from the late 1890s to early 1900s - long white dress and a Gibson girl topknot wig. My little bitty part consisted of gesturing someone down a hallway and opening a door for him to go into a doctor's office. I remember nothing about the story line of the program, and this was way back in 1979 before cell phones, so I have no pictures of this. The countdown to filming was in Japanese, naturally - shi-san-ni-ichi.

The other side job, which lasted for a few weeks, was assisting a gentleman who was writing a history oh Japanese dentistry. HE spoke English fairly well, but wanted someone to read and edit the chapters he had translated from Japanese into English because he knew some things would be awkwardly worded. It was interesting, and he was very appreciative of my involvement. There was a whole section just on toothpicks. I was paid for this, and he also gave me a copy of a Japanese nursing textbook, which, of course, I could not read. I think I may still have his rough drafts with my suggested corrections.

[frogmarch]

94. How fascinating!

Both of those experiences sound memorable. I wonder if Google could help you find information on the television show, and photos.

That is really neat that you helped edit the book to make the English better!

As a child I lived in Tokyo with my family for four years (my dad was in the U.S. Army), and all things Japanese still interest me a lot.

[3catwoman3]

95. It was so long ago (1979) that I doubt there is any...

...online info about it. As I said, I don't even remember, if I ever knew, the title of the show, or the topic. I do think it was a serial.

You never know - I'll give it a try.

[jmowreader]

87. Trap loader

Trap shooting is a shotgun sport.

In the sport of trap, you have five firing positions. Normally you have five firers on every line. You have a little machine called a trap thrower. It's in a steel box. The trap loader puts one or two clay pigeons - it can go either way - on the thrower's arm. When the firer calls "pull," someone pushes a button on a remote control, the thrower flings the pigeons out, and the firer shoots at them. Then the arm swings around and you put more clay pigeons on it. Each firer shoots five times from one position then moves to another one, so you fire 25 times. There are 125 clay pigeons in a box, so one box per firing order of singles and two boxes for doubles. After the order is completely fired someone threw a rock against the steel box so you knew they were finished. We worked every Saturday and Sunday. The training session for doing this lasted about five minutes: "Make sure to keep your thumb on top of the birds because if it's in the way when the arm goes, it'll rip it right off."

For the first six weeks it was great. I made, IIRC, two dollars for every order of singles and three for every order of doubles. We also got tipped, so it was decent money for a kid in the 1970s. We got fed lunch and since trap shooting is really popular in my hometown we worked constantly. This range had four machines and they were busy all day long.

Then my parents decided my little brother (the one who is now a Trumper) needed a job and sent him out there too. The range staff realized he'd get killed by the machine if he was a loader so he was assigned to run the remote control on my lane. The bastard couldn't keep his finger off the button and the arm would just go round and round and round. (Why the hell the staff didn't have him just sit in the fieldhouse after the first time he fucked this up is a mystery for the ages.) He scared me so badly I couldn't go back the next weekend.

[frogmarch]

90. Yikes, that job sounds

dangerous, little brother or not! But little brother's antics do sound scary as hell.

It was interesting "listening" to you describe how it's done. I think it may be the first time that learning about something I had no interest in, or had never even thought about, fascinated me.

[BluesRunTheGame]

88. Parade Float Sculptor

Think big blocks of styrofoam and an electric chainsaw.

[frogmarch]

91. I can only imagine

how hard it would be to carve styrofoam withe a chainsaw. You must be a helluva good artist!

[LuckyCharms]

89. I worked alone at a pool hall/pinball place illegally (too young to work late nights)

where fights broke out, weed was smoked, and people had sex on the pool tables and in the closet.

[frogmarch]

92. Geesh!

I hope you weren't corrupted!

Grandma me would like to go back in time and march down there, get you out of there, and give those hooligans a good talking to.

[LuckyCharms]

93. True story.

I was in there one night alone with the owners daughter, who was a bit older than me.

We were friends.

She was an amputee due to an auto accident.

I was sitting in a booth playing a board game with his daughter.

She had removed her prosthetic leg, and it was resting against the wall.

The old man came in drunk as as skunk, and accused me of making moves on his daughter.

As I ran out of there and slammed the door behind me, he threw her leg at me and it went through the glass window in the door.

[frogmarch]

96. Holy crap!

Glad you got out of there without getting hurt! Did you ever go back?

[LuckyCharms]

97. Nope. That was my last night. n/t

[frogmarch]

98. Wise decision!