Part-Time Jobs

I hear students talking a lot about part-time jobs. My usual response is that their job is to be the best student they can be because they certainly have the rest of their life’s to work. Well with that be said, I have very rarely been without a job of some sort. Here is a look at my job history.

My first paid job was that of a camp councilor at the Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek. I watched over about 12 boys that were between 10-12 years old. It was pretty fun and we played outdoor games and stuff like that. I was paid minimum wage. I learned a lot at this job and it was just for the summer so it was fine. My next job was that of a clothes salesman. I am not making this up. I worked part-time at Fashion Flair. It was an Izod factory outlet. I got the job by doing inventory for them with my sister one Saturday and asked if they needed any help in the store and they hired me. I was the only male that worked in the entire store so there was always something to do. I learned some very important things early in this job. There were some other workers that had been caught stealing some clothes by putting them in the garbage and then picking them up later. They were caught, fired, and arrested. I never really understood why they did this and certainly did not seem worth it to me. My next job was really kind of strange. I was “Settler Boy”. Ok get ready for this one. I was one of the people that dressed in authentic clothes in the replica settler village at Charlestown Landing State Park in Charleston. I wore settler clothes and made fires, candles, and wooden spoons. It was fun and I got paid for it. It was cool until my friends started showing up. Not really cool to be a junior in high school and wear knickers to work! Well my brother-in-law was the assistant curator in the zoo at the park, so when I told him I was going to look for another job he suggested that I apply to work in the zoo. So I did and I got a job in the zoo. This was a really neat job. I got to feed the animals like bears, wolves, and pumas. I also had to clean up after them but it was ok. We worked really hard because we could not use power tool to maintain the natural habitats the animal lived in so we had to use hand tools. Yep, hands tools in the summer in Charleston. I worked in the zoo for three summers. I even helped rebuild it after the storm Hugo. A lot of my work is still there I am sure. While in college I worked at an airplane propeller factory in Rock Hill named Hamilton Standard. I package propeller props for shipment. This was ok until I got better than the other guy that had worked there for several years and he didn’t like that so it became pretty unbearable so I left. I also worked at Robert Bosch in Charleston as a quality assurance person. I spent all day looking through a magnifying glass at little tiny O rings that go on fuel injectors. I was looking for flaws and when I found on I would bag it up and write the number of which lot it came from and send it to the lab. This job was crazy boring but it paid well and I did a good job...Maybe too well. Some days I would go in at 5:00 a.m. and stay until 11:00 p.m. I made crazy over time money. They even wanted me to stay on and become a permanent employee but I declined. Who know where that could have led? After I received my master’s degree I got a job building boat docks and lifts on Lake Norman and Lake Wylie. This was hard work and I will never forget it. I still like to build things.

These were all of my strange jobs that do not include the band world. Through out all of this time, I was always involved with band and music. I may elaborate on that at a later day, but I can honestly say that I learned something important from each of my other odd jobs.