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Stumpage Reports
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Monday, August 04, 2003 :::
The Best Job I Ever Had
Last week I did a post about The First Job I Ever Had, this is about The Best Job I Ever Had.
When I was in the 11th grade, this would have been about 1979 and 1980, I pumped gas for about a year. This was when self-serve stations combined with convenience stores were really starting to boom and we were one of the few places that still pumped the gas for you. The prices were the cheapest in town so we were always busy. We sold nothing but gas and oil and only took cash.
Another guy and I would work evenings alone after the owners and everyone had left. There was a doberman pinscher named Duke that lived at the station. At night he was locked in the office half of the building which we couldn't get into. We would toss french fries under the door for him. He barked a lot and we were scared of him, but I'm not sure how fierce the pooch really was.
One interesting feature of that place was people pulled in trying to sell us everything. I mean everything, except sex. Considering we were a bunch of 16 and 17 year old boys with huge wads of cash on us, its probably just as well. I particularly remember one guy that had a car stereo with the wires still hanging out the back where he had torn it from a dashboard. He had the sniffles and seemed real itchy and practically begged us to buy it.
The only downside to the job was the weather. Winters got pretty cold in Michigan, so to survive we had to do this. Summers could get pretty hot too, but a little bit of this would take the edge off. Some days in the spring and fall were so pretty, a little bit of this would make the day even prettier. Sometimes it was so slow, only this would relieve the boredom. When it was really busy, we couldn't find the time for any of this. .
Of course these memories are filtered through the haze of time, I'm sure I complained about it and there were days I didn't want to go to work. But it sure seemed fun looking at it now.
Last Listened To:
The Jam, The Jam at the BBC.
Reading:
American Empire: Victorious Opposition, by Harry Turtledove, 2003.
::: posted by tom at 12:54 PM
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