Whistle While you Work!

I've been rolling a few ideas around in my head to blog about. Weary Hag, at http://thecerebraloutpost.blogspot.com posted about her resume recently. She has had more jobs than I could even think about having, but I have decided to recite mine, in the interest of posting something new.

Other than babysitting, the first real job I can remember was selling hot dogs at lunchtime in a place across the street from my high school. I only did it to make cigarette money. Of course, back then cigs were about 25 cents per pack, so I could work an hour and have enough for 2-3 packs. When I was in NYC, I heard someone ask a clerk how much a carton of cigarettes was, and he replied $85. I almost lost my teeth on that one! Thank God I quit smoking many years ago, because I sure couldn't afford the habit now! At 2 packs a day, I'd be in the poor house in about a week.

The second job was working in a florist shop owned by friends of my Mom and Dad. I started out sweeping the floors and dusting the stock, but ended up doing everything but funeral flowers (too depressing anyway). I remember many a holiday having to work 18-22 hours, making corsages. Back then, everyone wore a corsage to church on Easter and Mother's Day - and almost everyone went to church. My fingers looked like chopped liver after 18 hours of making corsages, but it was fun nonetheless. I worked there off and on all through college.

The next job grew out of becoming a member of the local department store's "College Board" as it was called back then. A group of 15-20 college-bound girls were hired to work in the store the summer after graduation, and the purpose was supposed to be helping girls and their mothers decide what to buy for college. What a laugh! My purpose was spending my paycheck in the ladies department and getting the largest discount I could muster! I ended up gift wrapping and also I was a personal shopper for that store one Christmas season. I have written about that previously. At the end of the summer, just before college, we participated in a style show of all the latest "college fashions", but I hornswoggled them into letting me wear a French blue chiffon number with dyed ostrich feathers around the hem and neck. No college girl I ever knew would wear (or could afford) that dress. It would have looked wonderful on Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". That job led to modeling; I would walk around the store dressed to the "nines" and wearing hats, and carrying a small sign telling where they could be found. I modeled hats for a newpaper article and several independent style shows.

Next I took a break from college between my junior and senior years, and worked at the local telephone company. Trying to convince my Mom and Dad that I only needed a break, while promising to return to college soon was not easy. She finally agreed to let me quit school (she had no choice, really). I delivered all the mail to the executives on seven floors of the telephone company building. It was sort of boring, but I felt important being responsible for all that mail. After 9 months, it had become a horrible drudgery, and I couldn't wait to get out of there and go back to college!

In the second semester of my senior year, I realized I had no job prospects and no career on the horizon. A degree in English didn't do much for you without higher education; I didn't want to teach and I had no interest in Journalism. One of my friends was in school to learn how to read Pap smears, in a new science called Cytotechnology. The government was paying a stipend to anyone who would take the classes, and that sold me! I got $125 per month, plus I lived at home and had no expenses. $125 is ludicrous nowadays, but back then it was almost a living wage, especially if your parents still supported you. After that school, I got a job in a hospital in Norfolk, Va. I worked there for a year or two, got married, had a kid and quit working to stay home with him. I went back to work after 11 months, because they needed someone to finish out the school year for their students, but when my son called his babysitter "Momma", I quit, and I didn't work again for 15 years, except for volunteering in the schools, which I did a heck of a lot of while my kids were there.

In 1982, I started my business (Tickle Your Fancy), doing flowers for weddings and parties. It is a wonderful thing to love what you do so much that you are anxious to get to work every day. I know my work life has not been as varied or as interesting as Weary Hag's - or like yours - for example, but perhaps you have done something you would like to tell about. If you do, let me know so I can read it.