FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sfury]

Ever live near an egg farm?

No, but I have a daughter-in-law who worked for 3 minutes in a Tyson chicken works. 

When I was looking for a job to make some $$ between graduation and starting med school, I applied for every job I could find including being a "Chicken Catcher" at GoldNPlump in Coldspring.

Sadly, my SJU diploma wasn't enough for them to take a chance on me... that and the fact I would have only been able to work for 2 months.

Ended up doing factory work at Borgert Products in St. Joe 60 hours a week. How many people work the floor of a factory as their first job out of College?


(insert copious Tommie jokes here referencing the fast-food chain of your choice)

First job after graduating from SJU? Wheelchair attendant at the Minnesota-St. Paul International airport. Minimum wage. I'm sure my folks were beaming with pride. Boss was an unapologetic racist who ruled his fleet of wheelchair lackeys with an iron fist. Spent 10 hours a day pushing people through the airport, taking them off planes, putting them on. "You'll get great tips," they tell you. Sure. Only the jerks who drive the motorized carts get tips. People in wheelchairs tend not to tip. Finally one day a shoe-shine guy asked me what the hell I was doing there with a college degree. A few days later I applied for another newspaper gig, and got it. When I quit, the lady who ran the operation threatened me with a federal arrest if I didn't dry clean the horrid uniform they forced us to wear.

[footballfan413]

Fins, KR, BDB and JF, you boys had me laughing so hard at your exchange that I nearly spit my cocktail all over the laptop!  +karma.............as if you boys need it!   

[Gray Fox]

Ended up doing factory work at Borgert Products in St. Joe 60 hours a week. How many people work the floor of a factory as their first job out of College?

When I graduated in 1964, they were drafting single men but not married men.  I had job interviews that lasted two questions.  "What is your name?"  "Are you married?"

"Come see us after you complete your military obligation.  I'm going for coffee."

So I went back to my summer job while trying to find an Army Reserve unit with an opening.

[OzJohnnie]

When I was looking for a job to make some $ between graduation and starting med school, I applied for every job I could find including being a "Chicken Catcher" at GoldNPlump in Coldspring.

Sadly, my SJU diploma wasn't enough for them to take a chance on me... that and the fact I would have only been able to work for 2 months.

Ended up doing factory work at Borgert Products in St. Joe 60 hours a week. How many people work the floor of a factory as their first job out of College?


(insert copious Tommie jokes here referencing the fast-food chain of your choice)

Ahh...  Factory stories.  Well, I have a pretty bad one, but it wasn't me, it was the lovely wife.  Coming from the urban and urbane environment of Melbourne, she had a quite a few "WTF have I done?" moments.  The First Job, as it came to be known, is one.  And it's a doozy...

She arrived in Collegeville to marry your fine story teller (that would be me) during my last year of school.  My wife, being a solicitor from another commonwealth nation didn't anticipate issues, as she had friends who had traveled for a 'working holiday' (a common one or two year thing among Aussie graduates) to both New York and California and were gainfully employed in their chosen traditions.  Unfortunately (that word had to come), unlike in New York and California, the Minnesota Bar apparently didn't recognize the Victorian Bar unless a certain number of years experience practicing were first had (or six months of additional course work, which we couldn't afford).  Ooops.

So, after the initial shock had faded my scrappy spouse picked herself up off of the floor and said, "Well, I've got to get some money so I'll just have a go."  She called the local temp agency (and included her resume, I'm sure that was looked at) and smiled brightly as she was called the next day for work.  In a factory.  Making the little plastic wedge pieces that the dentist crams in your mouth when taking X-rays.  For $4.25 an hour.

When she returned the following evening, her eyes were already empty of tears from the drive home.  Her hands were cut and bruised from working with the sharp plastic widgets.  Her pride had taken a terrible battering as she spent a day cutting and shaping dental aids after spending the previous six years earning a law degree.  And, worst of all, her ego was hammered as she realized she was the worst temp in the factory.  All of this for $34, minus tax and social security.

So, that was a bleak and dreary evening we spent in our dingy Waite Park apartment eating a $4 pizza from Cash Wise.  That was a terrible low point in her life (I, having already served in the Navy experiencing the joys of cleaning sh*tters, scrubbing bilges and chipping non-skid in 10 hour shifts with a pneumatic hammer had already reached my emotional trough).  But, she picked herself up again, searched for better jobs and ended up a paralegal in a St. Cloud firm until we left for Oz and she started her legal career in earnest.

Grit.  Determination.  Perseverance.  She's got them all in abundance.  And I'm a lucky man.

I now return to my God given right in marriage of non-stop complaints.

[DutchFan2004]

Is that a cartoon of BDB in the backround?

[retagent]

One of my fellow agents asked me one time to try and guess what the guy he had just interviewed on an investigation did for a living. I think he gave me some hints, but I had never even heard of a chicken catcher prior to that, so as you might figure out, I was not able to guess correctly. He also said that the guy was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Did you have any stimulating conversations with any of your fellow chicken catchers KR?

One of my most memorable jobs came between Sophomore and Junior year at SJU. I worked overnight in a Sunbeam bakery. One job that sticks out was oven man when there was a run of fruit danish. You had heat gloves on and you had to take the pan with eight danish, with piping hot fruit filling, and bang it on the rail to dislodge the danish that would stick to the pan because of the glue-like properties of the fruit. As you did this, it was not uncommon for some of the molten filling to splash on your arms, burning ever so painfully. You had no recourse but to grin and bear it.

[tmerton]

Is that a cartoon of BDB in the backround?

I believe that's Flash - and trust us, it's no cartoon.

[OzJohnnie]

Grit.  Determination.  Perseverance.  She's got them all in abundance.  And I'm a lucky man.

I now return to my God given right in marriage of non-stop complaints.

I just got my *ss chewed for 20 minutes because I "left the house a disaster".   She showed abundant grit and determination as she persevered in said chewing until I rolled over with my tail between my legs and p*ssed all over myself.

I'm a lucky man.

[janesvilleflash]

Is that a cartoon of BDB in the backround?

I believe that's Flash - and trust us, it's no cartoon.

Alea iacta est

[tmerton]

Is that a cartoon of BDB in the backround?

I believe that's Flash - and trust us, it's no cartoon.

Alea iacta est

Either Flash is going to Italy or I'm in real trouble now.

[janesvilleflash]

+k to tmert for showing fear.

[DuffMan]

One of my most memorable job duties came the summer before my freshman year at SJU.  I worked for the infamous Brother Mark on the Grounds Crew.  Now, I had visions of sitting on a riding mower for hours and getting tan.  Far from it.  On one rainy day, since there was nothing to do outside, I got the duty of pulling old insulation out of the attic of the Physical Plant.  I don't even want to know what that insulation was made out of. 

But what topped it all was the day that we were needed at the Wastewater Treatment Plant.  I was told they drain the tanks every 20 years for cleaning, inspection, and repairs.  Just so happens that the one summer I worked there was that 20th year.  So, me and my fellow compadres got lowered into the emptied tanks and got to spend the afternoon shoveling "sludge" into the bucket of a waiting backhoe.

[Rugman]

Since we've been reminiscing about the jobs of our youth, I can't help but weigh in on my summers at the Del Monte Canning Factory in Sleepy Eye, MN.  (I bet the sileage pile that accumulated over the summer was comparable to the smell at the Tomato factory).

Back before the great invasion from down south, most of the summer jobs were taken by college students so you can imagine the possibilities for mischievousness, working under the influence and summer romances.  You'd work every day that the corn or peas were being picked.  Some days we'd work 16-20 hours straight and then when it rained we would have time off.  Got paid $1.25/hr with OT after 60 hours.

While lthe list of memorable experiences is long, the most notable was the day Duggie Soucker flooded the factory.  He had the weirdest job in the factory.  It was up on the 3rd floor where they mixed up this huge vat of syrup that was used in the canning process.  You mixed water, salt and sugar that was gravity fed though pipes to the canning room.  You worked your ass off for about 20 minutes getting everything filled up and then you had 40 minutes with nothing to do.  Well you were supposed to get everything staged for the next batch, but you know how well 18 yr olds plan ahead.  Guys would actually leave the plant and go get laid in between batches, among other things.

Well one night Duggie pushed it too tight in between batches and comes screaming back from wherever the hell he was and discovered that there was no more sugar handy and he would have to pull a pallet down from the top of the stack.  So he jumps on his fork lift, peals rubber to the stacks, lifts his hydraulic tines to roof level and starts backing away before lowering the platform, not noticing that the main water pipe for the entire factory was only about 6 feet behind him.  Of course he hits it and cracks it in half.  Had to be about a six inch pipe.

In the 20 minutes it took to get a supervisor up there (have never seen a human being turn so white) and get the main valve shut off, what must have been thousands of gallons of water flooded the 3rd floor syrup room, drained down to the second floor where empty cans were stored in open top cardboard sleaves, with all the open cans facing up, filled up the top row of each, then drained down to the first floor where it started dripping on the electric labeling and packing machines, shorting out all the electric circuits.

Douggie did not get fired to my knowledge, but I'm sure he never recovered.  We all had a glorious couple of days off while they cleaned up the mess and repaired the equipment, and for once we were able to have our standard "day off" keggers without having to stand out in the rain or wade though mud.

Most of my time at the factory was driving forklift; always worked the night shift.  To this day I love the smell of factory warehouse cardboard and dust.  But not a monster sileage pile on a mid August afternoon when both the temp and the humidity hits 90.

Ah the good old days.

[tmerton]

+k to tmert for showing fear.

But I'm working on it.

[Rugman]

BTW, I should mention that the days at the canning factory were wonderful training for all the other jobs I had before my first "real" job.

Glue gun operator at Franklin Manufacturing. (burned fingers)

Screw gun operator at Franklin Manufacturing. (cut fingers)

On site concrete block silo construction hand (almost cut off head handling sheet metal in 20 mph wind at the top of the silo)

Warehouse parts picker (low hazard exposure)

Tee Shirt shop manager (only time ever got fired - learned to keep my mouth shut when out drinking with the boss)

Birth Control Counselor

Flash or tmerton, did you just ding me on karma?  I always +k you guys.