What do you mean, ‘it’s Thursday already’!?

Where DOES the time go? Well, you know, aside from wasting it writing a blog.

IN any event, it is time once more for America’s Favorite Question Answering Game Played on Thursdays That Consists of Writing Answers to Three Questions--that’s right, The Axis of Weevil Thursday Three, Number XII!

Since I have been so wrapped up in work and trying to stay awake at seminars, kindly professor Jim Smith suggested the following three queries for you to ponder--

1. What is the best summer job you ever had, either in high school or college?

2. (And, as you can guess) What was the worst summer job you ever had?

3. Finally, was there ever a summer dream job you wanted, but you never got?

Now then, since The Thursday Three started out being marginally related to things-Southern, and since the above questions are more general in nature, the Rules Committee has made a special provision to grant you 1.392 EXTRA points for any answer that contains a decidedly authentic--even stereotypical--Southern summer job. Chopping cotton, pulpwood cutting, feeding catfish--stuff like that.

REMEMBER, though, the quiz is open to all, no matter if you haven’t ever had the joy of hauling bags of sugar for Uncle Brother’s still or cleaning the dead chickens out of a feed shed. Leave a link in the comments below if you have your own blog, or just plop your answers in and leave it at that--remembering that Haloscan will only let you post a comment that is 1,000 characters long.

NOW THEN, as for my answers, for number one, it’s actually hard to pick, because I only had three real, live, between-school-terms, summer jobs, and all of them were in high school. (I went to school during the summer in college, except for that one brief flirtation with the real world when I worked at Southern Research.)

Anyway, when I was 15 and 16, I worked at Winn-Dixie in Forestdale (actually, after school some, too, so not technically a summer-only job) sacking groceries, which was pretty okay as jobs went. Worst part of it was having to stay and mop after the store was closed. Best part was contributing to shrinkage by having an occasional candy bar or Coke from the stockroom. I tell you, though, it really makes you appreciate your skill and training when you see these kids today--putting eggs in the bottom of sacks, and cleaning products with the milk, and cold stuff in a hundred different bags--sheesh!

(I claim the extra 1.392 points on this one because the name of the store was Winn-Dixie. Hard to get more Southern than that.)

Number Two--worst job lasted eight hours, more or less. A friend of mine (who through family connections had a cush job with the Alabama Highway Department as an inspector, even though he was only 16) got another guy and me hired-on with a road construction contractor as laborers. Our assignment for the day was to help place a concrete drainage flume near the Jaybird Road exit on I-59/20 in Hueytown. 100 degree heat; semi-solid caustic concrete; pulling an 8 foot wide wooden formboard with a crew of hardened men who were used to working like galley slaves--I finally succumbed to heat exhaustion, although at the time it was just known as “the new guy can’t hack it.” The last couple of hours of the day were spent prostrate under a bridge trying to rehydrate. I came back the next day, but the foreman told me and the other guy just to go pick up our checks. I was certainly glad to oblige him.

Number Three--Hmm, at the time, I never really contemplated that there might be the possibility of doing a job that you enjoyed, and didn’t really have a whole lot of initiative in finding anything like that. Although when I was young, I did always want to join the Coast Guard. However, I don’t think they really catered that much to teenagers wanting a summer job.

There you go.
posted by Terry at 7:59:00 AM