2/9/23

When I was around 13 and my parents were comfortable enough to allow me to mow without supervision that became my job. I guess you could say that was my first of many jobs. It wasn’t long before I was mowing my yard, our neighbors yard and my granddaddy Bill’s yard. Then I started working with another guy who would do the mowing for 50 percent of the money which freed me up to go door to door finding more yards to mow. Between the two of us we were responsible for about 6 yards. Our arrangement didn’t last for the summer though. My partner got tired of doing most of the physical work while I sold the service and dissolved our partnership. We agreed I would keep 3 of our yards and he would keep the others. I mowed these yards until around the time I turned 16 and went to work at McDonalds for my first official job. I learned a lot at McDonalds. I learned how to work as a part of a team, negotiating all the different personalities that exist in any workplace. I also learned how to speak to customers and exchange goods and services for money. One other skill I picked up at McDonalds was how to sweep and mop. These skills have all been utilized in my life and all the other jobs and in my personal life. Working at McDonald’s was a really great experience for me and I have very fond memories of that time. I worked there until I was 17 or so when I got my dream job, at least my dream job for my teenage years, working at the movie theatre. This was roughly around 1988 or 89. During the two years I worked there I saw every single movie that came out and in many cases saw them multiple times. I loved working there, being in the center of the social scene in our small town. If the theater manager would not have fired me I would have worked there for the rest of my life. I still remember going to my manager and telling him when I graduate high school I wanted to go full time and work my way into management. I had a coworker at the theater who was about my age and started shortly after I did. She was a sweet girl with a touch of social anxiety, kind of awkward and quiet. I worked with her and trained her to work the counter. She was a decent employee and moved up quickly being promoted to selling tickets even though honestly, there were superior candidates. Being a better employee makes no difference at all when you are up against the theater manager's daughter for a promotion. My completely average trainee was the boss's daughter. For most of my life I have believed that I lost my dream job trying to move into management because that was the career path he had in mind for his daughter. I truly believed I had been victimized by minimum wage nepotism but as I have age has grown so has my perspective. I now realize that my old manager saw something in me. I believe that he recognized greatness in me that could never be fully realized in the dead end, no future employment penal institution of the movie theater, so he nudged me out of the nest and onto my destiny. It was three years before I showed my face in that movie house.