Let's Call It a Wrap!

 

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: Did you have a job while you were in high school?

I remember for certain that one of my first jobs was while I was in high school. My friend Norma West worked at Dairy Queen in Shelbyville one or two afternoons a week. Wartrace did not have much of a job market, at least back in the ‘70s, early ‘80s. I guess that Norma must have mentioned that DQ was needing help. The pay wasn’t good but supper was free. The thought of a “free” hot fudge sundae or even a chocolate-dipped cone for dessert was like a carrot held in front of a horse…or maybe a mule, in my case! I applied and got the job.

Now back then, the DQ employees wore a little red, two-sided apron that was open on the sides. You slipped your neck through the center and the back fell over your back and the front fell over your chest and it snapped together at the side. The manager at Dairy Queen said that we could each get one extra apron at no cost if we wanted one. So I told them to go ahead and order one more for me.

Well, when I went in to pick up my paycheck, and my new apron, I saw that the cost of the apron had been deducted from my paycheck. I only made about $1.60 an hour so I doubt that there was much paycheck left. I told the manager that the price of the apron had been deducted from my check and it was not supposed to be but she said that I had to pay for it. I put the apron on the counter and told her that I would not be needing the apron. I expected reimbursement and I would not be returning to work.

 

 

So, my job ended because of a kind of “wrap” but I learned something from this job. I discovered that employees cannot always believe everything that they are told by their employers. So, that was my first job experience and I learned a valuable lesson as well as getting the occasional free sundae!

Now, the next two jobs, I can’t really recall if they were while I was in high school or college so I will tell you about them just in case.

My next job was a summer job at Potts Farm Processing. It was in Wartrace so it wasn’t far from home. The Potts family ran a little meat processing business. Local farmers would bring steers, hogs, sometimes their goats, to be slaughtered and processed.

There was a concrete room with a drain where the animal was slaughtered and butchered. Fortunately, I didn’t have anything to do with that part of the processing. Although looking back, it would be good to know how to cut up a beef or hog into its various cuts. As it is, I can’t even cut up a chicken without making it nearly unrecognizable.

So after the animal was butchered and processed, the cuts were brought up front to me. I would put the various cuts onto trays and wrap them on the film wrapping machine and label them before they were put into the cooler. I rather enjoyed this job. I like the Potts family and the folks that I worked with, and that made it a nice place to work.

My third job that could have been in high school but more likely during college was a summer job at Empire Pencil Company in Shelbyville. Shelbyville had several pencil factories and back in the day was known as “Pencil” City. I worked during the 4:00-12:00ish shift in the evenings. This was the same shift that Dad worked at Eaton Corporation. Eaton and Empire weren’t that far apart so Dad and I carpooled to work. I drove him to Eaton and then went on to my job at Empire. I’d pick him up after our shifts.

I worked on a line that packaged the pencils onto their cardboard tray and then wrapped the whole in cellophane. Sometimes my little group would work on a line that put erasers or sharpeners into blister packs. Now, this was a summer job and of course, the factory was not air-conditioned. It did have huge industrial fans directed at us as we worked on the line and those fans sure felt good!

It was there at Empire that I was introduced to the idea of “productivity” bonuses. If your line was running really smoothly, you just might meet the productivity assigned to that task. Often that productivity level seemed a bit out of reach even without any loafing. If you met that productivity level, your team would get a bonus. I remember that sometimes we would be running really close to the productivity level assigned and we would all work like we were putting out a fire. A few times, we actually made it!

Working at Empire taught me some things too. I learned that jobs often use carrots to tempt their employees. The carrot at Dairy Queen had been a free sundae at supper; at Empire, it was a little extra cash. Even driving to and from work taught me something. When I hit a pothole while driving, I learned that it never gets old for Dad to say, “I noticed that you missed one a ways back; do you wanna go back for it?”

I went on after finishing MTSU to go to the Physical Therapy program at UT Center for the Health Sciences. While there, we learned how to care for wounds and dress them. While learning this in PT school, I thought about how my life had kind of come full circle. I had wrapped meat, gone on to wrapping pencils, and “now” I was back to wrapping “meat” (no disrespect meant). Maybe I was a mummy maker in a former life!