I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone did job wise besides getting rich playin' mouf harp. I'm an optometrist in Indiana, how about you?
i deliver car parts in a POS truck with 400k miles on it. i get paid cash an most of the time my boss stiffs me a few hours. but its good cause i get to listen to music for hours. i used to be a mechanic but im not diggin the whole physical labor thing anymore. ----------
Last Edited by on Jan 07, 2010 4:09 PM
im in charge of making sure the required parts to repair a vehicle in need of service reach its destination of an automotive technician in a timely fashion. jon sparrow...delivery boy. ----------
Um, current title is programmer analyst. I'm developing software at a northeastern freight company. I'm also job hunting to find a different company to work for with new challenges (preferably in a warm/bluesy climate :) ).
---------- ~Ryan
"I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window." - Stephen Wright
Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
I am an underworld kingpin whose ruthlessness and influence have a legendary, even mythical, status among law enforcement agents and criminals alike. When I'm not doing THAT...I, too, make a living in delivery...
I am a special education teacher at the high school level. My students are developmentally delayed and I teach them how to reach maximum independence as adults via several businesses I have created. We occupy an old home ec room and it has 4 kitchen stations. My students work from 7:15-2:00 everyday making homemade dog biscuits, homemade horse treats, homemade bagels/cookies/pizzas, run a school cafe, shop for supplies in the community, count deposit money made, deliver our products to 5 local businesses that sell them for us, and basically learn to feel that their lives have meaning. I feel blessed to have fallen into this field (16 years now). Getting a college education while living in austin changed my life. The power of education is indisputable. My job is as creative as my music. I am left alone(and supported) to create. It was like 1 gig in 50 was really good. My job is like 170 out of the 185 I work are really good. On top of that, I feel like I am really giving something back to the world. That is all I ever wished for. Walter ---------- walter tore's sponotbeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
I am a man of leisure. In what seems like another life, I worked in a steel mill as a QC inspector for quite a while and then an electronics technician. Retired 5 y.ago. I must say, between now having the time and all this internet harp info,my playing has markedly improved.
Last Edited by on Jan 07, 2010 5:40 PM
Kyzer- I actually already new you were an underworld kingpin. I saw it in a movie once! Me, I'm in between right now. I once wanted to be a novelist, but after about 20 pages I decided I wanted to be a short story writer. After a few more pages I decided I only wanted to be a poet. Of course, calling yourself a poet does not make you a poet.
I think stickman (who is really scstrickland with a new username)was being funny since his signature reads "The Art Teacher Formally Known As scstrickland "
The bolds was added by me ;)
By the way, I is a archamologist. But I think some of you knew that.
This guy was a stuck up, homophobic bitch in my highschool. One year after graduation he had his comming out... really quite cliche if you think about it.
@Michael: feeling like home here, heh? :)
---------- germanharpist on YT. =;-) - Resonance is KEY!
Last Edited by on Jan 07, 2010 6:16 PM
Nice one! Over the past 20 years or so, my career has taken several turns, but always with a theme of social inclusion for disabled people. I started out in a college teaching basic skills to physically disabled adults, then I was a job-coach for learning disabled school leavers, getting them into real jobs in local businesses. Now I design information that is easy to understand for people with learning disabilities and poor reading comprehension. It's a very rewarding field to work in isn't it?
Last Edited by on Jan 08, 2010 2:19 AM
Steel Mill Foreman for the past 21 yrs. Before that Chimney Sweep. ---------- "I have a high tolerance for boredom as long as it has a groove" - Scrapboss
Building Maintenance for the Goverment - and yes It takes six of us to change a light bulb , full time Dad and happly married well most of the time when she lets me do what I want
I am an equipment maintenance tech for a Multi-national semi-conductor manafacturing corporation. part time Army Reservist. I also hire out Bouncy Castles. and somewhere in between all that I have 2 kids aged 19 & 6years.
---------- My granddad gave me some sound advice on his deathbed. "It's worth spending money on good speakers," he told me.
djm3801: thanks! It is very rewarding to make a difference in someones life. Many people have given to me great lessons and experiences. I feel blessed to be able to give some back to wonderful people that are given a really crap deal by our "sink or swim on your own merit" society.
MrVerylongusername: Like you said, it is very rewarding work. Considering I could easily have gone to work for organized crime (I am from Newark NJ area), it is a miricale I am a teacher......... I thought music was my high calling. It is a high calling, but working with people that can not do life on their own is a higher level of calling. Plus they are the greatest dancers/lovers of music on the planet! I love playing for them and thank you for making a difference in some folks lives! Walter ---------- walter tore's sponotbeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
20 years as Truck mechanic, 15 years as fleet manager, now, Operations Manager Valve & Controls business, Husband, Father, Grandfather and all around damn nice guy. Oh and once in a while I get paid to play.... Not often mind you but hey... pay is pay. ---------- "Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
I retired 6 months ago. I loaded/unloaded trucks on a freight dock. I had to retire early with a reduced pension because, due to the economy, there wasn't enough work to keep me busy and unemployment insurance was running out.
Waltertore, It does sound like a great gig, all kidding aside. I worked with an outfit in PA, a Non Prof That did Occupational therapy for emotionally challenged and post incarceration/post rehab people. I just couldn't afford to stay there after my 2nd divorce so I went back to selling stuff and making money. I was happier then, but now ,my bills are paid. Thing is with my kids mostly grown and on their own I could afford a pay cut. You got any openings? LoL
I run a cabling machine that makes aluminum electrical building cable from multiple individually stranded , jacketed phase wires and a bare neutral..similar to what you see coming to your house off the phone pole or underground feeder.
Before that I had a solid waste disposal business until my kids finished school. Before that I was a B-52 radar navigator/flight examiner/flight commander/B-2 pilot training academic program developer and multi-faceted Air Force Captain with limited exposure to civilians, for a variety of reasons. I was an operations planning cell mission developer for 6 ship B-52 formation sorties in Desert Storm, operating from a location 7 hours out of bagdad by air.
When I finished in the military, I found a whole different world as a small business owner in a field where there is virtually zero respect for what you do...Trash hauler. In some ways, it increased my compassion for others who work hard and have little...it also reduced my personal tolerance for B.S. when folks lash out of nowhere against the innocent. Always a double-edged sword, the people thing. I find the military training helpful in both cases. You might be surprised at the role of compassion in the military and how it so easily melds with doing what becomes necessary.
All of this gave me a new perspective on people and now I teach a Sunday school class for special needs adults that allows me to rotate in and out according to my current 12 hour swing shift schedule. Gotta go take a nap now before I go to work tonight at 7. Interesting thread!
When I'm out with my wife and someone asks that question she puts her head in her hands, gives it a shake and gives me the evil eye. Don't understand it. Oh well. I used to be a computer programmer in a children's hospital but I spent a lot of time helping with kid's carnivals, Halloween parades, thinking up wacky games of TV bingo to host over the inhouse cable network and being a captain for the 24 Hour Relay team raising money for Easter Seal's kid camps. Before that a ski technician and professional student. Now I get paid to program interfaces and custom data extracts for medical lab systems. But mostly I drive teenage girls back and forth all over hell's half acre and cook the dinners. But they let me drink Guinness and go jammin' so I'm good with that. There, that didn't hurt too much did it?
Waltertore; I think there is value in a sink or swim society, but only when it knows who will really sink. Many swimmers disguised as sinkers taking bucks out of the system, which makes it more difficult for the truly needy and programs for them to get assistance and funding. FYI - I am originally from Orange, NJ. Worked in Newark for many years. Major Ins Company. Guess who?
Last Edited by on Jan 08, 2010 7:35 PM
djm3801: small world, my father grew up on chestnut street right at the train bridge. We use to go to Salandri's bar all the time because they would serve us as minors. I played Wallaces a bunch and star tavern is the best pizza on earth! Oh, and the white castle made a lot of money off me....... Could it be the Prudental??? My parents met there. My mother, from Italy, was renamed by her boss there. Her name was Clarice and he said that was no name for a young woman and changed it to Clara. Man, what they could to you in the late 40's. Imagine a boss pulling that today. I grew up in Bellville and we moved to south orange when I was 10. I miss the Italian food. Labrettis............ Walter ---------- walter tore's sponotbeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
Waltertore, Yup, The Pru. I can see a supervisor changing a name now - lawsuit. I remember starting at Pru in 1965 in data processing and women were not allowed to work in the computer room. I know most of the places you mentioned. I lived a block from Orange High in one of the big Victorian homes built in the 1880's. White Castle. I used to take a $1.50 and get 12 burgers and get 6 cents change. Ate them all on the walk home. Star is still there but I was a "Toast of the Town" pizza guy near White castle. I think Libretti's is still there as well. Not much else left. It was a nice town. Not any more. Good memories. Still make it Ferry Street in IronBound Newark for Portuguese food.
Sounds like a few folks in this thread are compassionate people who help others. A nice thing. I have been lucky - a lot of folks out there who need understanding and are bad off. Recently took up a holiday collection for a food bank at work when the boss suggested we do that instead of exchanging gifts. In a small team, 60% of the people kicked in and the others did not. Incredible.
Last Edited by on Jan 08, 2010 7:43 PM
djm3801: I burnt the roof of mouth many a times on the toast of the town pies. I use to venture down to Newark to play music. I met Wilbert Harrison who did Kansas city in the 50's while blowing my harp and walking down south orange ave in Newark. He literally jumped the curb with his caddy and pinned me on a wall- demanding I get in and be in his band. the problem was I delivering illegal drugs to bars on south orange ave. they were mob connected deliveries and I could tell by the look on his face and the women he had in the car that they could easily do up all I had on me and would be laying somewhere with busted bones when I showed up to turn in my money with empty pockets...... So, I zipped my coat up tight and got in and my life ain't been the same since! I use to drive for national car rental out of Newark airport. Most of the guys were Portugese. they took me to all those Ironbound places for lunch. Walter ---------- walter tore's sponotbeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
I'm a programmer/analyst (I don't qualify as a systems analyst: I'm a programmer whose customers are so dumb that I have to tell them what they want before I design and write it) Civil service. I've been given compulsory early retirement in April so that contractors can do my job for three times what it costs to pay me to do it (except that they don't know any of our systems, so they sit around re-engineering stuff desultorily and submitting time-sheets). My pension isn't index-linked for 5 years, so if there's inflation when the economy recovers, I'm stuffed for the rest of my life. ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Last Edited by on Jan 09, 2010 3:08 AM
Last Edited by on Jan 07, 2010 4:09 PM
