Well, I get up at seven, yeah
And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin'
Yes, I'm workin' all the time
It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man
'Cause I get home at five o'clock
And I take myself out an ice cold beer
Always seem to be wondering'
Why there's nothin' goin' down here
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man
"Workin' Man" - Words & Music by Lee & Lifeson
I was still part of a Way "program" and had made plans to enter their leadership training, I was not looking for anything long-term, but I started out my time in a new city with a job already lined up. The Country Kitchens in Kearney and Lincoln were owned by the same company, so I started my life in Lincoln ready to start work. As I stated in Part IV, my job was a dishwasher, but they referred to me as a DMO - Dish Machine Operator. I worked Monday - Friday, 7am - 4pm. I have no idea how I managed to avoid evenings and weekends, but wasn't about to complain. Tim, one of my roommates, worked a similar schedule, so I always had a ride to work. I'd start my day cleaning up the horrendous mess that the closing shift left for me. The sink would be full of pots and pans, silverware and dishes, and, an accident waiting to happen - knives. I don't recall ever cutting myself, but I ranted about it just about every day. If I had stuck around I might have worked my way into a waiter or cook position, but as I was still heavily involved in The Way, and had planned on entering their leadership training program in a year, long term career goals were not a priority.
Around this time I met Pat, the woman who I would eventually marry, which influenced what my next job would be. In February '82 I had been reassigned to a different part of the city by Way leadership, which made it difficult to get to my job at Country Kitchen. Pat's ex-husband Dave was a manager at the Domino's Pizza Commissary, the location where the pizza dough and toppings were prepped for all the Lincoln and Omaha Dominoes. It was located within walking distance of my new home, so she asked him to hire me on. It was another Monday - Friday job, starting at 7am with varying end times. We’d start the day making giant piles of dough that we would cut up and weigh - these would become pizza crusts - and put in trays to be delivered to the different stores. Next we’d cut up various toppings - onions, peppers, mushrooms etc., and bag them up. This was all according to orders called in from the stores.
Back in those days I wasn’t very safety conscious. On two different occasions I tried to unclog the vegetable slicer and sliced the end of a finger. The first time I put a Band-Aid on it and it healed just fine. The second time one of the owners was present and insisted that I go the urgent care and get stitches. I can still see the scar from that one. (Years later as a certified Level 4 Food Manager & store safely coordinator, I understood the owner's point of view!)
After a few months I was entrusted with driving the delivery truck, first to the Lincoln stores, and then to Omaha, driving the big 10 speed manual transmission rig. This was a part of the job that I really enjoyed - it was a few hours every afternoon, just me and one other person, driving and unloading at each of the stores. On one of my trips I got stuck in a narrow alley and tried to back out, the bumper got caught on something and was bent back. I “fixed” it by pushing the bent bumper against a telephone pole to get it back in position. I thought that no one would notice!
That summer I found out that I would not be entering leadership training, and Pat and I got married. I was far from employee-of-the-year, but I’m pretty sure that’s why I got fired. Although Dave was not happy that I called the owner after Dave regularly showed up late for work, leaving the whole crew standing outside, unable to clock in. This was the beginning of a long stretch being unemployed, other than a brief stint selling vacuum cleaners.
Vacuum cleaner salesman was the shortest and probably the most ridiculous job I ever had. I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but I think I answered an ad that was fairly vague, but promised big paychecks. After sitting through a training class I found out that I’d be selling Rainbow vacuum cleaners for commission. I was very bad at it. We were supposed to generate leads by giving potential buyers a case of soup to get in the door. (Yes, a case of soup) After going through our spiel and attempting to close we were supposed to call our district manager and have him talk to our lead. This didn't work very often, it usually just annoyed people. These vacuums were ridiculously expensive, but a ridiculously high percentage of the cost was the commission, so you could make a pretty good living selling one or two a week. I only sold two or three in the month that I did this, but I made enough to keep our heads above water for a while.
I ended up being out of work for about four months, I didn’t pay rent that whole time, and I got really good at figuring out how long I could avoid paying a bill before getting cut off; we signed up for food stamps and WIC. There was always food on the table though. I managed to hang on until I was able to get two part time jobs - stocking shelves at a Food 4 Less from 9pm - 2am, then delivering Omaha World-Herald newspapers from 2:30am - 7am.
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