Jobs you had before you found your place in the world

[Dantheman]

Heh. Lock out, tag out.

That's a graduate-level thesis in why Lock Out>>>Tag Out

[Marshall Tucker]

They don't call it Ass-pen for nothing.



I nominate Buttahflake.

Ah Jesus Christ dudes. I got a couple broken ribs waitin to see doc follow up. fuck it hurts laughing

[papapoopski]

For those that have asked, I prefer to remain anonymous here. If I put it all out there I would have to tell everything including all of the dark shit. With what I have been through I don't have the courage to have people know who I am which is then tied to the business and my family.

For now tgr is my therapy. I should just start another thread.

[abraham]

For those that have asked, I prefer to remain anonymous here. If I put it all out there I would have to tell everything including all of the dark shit. With what I have been through I don't have the courage to have people know who I am which is then tied to the business and my family.

For now tgr is my therapy. I should just start another thread.

Your stories remind me of this article. It's about a chef's life, not just the bike. https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a3...-bike-mystery/

Everyone Has a Tom Pritchard Story. Only I Have His Bike.
THIS CHEF WITH A THOUSAND TALL TALES LIVED A LIFE TOO MYTHICAL TO BE TRUE—BUT IT WAS. NOW, HIS LEGEND LIVES ON IN A CHARMED, MYSTERIOUS BICYCLE.

[Timberridge]

It's like TGR's answer to Anthony Bourdain. Perhaps you could have your own thread and we could get a weekly story along with a recipe?

[evasive_MT]

It's like TGR's answer to Anthony Bourdain. Perhaps you could have your own thread and we could get a weekly story along with a recipe?

I wasn’t in NYC long, but I worked on 27th between Park and Lex (a few floors above Blue Smoke) towards the end of his period at Les Halles. I used to see him smoking outside most days. $18 for their steak frites was a great deal.

[nickwm21]

Working for a concrete company just into high school:

- Abandoned house on the property needed to be cleaned out. I had to roust out the junkies and then clean up their shit, piss and needles.
- Weedwhack entire fields of 5 foot tall shit that would kill my sinuses. For days on end. Saw weeds in my dreams. Much of the land was in a bog and I would fight off all sorts of wild life
- You know those concrete blocks that separate roadways? Well, I fill the forms with concrete and then had to sledge hammer out the pins that were always caked with concrete and then sledge off the steel forms. Rinse and repeat for 9 hours a day
- Pick up the boss at his house to drive him to work because he was blind as a bat. He had a huge GSD that roamed his property and I had to hope I could get to the front door before getting my ass chewed. Boss told me not to worry about it because he was friendly but that guy would have eaten my sack with a smile on his face if he was able
- There is a huge conveyer belt that pulls the aggregate up into a large bin above the concrete truck loading area. The belt is about 2 feet wide and doesnt have a walk way on either side for maintenance, so when its time to get out the grease gun and lube up the rollers, you just need to make sure the belt doesnt get activated to load a truck. So I put a "do not turn on" sign over the switch and started shimmying up the belt, greasing as a I go. I am about 10 feet from the top and maybe 20 feet off the ground when one of the drivers comes in and backs up his truck. No problem, they wont turn it on. And then the low buzz of the mechanism firing up starts to emanate. The troglodyte in the office must have removed the sign and fired it up. I'm crawling backwards slower than the belt is advancing towards the bin, screaming at the office guy, Toss the grease gun at the office roof to make enough noise to get some attention. Nothing. Decide to make the jump and fall a few stories to a pile of gravel.
- At the end of a shift, left over concrete gets filtered into an industrial sized drum of sort with an auger blade in the center that sifts the water from the aggregate to reuse. The optimal way to use this machine is to dump the leftovers in and then TURN IT ON, The suboptimal way is to not turn it on and have the concrete harden around the blade. Some genius opted for the second option and it was my job, being spry and making 7 bucks an hour, to climb into the drum with a mini jackhammer and chip away the concrete around the blade until it would free itself up. This was after the grease gun incident so I had a good talk with the office guy about, you know, not turning on the drum because it may literally chew me into pieces. I put make shift fencing around the unit, duct tape over the activation switch and squeezed into the pringles can of death. Chipping away for hours. Every time I needed to get out to get some air or have an existential crisis, it took a good 60 seconds of squirming. Well they tried to fire it up while I was in there, I had chipped away enough that I could see parts of blade and the the auger started to barely move but was under major pressure. I started panicking backing out as fast as I could and made it out before the machine broke free. I literally got in my car and left. never received my final pay check, no clue how Stevie Wonder got home. Told my Dad about the experience thinking he was going to tear into them and he just said "better learn how to use your head instead of your body going forward."

Roofed in Spokane summers once and that was nothing compared to the concrete company. Eventually landed a job teaching tennis lessons and working in the pro shop stealing snapples. Then it was on to hawking suits at Nordstrom over the summers back from college.

A guy lost his arm at the local batch plant two years ago...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[papapoopski]

It's like TGR's answer to Anthony Bourdain. Perhaps you could have your own thread and we could get a weekly story along with a recipe?

ok then. I probably need it more than anyone else.

I'm not much of a recipe guy. I do have binders full of the recipes that I've written over the years but that's to convey how to make something for consistency with kitchen staff. With learning to cook, I tell young cooks not to study the recipes but to study the person. It's how they make it, not what they make.

[BmillsSkier]

A guy lost his arm at the local batch plant two years ago...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We're just gonna let "batch plant" go by like no one said anything?

[Timberridge]

ok then. I probably need it more than anyone else.

I'm not much of a recipe guy. I do have binders full of the recipes that I've written over the years but that's to convey how to make something for consistency with kitchen staff. With learning to cook, I tell young cooks not to study the recipes but to study the person. It's how they make it, not what they make.

Great!

I'm not a recipe guy either but I like to try putting different stuff together in a food is chemistry way. We go to restaurants and when we like something we try to recreate it at home. I'm about 40-50% success rate on this. We had a pancetta and leek pizza a few weeks ago, where the "sauce" was basically a garlic mashed potato mixture and it was delicious. Stuff like that I don't have the creativity to come up with on my own so just ideas are welcome as well.

[blackalps]

This implies that we've found our place in the world or think we have, so... I'm out!

this. I've been close a few times and now in the wake of the pandemic am very very far from this.

That said:

bus boy at a small town Italian restaurant where creepy old ladies touched my butt
McDonald's
bagel shop
burritos
construction
dishwasher
barista (several times)
record store employee. Did this for a long time and loved it.
college radio DJ
wood shop tech
3rd shift factory worker, several times. It's the worst.
health food store stocker.
metal shop tech
art fabricator
adjunct art professor
music venue booker
wrangler/tour guide in Grand Teton NP
gallery assistant
model maker
art handler
art framer
cabinet maker/installer. did this for a long ass time.
bike mechanic, several different cities.
custom furniture maker
ornamental metals fabricator
set shop fabricator
vintage motorcycle mechanic
custom hot rod sheet metal fabricator
finisher
CAD drafter
project manager for custom fabrication
ski tech.

I know I'm forgetting some.

[bennymac]

Papoopski your stories are beyond entertaining. I get the desire for anonymity. But down the road someday if you find yourself not needing to worry about your past affecting your business you could consider a book. Your posts in this thread are at least as entertaining as what’s in Kitchen Confidential.

Or just unload them in here and we’ll all benefit just the same.

[GoldMember]

Working for a concrete company just into high school:

- Abandoned house on the property needed to be cleaned out. I had to roust out the junkies and then clean up their shit, piss and needles.
- Weedwhack entire fields of 5 foot tall shit that would kill my sinuses. For days on end. Saw weeds in my dreams. Much of the land was in a bog and I would fight off all sorts of wild life
- You know those concrete blocks that separate roadways? Well, I fill the forms with concrete and then had to sledge hammer out the pins that were always caked with concrete and then sledge off the steel forms. Rinse and repeat for 9 hours a day
- Pick up the boss at his house to drive him to work because he was blind as a bat. He had a huge GSD that roamed his property and I had to hope I could get to the front door before getting my ass chewed. Boss told me not to worry about it because he was friendly but that guy would have eaten my sack with a smile on his face if he was able
- There is a huge conveyer belt that pulls the aggregate up into a large bin above the concrete truck loading area. The belt is about 2 feet wide and doesnt have a walk way on either side for maintenance, so when its time to get out the grease gun and lube up the rollers, you just need to make sure the belt doesnt get activated to load a truck. So I put a "do not turn on" sign over the switch and started shimmying up the belt, greasing as a I go. I am about 10 feet from the top and maybe 20 feet off the ground when one of the drivers comes in and backs up his truck. No problem, they wont turn it on. And then the low buzz of the mechanism firing up starts to emanate. The troglodyte in the office must have removed the sign and fired it up. I'm crawling backwards slower than the belt is advancing towards the bin, screaming at the office guy, Toss the grease gun at the office roof to make enough noise to get some attention. Nothing. Decide to make the jump and fall a few stories to a pile of gravel.
- At the end of a shift, left over concrete gets filtered into an industrial sized drum of sort with an auger blade in the center that sifts the water from the aggregate to reuse. The optimal way to use this machine is to dump the leftovers in and then TURN IT ON, The suboptimal way is to not turn it on and have the concrete harden around the blade. Some genius opted for the second option and it was my job, being spry and making 7 bucks an hour, to climb into the drum with a mini jackhammer and chip away the concrete around the blade until it would free itself up. This was after the grease gun incident so I had a good talk with the office guy about, you know, not turning on the drum because it may literally chew me into pieces. I put make shift fencing around the unit, duct tape over the activation switch and squeezed into the pringles can of death. Chipping away for hours. Every time I needed to get out to get some air or have an existential crisis, it took a good 60 seconds of squirming. Well they tried to fire it up while I was in there, I had chipped away enough that I could see parts of blade and the the auger started to barely move but was under major pressure. I started panicking backing out as fast as I could and made it out before the machine broke free. I literally got in my car and left. never received my final pay check, no clue how Stevie Wonder got home. Told my Dad about the experience thinking he was going to tear into them and he just said "better learn how to use your head instead of your body going forward."

Roofed in Spokane summers once and that was nothing compared to the concrete company. Eventually landed a job teaching tennis lessons and working in the pro shop stealing snapples. Then it was on to hawking suits at Nordstrom over the summers back from college.

Want to come roof in Spokane again? We're hiring.

[abraham]

Two things:

1) I'd read your book Pappapoopski

2) If someone doesn't take Cokey McBlowjob as their new alias, then this place is slipping.

We had Smokey McPole but I like this name more.

X2 on the book

[riser4]

That's a graduate-level thesis in why Lock Out>>>Tag Out

Shit, I bet even if he had removed the switch entirely, those retards would have gone and found a new switch rather than rub a few brain cells together and figure out why the machinery was disabled.

[GoldMember]

Heh. Lock out, tag out.

Yep. Textbook examples.

[Dantheman]

Shit, I bet even if he had removed the switch entirely, those retards would have gone and found a new switch rather than rub a few brain cells together and figure out why the machinery was disabled.

Entirely possible.

Yep. Textbook examples.

Plus working at heights, confined spaces and god know what else. As someone with a lot of training in industrial safety just reading Art's stories was mildly traumatizing. Those twats have probably maimed or killed multiple people.

[char_]

Entirely possible.



Plus working at heights, confined spaces and god know what else. As someone with a lot of training in industrial safety just reading Art's stories was mildly traumatizing. Those twats have probably maimed or killed multiple people.

Rules written in blood....

^^^That never seems to click for some people. "Why do I need this harness, I'll only be up there for a sec......."

[riser4]

Makes me wonder if my wife really is trying to kill me. When I'm doing electrical work at home I stick hunter orange duct tape all over every breaker and switch I turn off. She complained that the orange roll is the good stuff and more expensive, did I really need it, could I please use the cheap stuff. I said I need it. One of the kids turned on a switch that hadn't been tagged, fortunately the breaker was off and was tagged.

[Danno]

the legal ones:
Retail
Pizza delivery
Odd jobs/landscaping
Office temp work
Pasta maker and delivery
Bean counter (bookkeeping)
Warehouse picking/shipping
Hotel front desk
Snow removal
Cashier
Dishwasher
Landscaping
Furniture/appliance delivery
Accounting department
Cashier

[Meadow Skipper]

For some reason Danno’s post got me thinking about the different skills I used as a ski patroller. Here’s a list of some of the things I had to be more or less adept at, I’m sure I’m forgetting some.
EMT
Avy mitigation
Security
Relief lifty
Assistant to lift mechanic
Snowmobile operator
Snowmobile mechanic
Carpentry and site maintenance
Snow removal
Trail clearing (saws and brush hogs)
Search & rescue
Dispatcher
Tech & report writing
Traffic control
Mountain host/ass kisser
Taxi (toboggan) driver
Janitor
Babysitter

BTW, you listed “Cashier” twice, Danno.

[blackalps]

The legal ones

Oh yeah. I was a weed bike courier in nyc for a minute. Most stressful job I’ve ever done.

[Danno]

BTW, you listed “Cashier” twice, Danno.

Well, to be honest, I could have listed it more than twice! I was going more or less chronologically, and somehow, being a cashier at a ski rental shop and being cashier at a home improvement store seemed sufficiently different that I felt they both should be listed. Or at least that's what I decided for the nanosecond I thought about it.

[Brownski]

I forgot that I was a pizza cook just before horse wrangler, also in AK. I made great pizza.

Stocker at a Fay’s Drugs (Out of business) 6 months
McDonalds cook 2-3 years
McDonalds overnight maintenance man 1 summer
Subway sandwich maker off and on for maybe 4 years
Movie Theater Usher 1 year
Security Guard off and on for maybe 2 years (maybe my least favorite)
HORSE WRANGLER in ALASKA (my favorite) 2 summers
Liftie (2nd favorite) 1 winter
Retail Electronics Sales at a Lechmere (out of business) 3-4 months
Marketing Firm Office drone (can’t remember my actual title) 6-10 months
Snowmaker- :Mountain Operations Dispatch 1 winter
Retail Liquor Store manager 3 years
B2B sales for the last 20 years so I guess that could be said to be my place in the world but it wouldn’t break my heart to move on to something more exciting at some point.

[Timberridge]

I hope Parvo finds this thread.