About a year later it got totaled when a kid driving a rented moving truck sideswiped us and dragged us head on into a tree. Not kidding.

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And that was quite a job in the few minutes each morning before the first classes started.

One of the occasional duties in my last summer job in college.

The boards were made of fiberglass and the dust would get in your skin and itch like crazy.

It’s also disconcerting when you see the old-timer sitting next to you doing the same thing is missing a finger.

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worst. The worst was painting high tension towers. We were a hundred feet off the ground with rudimentary safety equipment, a 8 gallon bucket of paint, and a sponge to paint with. It paid $19/hr in 1971. I lasted one day. The next day
some yahoo from New Carlisle tried to paint a 160K volt line. My other two buddies quit immediately. I went back to 3.95/hr operating a cut off line in a trailer factory.

This was a preOSHA period of my life when I specialized in shitty, dirty dangerous jobs.

If I read the date stamps right

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The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope

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You’ll be hearing from my attorney, you rat-bastard.

My attorney is my ND roommate, and he’ll be telling you how funny your post was.

...and also somehow cool.

I remember my first week there as a freshman, watching a guy throw glasses in the rack. You had to grab four of those little glasses and put them up quickly to keep up with the conveyor. It was not easy to do and you had to move really fast.
I was impressed with the guy doing it and, to my later regret, I wanted to learn. I stepped in and got very good at it. So, I ended up doing glasses a lot before passing on the baton to others who also thought it looked cool. Total Huck Finn scenario.

Hilarious. But I think the real joke was Jack's post?

But didn't want to ruin it for others.

Bravo man, bravo.

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The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope

I’m either not as clever as I think or no one reads my posts. It’s probably both.

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The kind of guy who thought stuffing mashed potatoes in his juice glass was a great prank.

A moisturizing blast of scalding steam really opens the pores!

And I think every kid should have to spend a semester or so doing it, just like every kid should spend some HS time in food service or a similar gig. Makes you a more compassionate human being when working with or talking with folks in those types of jobs later in life.

Also, I first heard "Walking in Memphis" back in there. And life was never the same.

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The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope

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on the clean side of things, unpacking the racks and stacking dishes after they came out of the dishwasher. Hot as hell, but so much cleaner. That only lasted a few months however, until somehow I was promoted to ID checker at the front for everyone entering SDH. Two years on that job was clutch.

At least I was up early.

I have had over my career the experience of dealing with young adults with that affliction. The lack of a theft motive combined with a 100% of getting caught sounds like it.

I’m wondering if I might have seen it.

thankfully the season was short.

And washing dishes at NDH felt fun in comparison.

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I think the children like it when I "get down" verbally.

It was Glorious!

Lasted 2 days. I found out the guy I was replacing wasn’t coming back from his burns he got doing the job. Router sparked as he had the door open cleaning out shavings. Boom! No adjusters back then and I had no idea what had happened because my Dad got me the job because the owner was one of his subs.

Wait! My Dad knew………..mmmmffffeerrrr!

glad everyone's ok but an inconvenience and overall unsettling thing to experience. The randomness of it is almost weirder than if it was an actual breakin? hope the repairs go smoothly.

But not the worst, which was working for an ND grad as a young lawyer. Hoo boy.

Helped a Professor with a study he was doing on what certain proposed road widenings would do to locals (businesses, displacements, etc.)

We had to knock on doors in rough areas of town.

He always told me, "Make sure you stand beside the door (not in front of it) when you knock. Better to lose a hand than be gut shot."

I do not know if he was fucking with me, but from that day on I knock from the side no matter where I am.

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that I have a buddy back home who worked for the power company in Dayton and handled delinquent accounts with the authority to shut customers down on-site. He had some pretty wild stories, wish I could remember more specifics. But there was a lot of bargaining and a lot of interesting (and often depressing) living situations. Not as dangerous as being a repo man, but not great in certain instances, either.

the bottom of this monster:

Shift work; Driving a scoop truck under huge lime kilns to clean them out; loading and unloading chemicals from rail cars; unstopping wood chips (with a piece of rebar that must have weighed 20-25 lbs) from the chip hopper going into huge digesters (heat, pressure, and chemicals) that I would easily fit through if I stumbled.

and substantiating your whereabouts from 6PM to 8PM last night

(coming back over the ridge)

"Look, black smoke"

(getting closer)

"Oh my gosh, a car's on fire"

(closer still)

"Ohhh effffff...."

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The funny part was we get down there, and there are a handful of looky-loos watching the car slowly become engulfed.

One helpful guy says, hey, you should get in there and turn on the heat -- that will cool the engine!

This, as 3-foot flames are shooting out from under the hood.

Seriously, I am glad you and family are ok. That’s awful.
Sounds completely irrational and unhinged. Meth head?
Stay safe out there everyone. The world is in turmoil.

The truck driver and I would leave downstate Illinois at 8pm in a loaded semi, drive up to Chicago, and then spend all night hand-delivering orders of food and supplies to various Wendy's and Panda Express stores.

One night at the Wendy's on (I think) 83rd and Ashland (or maybe 70th and Western?), we got robbed at gunpoint. They held up the driver outside, then ran in where I was unloading fries into the cooler, shoved me on the ground, put a gun on my head, and demanded to see the manager. At like 3AM... When it became clear we didn't have the safe keys, they rifled my pockets, and then ran off.

I quit immediately upon returning to the warehouse, where the dispatcher begged me not to quit because they were understaffed.

For the rest of the summer I worked installing flatroofing. Sucked, but paid ok. Then, in October, I got a monster 6k check from the company, who'd been busted hoarding the prevailing wage money we'd earned working on a public school building.

I was tight with the caddymaster, and one of the members at the club got he and I a job with ADT Security one summer after the caddymaster had graduated from college (and I was still in school).

We spent the summer combing through cancelled/lapsed/delinquent accounts, knocking on doors to try to turn the service back on, and grabbing signs from the yards of those who wouldn't re-up. Some of those houses were in some of the same rough parts of Columbus your buddy probably traveled. And those people were none too happy when they saw/noticed a couple of white boys in khakis and button-downs grabbing the signs from their yards.

holidays. Big pay and it was in an easy neighborhood. Just ran up to the door, rang the bell and off I went. We got home early from college and so I got like two - three weeks right up to Christmas. then off.

I grew up in Michigan and it was a summer gig. The cornfields were the worst because once those stalks get to sufficient size, the leaves can slice your arms up pretty good. So in late July, hot and humid weather, we have to wear long pants and long sleeves. Then you might have to carry out some large steel sprinkler head back or similar equipment to the truck which can’t be parked near the sprinkler which is in the middle of the field.

We would have fun after hours, though. We’d take the equipment that was beyond repair and drive around in a pick-up truck looking for parked cars from Illinois. Then we’d throw the heavy parts through the back window.

We always made sure no one was in the cars. We figured it helped the local economy to have people from out of state have to get their cars repaired locally. I wouldn’t do it now—especially that I’m aware of how scary or unsettling it would be. But we were young and stupid.

I quit 8 days in.

It took me 3 days to figure out that I kept entering sales of the same blocks of time for the same units. And that they were approving sales to bad credit applications and denying the few good credit applications.

The idea was that most of the buyers would part with their initial 500 bucks, fall behind on payments, and then cancel and lose their money down before they ever used the timeshare.

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Sometimes I rhyme slow sometimes I rhyme quick.

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which wasn't all that intolerable, although the hours sucked and it only paid well if you were in good with the caddymaster. But the topic gives me an opportunity to mention a friend whose first job out of college was selling life insurance in one of the most destitute and dangerous neighborhoods in Columbus. Certainly no Glengarry leads in that bunch.

Starting as bagger/cart wrangler, progressing to cashier.

A lot of folks say caddying for this, but I never minded. Outside, good exercise, generally decent tips, able to complete while half-asleep/hungover. And unless you go out twice, you have most of the day/night to yourself.

in the ND Biology Dept. when I was an undergrad. Pretty nasty job because in addition to live fruit flies there was a lot of moldy fruit fly food in the bottles. It smelled pretty bad and I needed to wear a mask. To clean the bottles, you are supposed to fill a sink with soapy water and then open the bottles under the water so that the flies couldn't escape. I have a soft heart and I wanted to give them a chance, so I opened the bottles above the water before dunking them. The Bio dept. folks got pretty pissed because they couldn't figure out where all the flies were coming from, and they had to set traps all over. Needless-to-say, I didn't stay at this job for very long. :-)

I've never sweated that much in my life while some dickhead with a stop watch would stop by and time me.

Adjacent to the ghetto in Macon, GA. I was a grunt.

Favorite Part - The women who came in to buy snuff and pulled a massive wad of cash out of their bras.

Least Favorite Part - The family who bought a coke every day to put in their infant's bottle.

It was 25 years ago and not as bad because the windshield was intact, but still.

We were on vacation in Michigan and some joyriders in a pickup truck were throwing heavy objects through parked car windows. Our car had the back window smashed in and a big steel sprinkler head was resting on the back seat.

Working on your hands and knees in swampy Midwestern humidity was bad enough. But sneezing constantly because you were allergic to sod made it really suck.

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Throw em out Marianne.

You are one cool cucumber.
I’d be a basket case.

Scraping plates (left with all kinds of creative undergraduate residue) and putting them into these giant, near walk-in sized steamy dishwashing machines, getting completely soaked every shift, totally pruned and waterlogged and miserable.

than you car catching fire whilst hiking.

They had me on the roof by myself spreading aluminum tar in the middle of summer. I had no idea what I was doing. That shit is STICKY.

must've just gotten his "Seat at the Table!"

I've had a bunch of gigs moving auctioned off equipment out of liquidating light manufacturing shops. Really fun and challenging until it's not.

They're horribly overworked and underpaid.

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I figured he'd be as startled as I was about what happened.

"Some weirdo was just going around flinging small boulders through people's car windows!"

(monotone) "Uh huh. So what time was this?"

"It was only like 7PM, in a busy parking lot with lots of people around! I mean that's just wild, right?"

(still monotone) "Okay so you're covered for a tow and a rental, let me get some more info..."

Being a claims adjustor must really deaden your capacity for astonishment.

Glad to hear the family is safe and sound. Windows can be replaced.

I imagine your girls are certainly old enough to reasonably stay in the car during quick stops at this point. Glad no one was hurt

I'm sorry that you got caught in that. Glad everyone is okay.

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I get it.

Sounds like a person struggling with mental illness.

But that doesn't change the feeling of violation.

Best to your wife and daughters.

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The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope

My wife and daughters had finished a quick trip to Target and went in to a Wendy's (same parking lot) to grab a snack. This is about 7PM.

They came back out, and there were 4 police cars and officers everywhere.

All our car windows are smashed out. Front and back on both sides, back window all gone. The windshield is hanging in there. Shattered glass everywhere, all around the ground and blanketing the interior.

Several other cars nearby also have their windows smashed out.

Cops had a suspect already in the squad car.

Drivers in the drive-thru lane shared videos of this guy, who was wandering through the parking lot, picking up large rocks from the landscaping, and heaving them randomly through car windows.

We had a couple bags of stuff from Target in the back -- he never touched them. No details on the dude, cops wouldn't say much about him.

I've had car break ins before but nothing like this.