I have enjoyed being here a little more than previously, but I'm still a little bit of a slacker. Turns out, this week is just as busy as most school weeks! I am still teaching swimming lessons -- and enjoying it much more than years past. I've taken on a pre-lifeguarding-type class. I actually have to do a little preparation for that. I am SO the old person! I don't remember what I was ever supposed to do as a lifeguard and what the regulations were -- and it was so long ago it isn't still a regulation anyway. I have been time-traveling in my head as I remember some lifeguarding details. Stories soon.
The kids are also taking lessons while I teach. We just have a high time at the pool! We also are doing some traveling soon, having college kids at our house as soon as we return, mix and match in some teaching (yes, the book of Revelation to 4th graders -- no sweat!) and interpreting and singing at church. Your basic life, you know.
So, all the lifeguard talk has made me think of my first summer job. What was your first summer job? Would you ever do it again? A favorite memory from that job?
4 comments:
I always wanted to be a lifeguard, but there was this pesky little requirement that you had to actually know how to swim that prevented any water-related employment opportunities arising for me.
So, my first job was with a popular orthodontist in Austin, Texas.
The orthodontist liked the fact that I was working for him that summer because 1) my mom worked there too, which pretty much guaranteed my punctuality and 2) I was working for less than migrant worker wages, which pretty much guaranteed a nice profit for him.
Conversely, I liked working there because that is where all the beautiful high school girls went for braces, which guaranteed that I would at least have the opportunity to be turned down for a date at least once a week.
Although working for an orthodontist sounds glamorous on the surface, it really wasn't.
I was the guy who made molds of other people's dental catastrophes.
When I was finished with my assigned duties, the molds were supposed to look something like this, but usually ended up looking more like this.
Which, I suspect, probably has something to do with the fact that I was not asked to return during Christmas Break.
My first summer job was being a lifeguard at the large municipal pool on Forsythe Avenue. I was 16 years old, making money, being responsible for others' safety, and having a ball. And people thought lifeguards were cool.
What a wonderful two summers. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Great memory? Going to the burger hangout wearing my swimsuit, my jacket with "Lifeguard" on the back, and my whistle lanyard around my neck. Cool!
I was 15 and my first job was at at Carvel Ice Cream Parlor. They have the most amazing ice cream, good think I was 15 when I worked there, because the free ice cream we were allowed to have on our breaks would have had a much different affect if I was any older than a teenager.
My first summer job was babysitting a little girl who was born with spina bifida. Her parents attended--and still do along with her and her two younger siblings--the church where I grew up. I DID teach her how to use a spoon to feed herself, but then she had to have surgery and couldn't sit in her high chair the rest of the summer.
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