A friend recently jogged my memory by stating he had nineteen years of fun while living in Valsetz, Oregon, a once upon a time mill town set high in the Coast Range. His enthusiasm urged me to think back and remember jobs I really found to be just plain fun.
Surveying: I only worked two weeks “pulling chain” for a surveyor, and “pounding hubs,” and clearing sight lanes with a power saw and an axe, but I loved every minute of it, and I was sorry when the project ended. Thought briefly about becoming a surveyor.
Setting Section Markers: My job…for six weeks…was to take a map of the North Warner mountains and find Brass Cap survey markers, some as recent as 1880 or so…at least that’s what I remember engraved on the caps. (I might have to research the timing of the first surveys in deep SE Oregon just to be accurate.). I walked wild forests where I felt like the first man to ever see it, only to find an old bearing tree and scout up the brass cap to prove I was definitely not the first of European decent to tread that ground.
I’d take a compass bearing from the brass cap and walk as straight as I could through the timber to the closest road and put up a silver section marker. (This was all before GPS.) I think I got pretty good at it. (And as a side benefit, I found a beaver pond brimming with nice brook trout. I’m certain no one had fished the pond in decades.) Anyway, that was one of the best jobs I ever had.
Soda Jerk: I loved being a soda jerk. One spring college quarter, when my money was about gone, I worked for almost three months at Pat and Jerry’s Dairy Queen in Independence, Oregon. I was paid a dollar an hour, supper, and time to study when business was slow. (I won’t mention a free pack of cigarettes thrown in for good measure.)
I learned to make malts so thick you had to use a spoon. We made root beer malts, purple cow milk shakes, whipped up big banana splits and fudge sundaes, and filled cones with ice cream I personally made in the machines. We also served a type of hamburger called a Sloppy Joe. The customers were always friendly and I could always get a laugh or two. Mostly they came back time and again. It was a job I looked forward to.
Backhoe Operator: I liked digging holes so much I nearly quit college to work construction. (Good thing I didn’t drop out of school, because the company I worked for went broke soon after I left.) But, I felt a kinship with “my” machine, and I think I became a pretty good operator.
There were some other good jobs along the way, but these were the first to jump out of my memory.
So what’s the point? I’m not sure. Maybe to just jog your memory and remind you of some fun times from way back when.
Rod
p.s. I just remembered working as a “Barker” for the High School Carnival. “Step right up, ladies and gentlemen and give Lady Luck a chance to make your evening.” I had a top hat and a cane. Good fun.
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