More first job goodness today. I love receiving and reading these and hope you do too. Today's is from Ron Ward who is a college friend now living in Columbus, GA. This is a great one because it will make think about Summer while most of us are dealing with cold, snow and rain these days.
From Ron:
My first job, I mean very first paid position was as an assistant/errand boy for the grounds and maintenance department at the school I attended when I was 13. It was summertime, and since I lived about a block from the school grounds I was perfect for the job. Duties included lugging these heavy brass sprinkler heads around to the football, baseball and soccer fields. These things were 20" tall and at least as wide and were shaped like a T with a short side. The bottom of the T would be pushed down into the sprinkler fitting that is flush with the turf under a hinged metal cap. (As I sit in the stands watching football games now I wonder about those metal hinged caps on the surface of the turf and when some player is going to land on one.) The trick was to open the water valve by twisting this steering-wheel sized knob beside the field you wanted to water, then traipse out with the sprinkler heads to the fittings. Finding these fittings was a challenge sometimes…imagine me in cut-off shorts and soaking wet t-shirt on hands and knees picking through the grass for a brass cap the size of a deck of cards. Anyway, holding the sprinkler head in both hands like a short po-go stick I'd guide the base down into the fitting making sure it hit home, then rotate it about half a turn like a giant keg tap and BOOM!!
The water coming out of the business-end of that sprinkler head was like hot fire. It would take the hair, and skin with it, off the inside of your thigh if it was pointed at you when engaged. Once seated and running, these giant sprinklers would hammer away with their weighted arms swinging in time with one another. Whack whack whack whack. The amount of water laid down on those fields was immense and the thirsty grass would almost reach up to catch the deluge as it fell each night.
Vivid memories of this experience have to do with the sensations and sounds of that summer long ago. I don't remember what I got paid, only that I got paid enough to buy some cassette tapes (The Police's Ghost in the Machine was one, I know for certain) and a Sony walkman (the pimped out yellow "waterproof" SPORTS model). What I remember most is the sound of the whacking sprinkler heads on those hot July nights. There was a variety of bird, big and dark grey that would fly over the fields and eat insects. Their call was a high whistle that in those wide spaces above the large fields had an echoing effect. I remember I had access to the maintenance departments white Ford work truck and I would load my sprinkler heads into the bed and drive down to the football field to start watering. I guess that was the first time I ever drove a vehicle, let alone a work truck.
Today, I am the master gardener in my own home and I specialize in sprinkler maintenance and operation. Each spring and fall I do the work of inspecting, cleaning, adjusting and replacing heads in my residential grade RainBird automatic sprinkler system and I will stand there all afternoon watching the ballet of water to the clickclickclick beat of the heads. My wife thinks I'm nuts.
I only worked that job one summer but it had a big impact on me. My first fist fight took place on the job that summer, too. My 14th summer I went away to a boarding school to try and get my grades up to snuff, and by the time of my 15th summer vacation I was good for nothing anyway. At 16 I was working at a local members-only dinner club parking cars and waiting tables but I'll save that experience for your post about "Worst Jobs."
Great story and nicely written! Do you have a first job story you'd like to share? Send it to me and I'll post it here. Also, be sure to check out my first job.
Venture Vice 