Celebrating Labor Day. Happy Labor Day.

[dnalexander]

I am interested in hearing your best "labor" story. What is your best, most memorable, fun, exciting, job? I don't have time to write a story on mine right at this moment, but I will later. Give me your best story.

My best "jobs". (1970's and beyond)

Caddying at the country club in Warrensburg, Mo I was 13 got a five dollar tip, I was rich.

In high school I worked in a gun shop as an apprentice gunsmith. Swept a lot of floors, but also did some actual work on guns. I made $5 an hour cash after school and on weekends. Didn't realize I was over payed until I took a job several years later for $5 per hour and had to pay taxes.

Worked in the health club industry for 20 years. Some good, some bad. Realized money wasn't everything, there is a certain combination of pay and work environment that makes for a great job.

David

[pamsback]

  Other than bein Mom and Granma the job I enjoyed the most was the one I had up till November before last. Hangin siding believe it or not. I worked with a great bunch of guys and I was GOOD at it. The best part was when we redid an old house because they always looked so much better. It was good exercise, it was a labor intensive job that made you think and come up with ways to do particular things...I learned a lot of new skills....I was part of a crew but still worked on my own a lot. I really miss it...did it for 5 1/2 years and when the bottom fell out of housing so did my job . Other than that workin for Levi Strauss in Fayetteville was a pretty good job.

[larryJ]

Well David, we have already discussed my stint at Music City over on another thread.  I really loved that job, never mind working late hours and weekends.  Just being around the people and the music was a lot of fun.

However, my career was at the Los Angeles Times for 34 years.  It, too, was working a lot of night shifts and weekends.  I enjoyed that job mostly because we had a deadline each day and had to meet it.  The faster we got it done, the earlier we went home.  Working the night shift meant tail gate parties after work in the parking lot.  Some guys even brought little barbecues and cooked up some steaks or hamburgers to go with the beer.  My job now?  Being with my family and just enjoying the retired life.  Babysitting my granddaughters is a fun day for me.

Larryj

[Mom70x7]

It's a little bit sappy, I know, but . . .

My best job was (is) being a parent - and being a foster parent.

I so thoroughly enjoyed helping kids discover they were good people, and getting them to the resources they needed to become whole. The ones that got to return home were extra special because they were so few.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

[sixdogsmom]

Mom, that isn't sappy at all, my greatest reward was seeing young people that had worked for me succeed. After my retirement my company invited me to a milestone celebration. I was delighted to find that many of the current department heads had been formerly under my supervision. So nice to see these people doing well; there are at least two couples that had met working on my shift. Now that is a challenge; trying to keep young hormones in check and still complete the work. Giving the youngsters a hand upward is the very best.

[Catwoman]

My best jobs have always been anything that put me into contact with people, as in my teaching career...And also being a mom and daughter...It's taken me a lot of years to discover how to achieve a balance to life but it works.  

[Wilma]

I was working a temporary job as an income tax return preparer.  The process at this firm was that the preparer (that's me) would take the information from the tax payer, work the necessary accompanying schedules, and fill out a form.  My work was then reviewed by two other preparers , then sent to the main office to the computer.  I didn't work this particular return but I got in on the publicity about it.  The person who worked it also worked at one of the plants in Wichita and then worked the evening shift at the income tax office.

One of the TV stations in Wichita decided to do a story on how accurate the prepared income taxes were.  They took an actual return to several different places, including the IRS, to have it worked.  My evening co-hort caught this return, worked it, sent it to the main office, then spent the next evening at the office defending the work he had done.  Consequently, the return was late in being returned for the taxpayer to pick up.  The taxpayer picked up his return and in a few days we were notified that there would be a TV reporter and cameraman calling on us.  Ours was the only firm that had worked the return correctly.  Since the person that had worked the return didn't want to take time off from work and my day time co-worker didn't want to be on camera, it fell to me to be the interviewee.  I was glad that they had given us notice because I had a chance to choose  appropriate clothing, which happened to be a pretty blouse that I finished in a hurry so I could wear it.  We did the interview, were told that it would be on the evening news.  Now I knew that we couldn't get back to Severy in time to see it, so we dropped in on  one of my brothers and informed them that we wanted to watch the news but not why.  Sure enough, there I was in my new blouse (and other appropriate clothing) pointing a pencil at the cameraman.  I have a habit of pointing a finger or whatever happens to be in my hand to emphasize the point that I am trying to make.

This wasn't my best job and maybe not even my most interesting job, but it is memorable.

[Rudy Taylor]

Just returned from the Severy Labor Day celebration ... nice turnout.  Wonderful folks.

I also snapped a picture of the Veterans' Memorial in Howard.  What a great tribute to the men and women who have served our country in uniform.

[Catwoman]

Happy Labor Day to all those given a break from their labors...I am celebrating it by exercising the great American right to mow my lawn...Ugh.

[flo]

  been giving this some thought.  I have worked as a waitress, key-punch operator, school secretary 9 1/2 yrs. (this also included substituting as mom, nurse, confidant, etc.) legal secretary 8 yrs., bank teller and mgr. of drive in bank, antique furniture refinisher, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother.  Which did I enjoy the most?  All of them, because they all gave me contact with people.  The only job I ever quit was for the SRS.  They stuck me in an office with no windows, no public contact, dull, drab and not my kind of working environment.  I took my coffee cup home after only 1 week and never regreted it.  My last job was at the Co-op in Severy.  Started there after Lewis died in 1995.  I retired in 2005, just 7 days short of 10 yrs there.  I loved the work, the co-workers, the customers . . . my motto has always been, if I couldn't smile while at my job and I didn't enjoy my job, then I didn't need that job.