One afternoon last week I pulled into the McDonald’s drive through but had to pull up short. The “gardening crew” was hustling around and trying not to slow down the traffic too much. One young man in a blue, Brown County Eagle T-shirt was pushing a wheelbarrow full of stones in front of me waiting for the boss to tell him where to put them.
Ah, those summers, when school days turned into workdays. Most all of us have had the experience. I’ll pause here a second because I know your mind, like mine, just reversed itself back to those earlier times and those summer “adventures” of experiencing new tasks and meeting new people and when our “real education” went into fast forward.
Pausing …
Pausing …
Pausing …
Being a teacher, my pursuit of summer work did actually continue well into middle age, but I am just going to limit my personal remembrances to those teenage years which I am guessing is where your mind is just returning from.
I won’t spend too much time on some of my more mundane efforts such as delivering the Indianapolis Times or working the soda fountain at Frisch’s Big Boy.
I did work at McLaughner’s Cafeteria which later shortened its name to MCL. This was somewhat more interesting working with peers from a lot of other high schools. The work assignments were varied. Somedays it was bussing tables, other days it was working in “The Pit” washing dishes. Ugh. But we really ate well. Free meals! The cinnamon rolls were a favorite and fantastic. Still are.
My worst summer job was probably working at the Nehi/Royal Crown Cola bottling plant. Nehi came in all flavors. You probably remember Radar O’Reilly’s favorite was grape.
The day would start on the sorting line. All the empties brought in by the delivery guys the day before had to be put into the proper crates before they went through the washer and then got refilled. Sorting was a dirty, filthy, sticky job. Sugar free soda was just beginning to hit the market. In fact, Royal Crown led the way with its Diet Rite Cola.
A half dozen or so of us would line up on each side of the conveyor belt as the crates of empties were pushed down the line. Conversation was pretty much limited to two topics. One topic was sports and the other one. I guess I’ll just leave that to your imagination.
Next it was on to the production line where I had to watch the bottles come out of the washer and pull the ones that were still not clean before they were refilled.
The tricky part of this job was that all the dirty ones went into crates that came through at the end of the run each day. Being the rookie I was, I invariably missed some which meant I would get the “evil eye” from Jake, the bottler. He would sneeringly wave the offending bottle of dirty Nehi in front of my face. More than once it did contain a submerged rodent. Oops.
As I said before, summer jobs were an important part of my education and I think you might admit to that also. What did I learn?
To always be on time.
To show up every day.
To learn to get along with a wide range of people and be a good team player.
And of course, the value of a hard-earned dollar.
Jim Watkins is a Brown County resident who was a public school teacher for 42 years and has special interest in history. He is also a member of the Brown County Historical Society. He can be reached at [email protected].
Jim Watkins is a Brown County resident who was a public school teacher for 42 years and has special interest in history. He is also a member of the Brown County Historical Society. He can be reached at [email protected].
