One winter during high school I was hired to shovel snow from airport runway lights - while the runway was in use. It was interesting work!
Jerry
Jerry
Name It. The Most Fun, Weird Job You Have Held?
- Thread starter Gulfecho
- Start date
john14_18
Member
Worked for McDonnell- Douglas for 5 years installng computer software for banks back in the 80's. Wasn't a lot of fun because we worked about 60 hrs a week, but in 5 years, put over 400k miles on frequent flyer and went to 28 different states. Got to see a lot of places that I otherwise would not have seen.
Leslie Sapp
Member
Was a "swamp logger" in my younger days. Strap on a scuba tank, go down and hook up logs while my brothers pulled them to the bank. We also waded around in the swamps probing for old logs buried in the muck.
carpriver
US Veteran
One job that was fun and weird was a driver, is a corn field. I drove a Ford tractor pulling a carbide cannon. the cannon would go off randomly, In the morning up some carbide in the chamber and fill the water tank and make sure the drips werre measured. I also had a 20 gauge shot gun and a bunch of bird shot. the idea was to scare away the crows and seagulls. I was to shoot a bird a leave lay, supposed to scare way the birds. there was also an abundance of ring neck pheasant's. I filled the freezer with pheasants that summer. I did wear hearing protection.
opoefc
US Veteran
While in college, I need a part time job for extra cash flow, so was hired by Duncan Yo Yo company to visit local playgrounds and put on Yo Yo exhibitions and conduct contests for the kids to compete with their Duncan Yo Yos. Later when I joined the Army, they ask me what I did in civilian life and I said I played with Yo Yos, so they said I was Officer material and sent me to OCS!. Ed.
Pepsi Plant here in Virginia- summer 1998, at age 16. A friend's dad was in management and hired us to compartmentalize stock that had "expired," between chucking 2-liters in hopes they'd land on their caps and take off like rockets and potentially dangerous soda wars (baseball pitching full cans at one-another), we had a blast. Needless to say we weren't hired back Summer '99.
Shooting Padre
US Veteran
To the dogs
When going through Security Police School in the Air Force back in '66, I was in charge of a detail of about twenty guys that were to be assigned work in various buildings around Lackland AB. The school was behind a couple of weeks so we were to be kept busy doing odd jobs of cleaning other unit's buildings.
One of the jobs was working in the armory on weapons and I thought that would be a great time and as I was in charge of the detail, I put my name and a friend's at the top of the list, feeling sure that's where the SSgt. in charge of the assignments would start. To my chagrin he started at the bottom of the list. May pal and I were detailed to the K-9 section, where we spent the day cleaning portable dog kennels of urine, vomit and all else a dog would do in them. It was literally the crappiest job I ever had. I could with all honesty say that job stunk!
When going through Security Police School in the Air Force back in '66, I was in charge of a detail of about twenty guys that were to be assigned work in various buildings around Lackland AB. The school was behind a couple of weeks so we were to be kept busy doing odd jobs of cleaning other unit's buildings.
One of the jobs was working in the armory on weapons and I thought that would be a great time and as I was in charge of the detail, I put my name and a friend's at the top of the list, feeling sure that's where the SSgt. in charge of the assignments would start. To my chagrin he started at the bottom of the list. May pal and I were detailed to the K-9 section, where we spent the day cleaning portable dog kennels of urine, vomit and all else a dog would do in them. It was literally the crappiest job I ever had. I could with all honesty say that job stunk!
klondike
Member
Working now as a Process Server. I never know how I will be greeted when the door opens. Some funny experiences and some a bit scary.
They say sludge runs downhill. So when instructions (more like orders) came from on high (like from the government or the parent company) that weren't exactly clear and nobody knew what to do with them, guess where they ended up?
RobertJ.
Member
When I was eighteen I spent a year working for a traveling carnival here in Oregon. Lots of fun and plenty of weirdness!
Capt Steve
US Veteran
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Whale watching...
Not all that weird really but my most fun job was running whale watching charters out of San Diego. My favorite boat was a 24' rigid inflatable {RIB} that was powered by a 200 HP Johnson. That beast would easily do 40+ knots on flat water.
Did two trips a day with 6 guests and when you spend a couple of winters in a row going out 6 days a week you get pretty good at knowing when and where to put the boat to get close to the Gray whales.
The whales are very predictable, undisturbed they would do 3 - 4 knots on a southeasterly heading staying down for a couple of minutes when they sounded. Wasn't too hard to circle out in front of them and just sit in neutral waiting for them to breach, often within just a few feet of the boat.
Had grown men crying like little girls at the spectacle. Late in the winter they were found further offshore necessitating an hour long return ride down swell with the pedal to the metal which many found even more exciting than a close encounter with a 40 ton Gray.
At the end of almost every trip, the twenty dollar bills rained down when it was time to tip the Captain. Between my base pay of $75 a trip and the tips, I was making $300+ a day.
Not all that weird really but my most fun job was running whale watching charters out of San Diego. My favorite boat was a 24' rigid inflatable {RIB} that was powered by a 200 HP Johnson. That beast would easily do 40+ knots on flat water.
Did two trips a day with 6 guests and when you spend a couple of winters in a row going out 6 days a week you get pretty good at knowing when and where to put the boat to get close to the Gray whales.
The whales are very predictable, undisturbed they would do 3 - 4 knots on a southeasterly heading staying down for a couple of minutes when they sounded. Wasn't too hard to circle out in front of them and just sit in neutral waiting for them to breach, often within just a few feet of the boat.
Had grown men crying like little girls at the spectacle. Late in the winter they were found further offshore necessitating an hour long return ride down swell with the pedal to the metal which many found even more exciting than a close encounter with a 40 ton Gray.
At the end of almost every trip, the twenty dollar bills rained down when it was time to tip the Captain. Between my base pay of $75 a trip and the tips, I was making $300+ a day.
misswired
Absent Comrade
This close??????
Attachments
Inusuit
Member
Wasn't fun, but I worked as a tongue dropper in a slaughterhouse. Best day job was sitting in a tent at the 9 hole of a golf tournament, handing out free sandwiches, beer, and simple mixed drinks. Since no money changed hands, I figured out quickly that I could stay fed and buzzed all day and get paid to do it.
TomkinsSP
Member
When I was sixteen, my uncle a patent attorney, knew a girl in Chinatown who bought overages and rejects from overseas shipments. (Importers were just starting to write contracts restricting use of thier designs as intellectual property.) I would pickup handbags, scarves, hats, shoes made by the same factories in Hong Kong, Tiawan or Singapore (before mainland China as well) without the designer labels, and sell them on the Upper East Side. Got to meet a lot of girls on that job.
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TomkinsSP
Member
If you told 'em you just played with the string maybe they would have sent you to Carlisle (Pa.).
