Tomorrow is my 20 year anniversary at work. It's true, I managed to last 20 years at the warehouse. Not bad considering I was a heavy press and lathe set-up man by trade before I got laid off and had to find another job quick.
I never cared for my job but unemployment has always been real high here in the valley and I make a decent wage and good benefits. Gotta hold on to that shit, you know?
I get another weeks' vacation for my effort and just that much closer to my retirement.
I've only had 5 jobs in my 35 years in the workforce if you include the army and don't include when I was self employed either mining or doing ranch work. My longest stint of unemployment was 3 years back in the early 80s but I managed to support myself mining and that was when gold was under $300 an ounce. Hard, HARD motherfucking work without a certain payday. Fuck, I need to change the subject, my back's starting to ache just thinking about it.
I did ranch work when the mining wasn't paying- started out fencing and then working with stock, mostly BLM horses that my boss bought at auction. He'd buy them 2 or 3 at a time and then have me green-break them. I dislike horses to this day and I still refuse to string a bobbed wire fence.
Me and the Army didn't get along to well, mostly because I don't care for motherfuckers telling me what to do. But I gave them their time on their terms and we called it even.
I enjoyed doing set-up work at the Army Ammo Plant I worked at for 10 years. Changing punches and dies, adjusting these heavy presses to within .0001" and running production. Later I went over and started running lathes and milling machines but I enjoyed the presses more. Something about standing between two presses that are banging out grenades, the downstroke so powerful that the ground shook. You could hear those presses a half mile away - I know this for a fact because I lived a half mile away and I could hear those fuckers running at night.
What I didn't like was running those fucking presses 84 hours a week. That sucked.
All this talk about work is making me tired. Fuck it, I'm hitting the shower.
Stop talking about work! Now go grab a beer and a burger and relax. And congrats!
ReplyDeleteYou worked 7 12's at the ammo plant?
ReplyDeleteHOLEE SHEET!
Hey, big day!
ReplyDeleteIn construction for 40 years, I never worked for the same company more than five years, 'cept when I opened my own and that was 15 years.
Get a rep as a good hand, move up.
Congrats on you and Lissa.
See if you can swing making it to GBR7 in Reno this September. You can shoot all my shit, and I supply the ammo.
Jim - I worked 13 hour days (a 12 hour shift with an hour of pre-maintenence before each shift)6 days a week and a 6 hour day on Sundays. Got one weekend off a month. Did that for the last 6 years I was there.
ReplyDeleteYeah that sucked. Money wasn't even any good, Uncle Sam was taking most of my paycheck in taxes.
Congrats on 20 years!
ReplyDeleteThese days that's an accomplishment!
I just passed 13 at my current employer.
Thinking about it just now it occurred to me that half of the time I've been turning wrenches for a living has been with this company.
Wirecutter, just think, if you couldawouldashoulda sucked it up and soldiered on, you coulda retired probly SFC, youn would be gettin $2500 a month before taxes,life insurance, alimony,etc. Plus you'd have a liver the size of a basketball and the life expectancy of you'd better get your affairs in order and pre-order a coffin from Wal-Mart. They will keep it for you until it's needed. Cool, huh?
ReplyDelete