WORK~#33 GBE2

I have been a waitress many places and many years.  I have been a hairdresser many places and for many years. I worked in 2 banks for a total of 5 years.  I worked at a bowling alley and also at a company that made awards and sold bowling equipment. I never 'worked' as a waitress or as a hairdresser.  They were jobs, but I enjoyed doing each of them so much that I never considered them work.  The bank positions were work.  I never really enjoyed working at either of them.  I enjoyed the bowling alley job and I loved bowling.  The awards company offered me a chance to learn to engrave both on machine and by hand.  I really loved the art of hand engraving.  I created some beautiful things while working at that job.  I also learned to do screen printing.  Not something I either enjoyed nor was I very good at that.  What I liked best about that job was that I made a few good friends who are still in my heart.  One of them has been my very best friend for over 35 years.  


I have always had to have a job.  I feel blessed to have had to work only a few years out of all those that I was earning a paycheck.  Working at the banks was not ever a terrible thing, it was just work.  Being responsible for all that money that  belongs to everyone but you, is a lot of pressure.  I made deposits of millions of dollars everyday at one job.  Money someone was moving or adding to someone else's trust account.  In some cases, I would be walking to the teller's window with several million dollars.  It terrified me.  Before depositing, I had to balance the funds moving through the entire trust department which would amount to millions everyday.  Once everything was balanced and properly accounted and sent to data processing, I had to physically walk the deposit from my building across the alley into the main branch and give the teller my cash, checks or vouchers.  I never relaxed while making this walk.  A locked leather bag with several million dollars in my hand does not make for a nice laid back stroll.  I have not ever thought of returning to that position.  Every day was work.


I was a teller at the second bank.  A roving teller, actually.  I went from location to location to fill in for vacations and sick leaves and was stationed at the main office when no one needed a replacement.  I tried really hard to like this job.  I never did.  Again, walking into the vault and signing out a few thousand dollars to put in my cage and then being responsible for that until 4:30 PM, was very stressful.  I stayed at this job until I was given a proposition which I couldn't accept.  If I wasn't interested in "having dinner and desert" with my direct supervisor, I would no longer be needed.  I wasn't interested.  I was 22 years old with 2 babies and a husband that I loved.  I was no longer needed and when I went to the VP to report this. I was told, "Tellers are a dime a dozen.  Good men like ***** are hard to find."  I understood.  This was long before sexual harassment had been labeled.  It was just a good ole boys world and I was expendable.  I never looked back.


With those two exceptions all my jobs were pleasurable.  How lucky am I?  Doing hair was never a job, either.  I could never believe people got paid to do what I was doing.  I went in every day excited to see who would be in my chair and what I could do for them.  It was a new challenge every day all day long.  I never felt like I was doing a job, though I loved that I had such an incredible one, it was always my pleasure.  Over the years, I worked for a private salon being paid commission, a corporate salon being paid a salary plus commission, I rented chairs and I once owned my own salon for 4 years.  Each was a different experience and I honestly loved every opportunity I had behind the chair.  I retired twice from this profession, but I will always be a hairdresser.  It was never what I did, but who I am.  Creativity and loving people were my draws to this business and they are who I am.  I made a decent living doing hair and I made lifelong friends.  Does it ever get better than that?


Waiting tables was originally just a way to make quick money and get cash every day. It turned out to be such joy that I sort of forgot that it was a money making proposition.  I continued to wait tables after I could easily have moved on to other things.  I really enjoyed interacting with the staff and mostly the diners.  Here, I also made some lifelong friends.  It was not a job, it was a good way to pay my bills and make friends.  


Now, however, I am retired.  I am staying retired unless finances deem that I need to return to the workforce.  If that were to happen, I would probably go find a chair to rent or a corporate salon that's hiring and once again, make money just doing what I love.  


The time I now have for projects and writing and hanging with Momma is absolutely
wonderful.  I have no regrets about hanging up my license, but I did renew it this past fall, just in case!  


Jo