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Ping pong thread Odd jobs and things you have done

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Old 06-06-23, 07:20 AM
  #26  
GhostRider62
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I was a stripper (floors on one gig, and antique furniture on another)

Spotter for Arnold Palmer

Worked a circus every summer (best part was carrying crippled kids onto the elephant and holding them for a ride)
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Old 06-06-23, 07:22 AM
  #27  
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1. Corsage maker; Coal tar technician
2. Published over 175 magazine articles, including photography
3. Panthers
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Old 06-06-23, 07:24 AM
  #28  
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Worked back stage security for Rock' n Chair productions in the 80's, Hung live turkeys off the truck for kill in the late 70's

Got stopped and arrested for 155+ in a 55 by the CHP, three days later another guy and I ran down an armed robber on foot and caught him.
Long story short, a county sheriff talked a highway patrolman out of showing up for court. Case dismissed.

Panthers
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Old 06-06-23, 07:35 AM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by Spaghetti Legs
1) Nuclear Weapons Security Officer, Kaplan MCAT prep instructor,
You remind me of two unusual jobs I’ve had: 1) Taught English on site at several nuclear power plants, 2) taught a GRE prep course through Boston Community Ed. Unfortunately, I was doing much better on the practice tests than were my students.
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Old 06-06-23, 07:38 AM
  #30  
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1. Ski patroller
2. (a) Actually got paid to trigger avalanches by ski cutting and tossing explosives
2. (b) Flew to remote drill sites in the Russian Arctic in a rickety cold-war era helicopter
2. (c) Climbed down into Minuteman Missile launch facilities
3. Lions
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Old 06-06-23, 07:46 AM
  #31  
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1. Tongue Dropper in a slaughterhouse.
2. Shot an original Gatling Gun
3. Maroons (yeah, I know)
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Old 06-06-23, 07:47 AM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by Spaghetti Legs
1) Nuclear Weapons Security Officer, Kaplan MCAT prep instructor, Gas Free Engineer
2) Maybe a lot to pick from but let’s say navigate a ship through the Straits of Malacca
3) Warriors

squirtdad, we’re you the backup to the mortician’s driver or driver for the backup mortician?
a good friend in high school was the mortician's assistant (he became a mortician) and one of the jobs is to drive to other mortuaries to get people who passed away in other towns but would be buried in my town
when my friend was out of town visiting girl friend, I did the driving to other towns.

first one freaked me out when I was about to leave and the mortician came running out saying "we forgot the pillow" turns out you need to prop the head up to keep the jaw from opening which is a pain to fix for open casket funerals.

body was on a gurney covered with sheets

3 on the tree ford station wagon with a 390....... it just cruised down the road
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Old 06-06-23, 07:48 AM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by majmt
1. Ski patroller
2. (a) Actually got paid to trigger avalanches by ski cutting and tossing explosives
2. (b) Flew to remote drill sites in the Russian Arctic in a rickety cold-war era helicopter
2. (c) Climbed down into Minuteman Missile launch facilities
3. Lions
man I have to visit my brother in the winter and ski with you
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Old 06-06-23, 07:57 AM
  #34  
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1) Night janitor at an athletic club
2) Driven a million dollar Porsche. (918 for those interested)
3) Go Bruins!
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Old 06-06-23, 09:06 AM
  #35  
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1) Toy maker, Reference librarian, Wool spinner, High scaler, Elevator operator.
2) Built a swimming pool for a Hollywood elephant.
3) Scots

Brent
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Old 06-06-23, 09:24 AM
  #36  
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1) Summer job as insulation installer at Camp Lejeune steam power plant from scaffolding 70 ft up (1 day) - switched to painter at Tawara Terrace base housing . In retrospect that was the more dangerous job.....hopefully I didn't drink too much water !

2) UNC-W one-on-one basketball champ 1980, played pick-up & summer league basketball against Michael Jordan

3) Cardinals






.

Last edited by Deal4Fuji; 06-06-23 at 09:29 AM.
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Old 06-06-23, 09:46 AM
  #37  
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1. Delivered newspapers in the countryside using a 1962 Chev BelAir, Played trombone in a jazz band

2. Supervised the drydocking of US Navy ships

3. Vikings
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Old 06-06-23, 10:14 AM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by Deal4Fuji
1) Summer job as insulation installer at Camp Lejeune steam power plant from scaffolding 70 ft up (1 day) - switched to painter at Tawara Terrace base housing . In retrospect that was the more dangerous job.....hopefully I didn't drink too much water !

2) UNC-W one-on-one basketball champ 1980, played pick-up & summer league basketball against Michael Jordan

3) Cardinals






.
I missed playing against Spudd Webb by a year. He was at Midland College(JUCO at the time) when I was a senior in HS. The next year when I entered college, he'd transferred to NC State. Same for Larry Johnson. He started at Odessa College the year after I got out of college basketball.

Here's a question for you and any of the other Carolinians out there. I move to Richmond VA in 1989. There was this band based in the Carolinas(I think) called the Boneshakers. I used to see them ever time they came to Richmond. They put on a great show. Anyone remember them? I was thinking about them the other day.
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Old 06-06-23, 10:20 AM
  #39  
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Originally Posted by Robvolz
1, Taught a wine class (including "blind" tasting to Stevie Wonder). Acted in TV show; Portlandia.

2, skydive (including night jump)

3, Panthers
Is there any other kind of wine tasting for Stevie Wonder? <rimshot>

As for me:

1. Worked on landscaping crews (installing, not maintaining) in 100+ degree heat, which made college sound like a really good option. Loaded containers of air freight and dropped them off at LAX, once nearly flipping a truck over in the process. Managed a Haagen-Dazs shop (@repechage was my boss) wherein I saw a fair number of celebrities, the most memorable being H.R. Haldeman.
2. Saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar riding a bike on the streets of western LA; nice bike, but a tad big for me. I can wiggle my ears both together and one at a time (not exactly "America's Got Talent" stuff, I know). Once, while managing the Haagen-Dazs, I almost clonked Jessica Lange in the head with a shovel (no, I was not using the shovel to scoop ice cream).
3. Cowboys. Yee haw.
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Old 06-06-23, 10:52 AM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by seypat
I missed playing against Spudd Webb by a year. He was at Midland College(JUCO at the time) when I was a senior in HS. The next year when I entered college, he'd transferred to NC State. Same for Larry Johnson. He started at Odessa College the year after I got out of college basketball.

Here's a question for you and any of the other Carolinians out there. I move to Richmond VA in 1989. There was this band based in the Carolinas(I think) called the Boneshakers. I used to see them ever time they came to Richmond. They put on a great show. Anyone remember them? I was thinking about them the other day.
What type of music? I was all into punk & new wave and one of the favorites that played a lot in Wilmington & from coastal SC to VA was a band called The Pedestrians. Here's a link that's about punkish music of the late 70's through the 80's. I didn't see Boneshakers on this link, but there's a lot of info here The Ped's were mentioned in the 2nd paragraph

https://www.furious.com/perfect/nc-punk2.html



.

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Old 06-06-23, 11:00 AM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by bikingshearer
2. Saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar riding a bike on the streets of western LA; nice bike, but a tad big for me.
BF PSA - speaking of basketball and bikes, there's a new ESPN 30 for 30 or some type of documentary that starts tonight (I think) on Bill Walton and I'm sure his love for cycling will be a part of it.

EDIT - it is tonight, part 1 at 8:00 EST
https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-r...res-june-6-13/





.

Last edited by Deal4Fuji; 06-06-23 at 05:41 PM.
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Old 06-06-23, 11:07 AM
  #42  
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Was planting trees in Bovill Idaho when Mt. St. Helens blew, 7 hr TV feed delay so the townsfolk thought the world was ending.

Done a lot of things sober, sane folks wouldn't.

Scotsmen, Lancers
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Old 06-06-23, 11:26 AM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by Deal4Fuji
What type of music? I was all into punk & new wave and one of the favorites that played a lot in Wilmington & from coastal SC to VA was a band called The Pedestrians. Here's a link that's about punkish music of the late 70's through the 80's. I didn't see Boneshakers on this link, but there's a lot of info here The Ped's were mentioned in the 2nd paragraph

https://www.furious.com/perfect/nc-punk2.html



.
The Boneshakers were one of those cover bands that played music you would hear on college rock stations in the 80s/90s. I consulted with the Godfather of IMs since he lived in the Greenville area for a long time. He remembers them. Said they might have opened up for Nantucket once or twice. I'm guessing Nantucket must have been a popular NC band at the time.
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Old 06-06-23, 11:33 AM
  #44  
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1.) Worked as a post hole digger for a cable company. That sucked. I can feel the pinched nerves in my neck just thinking about it.
2.) Had a friend zoom up a hardened snow drift and jump over me on his snowmobile as I lay flat on my back. Lucky I didn't get one of the skis through my head.
3.) Magicians. Kind of a lame name, but at least there was always a cute girl dressed like a bunny at the games.
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Old 06-06-23, 11:34 AM
  #45  
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1) Worked the counter at a self serve yogurt shop (which afforded me lots of reading time in service of my Lit degree)
2) Co-produced a short comedy that screened at the SF Int'l Film Festival. Helped the actress Minnie Driver find an etymological dictionary for her husband's birthday when I worked at a bookstore.
3) [Da] Bears

Originally Posted by jetboy
bog weeder,
If the Bog Weeders are not a school mascot, they should be.
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Old 06-06-23, 11:46 AM
  #46  
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1) Brewmaster at a couple brewpubs
2) Shared a limo with Mr T and Julio Iglesias (not at the same time) Shared the stage with (weatherman) Steve Pool and (Brothers Four) Dick Foley at multiple events
3). Roughriders
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Old 06-06-23, 11:58 AM
  #47  
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Great thread!

1. Counted cars driving over a Colorado pass in the middle of the night.
Made and tested the prototypes for the parachute buckle still used in F-16’s.
Designed and applied the test equipment for an ultra precise (pico-radians was our unit of measurement for nerds out there) space laser pointing system.
Lead the test program, then managed actual rocket scientists for a program that launched big commercial satellites from the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

2. Parachute jumped out of perfectly good airplanes, before that tandem jumping stuff started. Survived a faulty chute jump, then never did it again!

3. Lions (boring!). College team was “Engineers”; watching them was boring.

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Old 06-06-23, 12:59 PM
  #48  
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1. Artificially inseminated cows on a dairy farm.
2. Ditto. It's the punchline of one of my longer stories.
3. Coyotes
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Old 06-06-23, 01:24 PM
  #49  
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1) Worked maintenance in a chemical plant with a horrible reputation where, when stuff was going out on the ground, the more cynical of the worker's catch phrase was "Don't worry, it's mostly water".
Worked for 2 years at a nuclear power plant, the cleanest, safest place I have worked at in my memory. Cleaner and safer than any school or hospital for sure.

2) Meh, boring stuff.

3) Two years a Blue Devil, two years a Pioneer, three years a Bear.

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Old 06-06-23, 02:08 PM
  #50  
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1. Marines for 4 years, Sold animal shaped poo for home garden fertilization, Bio-med tech for a nationwide rental company of life support equipment, Teacher, Missionary of the Gospel in Cambodia.
2, Drove a 53 Willys jeep with a 283 V8 across country in 79.
3. Blue Aces
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