In the summer 1986, I was fourteen years old and dad decided that I needed to learn a lesson about, err, something. So, he sent me to work. I worked for a couple of months on a farm in Dandridge, Tennessee for a man named Earl. He was about a hundred years old then and I’m fairly certain he’s no longer with us. Working in hay in July in East Tennessee is excruciating. It’s hot, sticky and, well, those bales are awful heavy for a 120 pound skinny white boy to haul around.

I’d come home at night with cuts and gashes on my forearms from working in hay, my leg muscles cramping, signs of heat stroke, and my hands stained brown from working in tobacco. We’d spend our days walking a field behind a truck in the middle of summer throwing hay bales on a trailer then haul the trailer to a barn where we’d toss the bales up on a top shelf in the barn (about 15 feet – that was the hard part). Or we’d top tobacco. Or chop it. Or hang it in a barn. Or other tasks that were equally tedious and strenuous.

I worked eleven hours a day (six to six with an hour for lunch) for six days a week. It was probably illegal since we got paid in cash and I wasn’t old enough to legally have a job. For my trouble, I made (and I am not making this up) $2 per hour. So, a week’s wages (which we received on Friday) was a whopping $132.

Working there was me and three other boys about the same age and a guy we’ll call the foreman. The foreman was probably about 40 years old and looked like he was in his late 60s. Farm life is hard on a body. I can’t imagine the foreman made much more money than the rest of us and he had a house, a wife and two kids. For him, the work was obviously painful but he’d done it for years. He had a habit of bringing up topics that were probably inappropriate to talk about with 14 year old boys, such as what a clitoris was. I’m not making that up either. Some stuff I learned from that experience:

What a clitoris is.

How a farm works.

How tobacco is processed.

That if you work in hay, it’s going to suck. You’ll either wear long sleeves to avoid the cuts on your forearms and collapse from heatstroke or you’ll wear short sleeves to avoid the heatstroke and reside yourself to cut up forearms.

That tobacco stained hands can’t be washed clean. Just have to wait until it fades.

And, most importantly, I learned that manual labor is a shitty way to earn a living. Something I’ve said before:

If your only marketable skill is that you can lift heavy things, you’re career is time-limited and low-paying.

I’m not an accountant because I wanted to be one as a child. And most of you aren’t what you wanted to be as children either. I, for example, wanted to be a ninja. Sadly, this job is hard to get. I’m not Japanese enough, the agency told me. It’s a pity. They have really good dental and the uniform allowance is fantastic. I spent a lot of time perfecting my ability to disappear in a cloud of smoke for nothing. I’m an accountant because it’s marketable, opens up to other industries through wide exposure, and I’m good at it.

Kids today need marketable skills. There are plenty of fields that are quite marketable. The problem is these fields aren’t particularly fun or are particularly difficult. I’m thinking of law, accounting, engineering, software development, medicine, etc. There are also fields that provide great satisfaction to people but are low paying (teachers, nurses, policeman come to mind). These are all noble endeavors but may not pay the bills.

There is also the danger of overdoing it in one particularly unpopular field. I know a guy with a PhD in physics who manages a Subway restaurant. I know a person with a Masters in biochemistry who is in sales. Also, the Simpson’s had a joke about PhD’s at the bookstore. Bart walked up to the service counter and said a professorship opened up at the local college their faces lit up. Then he instructed them he was joking. If the people I mentioned above could get jobs in their field, they would likely be paid fairly well. Problem is that it’s just tough to get jobs in those fields.

There is a balance. Finding something you enjoy, are good at, and that pays decently isn’t that tough. I enjoy what I do but if you’d asked back when I was going to be a ninja if I ever thought I’d be an accountant, I’d have responded with a resounding No way, Jose*. However, marketability is something to consider in this day and age.

*By the way, if Earl is still in business, I’m sure Jose is working for him.

Posted in uncategorized on December 15th, 2005 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |