re: What paying job have you held in your life on which you had to work hardest physically?

Industrial Scaffolding

When I was a teen adult in the mid '70's in the Midwest I worked on the production line in two different foundries that made engine parts for heavy machinery. Once the whistle blew it was non-stop sweat. I've done football practice, weight lifting, bucking bales of hay and basic training.....and all that is for pussies compared to those foundry jobs.

At one job working 3rd shift I had a pneumatic chisel that I manned to jackhammer the fins off of the molds. When I would wake up to go to work I couldn't open my hands due to the shaking the shift before and would have to run them under hot water to get movement.

At the other job I mostly shifted weights used on the molds to keep the sand compacted....non-stop lifting a heavy 30 lb weight in each hand and swinging (not lifting) into place left to right....you had to go fast and not miss even one hand weight. Plus, it was right on the other side of the wall from a giant ladle of molten metal.....little specks of the hot metal would sometimes fly over the wall and you would have to knock it off your skin immediately while not losing time in your weight shifting.

No one who worked at those jobs would come away being anti-union.

When I was 16

Pops wanted me to learn the value of a dollar. And more importantly how a minimum wage job would barely pay the bills....


so he got me a gig at the local lumber mill.

I caught boards at the end a planer, stacked them, tied them, and radioed for a forklift to come pick them up. Did that from 5AM - 3PM. Then I made some side cash by pulling nails from reclaimed wood from 3-5PM. For every 25 boards I picked thru, I got $5 from the owner. The thing about that job was, it was me and a bunch of prisoners on a prison release work program. So, I had another small side hustle: they would give me cash to run up the road to Burger King or McDonald's and buy them breakfast or lunch. I got the keep the change on the dollar. So i usually pulled an extra $2 a day from that.

eta: after that, I got off work, went to either basketball practice or weight lifting, then and cut grass up and down the neighborhood til dark. $30 a yard.


and Dad was right, I still couldn't come close to affording a car note, paying a mortgage, utilities, and groceries. It sucked, never worked so hard in my life that summer and the next. But it was a great lesson, that my punk arse needed to learn about life and how an education is more important than ball, girls, and my friends.

I used to treat houses for termites. Had a dig a little trench around the houses. fricking hard work.

United States Army Military Occupational Specialty 19Kilo, M1A1 Armored Crewman.

Farmers co-op in high school.

Sling 60 pound bags of feed and seed all day along with all sorts of other work. In the fall we were a peanut buying center, that shite sucked arse also. Especially for the low man on the totem pole (me).

No,just one. He said "Mais, can't you give me a break?" I thought about unloading those f'n rail cars of steel stock in August!

My respect!

Carpenter's helper one summer during high school. $5 an hour, thought I was OT balling at the time when my friends were making $3.35. I learned a ton of skills and got a good tan too!