re: Does Anyone Have Any "First Day on the Job" Stories?

The summer of 1983 I worked construction in Denver. Every week I had to drive a big beat up dump truck to the dump. I knew how to drive a standard, but had never driven anything larger than my mom's old 69 Buick Wildcat. Had to get on the interstate and could not see if anything was coming when I pulled onto it. I always hoped people would see the truck think they should get away from it because it didn't look safe.

Friend got me a job working at a laundromat at night on downtown Government Street. I have no idea what the hell I was thinking at the time, but I actually showed up for the job. During my training that first night, the owner showed me a vault where he kept a bulletproof jacket, which he generously stated I could wear if I wanted.

Bounced after the first night and never bothered to even pick up my day's pay.


Applied at Dominoe's pizza. Had long hair at the time and specifically asked if that was going to be a problem. Store manager said no, hired me, and then gave me a date to show up to some district orientation/pizza university-type thing. Showed up and met the district manager. First thing he said was, "You're going to cut that hair, right?"

Bounced and immediately thereafter applied at Papa Johns, which didn't give af about long hair.


Years later I left a graduate program late in the hiring season and scraped together a job working at a really awful high school. I remember looking over and seeing teachers asleep during the beginning-of-year professional development.

Bounced, leaving behind boxes of personal belongings in the process. Received a check for that day in the mail and felt too bad to actually cash it. Fortunately I landed a job at a better school a few weeks later but had a helluva commute that year. In a funny twist, this was how 7thWardTiger and I were introduced in a roundabout way.