CONTINUED FROM CASHFLOW DIARIES PART ONE
I took art classes with Mr. Sebes my last two years of high school. During my senior year there was a contest to create a cover illustration for the Bridgewater JayCees Winter Program. I'm not sure how many schools or students were competing, but my illustration was selected and I received a check for $25. I enjoyed coming up with a concept, and it was especially rewarding to win the prize.
Chief Lesson: You can't win if you don't play. I personally feel that many people don't try because they think there are so many others competing that they can't win. You never really know, so have fun and go for it.
9. Tri-County Plumbing
The summer after my senior year, my brother Ron and friend Tom worked for a team of plumbing contractors doing an assortment of odd jobs and learning a little about life. We did things like wrap pipes with asbestos insulation, drilled holes for pipes in crawl spaces, installed baseboard heaters, learned how to weld copper pipes, and the basic essential discipline of showing up to work on time and doing what you're asked to do.
Three of the men who worked there (we were primarily working on apartment complexes) were a drag racing team. I believe they raced in the highest division of the Funny Car class. It seemed amazing to me that they would drive all the way to Brainerd, Minnesota, to race over a weekend. Little did I know that I would one day be living in Northern Minnesota myself.
10. DiMartino Landscaping
The summer after my freshman year in college my father made arrangements for me to work with a landscaper who took care of the needs for 17 companies around Central Jersey. I was primarily pushing a lawnmower. When I learned that he was going to fire the other kid I worked with, I decided to quit. I was unjustly critical of a few things I witnessed, most specifically the demeaning names he was called by his neighbor one day. He was Italian and I did not understand the the insults. It was a lesson I understood only later.
11. Colgate-Palmoolive Dishwasher/Potwasher
The day I quit my job the headline in the newspaper exclaimed that there were 100,000 unemployed people in New Jersey, the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. I walked in the house, told my mom I had quit, and she said, "Oh, Eddie," and handed me the newspaper. I was employed within a week.
The father of a girl I was friends with worked at Colgate-Palmolive. He said they chef was in need of a dishwasher/potwasher. The fellow who had been doing it for three years was a little crazy. (He believed that computers controlled the world and when he ran a red light, it was not his fault. The computers were trying to get him.) The first two replacements quit within a week. If I wanted the job it was mine.
He made breakfast and lunch for the staff who wanted it. My role was to assist in every way necessary, plus run the dishwasher and wash the pots. Tasks included peeling potatoes, removing shells from hard boiled eggs, running downstairs to the walk-in refrigerator to fetch gallon sized cans of this or that ingredient.
The company employed 400, many of them scientists and engineers. Every once in a while the men in white lab coats would show up and have me use some new dishsoap concoction for the week. I would then give a report on how long the water remained soapy, how well it cut grease, etc.
The two sink basins where I washed pots were located in back of the oven. The temperature must have been 150 to 160 degrees at times so that when I got off work at five, I'd step outside where it was 85 and would feel cool and refreshed.
The chef's name was Mike. He had been in the navy and was very personable. Everyone liked and respected him. He was still only in his 20s and we seemed to hit it off. When I headed back to college in September he said he would give me a fifty cent an hour raise if I came back the next summer. I came back and offered me the job again at the same two dollars an hour. I reminded him of his promise, but could see that he would have to get permission from higher up. He got it approved and it was another fine summer. He'd gone through a number of dishwashers while I was gone and was happy to have me back.
12. Artist -- Sold 10 paintings
Though I started Ohio University in the direction of philosophy, I soon aimed toward an art major. During my four years I sold ten paintings. I never became rich through my art, but my art background contributed to my being selected to create an ad for the company I worked for as a writer years later, which proved to be the beginning of my career in advertising.
TO BE CONTINUED
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