Thought
for the day: "A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who
works with his hands and brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with
his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist." Louis Nizer


Bare
with me as I list the jobs I have had over the years--in many ways it
was an advantage as I met many people I wouldn't have met otherwise
LOL!!

In my early and mid teens I worked at a beach snack shop in
Lake Hiawatha in New Jersey and as an usher at the Lyric Theatre on
42nd Street in NYC (that's a whole blog in itself!!!) and had a job in
charge of sending movie rentals to theatres for Loew's and finished my
teenage work years 'working' for the Marine Corps. At 2 different times I
worked for my father, a children's clothing manufacturer, called
Millbrook 'learning the business'.

In 1956 I became a waiter in
Miami Beach working at Picciolo's (2 different times over the years), a
bellhop at a hotel, a pizza maker for a small Italian restaurant, a
bartender at The Pixie--back in NYC I worked at the following
restaurants: Miller's on Wall Street, AdLib, Ham & Eggs on 52nd
Street, Brass Rail, The Gas Pavillion at the World's Fair, Brassiere,
(and 2 I have forgotten!!)--then I became a lecturer for Weight
Watcher's International--after that I became Director Of Operations of
Weight Watcher's of Greater Memphis, Eastern Tennessee, West Arkansas
and Chattanooga--that was followed by my opening my own weight reduction
organization called Our Weigh--after 11 years I returned to restaurants
working in Ft. Lauderdale at: Dan Dowd's, Sizzler's (THE worst job
ever!), Wag's (3 different times), Denny's, The Crabhouse, Incredible
Edibles, Holiday Inn on State Road 84, The Holiday Inn on State Road 7,
Picciolo's ( a different one than in Miami Beach) ending my
waiter'scareer at Big Louie's (one of the best jobs ever!) when I
retired.

I am sure I have missed a few places but all in all I
worked about 36 different jobs over a period of 51 years--some jobs
lasted a few days, here and there a year or two with the longest jobs
being at Weight Watcher's ( 8 years) and Our Weigh 5 years--I quit some,
was fired from a few while others there is a question of whether I was
fired or quit! LOL

Was it I couldn't keep a job? Got bored
quickly with a job? Was always looking for something new? Or just
circumstances? Whatever the case one of the disadvantages of so many
years as a waiter I didn't know from IRAs, building up my social
security account, let alone acquiring stock, having sick days, paid
vacations, etc. (The one exception was working for Wag's where there
were all kinds of benefits.)

The advanages were many: meeting
people from all over the world, making a wide range of friends, seeing
and experiencing things I never would have otherwise.

I do know
(from experience when I was young working for my dad) I would never have
lasted at a 9-5, Monday-Friday job for 51 years--of course my
retirement years may have been financially better (but I doubt that with
the way I ALWAYS spent money before I made it) but then I did so many
things, for instance traveling all over the world, that most people wait
until they retire to do and never do because they are too old or too
sick or too broke.
Over the years I have written, and had
published, 8 books and 1 play--the latter a diseaster--had many magazine
articles published plus worked, edited, wrote company news papers
including the Gateway Gazette but never in my wildest dreams would I
ever call any of that work!

I really loved being a waiter and would probably do it all over again the way I did it!!! Would/will you say the same???
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“I want to be an actor. I’ve already started taking steps. Yesterday I applied to be a waiter.”
― Jarod Kintz