One of my weirdest jobs was working as a brand ambassador for Cracker Jack snack mix at the Country Jam music festival in Grand Junction, Colorado. We (all women) wore cowboy hats and skimpy shorts and dragged a wagon around the festival filled with snack mix samples. Rumor was that the motorhome that was our home base had been built on “Pimp My Ride.” It had a dunk tank on the back, so drunk festivalgoers could throw bean bags at a target on the bus, and if they aimed well it made the girl in a bikini, propped up at the dunk tank, fall into the water. All the men cheered. Alas, after one girl had to leave for a family emergency, I volunteered to become the new dunk tank girl because I knew it made more money than snack girl. I still have a scar from the mechanism malfunctioning and dropping me into the tank too soon.
When I was in high school in California, my best friend and I worked in an aviary. It was just in some guy's backyard, but it had all sorts of exotic birds that we thought he sold to pet shops or privately. We had to haul these heavy buckets of seed mixtures and fruity stuff to the birds who lived, not in cages that you would normally think of birds living in, but cages like in the zoo, where you could walk upright into a bird-appropriate environment and dump your bucket in the bird's bowls. Back and forth we hauled these buckets. Over time, my friend and I invented a sort of armor which protected us from any and all bird poop that would come from on high. As I remember, there were a lot of bandanas involved. There was a bird, a Pea Hen (?), that was so territorial, one person had to hold a broom to keep the hen away from whichever one was feeding it. It was like a carefully choreographed SWAT operation. We had to say, "3.,2.,1" and immediately upon the cage door, one person had to hold the broom to fight off this ferocious football-sized bird, while the other dumped the food in the bird's bucket. The broom's plastic bristles looked like it had been put into a garbage disposal and pulled back out again. We had to do this every single day, so it became rote. We would be talking about biology class while holding back a vicious pea hen. My friend had started working at the aviary before me and on my first day, she told me there was a swan. I ooh and aahed because I had never seen one up close and really wanted to see it. My friend smirked and said, "Oh yes. Let's do go meet the swan." It was beautiful and as I approached speaking in a high squeaky voice, it freaked out and attached itself to my knee and would not let go. I tried walking away screaming my head off, but the thing just flapped and bit harder. I still blame that damn swan for problems with my right knee. The best part of the job was the toucan who would hop down his branch to get his neck scratched when I came into his cage to feed him. The other best part was that the guy had air conditioning and HBO. He was never there when we were, so we would escape from the hot California sun and our heavy buckets into his air-conditioned living room, still wearing our bird poop prevention outfits and watch movies.
I cannot wait to read this one. I’ve had a LOT of jobs in my life: camp counselor, professional framer, bookseller, but the weirdest has to be “caramel apple girl” at the farm during fall season! Running the caramel apple stand.
Weirdest job I ever had was working at a laundromat that offered a wash-dry-fold service across the street from a Seattle marina. I got to know the kind of underwear all the fishermen wore. Some were kinky, majority were stained tidy whiteys 🥴 and a surprising minority was boxer briefs. Second weirdest job I ever had was selling snow cones at a monster truck show. They all melted in the summer heat before I could sell a single one!
Love this interview and cannot wait to read the book! Oh, the jobs I've held in my life. I've worked as a bartender, barista, cater waiter, magazine editor, yoga teacher, and art model. I worked at an amusement park as a bumper-boat manager. (Most of what I write is about work of some kind or another.) I guess my weirdest job was my stint as an "escort" in the campus security department at the University of Pittsburgh. I walked students across campus late at night. It was a unique job, providing some measure of safety to (mostly) women-identified people. I broke up a drunken fistfight once, helped find a missing person (who was passed out in the bushes), and jump-started an old car. It was very hardboiled. And I loved the walkie-talkie.
Loved this interview. The whole AA controversy began shortly after we moved to SoCal and I followed it like a soap opera. As for jobs? Nude model for art students abd bidding photography students in the 70s preceded by a stunt mowing greens and other maintenance stuff at a fancy Florida golf course where I learned to drive a tractor and spot alligators. I was regularly admonished for accidentally reshaping the putting greens when I dropped the blade in the wrong places.
None too weird, but the fact that I spent the summer that I was 13 providing full-time child care for a baby I had no relation to seems very of-the-times.
Depends on your definition of "weird," but I used to be a professional ballet dancer & a lot of stuff goes down in the dance world. Barely got out with my sanity in tact 😵😅
During the school year I worked for the procurement manager at my community college, tagging equipment and typing up purchase orders. Not weird. But in the summer, she had me and her sister do not only a full inventory of the entire campus, but also draw up floor plans of every room in every building. We even found some secret rooms that didn’t match the official blueprints!
Door to door canvassing for environmental groups: a) in retrospect it is VERY not safe because you do it alone and go up to people's doors, b) I was asked to join a class action lawsuit against our employer a couple of years later and c) there's a whole book about how the model of paid canvassing is destroying progressive movements. I did make a lot of money though - what a summer!
(Also, I SHRIEKED at the Bryn Mawr reference - I am Class of '07 - Anassa Kata!)
My first job was scooping ice cream/dipping ice cream bars at a horse track which wasn’t very weird but mostly just silly. My most formative job was for a consulting firm that was run by an eccentric rich guy who only hired beautiful people and we somehow sold extremely expensive work to firms and also published books(?)
One of my weirdest jobs was working as a brand ambassador for Cracker Jack snack mix at the Country Jam music festival in Grand Junction, Colorado. We (all women) wore cowboy hats and skimpy shorts and dragged a wagon around the festival filled with snack mix samples. Rumor was that the motorhome that was our home base had been built on “Pimp My Ride.” It had a dunk tank on the back, so drunk festivalgoers could throw bean bags at a target on the bus, and if they aimed well it made the girl in a bikini, propped up at the dunk tank, fall into the water. All the men cheered. Alas, after one girl had to leave for a family emergency, I volunteered to become the new dunk tank girl because I knew it made more money than snack girl. I still have a scar from the mechanism malfunctioning and dropping me into the tank too soon.
I just came across this book the other day and fell in love with the cover. Great interview, friend!
I think you'll really likely. Some sharp critiques of 2000s feminism.
When I was in high school in California, my best friend and I worked in an aviary. It was just in some guy's backyard, but it had all sorts of exotic birds that we thought he sold to pet shops or privately. We had to haul these heavy buckets of seed mixtures and fruity stuff to the birds who lived, not in cages that you would normally think of birds living in, but cages like in the zoo, where you could walk upright into a bird-appropriate environment and dump your bucket in the bird's bowls. Back and forth we hauled these buckets. Over time, my friend and I invented a sort of armor which protected us from any and all bird poop that would come from on high. As I remember, there were a lot of bandanas involved. There was a bird, a Pea Hen (?), that was so territorial, one person had to hold a broom to keep the hen away from whichever one was feeding it. It was like a carefully choreographed SWAT operation. We had to say, "3.,2.,1" and immediately upon the cage door, one person had to hold the broom to fight off this ferocious football-sized bird, while the other dumped the food in the bird's bucket. The broom's plastic bristles looked like it had been put into a garbage disposal and pulled back out again. We had to do this every single day, so it became rote. We would be talking about biology class while holding back a vicious pea hen. My friend had started working at the aviary before me and on my first day, she told me there was a swan. I ooh and aahed because I had never seen one up close and really wanted to see it. My friend smirked and said, "Oh yes. Let's do go meet the swan." It was beautiful and as I approached speaking in a high squeaky voice, it freaked out and attached itself to my knee and would not let go. I tried walking away screaming my head off, but the thing just flapped and bit harder. I still blame that damn swan for problems with my right knee. The best part of the job was the toucan who would hop down his branch to get his neck scratched when I came into his cage to feed him. The other best part was that the guy had air conditioning and HBO. He was never there when we were, so we would escape from the hot California sun and our heavy buckets into his air-conditioned living room, still wearing our bird poop prevention outfits and watch movies.
I cannot wait to read this one. I’ve had a LOT of jobs in my life: camp counselor, professional framer, bookseller, but the weirdest has to be “caramel apple girl” at the farm during fall season! Running the caramel apple stand.
Calzone shop in college that was the only place open after the bars closed. Yes, everything you can imagine drunk college people doing happened.
Weirdest job I ever had was working at a laundromat that offered a wash-dry-fold service across the street from a Seattle marina. I got to know the kind of underwear all the fishermen wore. Some were kinky, majority were stained tidy whiteys 🥴 and a surprising minority was boxer briefs. Second weirdest job I ever had was selling snow cones at a monster truck show. They all melted in the summer heat before I could sell a single one!
Love this interview and cannot wait to read the book! Oh, the jobs I've held in my life. I've worked as a bartender, barista, cater waiter, magazine editor, yoga teacher, and art model. I worked at an amusement park as a bumper-boat manager. (Most of what I write is about work of some kind or another.) I guess my weirdest job was my stint as an "escort" in the campus security department at the University of Pittsburgh. I walked students across campus late at night. It was a unique job, providing some measure of safety to (mostly) women-identified people. I broke up a drunken fistfight once, helped find a missing person (who was passed out in the bushes), and jump-started an old car. It was very hardboiled. And I loved the walkie-talkie.
Loved this interview. The whole AA controversy began shortly after we moved to SoCal and I followed it like a soap opera. As for jobs? Nude model for art students abd bidding photography students in the 70s preceded by a stunt mowing greens and other maintenance stuff at a fancy Florida golf course where I learned to drive a tractor and spot alligators. I was regularly admonished for accidentally reshaping the putting greens when I dropped the blade in the wrong places.
Counting wooden rods for an art company!!
None too weird, but the fact that I spent the summer that I was 13 providing full-time child care for a baby I had no relation to seems very of-the-times.
Depends on your definition of "weird," but I used to be a professional ballet dancer & a lot of stuff goes down in the dance world. Barely got out with my sanity in tact 😵😅
I picked tobacco for a summer and it was so hot under the netting tying those plants together. I got terminated because I was not quick enough.
During the school year I worked for the procurement manager at my community college, tagging equipment and typing up purchase orders. Not weird. But in the summer, she had me and her sister do not only a full inventory of the entire campus, but also draw up floor plans of every room in every building. We even found some secret rooms that didn’t match the official blueprints!
This is v funny and sounds really fun!
Door to door canvassing for environmental groups: a) in retrospect it is VERY not safe because you do it alone and go up to people's doors, b) I was asked to join a class action lawsuit against our employer a couple of years later and c) there's a whole book about how the model of paid canvassing is destroying progressive movements. I did make a lot of money though - what a summer!
(Also, I SHRIEKED at the Bryn Mawr reference - I am Class of '07 - Anassa Kata!)
Amazing! Magda '99 and I are hosting a special alum convo w/ Kate next week if you want to join: https://forms.gle/vkUPSV5QLB1Msd3Z6
(Feel free to invite friends too!)
My first job was scooping ice cream/dipping ice cream bars at a horse track which wasn’t very weird but mostly just silly. My most formative job was for a consulting firm that was run by an eccentric rich guy who only hired beautiful people and we somehow sold extremely expensive work to firms and also published books(?)
I worked in a office where my boss was secretly running another company out of the office at night. Shenanigans!