Compared to some I haven't had that many jobs but you don't make it a quarter century in the work force without some odd jobs. When I lived in Warrensburg, MO with Andrea we were struggling to pay our bills with the money we made at McDonalds so I took on a second job at Baskin Robbins. They were looking for a cake decorator and general scooper and I was looking to make money so I inflated my skills a little bit.
I didn't know it until I got hired on but I was the only male employee on the roster and being of college age I was older than most too. Since I was working the early shift at Mikey D's I came in on the weekends to do the cake building since the other cake decorator worked banker hours and the rest of the time I just helped unload trucks or filled in odd shifts serving up cones.
The owner of the franchise also had a location in Sedalia so I would fill in down there when they were short staffed. In the summer of 99' their cake builder went on maternity leave so I spent ~3 months driving the 30ish minutes East out there. I really improved on my skills with this consistent work and made good money but was always tired.
One day some inclement weather took a turn for the worse and we found ourselves hunkering down as a tornado approached. Of the 3 employees there only one lived close enough and made a break for home while the other one and I hunkered down in the back kitchen as the wind whipped around outside. No structural damage occurred but afterwards we saw branches had fallen and a few sapling trees were uprooted.
I know I took a few pictures from my days there but they must have been lost to time or are on some old phone stashed in a closet. The images shared here are examples of the style. I made a lot of good friends there and was exposed to new types of music (most notably Led Zeppelin). I think the thing I remember the most was my time in the freezer which was kept at -20°F which was both painful and dangerous if you touched the metal with your raw hand. My resilience to the cold meant I was usually the one sent in to retrieve the barrels.
8/13/2021
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