You want fries with that?

[1fujifilm]

Washing dishes at Wally's Spot in green bay $1.71 per hr

Did you go to Pennings H.S. too?
The Spot club host station is now at the Camelot on Broadway, which is now a Philly steak place.
Wallys soon to be Popeyes..sad for sure.

Bear

 

[favoritos]

1. My first thought on seeing "de-tasseling" was that it was some kind of Silver Street entertainment activity in Hurley, WI! (Insert lecherous grin here.) — 2. As a one-time farm hand, I have to ask: Is that still done (with the corn, that is)? Manually? — With all of the mechanical farm equipment that's been developed over the years, there's still no mechanical device that can do this?

That's a pretty funny guess on the first part.
It is done primarily with machines today. Think about a lawn mower way up in the air. Hybrid corn still needs the "male and female" to be hybrid. Development plots even bag the silks so plants can be hand pollinated.

To the original post. I grew up on a farm. We had a small dairy operation with 32 stanchions. We had milkers when I started helping. Dad dumped them in pails that we hauled to the tank. Those tall pails were a challenge for a little kid. The handle was not too far from chin height and we had to haul the pails up a ladder to dump. It was an incredible improvement when we went to a transfer station. The work was easier and the milk was probably a whole lot cleaner. We eventually converted to pipeline and things changed again. Still nothing like today's barns, but the work was easier. I didn't like milking with the pipeline. It felt like a waiting game. I took on the "outside" chores after converting. Outside chores meant twice a day loading, blending and feeding silage for the feeders and cows. I learned to run those H Farmall tractors in every kind of weather you could imagine. The closest thing to comfort was a heat houser in winter.
The pipeline lesson taught me early on that I wanted to "do" stuff. It has never been comfortable to sit around and wait.
First job off the farm was on another farm that cleaned, bagged, and sold seed. I spent a lot of time stacking seed. The soybean 60 pounders were a bear to get up in the air. There were no forklifts, but we did use pallets in the largest warehouse. I learned pretty quickly that a clean warehouse was easier. Think of a 70 pound kid trying to drag 2,500 pound pallets across a warehouse. You needed traction for your feet and a couple soybeans by the little pallet jack wheels were deal breakers too.
I guess I learned to clean a lot between the dairy and warehouse stuff. Seems funny now, but it stuck with me.

My first time clock job was at the local airport when I was seventeen. I started out with the cropdusting operation. That business was all about keeping the plane in the air when weather was good. I had to have the correct full mix ready before he landed. I'd get the hose connected before the pilot was unstrapped. It was like working on a pit crew. There was some downtime when fields were out a distance, but you learned to know that plane's sound. He didn't dilly dally around the main runway and taxiways. He just dropped in a close as he could to save time.
I eventually worked most aspects of ground support around the small airport. We had a couple of daily commuter flights and random commercial stop overs. Customer service? Washing up and changing clothes became a new part of the job. We didn't have a tower, so we used UNICOM, and I had to learn the lingo to bring em in. I hauled bags, fueled the planes and went inside the "terminal" to help get them to the next part of travel into town.
True downtime at the airport meant going back to cleaning again. Washing planes wasn't simple. The bugs and birds hit at high speeds. We didn't have power washers, so it washing was done with a 409 presoak, garden hose and scrubbing. The bottoms were tough too. The exhaust streaks were hard to remove. It still amazes me that some had oil streaks too.
The airport was also the home base for the Redbaron Squadron. Those Stearmans were fun to be around, but they were not easy to clean. The canvas parts were more delicate than you might imagine. There was some potential reward in washing those planes. A good clean meant potential for a short ride. It was a good motivational tool.

Interesting to look back after writing and reflecting, but it looks like I did a lot of cleaning.