On finishing all this, I realized there were no images of that major slice of life called work. Anyone might get the impression that life had been all play. I wish! I've had to work all my life, usually in jobs that were neither photogenic nor interesting to others - hence no images.
But, for the record, here are some of the work slices of my life - not in chronological order:
Most
boring: As a student, pulling up weeds on train tracks, unloading coal
cars by hand, picking up potatoes all day following a plough.
Dirtiest:
Also as a student, in a decrepit old factory stripping filthy electric motors
and batteries for recycling.
Best long time:
Pilot, Fighter Command, Royal Air Force - nine years.
Best ever:
Flight Commander, Trials Flight, Fighter Weapons School.
Jobs no
good at: Selling insurance, encyclopedias and cars. These were "desperate
immigrant" jobs - none lasted long.
Longest: 17 years
in head offices of life insurance companies. Started as filing clerk, ended as
Admin. Mgr. for all Canadian agency operations. Deadly dull, but it supported
a growing family and good holidays.
Only moonlighting job:
BlackTop cabbie on weekends in Vancouver, late '50s. New to the city, I covered
the skid-road area and learned about bootleggers in houses with steel-plated peep-holed
doors, and why attractive young girls were always taking taxis to and from hotels.
Met most interesting people: Freelance reporter/photographer
for small town daily paper.
Kind of interesting: Self-employed,
tracing underground pipes electronically.
Most bizarre:
Finding and catching a giant octopus in the wild for Vancouver aquarium while
being filmed by CBC.
Most dangerous, shortest, hottest:
As a pilot flying joyrides in an 2-seat ultralight floatplane off a resort beach
in 100 degree, 12-hour days.
Most entrepreneurial: Buying
a bankrupt vending machine/pinball/jukebox business and expanding to be a success.
Most cerebral: Teaching myself computer programming while
owning the only computer (Apple II) in the tiny, isolated town, and then writing
programs/articles for U.S. computer magazines.
Wettest:
Running a high-speed landing-craft, dive charters.
Most work for
no pay: Editor of weekly community newspaper.
Most environmentally
incorrect (now): Diving, collecting, preserving and packaging marine
specimens for sale, using formaldehyde.
Most rewarding, most worry:
Mountain Rescue, later Area Coordinator and Search Manager for Provincial Emergency
Programme.
Volunteer & elected stuff: Hospital Board, two
Library Boards, Home Support Services Board, Deputy Fire Chief(volunteer), Ocean
Falls Residents Council, Regional Board Director (two terms), varied SAR roles,
founding member of Vanquatics Dive Club, Board of local Housing Society etc.