My exposure to work began I think when I was about 10 and sold Grit Magazines door to door. That was a good experience for me. I learned a little about responsibility, (though I definitely faltered there at that time), and honed my people skills as I made the sell. I remember like it was yesterday when they answered the door, my saying, "Would you like to buy a grit?" I believe I did this for a couple years. I didn't make a lot of money but I did earn a Swiss Army Knife.
Somewhere around this time, probably before, I helped my brother Billy sort bottles at the IGA Store. I'm not sure how much I helped and when I did this. I think he might have bought me pop for helping. He got like two cents a bottle, but it was like the first job any of us had.
My first REAL job was at Planter's Peanuts unloading boxcars at the ripe old age of 13. I was way too young for this job. It was very much manual labor. To be honest with you, a lot of men would shy away from it. We unloaded 2-3 car loads a night full of 90-100 lb bags of peanut. I begged my dad to get me that job so he finally caved and did, thinking I would quit after the first day. The thought never even crossed my mind.
I came home after the first day with my fingernails worn off and fingers bleeding and worn to the bone. Dad at first told me I couldn't go back, but I insisted I continue what I started. I thank him today for allowing me that growth experience.
My undeveloped muscles would throb with pain almost to the point of tears. At break time i would rush to the water fountain and run ice cold water over my arms to relieve the misery just long enough to go back and unload some more.
I started that job toward the end of my eighth grade year in jr high and worked there until the beginning of my freshman year in high school. I worked at it again for several months while I attended college. It was not an enjoyable experience, but it was a life changing experience that I have valued since. That job helped mold me into a man.
Well from there I sacked groceries at Country Boy Market for a short bit and cooked burgers at I think Beacon Drive-inn....or was it Sonic? These jobs were short lived. I worked a seasonal job along side my brother again at K-Mart. This was the only job I ever actually got fired from. I wasn't the best at counting money. My ADHD was likely a factor there.
Through my later teen years I worked at a series of three restaurants owned by my parents. Well, it started with me working along with my brother at Ken's Pizza in Fort Smith. My parents kind of got the pizza bug and ended up buying the Pizza Barn in Greenwood. The old adage goes you've got to have money to make money. I love my Daddy, but he just didn't borrow enough to make a go of it. We lasted a little bit then sold out to a family who still owns it to this day.
We tried our luck at a couple other restaurants around this time with basically the same fate. Daddy just really wasn't a businessman. He wanted so much to provide well for his family, which he did, just not how he imagined.
Those 3-4 years were trying times for our family. We all worked hard trying to make a go of it, only to be disappointed by failure. I learned much during that time though. I continued to develop my people and management skills. I learned how to accept failure and keep moving forward. I also learned I had no desire to run my own restaurant.
The summer after I graduated high school I worked doing KP at Fort Chaffee while the reservists trained there. This was a pretty good experience. This is probably what wet my appetite for the military.
Somewhere during this time I worked for about nine months at a Hardee's. My primary job was to run the roast beef and ham slicer but pretty much handled the kitchen much of the time. My main recollection is the manager was pretty much non existent. Well, I also remember the annoying sound of the drive through bell. I would be running ragged trying to keep up with the inside orders and then that crazy bell would ding. AAAAAHHH!!! I honest to goodness would finally get a night off and would wake up hearing that stupid thing in my sleep! One particular night I was by myself in the kitchen going crazy to keep up with orders when that bell started ringing. I looked outside and cars were backed down the road. I looked in the office and the manager was kicked back napping. I kindly knocked on the door. He popped up opened the door. I handed him my gloves and instructed him to have an enjoyable evening. I left to never return.
After attending a couple years of Westark Community College in Ft Smith I transferred to Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. That summer between schools I signed up for the Army Reserves and ROTC. I spent the summer at my Officer Basic Course in Fort Knox Kentucky and then attended ROTC classes for the next two years of college, along with serving the next six years in the Army Reserve.
I answered the call to ministry my junior year of college. I dreamed of maybe being a chaplain in the army. I chose the infantry as my branch though. I figured if I could handle being a foot soldier I could handle anything.
I learned much during that time. I learned to take orders as well as give orders. I learned to endure hardship and keep moving ahead. I learned to respect those who chose to protect our country as a career. I also learned I was not cut out to to serve in the military. I made First Lieutenant and was promotable to Captain before I gave up my dreams at a career as an Army Chaplain. I married the woman of my dreams, had two children, and decided I preferred staying close to home and my family. After my six years of reserve commitment I opted out.
When I started school at ATU, I went to work at Ken's Pizza and worked there until after I married two years later. This was the first job I ever worked in which I did not like my boss. He was young himself and drank a lot. Well, I was scatter brained too, which didn't help. I would mess up an order and he would throw a fit or he would throw a fit simply because he was in a bad mood. We had several altercations but I survived.
The day I returned from my honeymoon I went in to check my schedule and discovered he had scheduled me Sunday's. In retrospect I figure he did that knowing I would quit. It worked. I was newly married and unemployed. I don't recall ever stressing over it though. I'm not sure if it was faith or stupidity. It all worked out though.
The first place I applied following losing my job at Ken's I was hired on the spot. I worked one whole day at a convenience store. I was so excited to have the job, I didn't even consider what it entailed. There was no way my conscience would allow me to sell cigarettes, alcohol, or dirty magazines. I explained that to the manager and she was actually very understanding. I'm not quite as dogmatic today as I was then, but I still couldn't hand someone a porn magazine with a clear conscience. Remember, I had just gotten married. We needed the money. Not sure how it happened, but we never missed a meal. God does provide.
Well, I eventually went to work delivering pizza for Dominos. I worked there for close to two years. Not much to say about it. It was a job and paid the bills. I did get my brother a job there and he ended up working there for like 25 years before he went to delivering school busses cross country full time. Well, I did learn to balance urgency with safety while working there. You were tipped better the earlier the delivery, but that didn't help much if you ended up getting a ticket.
After my stent delivering pizza for Domino's I landed a job guarding pickles at Atkins Pickle Plant in Atkins, AR. That's right, guarding pickles. This was actually a pretty good job with benefits and all. I was mostly a gate watchman, lining the cucumber trucks up outside the gate for delivery. This was my first job with any kind of real responsibility.
From there I went to IOBC at Fort Benning, GA. This was about five months of intense infantry officer training. This really was an eye opening experience for me. The infantry is not a way of life for those who truly succeed at it. It is life. We would spend several days in the field and then come in just to spend several days in technical training and testing, then return to the field. My wife and two young children were there with me but I saw them very little. I faltered tremendously at the technical aspects. I succeeded at strategy and actual battle technique where my adhd reckless abandonment apparently paid off. Where I failed the most was though was I didn't like being away from my family. Might remember at the end of my training I had the opportunity to sign up for active duty. I was fresh out of college, jobless, and very tempted. Reason ruled though and j said thanks but no thanks.
From Benning we moved to Memphis for me to attend seminary. I worked at a grocery warehouse until I started seminary. I found a job pretty quickly landscaping and then a job sorting car parts at a Ford Auto Parts Distribution Center. I worked there for a short time while attending seminary. I actually liked that job but ended up getting a full time job working at Hyster Forklift.
I worked at Hyster as a parts clerk about a year. We went from a manual inventory to a computerized inventory during this time. I got the blame when the inventory was totally messed up, even though it was messed up when I got there. I was the scapegoat. I went to the manager, whom I attended church with, and told him what I thought they were doing and his response was basically thats probably true but he had to do what he had to do. That was a valuable lesson in human nature. The only thing that kept me employed there was the union.
We moved from Memphis to Mansfield, Arkansas for my first full time pastorate. Well, I say full time tongue in cheek. I had to find employment immediately in order to feed my family. The church simply furnished housing with no salary.
God took care of us as usual. I went to work within a couple weeks as a temp at Therma Tru Door Factory hanging doors on the paint line. It wasn't glorious, high paying, or even permanent, but it put food on the table until I found a full time job.
After a few weeks I went to work at Saint Edwards Hospital as the Shipping Receiving Clerk. It was a pretty good job with decent benefits. I received everything from bone screws to body parts to high tech lab equipment.
My wife and 5 year old daughter Dawn would pick me up everyday at closing time. They would get there about the time I finished sweeping the floors, took out the trash, and locked the doors. One day on the way home from work I was feeling a little discouraged and was complaining about something. Dawn piped in, "Gee, Daddy, I think sweeping the floor and taking out the trash is a fine job." After about 18 months I transferred to the psych hospital as a Psych Tech. I guess that was my first exposure to to working in mental health. It definitely was eye opening.
When we left that church I didn't work secular employment again for several years. I went to work driving a bus after I resigned the church at Yorktown. I would drive school busses off and on for the next decade or so. I enjoyed everything but the chaos. I always had my kids that I connected with. I still run into them as adults today. Many of them have families of their own now.
While in Guyman, other than driving a bus, I worked at the Beaver Express Dock. I would go in about 3 AM and load trucks. My boss was a recovering alcoholic and crazy. I seriously wanted him to fall off the wagon and start drinking again. He probably would have been much easier to get along with.
I left Beaver Express to go to work for Seaboard Farms as a Security Guard at a Pig Slaughtering plant. I had come a long ways in a couple decades. I went from guarding pickles to guarding pigs. This was third shift and I just couldn't handle it. I was pastoring the church and rubbing the church's school all day and working all night. It was a decent job. I just couldn't handle the sleep deprivation.
That brings me pretty much up to date. I drove a bus in Tahlequah for several years I guess right up to when I started counseling. That's pretty much my secular job history. I know it sounds bad, but it really wasn't
as bad as that. My focus always was my education and ministry. I just would do what I needed to do to pay the bills. By the way, I left out working one day at Burger King and a couple weeks at a donut shop while attending college.
Oh yeah, Kim and I delivered newspapers at one time or another just about every where we lived. One of Dawn's fondest memories is driving around town in Star City with our windows down throwing papers in twenty something degree temperatures, eating ice cream.
That, my friends, is the job resume of ADHD adult...
