Let the Bloginess Begin!!! - My First Job

For fun, I decided to blog about each of the jobs I've ever held... in chronological order. If the job I'm discussing was a temp job, or one that I only held for a short period of time... I will probably only describe it in a singular post. If it was a long-held position (or, felt like one) then I will try to break it up into several posts, although... sometimes when I start jibber-jabbering about this stuff, it's hard to hit the breaks.


Ready?

Job #1 (My 1st Job) - The Ice Cream Truck?

When I was 13, I worked on an ice-cream truck for a day. My girlfriend had begun working on the truck, and I missed hanging out with her. It was summer-time, and it seemed so strange that she would all of a sudden stop spending her valuable time with the rest of us--sitting on the steps listening to the Beasty Boys, and Run DMC--just to make a fist full of dollars (<---movie reference), riding around on a truck with a very heavy, sweaty man, who looked like someone who stored kids in his basement.

Finally came the day when she got sick of fending the fat man's passes alone, and asked him if I could work on the truck along side her. He scratched his half-bald head, wiped some sweat from his brow, and agreed begrudgingly, "Yeah, yeah, all right, but she's got to get off, before we go to South Philly".

At this time in our story, I must digress, to share with you a bit about the setting, in the City of Brotherly Love, during the time that I was a teen. To be blunt, Philadelphia was segregated with a vengeance! South Philly was for Italians; North and West Philly were for "blacks"; the North East was for the wealthy; China town was for Asians; and, South-West Philadelphia was primarily for the Irish. Further, these distinctions had been different in earlier decades. Ultimately, what mattered was, unless you were patronizing a local shop (and not attempting to hawk your own wares there) you were not invited. It seemed that only certain groups, with neutral/difficult to distinguish features could travel around freely, and operate as merchants or sales-people. Also, being a member or affiliate of the mafia made you immune to ethnic and racial distinctions.