LOVED. THIS. Am sharing! The jobs! The jobs! I've got quite the list, too. Artists will do whatever they have to, to afford making art. This post is the beautifully recalled REAL real. Well done, Robert!
Every summer starting around age 12 up until I turned 15, I worked in tobacco fields, driving the tractor, pulling the leaves, and hoisting said leaves into the packhouse. At the end of the last summer I worked, I received $20 whole dollars for the year. Then, at 15, I bussed tables and washed dishes at a seafood joint in town before I finally got a job running the board at our small thousand-watt AM radio station. I worked my way up in the radio business for the next 30 years. Most of it was fun, but man, there were some times where I missed simplicity of that tobacco field.
Wait... Robert, you were PAID to be someone's muse? Any job openings?
Lovely writing. "If I complain – and I do, sometimes – part of me realizes it’s a privilege to be able to complain. I’ve lost a lot of loved ones along the way, folks who would relish bitching about their money gigs." Wise words indeed.
LOVED. THIS. Am sharing! The jobs! The jobs! I've got quite the list, too. Artists will do whatever they have to, to afford making art. This post is the beautifully recalled REAL real. Well done, Robert!
Thank you! Would love to hear about your jobs!
Every summer starting around age 12 up until I turned 15, I worked in tobacco fields, driving the tractor, pulling the leaves, and hoisting said leaves into the packhouse. At the end of the last summer I worked, I received $20 whole dollars for the year. Then, at 15, I bussed tables and washed dishes at a seafood joint in town before I finally got a job running the board at our small thousand-watt AM radio station. I worked my way up in the radio business for the next 30 years. Most of it was fun, but man, there were some times where I missed simplicity of that tobacco field.
Wow. Thanks so much for that story. Amazing details.
I liked reading this and thinking about where I was working at the same time.
Thanks and DO TELL
Wait... Robert, you were PAID to be someone's muse? Any job openings?
Lovely writing. "If I complain – and I do, sometimes – part of me realizes it’s a privilege to be able to complain. I’ve lost a lot of loved ones along the way, folks who would relish bitching about their money gigs." Wise words indeed.
Happy 'day off from labour,' Labor Day.
Thank you. I’m not at liberty to discuss the details of the muse gig on this platform except to say it was a one day thing, and it required costuming.
How is it that I’m just finding out we both went to Atlantic after all these years?? (Or did I know that and forget?) Loved reading this!
I did not know that! Clearly, even more to talk about.
Clearly!
What a great read! Took me back to Athens and the then those fun early days in NYC when you didn’t need a lot of money to get by. Thanks Robert!
Thank you and you're welcome, Angel! We were so lucky to be in those places in those times.
keepin' the lights on!!