March 10: My First Summer Job

Thanks to Caitlin's and Laura's back home tales, I have one to share with you. When I was in jr. high and high school, I graded papers for extra money. I started in 8th grade with Mrs. Stoner, who taught English. My jr. high and high school was the same building, and the only way to tell what grade you are in is by which hallway your locker was in (hallway 1 or 2). I kept track of how much time I graded in the evenings, and she paid me $3 an hour. It was great side money for me. Mrs. Stoner was my eighth, ninth, and tenth grade English teacher. She taught me to diagram sentences, write essays, and complete research. She was a no-nonsense teacher, but I adored her.

Back to the story, my junior year summer, Mrs. Stoner asked me to paint her pipe fence that summer. I ended up asking a girl that was not one of my closest friends. To be honest, I don't even know how she got involved, but Kelli and I were going to paint the fence for extra money that summer. Now, Mrs. Stoner was very nice, but her husband Mr. Stoner was the president of Welch State Bank. He never smiled. I could not read him.

Setting up, Kelli and I went out and Mr. Stoner explained our options, as we could paint with gloves or with these curved paint rollers. He went over what to do, and how much of the pipe fence that he wanted us to paint. He discussed if we should get paid by hour or by the job, and we didn't really know how to respond. We picked by hour, which was probably smart, since we had no idea how long it would take us.

On the first day, we went to work in our paint clothes and do-rags. We tried both methods, and painting with these big wooly mittens, basically like sheep on your hands, was awkward, hot, and the paint rubbed off as much as it went on. So, we tried the rollers, and things were going well. We painted down the first section, and then, we got the gate. The gate had a handle that looked like an l. We had to paint it, too, so we did, and we hung it on the side of the fence.

If you haven't already guessed, the pipe fence held cattle inside. In Welch, cattle is pretty common. In fact, when you have cattle, you usually have a couple of bulls as well. Sure enough, after we got another section down, out came the bull, and off he took down their driveway. By the time we got to the house, the bull was running down the highway toward town. We ran after it, so here I am traipsing down the highway trying to talk a bull into going home. When we figured out this would not work, we returned to the house. Mrs. Stoner was not home, so we called the bank. Mr. Stoner, bank president, had to drive home from work to save the bull. Great first impression. I know he had to be wondering why did my wife hire these idiot girls?

Knowing the cost of bulls at this point, the bull was worth way more than probably what we made all summer. We did not have any more faux pas the rest of the summer, and we did learn to take a radio and make the most of our boring, monotonous job. Kelli and I learned a lot about each other that summer, and we went into senior year as friends. I don't really ever want to paint another pipe fence, but I do respect those that have to put in hard work like painting in the summer weather. I also wonder if Mr. Stoner ever thinks about the day that the bull got out.