JATMON

 

This month, we’re reflecting on jobs we’ve had, in my case mostly because they were available and I needed money.

Growing up in rural Maine back in the 1960s was a lot different than today. Few people I knew were visibly wealthy and even fewer flaunted it. I had chores that garnered an allowance, but my first paying job came at age eleven when I started raking blueberries. It was hard work at any age and involved lots of time bent over, one arm on a knee while sliding a metal rake through berry vines and weeds. Blisters were frequent until your hands toughened up.

That job was followed by a variety of manual labors through high school and college. They included taking care of laying hens, harvesting winter squash, working in a canning factory, painting bridges, short order cooking, prep and dish washing in a restaurant, working in a limestone quarry, processing sea moss to make a colloidal suspension, working as an AV technician in an elementary school in South Phoenix, stocking shelves at Walgreens, and clearing land to build an irrigation pond.

When I graduated from college, I had little choice in my employment as I applied for conscientious objector status and when it was granted, I got to choose between working at either the Bangor or Augusta State Hospitals. I chose the latter because it was closer to our farm on Sennebec Lake. I was required to work there for two years, but ended up being there for twenty-seven. There were several reasons for that, but I’ll save them for another day.

During that time, I had numerous different jobs: Psychiatric aide, assistant team leader, team leader, director of patient education, and medical librarian. It was that last job that really changed my life.

I learned to connect with other librarians, first in-state, then nationally, and even internationally. I figured out how to find information quickly for impatient doctors. I revamped the medical library, and used Booklist to bring the patient library up to date and interesting to staff and patients. Perhaps the two most valuable things I learned were how to listen carefully, asking questions to help folks figure out what they really wanted to know, and how to innovate.

Two of my innovations were the creation of an international listserv for mental health librarians, and a web page called The Publisher’s Hall Of Shame. The latter came about when Maine librarians started complaining about hardcover books that fell apart after one or two circulations. I began listing titles and authors as well as noting the number of reports per book. Interest grew once the page was shared on a national library listserv. The effort resulted in a phone conversation with a representative from the biggest printer of books in North America. I told him they needed to use better glue and the number of complaints dropped markedly once they did.

When I was ordered to not only run the libraries, but head up staff development without adequate staff or support, I realized I had to find another job. I’d just completed my masters in library and information science, so I had some options.

My next job, as director of the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library came with a surprise. On my first day there, I was taken to the Boothbay Register where I was introduced with the comment that I would continue writing the weekly column about the library. That, folks, was not only unexpected, but an amazing opportunity to learn how to write on a schedule. I used humor, particularly in an annual April Fool’s column, as well as developing marketing skills over the five years I worked there.

The remainder of my working career was as a librarian, first, handling software for the Maine State Library, then as the sole staff at the Hartland Public Library in rural Somerset County. In both cases, I wrote regular columns for newspapers that covered entering (and winning) sweepstakes, computer gaming and left-wing politics.

I won this street legal replica of Casey Kahne's race car in 2009 along with a trip to the Citizen's Bank 400 in Michigan to meet him and get the keys.

In hindsight, I can say that all of these jobs helped shape my writing career. I’ve included elements and experiences from every one in short stories and books and will continue to do so as long as creativity stays with me.