My five year tenure in the world of lifeguarding was a main segue into being an older person in an emerging young workforce. By and large, my young colleagues in college and at my various jobs ignored me at worst, and chatted from time to time with me at best. And in fairness, I had little or no trouble immersing myself in a work culture rapidly changing demographically to....the young.
One incident stands out in my memory. While working at the therapy pool I noticed a slight difference in the demeanor of the staff from my other more blue-collar environs. You see, many of the guards at this university construct were grad students. They were at the age where they had honed the idiosyncracies and obnoxious habits they would handily take into the rest of their lives. Contrarily, my young co-workers at "The Y" for example were often seniors in high school. "The Y" kids were so polite, I often thought of the old tv show
Leave it to Beaver and the character Eddy Haskell and his annoying habit of being disingenuously polite to adults. In contrast however, these proletariate "Y" kids I worked with seemed as genuine as the day is long - not like the righteous grad students at the therapy pool, or my own rude 'Nam generation.
Regardless, one of these grad student jokers was crass, sanctimonious, and condescending - some dickhead with a name like Chad - a poster child for my economic social strata argument. I came in one night to the therapy pool and glanced at the schedule. To my amazement Chad had been crossed off work the day after Thanksgiving and my name was hand written in.
A couple days later I came in to take over a shift after Chad and I asked him what the fuck was going on with the schedule?
"Oh, I was meaning to mention that to you," he said and grinned. "Me and my posse
gots to go to Milwaukee for a concert on that Friday after Thanksgiving. I figured an old guy like you really did not have the potential of anything pressing going on for the holiday so I took the liberty of putting "your" name in the slot.'
I snatched the pen out of the back of his ear and scratched my name off the schedule and wrote his name back up there.
"Fuck you, asshole," I said, and grinned back at him.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Private First Class Jon Bailey St. John II, 25, Neenah, Wisconsin, was killed on Saturday, January 27, 2007, in Taji, Iraq. Taji is just north of Baghdad. He was one of three soldiers killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle during convoy operations. PFC St. John was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned St. John was born May 13, 1981, in Neenah, Wisconsin. He excelled in many areas while in school and was known for his proficiency in math, tennis, football, guitar, and piano. Jon graduated from St. Mary Central High School of Menasha (now in Neenah, Wisconsin) in 1999. He was said to love reading and made the Dean's List at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse where he majored in business and marketing. He had six credits left to graduation. He had also attended the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley. The Journal Sentinel went on to note that during college Jon worked at a ski hill near La Crosse and enjoyed downhill skiing. He also enjoyed snowmobiling and hunting grouse and deer in Bayfield County. St. John joined the Army in 2005 and was deployed to the Middle East in 2006. He working as a machine gunner on top of a Humvee. The Web site iraq.pigtye.net (a site with military casualty data) quoting information from an Appleton/Fox Cities data base, mentioned Jon's home area was in the small community of Vineland a town of about 1900 just south of Neenah. At the time of his death Jon St. John II was survived by his parents Jon and Katie St. John; and, his sister Sonja. Jon St. John II was the 70th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
98,585 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,761 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,432 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1356 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
824 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,979 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,951 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
24 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
144 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
