After spending twenty years and 31 days working at BellSouth, I accepted a buy out package. Suddenly, I was unemployed. I really had no idea what I was going to do. One day I went to breakfast with my oldest brother, Hank. He spent more than twenty years in the Navy, then became a truck driver. He told me that I needed to learn to drive a truck. I laughed and told him that I had trouble parking my Dodge Ram Pick-up truck, but that if someone would hire me to deliver freight with my truck, I would do it.
I laughed about that conversation for a couple of days. Then, I saw an ad in our local newspaper for someone with a pick up truck to make hot shot deliveries. I decided to call them and get more information about it. The phone call lead to an in person interview and inspection of my truck, and the next day I was making my first delivery!
The first hot shot delivery company I worked for handled food deliveries to restaurants. They either did not order enough of a product, or the product was left off the truck, or for a hundred other reasons, the item they needed was not on hand. It was hard work. I delivered 40 lb. boxes of hamburger patties, 50 lb. boxes of french fries, large boxes of plastic cups. Just about anything a fast food place would need, Fabgrandpa and I delivered it. One time we drove to Oklahoma to deliver two 50 lb. bags of chicken breading to a fried chicken restaurant. They were waiting for us to get there so they could open the store.
We worked with insulated blankets and dry ice to keep frozen things frozen during the hot summer days. I lost twenty pounds that summer. It was fun, though. We never knew where we would be going, or what we would be delivering on any given day. That first hot shot delivery job ended, though, when the boss asked me to go to traffic court for another female driver. We were driving for another company the next day.
What unusual jobs have you had over your lifetime?
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