My Worst Job

 By Bruce Shawkey

I've had many jobs over the years, some terrible, some good. But my worst was a summer job stripping furniture. There were two tanks for removing varnish and paint -- a cold tank and a hot tank. The hot tank had a lid that was raised and lowered with a block and tackle because it was so heavy. The cold tank was filled with a caustic chemical that burned if you got it on your skin and also had a lid raised and lowered with block and tackle. Then, you had to dunk the stripped piece of furniture in another tank of muriatic acid to stop the stripping process. All the time you were doing this, you had to wear heavy duty rubber gloves that went up to your elbows, safety goggles over your eyes, and ideally a respirator over your nose and mouth to avoid breathing in the fumes. Oh, and a rubber apron to protect your clothes from splashes and spills.

Me and my buddy, Rob Ray, would do this for about six hours in the summer heat, with a break for lunch. Our boss was named Bill. His wife prepared lunch, which was often soup and sandwich. We would work typically 2-3 days a week. For this, I think were paid the princely sum of $2 per hour.

Bill would often line up the furniture to be stripped, then leave to go on errands. One time, he lined up a bunch of chairs that looked perfectly finished (stained and varnished) to Rob and myself, but we were told to strip them. When Bill came back, he was furious and had to have the chair stained and varnished all over again. Rob and I agreed to have the cost of refinishing taken out of our pay, so we worked for a portion of the summer without pay.

Every once in a while, I would dunk my hand too far into the cold tank, and get a glove full of chemical and have to rinse off with water. By the end of my shift, my clothes were soaked with sweat.

I only did this for one summer, but Rob worked for Bill several summers. I am convinced that Rob suffered some type of ill health effects due to exposure to the chemicals.

Bill would sometimes pour a ladle full of the hot chemical down the floor drain to keep his pipes clean,  like you would do with Drain-O.

I look back on this job today and figure I had to be nuts to do a job like this. But when you're young, crazy, and short of money, I guess you'll do just about anything.

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