After the Bell: Teaching Tips With a Twist

Stunt Summer Sessions #2: What's First On Martin's Top 5?

The Stunt Brothers Season 2 Episode 45

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In Episode 75, the Stunt Brothers are in unanimous agreement that teachers should be out of the classroom and locked in on the blissful “every day is Sunday" state of mind. Continuing with their Summer Series, Martin shares his number 5 pick from the archives, which was a total break from education talk to a celebration of all things summer. The Summer Sessions aired as a package of 9 episodes and Martin chose Episode 5, Summer Jobs. This episode, about the random summer jobs from our podcasters' past, will bring a flood of past summer memories to our listeners. Sit back, grab a drink, and enjoy!

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Speaker

Good afternoon, podcast listeners everywhere. Welcome to After the Bell, a Stunt Brothers production. I'm Martin Stuible.

Speaker 1

And I'm Roy Hunt, and we share your pain, having taught a combined 70 years. 70 years. I know. Wow. So get out your marking, organize your supplies, or just pour yourself a coffee. I think I need something stronger. That's okay. Okay. And listen, engage, and interact with After the Bell, a podcast for you, the hardworking, dedicated teacher who wants free lesson plans, free advice, and a free meal. Well, I always show up for a free meal. So here we are, July 5th, the first week officially of being completely away from school.

Speaker

And you are so on holiday that you don't even know the day of the week is. It's July 6th today.

Speaker 1

Oh did I say fifth? You did, yeah. I did. Oh, okay.

Speaker

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Every day feels like Sunday.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it does.

Speaker

And I hope maybe people are now out of their class for real. And maybe you're starting to get that feeling that every day is Sunday. I know it takes a few weeks often to kind of debrief from that year. Yep. But I'm hoping everyone is.

Speaker 1

I hope that that little tightening of the spring has relaxed a little bit. And so that you're feeling a little freer and looser. Yeah. And when you breathe.

Speaker

Ah. So here we are. Sense of calm. The summer's on and we're enjoying it. And we're going through our top five of our favorite podcasts over our first two seasons. That's right. So last week you did number five.

Speaker 1

I did my number five, so this week we're going to do your number five. So, Martin, what is your number five?

Speaker

Number five for me is actually summer session number five. Oh. It was episode twenty-six from season one. So this was last it was a year ago. And I liked our summer sessions because we went around the Lower Mainland and brought our recording materials and just sat and just we talked about everything other than teaching.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker

Music cocktails. Yes. Summer memories from the seventies. We went all over the map talking about things and we really encouraged each other not to mention the word teaching. And we even, I think, made a drinking game out of it.

Speaker 1

Yes. I think you're right about that.

Speaker

But one that was fun and actually got a lot of people who are listening to this, even just r random people around the world, it was the summer jobs. Summer jobs. And you and I both shared some jobs and talked about some other summer jobs we see out there. And it was just a fun thing looking at our past and other people's past in summertime, because often that's when you get your first job, right? Yes. It's your first chance to even if it's a lemonade session.

Speaker 1

Had that resume. Yes.

Speaker

So enjoy summer sessions number five on this warm, warm July day, and we'll talk to you again next week.

Speaker 1

Yes. Make sure you have a drink in your hand.

Speaker

Oh, please. Well, here we are. Is that a helicopter? It's either that or a giant drone. You never know nowadays. I know. Well. That is a helicopter, though. It is. Here we are, Roy. Our summer session five. Number five, that's correct. We're in the heart of Stanley Park, and we're surrounded by everyone on their bikes and families and tourists, and it's such a center for people to come to when they come to Vancouver. Yes. And even my dad, when he came to Canada in 1952, always talks about within a day he discovered Stanley Park and it was always somewhere. He brought us as a family, and I I have a deep connection.

Speaker 1

Well, when we first moved here to BC, uh we lived on the uh Nelson Street, which was right near the uh the entrance of Stanley Park. And we were here for about a year. What a lot what a location. And we ran around the seawall all the time and just went to the fireworks and walked downtown as in the downtown onto Denman, and there were lots of restaurants and for people who had f had it had was our first time here in BC. It was a wonderful way to get to know the city, and the park just became again an extension of our living space. It was wonderful.

Speaker

Yeah, I think everyone does feel connected. That's why there ever is like a a storm and trees come down or there's something going on in the park, people actually feel it within them because it's such an important part of being part of the city. Yeah, yes. Well, here we are. We're deep into the heart of the summer, and we're here at the park. And I, because we last week we talked about the lemonade stands. Lemonade stands. Yeah. Yes. Well, I'm driving down my street, and these two young boys that are like maybe 10 years old, eleven years old, were waving signs, come this way, pointing in a certain direction. So I thought, well, I was just talking about lemonade stands. I need to go and take a look at this celebration of entrepreneurialship, right? Yes. And headed down the street, and it was another five or six, maybe grade five, six students, and they were raising money for BC Children's Hospital. And which was lovely that they were doing that. And they uh were only charging uh a buck a glass, so the big spinner was.

Speaker 1

We're afraid to charge a quarter because people would say that's too much.

Speaker

I know, but the big spinner that I am, I gave them two bucks. Wow. Going for charity. Well, I had the same experience, and it tasted delicious. So this is our sponsor for today's episode, the the Draycott Lemonade Stand.

Speaker 1

Okay. Well, I had the same experience. Uh I went to pick up some takeout food that we uh had were having for dinner, and just beside the restaurant that I was going to, there were six uh uh young uh people selling lemonade. They all had signs and they had lemonade uh was it was in glasses. Oh wow. Uh very environmentally friendly. No, no ice. Uh already sitting out in the heat. Two bucks a glass. Wow.

Speaker

You want ice an extra five bucks.

Speaker 1

Uh but they were enthusiastic. Good on them, and good on them. They were, I have no idea what their um motivation was, but they were uh very friendly, and I did buy a glass.

Speaker

I remember once reading dollars. Yeah, but I went, it was somewhere, maybe the state somewhere, and these kids had set up a lemonade stand, and the city demanded that they have a business license and shut them down.

Speaker 1

I've heard something like that about um yeah, police being asked to show up to people who are running a lemonade stand who happened to be, you know, probably 10 or 12 years old and asking them to shut it down because of complaints.

Speaker

Outrageous. I mean, obviously it's a technically, yes, they probably do need that, but it's kind of a just the right of passage of entering adulthood is to open up that lemonade stand once in your life. Yes. In fact, I think my I think my daughter, she had never done it, and then did one later on with Gracie, right? And the two of them did it just so they could have that chance to have tried it once in their life because they felt it within them that's just something you want you want to try out.

Speaker 1

You had to do. Yeah.

Speaker

But uh you know, it got me thinking. Got me thinking when we talk about lemonade stand, it's kind of like your first summer job in many ways, right? Yes. You know, other kids might have a paper root and those kind of things, but summer jobs are interesting because they give you a taste of working life. Yes. And they also make you go, I don't want to do this for my whole life. Yeah.

Speaker 1

Uh other things in life. Yeah.

Speaker

I mean, I my summer jobs were all pretty good. You know, some people have terrible experiences. How about you? Were your summer jobs? Like, did you have one of those moments where you go, oh, this is horrible. I mean, none of them I want to do for life, but uh they're all pretty uh good. I kind of controlled them, I think, because uh my jobs I started out, I didn't I I didn't apply for them. In those days, you could put an ad in the paper. Help wanted it, right? I I was making double minimum wage with my six bucks an hour because minimum wage was three bucks. But you know, I would put that ad in. I started in grade 10, and I, you know, I think about it now. My mom waved me off at the front door as I get into some stranger's car who took me up to Cyprus to have a little cabin. They I don't know, do they still have those cabins up there at Cyprus? Might be a funny. I have no idea. But there were these grandfather cabins that still leased the land, and I was helping some guy haul wood and chop wood, and you know, 15 years old, and I didn't have a cell phone, and they my mom just said, Everything's gonna be okay? Yeah, yeah, it's fine, Mom. Okay.

Speaker 1

Hi. Yeah. Well, I I I come from uh agricultural uh uh area, so there are farmers around who were always looking for extra help bringing in crops. Uh so some of my even before um I would say when I was in elementary school, I was picking tomatoes in the fields near our home. And then uh I would pick tomatoes all day, and I got tired of tomatoes uh after a while. Yeah. And then I would uh get paid extra to load the tomato baskets onto the wagons, and so that was my first real summer job. Uh then also for haying, uh-huh, I would do that. Um and I would clean the cow uh stalls out. That's a joy. And then if uh if you weren't working on the farm, I was also in an area where there was lots of there were lots of factories. So if you could get a factory job over the summertime, probably paid quite well. Paid well. Yeah. So I had a few of those.

Speaker

Did you get a glimpse of them because they paid well, but kind of hard work, not exactly maybe stimulating work in some ways, if it was more of assembly line kind of work?

Speaker 1

Yeah. Well, I'm gonna share one of my uh factory experiences with you. I got a summer job at Canron. And it was uh Canron is an iron foundry that was in the heart of St. Thomas. It's no longer there anymore. And they basically melted scrap metal uh to make cast iron products.

Speaker

Okay.

Speaker 1

And if you go through some cities, you'll see uh on the sewer grates, uh uh you'll see the emblem Canron. Like the manhole cover, the manhole covers the problem now, yeah. Person covers, right? The covers, the street covers. Right. And so I was excited because uh it was a factory job and it was a good wage. Then when I actually saw what I was getting myself into, I started to think twice. First of all, I was given uh a uh pair of coveralls, which you know I mean it was a dirty job. Yes. And then I was given a 3M air helmet that it covered around your neck and over your head.

Speaker

Wow.

Speaker 1

And it had a a filter that had to be changed at the end of every shift.

Speaker

I didn't scare you a little bit. There's the job, and you gotta put this helmet on.

Speaker 1

Uh I was told to wear two pairs of gloves. Okay.

Speaker

And like two layers. Two layers. And they probably were good strong gloves already. Good strong gloves, yes. They were work gloves. Another reason I might go, I don't know.

Speaker 1

And then I went onto the factory floor.

Speaker

Okay.

Speaker 1

And then on the factory floor, there was this conveyor belt. And at one end of the conveyor belt was this massive hopper, I'm gonna say, that would shake these things, and there dust in the air. You could see it just silicon dust in the air. But you had your helmet. Or for the need for the helmet. For the helmet.

Speaker

Okay.

Speaker 1

And the hopper would open up and out would come uh cast iron brake shoes that were used for diesel engine trains to stop the trains. Wow. When you picked them up off the uh conveyor belt, they were hot to the touch, even with two gloves on.

Speaker

Yeah.

Speaker 1

And I had a massive grinding wheel in front of me. What an education had to grind the slag off the sides of the brake shoe and then pass them over to the person beside me who would uh had a little gauge to make sure that the brake shoe would fit into the gauge. Right. And used a hammer to adjust it. As you're grinding the brake shoe, which is very heavy, I have no idea of the weight, but it was holding something very heavy and grinding it all the way around. Yes. Sparks are flying into your face from the grinding wheel, and then handing that over to your partner. It's in the middle of the summer, it's hot in there to begin with.

Speaker

Right. Humid hot. Humid hot. And then it's already hot outside those in Ontario.

Speaker 1

And after two weeks of that, and I thought I was in pretty good shape. I'd come from university, I was on the wrestling team, I was working out regularly, I was wiped out. I would fall asleep at dinner time. Wow. And I thought, oh my gosh, food in your plate of spaghetti.

Speaker

Face in the plate of spaghetti, yeah.

Speaker 1

I I can't do this anymore. And the interesting thing was when I had a conversation with my dad, I said, This is pretty tough.

Speaker

He probably went.

Speaker 1

And my dad said, Yes. Yeah. Because your grandfather did that job. Wow. And my brothers did that job. So my uncles had done that job. So there was yes, it was like all of these family members had used Canron as a stepping stone.

Speaker

And Roy Hunt IV said, I don't do this job at all. I don't do this.

Speaker 1

And so just when I thought it was all over, on the uh beginning of a shift one day, I looked up on the bulletin board and said, We need a summer inspector. And I go, Oh, what a nice job. That would be that would be great. And one of the full-time employees said, You can apply for that job. What? He said, Yeah, it's a temporary summer job. So everybody who's working temporary for the summer didn't have to worry about it.

Speaker

Didn't have to worry about it. Because your other position was a union position. Right. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1

And uh I applied for it and I got the job. You were now the inspector. And I was now the inspector. And there were a number of full-time employees who How'd they feel about that?

Speaker

Oh, there were they weren't too happy. They weren't too happy.

Speaker 1

And and because one of the inspectors' jobs. Yes, one of the inspectors' jobs was inspecting their work. Oh. Oh. Oh. And so they pulled some fast ones on me. I can imagine. Uh some of the things had to be ground so that they would balance out. Okay. So for think of uh the the covers that are uh go over top of a sewer, they have to be balanced well enough so that when you drive over the car, you can't have it rocking.

Speaker

Right.

Speaker 1

And so I went to inspect uh one person's work and said, Oh, don't worry about it. I've been doing this forever. And I said, Okay, but this is my job. I need to check it. I'm the inspector.

Speaker

The old guy didn't do this.

Speaker 1

And checking it. I I used the hoist to lift the lid off the top of the uh of the casing where the the the the sewer grate was, right? And he had balanced it out with pieces of cardboard to try to pull a quick one on me. Yeah. And so I had to ask me to do that. Yeah, I did call him on it. Wow. But I had unlimited overtime and probably the most money I ever made in the summer, which was pretty amazing. But it was a dirty, dirty job.

Speaker

Yeah. Well, my my jobs, and they came out of this ad, there are two that actually I stuck with quite a while. One was it was called Northwest Stoves, and I started out in grade 11 or so, just they got they answered my ad in the paper. And really it was to it was to come in on Saturdays and just clean the place. Vacuum and sweep and mop and clean the toilets. But then I ended up working a whole full summer, and it was a wood stove place that they would uh um kind of be the warehouse for. But this is the crazy part, like it was really good, really good small business, the great people that ran it. But here I am, 1819, and I'm driving the forklift around. I I think my training existed of five minutes of this pedal does this, this pedal this is the brake. Forward, backwards, this is this is how you turn it on, right? And I'm lifting these very heavy wood stoves up that are up on the pallets, yeah. High up in the warehouse. Huh. And then the other great job, I got it lasted for about two summers, was there's an old guy called Barker. Old Barker guy, he's probably born in the turn of the 1900s by this point. He was he was well into his 80s. Um he called my ad up and said he wanted an estate manager. Oh yeah, and I got to it was up at the top of Longsdale, which now is just a bunch of condos and developments, but he owned the whole area. There was a couple buildings that he rented out there, um, small little rundown apartments at the back. But I got to clean his pool and paint here and there and do errands for him out to the city, and it was a lot of freedom for a pretty good pay. And it was yeah, I was he was quite the character. I mean, he'd walk around in his bathrobe, and I think his mind was going a little bit. Sometimes the bathrobe could have been a little tighter. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. There was nothing until we were done, so it was just his own. Well, when you own an estate freedom of walking what you darn well please. Exactly, exactly. But you know, I could swim in the pool when I want, right? And I could, yeah, like take advantage of this freedom.

Speaker 1

And that sounds way better than my job.

Speaker

One time he gave me this check for $10,000 and he wanted me to drop it off at his office downtown. So he he would let me rent take his car. So, you know, I got his car, I put the check, put it on the passenger seat. I'm driving down, driving down Keith Road, past where Queen Mary is, got the music blasting. I'm just living the dream. And then I look over and I watched the check fly through the window, up and into the air. Uh-oh, my heart sank. So I parked, had a good look around, I found it in a bush, and was everything was okay. But that's where I temporarily saw my life flash in front of my eyes. But all good jobs. Like it was just, it would just, you know. I I liked it because it I maybe it's connected to how I liked the gardening too. I I did a lot of gardening was part of it as well, right? So I looked after these grounds and got to be outside, and I didn't have to be in the heat of what you're describing. That sounds horrible, right? But jobs do prepare you for that future and also give you a sense of earning for the first time in your life. And also, and young people listening to this won't believe it, I could make enough. I mean I did live at home, but I could make enough to pay for my entire university and have a lot of play money when I went to university. I didn't have to pay rent, I was at home not paying rent or anything, but but I could pay my tuition. You couldn't do that now. No, right? Let alone pay for your room and board wherever you're doing, that kind of thing. It's just it's an it was another time, right?

Speaker 1

It's amazing because again, it's it's a economics, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Things seem to be uh cheaper, even though that the wages seem to be low.

Speaker

Yeah. And um the costs were low much, much lower, right?

Speaker 1

And and so the things and buying a car. Yes. I mean, that's what one of the things from the summer jobs that I had working at Canron, as I said, I uh I ended up working at a place called Northern Telecom, which was really interesting because Northern Kel Telecom made telephones at the time.

Speaker

Yes.

Speaker 1

Uh and they were uh the telephones that they were making uh would would be for for home home devices. Okay. And my father worked at that plant. And it was really interesting.

Speaker

Another one where you had also worked as your dad. Oh, interesting.

Speaker 1

But uh I worked in a section of the plant where they had, I guess it would be capacitors, uh, little things that had to be welded onto the board. So completely different air-conditioned room, um, and you had soldering guns and you put things together, it was very quiet, but not very stressful. And then my father was out on the plant floor. But one of the things I really uh learned uh about my father, who is a man of few words, was that everyone who has worked had worked with my father for such a long time would come up and says, Your dad tells us all about you all the time. Your dad tells us how proud he is of you. And it was one of those things that was oh nice because I just had to feel that my dad felt that way because he wasn't one to share that.

Speaker

I didn't say that, but to hear that he would he actually expressed.

Speaker 1

But all the all the employees, everyone who knew my father well, uh from that uh factory would just go on and on about how he talked about me, and I had no idea. Wow. It was a it was an interesting um uh experience. I got uh an idea to see what my dad did. I I don't think my dad uh loved his job, and that's one of the things that I often reflect about uh as a summer job, and you get an experience, you try something out, you realize he did not love one. He did not he uh uh you know he worked at that job uh uh until he retired, and I I knew deep down inside that it was a job that provided uh for our family, but he was not in a happy place. I can honestly say at this point in my life where I've retired from teaching, that um I enjoyed um my teaching career every game.

Speaker

That's I'm so grateful for that when you know where your path could have led you to. It's so important, anyone young who's listening to this. Really make the choice for yourself. Well, you want to do this for the rest of your life. Whatever it is, you need to think about that. Because you get to a point where it's too late. Right? You have a family, you're making money, you can't just suddenly change a career. It's not easy at all.

Speaker 1

Not easy, it's not impossible!

Speaker

That's why I have no problem when young people take their time to discover what it is they want. Yeah, there's no rush, because you're gonna be doing this for a long, long time. So make sure it's something you enjoy doing. I've got uh I've been looking at the Facebook page in our Facebook group, and we had um Charlene was talking about a summer job that she did.

Speaker 1

Yeah, okay.

Speaker

She said she did the concession stand at Second Beach, which is not far from where we're where we are right now here in Stanley Park. Her favorite day was when there were long lines of people who were at the beach watching the fireworks, which we just had. Yeah, again, these traditions continue. Someone that day angered my boss and he shut the whole stand down for the night. I got to go to the shot to show that kind of the people in the service industry is so important, right? And it's true. And I think it's working in the service industry, which I have not had to do. I'm always been a little grateful because I see how hard it can be having to deal with customers all day long. Okay. But uh, anything else out there of people's jobs? And maybe we could share some interesting stories?

Speaker 1

Well, I'm going to give you a title of what I think is uh something we can talk about. Okay. And that is uninspiring summer jobs that made me want to go back to school. Oh, okay, where'd you find that? And I found that on with a device.

Speaker

Well, okay, okay, yeah, okay, there we go. Found it on the vice, right? And so yeah, you have one to start us off. I do, I do. So Ethan was on that site talks about pizza delivery in the Arizona heat. And they're doing service industry work, but in the Arizona heat, imagine, right? You got the smell of pizza in your eye. Probably, if you're a student, probably not an air-conditioned car at one time, right? Oh, well, I guess there would be a plot on that.

Speaker 1

You know how people complain about cold pizza?

Speaker

It would never be hot, right?

Speaker 1

Never be cold.

Speaker

We might take four hours to deliver this, but it's still gonna be hot. I think hot.

Speaker 1

What do you got? Okay, how about holding clothes all summer at Old Navy from Jonathan?

Speaker

Because think about it, right? You know, people go to those places and they rifle through the clothes and they often get a handful. And then 30 items, yeah. And then they just dump it, you know? Try to no, no, no, no. Does your mom work here? No. Or don't you have to, right?

Speaker 1

You have to fold it, and then they go back and get another 20 or 30 items and like, oh my gosh, that did never end.

Speaker

Well, Tucker, he talks about digging. He talks about digging irrigation trenches with religious fundamentalists. I guess they were preaching to him all day long.

Speaker 1

Yes. Wow. Shovel of dirt for you. Shovel of dirt for God.

Speaker

Praise the Lord.

Speaker 1

Okay. Um, how about uh pumping gas and washing dead bugs off windshields in the hot summers of Ontario? We got hot, humid summers there. Um pumping gases before people were um allowed, I guess, to pump gas, or maybe some stations just only have their own attendant, right? But I can remember in southwestern Ontario driving through those uh country road grasshoppers, uh, uh uh moths, whatever, bugs just kicking the window, right? Yeah. And then the summer heat just baking them on, and then someone pulls up and you can't even see, and then it's covered with wasps because the wasps are going there. They're gone. And and you're trying and you're pumping gas, and you have to fill the tank and get everything off the windshield to make someone happy. And and you're in the humid uh temperatures that Ontario coffers. Not the best.

Speaker

Oh thank God, no. And then Peter talks about constantly deep frying frozen chicken fingers. I guess it was a chicken finger skull or something, and working in in the service industry, but having to do that over and over. Oh, and the heat again, right?

Speaker 1

And right in your pores. Oh, gross. I'd go back to school for that one.

Speaker

Yes, I would too.

Speaker 1

Okay. How about this one? Uh um, this is from Jack, and he worked at a transfer station sorting recyclables.

Speaker

Imagine the smell.

Speaker 1

You can never get that. What do you put up your nose so you don't have to have that smell?

Speaker

I mean, you do adapt, right? It's like, you know, like a room where you know someone has dirty socks and you walk in their room like a Yes, like you never had a teenager with a smelly room. You have it. Okay, but you know, but they're they don't notice it, but then you walk out, come back in, they go, I guess it does smell.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker

Jessica talks about cooking meatloaf in 90 degree heat. So there's probably another US example of someone working doing food services, but in that hot heat and cooking. Like my dad, who was a trained chef, always talks about he worked in Stuttgart, and Stuttgart is probably similar as Ontario, that it's very muggy and hot. So on those hot summer days, it be you know, outside would be challenging. The kitchen was unbearable, and they did not have fans going. It just sat on you, and you you would walk out there often at midnight, and just finally it was starting to cool down, and just the heat and temperature too much, too much.

Speaker 1

Uh well, here's something on a cooler note. It's from Brian. Uh Brian served ice cream at a beach concession stand and ended up with tendonitis.

Speaker

Well, that's amazing. What a challenge for him. But uh, this is even more, I think, from Spencer. Cleaning locker rooms after wrestling matches. Talk about that smell, right? That ooh, that smell. Maybe those inside the locker room didn't notice, but if you if you have to walk into that, that's not a summer job I want to do.

Speaker 1

No. Alright, and I have uh the last one, which I think is gonna uh be pretty interesting. Cleaning at the CE ground from Beckett. The CNE is the Canadian natural exposition.

Speaker

Kind of like our PE, right? Yeah, you know, and that's like the PE here, which happens at the end of the summer, really is connected to a lot of people's minds for first summer jobs. Many people got their first summer jobs during those two weeks at the PE. I think that'd be good to do an episode on that one time. Yeah. We should uh we should think about that. But for now, we'll watch the families walk by, look at the planes flying overhead. I want to get a hot dog. I want to get a hot dog. Let's get a hot dog and say, keep on enjoying your summer, and we'll see you next week on one of our summer sessions here at After the Bell.

Speaker 1

Okay, let's go.

Speaker

This podcast is organic, taking shape with each episode. Building resiliency for teachers everywhere.

Speaker 1

That sounds great.

Speaker

And our website is stuntbrothers.ca. That's stuntbrothers.ca. We will chat again after the belly.