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O Building `boat-loads' of character with `crummy' summer jobs That's Life Andy Juniper Guest Contributor 23 | Thursday, July 9, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com ne of my nieces recently entered the workforce as that most unenviable of all employees -- the typically underappreciated, underpaid and overworked summer student -- and is toiling at a café for a manager who, my niece is certain, is the devil. While this hovering, barking boss does not have horns or a pitchfork, she does indeed breathe re and behaves heartlessly. Still, my niece has resigned herself to not resigning because like most summer students, she needs the cash. Oh, and because she's adopted the attitude that crummy summer jobs build character. If that's true, then everyone I know built character in their youth because everyone I know endured at least one crummy summer job. One summer, I washed cars for a local auto dealer. I was supposed to be an assistant, but my boss was Houdini, forever disappearing and leaving me with all the work. It was the hottest summer on record and I spent my days sweaty and stressed as heinous heat merged with powerful cleaning chemicals. At the end of each day, I was dehydrated, nauseous, and higher than a kite. Another summer, I worked in the shipping department of a clothing store for a fabulous fussbudget who was actually the store's manager. In spite of being in charge of everything, this guy felt compelled to spend hours every day showing us how to box and ship clothing and dishing out sage wisdom on things like what size of box to use -- turned out, if you were shipping a shirt, you used a shirt box. After high school, my last summer job before landing full-time work was with our city's providers of water and electricity: The Utility, as we summer students called it. The job entailed a bit of everything. We cut grass, dug ditches, maintained machinery, made coffee runs. And at the end of every day, we'd look at each other and said, in what became the summer's refrain: "Another job well done by The Utility." One day, our boss said he was going to drop us in the middle-of-nowhere to paint a house on a large country property owned by The Utility. He told us the job would take a week. What he did not tell us was the house was rented by bikers who, thankfully, were away somewhere on business. What we didn't tell our boss was we were slow, sloppy painters. Every morning for the next nine weeks, we'd get dropped at the house where we'd busy ourselves. Drinking the bikers' pop, lea ng through their adult magazines, putting our feet up on the railing of their veranda, and occasionally, when the mood struck, painting. We were living the life. Until one morning, the bikers came home -- announced, and in a foul mood. Apparently, `business' hadn't gone as they'd hoped. Apparently, they did not like us on what they thought of as their property. Of course, in those days, we had no way of calling our boss to come rescue us. We were stranded for the day. With belligerent bikers. Who were drunk by noon. By mid-afternoon they'd built ramps and were attempting, and failing, to leap over the pond on their motorcycles. By the time our ride nally arrived, ghts were breaking out. And we were four scared kids, hiding out in the woods behind the house, fearing for our lives, and building boat-loads of character. -- Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, found on Facebook www. facebook.com, or followed on Twitter at www. twitter .com/thesportjesters. 146 Lakeshore Rd.W. · 905.338.6333 Monday to Sunday : From 7:00 am to 3:00 pm 905.338.5721 ce Auto Servi Auto Body ruS A uSed 0c d 0 An p From $2,0 www.jnbautocenter.com · Scheduled Maintenance · Fuel Injection · Computer Diagnostics · Transmission & Clutches Accredited Test · Front & Rear End Work & Repair Facility · Electrical · Windshield Repair/Replacement · Shocks & Struts QEW · Air-Conditioning · Brakes Wyecroft · Tune-Ups JNB · Engines · Tires · Wheel Alignments · Oil & Fluid Changes Weller Ct. Insurance Claims Collision Repair Auto Body & Paint Dorval Dr. 294 Wyecroft Rd., Oakville /OBOakville Menus available at oliverbonacini.com O&B Café Grill · 240 Leighland Ave., Oakville Place · QEW & Trafalgar · 289.291.0265 Monday-Friday 8-5 Saturday 8-1