Teenager Seeking Job Opportunity

$700 dollars, that’s all I needed. But it’s 1980 and to a teenage kid trying to finish high school that’s a lot of money.

One of my friends in school wanted me to sign up for the senior trip to Hawaii. I had never flown in a plane before nor had I ever vacationed with anyone but my family. I was completely out of my element. But I really wanted to see Hawaii.

So I applied for a job at a local grocery store named Aldi’s. I believe it is an international franchise these days. I arrived on time for the interview and met the manager. I saw money. He saw cheap labor.

He would pay me $40 cash every Friday. I only had a few tasks to complete for the money. Every day in the evening I would walk (two miles) unless I could get a ride from someone. My responsibilities included pushing all the carts from outside back into the store and giving the store a quick sweep & mop. I could do the job fast. That did not work out in my advantage though.

As the manager observed my work he began to think I could do more for him. So he approached me and asked if I could grab empty boxes off the shelves and put them into a box crushing machine. I agreed.

Then he approached me and asked if I could clean up the employee dining room and restrooms. I agreed.

Then he asked me if I could tidy up the room where extra stock was stored. I hesitantly agreed. Still only $40 on Fridays.

Then he asked me if I could unload the truck a couple days a week. I said I wasn’t sure about using the pallet lift truck that runs the inventory from the truck trailer into the building. He trained me and I did my best. These pallets have enough inventory to stand eight or nine feet high. One time I had found a very wabbly pallet that was rubber-banded to ensure its unloading safety. I took the ramp too fast and dumped the contents while slamming myself into the wall, busting a partial hole in it. I was in such a panic that I forgot to turn the darn thing off.

That was one of the worst clean up jobs I have ever had. Boxes of pickles, mustard, salad dressings (lots of oil) all toppled down and lay in a mountain of broken glass.

Is Hawaii worth this?

Yes, of course!

But then the worst moment during my five month time there happened one night while I was removing empty boxes from the store. Grab ’em, as many as you can for each trip back to the box crushing machine. I had all of them back there and started loading the machine. The basic principle here is that once crushed the machine could make a bale of cardboard that I could pull up the ramp to the garbage area.

I placed all of them in the front opening of the crusher. I hit a green go button and the machine woke up. Firstly, it need to close a set of heavy screen doors for safety then the compress phase begins.

The safety screens began to ascend from below and descend from above intending to meet in the middle. But oh no, a corner of one box stood out too far and the screens stopped. However the chain driven system continued to run. Like a young fool, I simply reach over and punched the box corner. The screens slammed on my hand and left me stuck. I swung back to my left where the emergency button is but could not reach it. The pain was intense.

At the other end of the hallway the manager had arrived and seen my dilemma. He raced toward me and slapped the red emergency button freeing up my hand. It was already swelling. He suggested I call it day and go home. But I hadn’t brought in the 200 carts yet. So, for the next 45 minutes I pushed all the carts into the store with one hand.

Oh, and yes, Hawaii was great!

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