1 post tagged “first job”
What was your very first job?
Ugh - detasseling. I also consider it the absolute worst job I've ever had. According to Wikipedia, detasseling is "the act of removing the pollen-producing tassel from a corn (maize) plant and placing it on the ground. Detasseling is done to cross-breed, or hybridize, two different varieties of corn. Fields of corn that will be detasseled are planted with two varieties of corn. By removing the tassels from all plants of one variety, all the grain growing on those plants will be fertilized by the other variety's tassels." Wikipedia makes it sound sooooo easy. What really happens is that farmers intice 14 and 15 year olds to work in their fields for about a month with the promise of making a couple of dollars above minimum wage. Since this is the first job a lot of kids in Iowa are able to get, the idea of making (at that time) $4.50 an hour sounded like winning the lottery. The reality sets in when they tell the kids they have to meet at 4:30 am each morning to wait for the bus that will take them to the designated corn field. The kid will then work for 8-10 hours each day walking up and down cornrows frantically yanking at tassels which are sometimes much taller than what they can reach so they have to grab the cornstalks and bend them down so they can reach the tassels. Because there is a narrow time frame to finish all the detasseling, kids are constantly pushed to work as hard as they can. Kids also don't understand the value of staying properly hydrated so many don't bring enough water for the day or they finish their coolers of water by the break so they won't have anything left by the second half. Talking is discouraged because it takes the kids' attention away from the corn. At the end of the work day the kids are dropped back off at the designated parking lot where their parents pick them up and they spend the rest of the afternoons indoors lying in an exhausted heap by an air conditioning vent.
As an adult I understand the value of hard work. I've worked on a few archaeological projects that really tested my mettle, like the two-day stint I did in Des Moines where I spent one day working in a lot that was frequented by creepy, restless homeless men and spent the second day tearing my way through an unsprayed corn field soaked in water in 98 degree heat with a badly sprained foot. In all honesty, if I was detasseling today I think I would find it a lot easier than I did twenty (yikes!) years ago. I would know to bring plenty of water, wear the appropriate clothing and find an efficient way to get the job done. I'm also taller so I wouldn't struggle so much with reaching the top of the cornstalks. I would probably even find some joy in working outdoors after having a desk job the past nine years. What made detasseling the worst job ever was that I was a fourteen year old girl who had never worked hard a day in my life. I was unused to being outdoors in 85-90 degree weather (with high humidity) for 8-10 hour stretches without the luxury of being at the community swimming pool. I found the long hours of silence difficult and I hated being filthy. One morning the corn was still wet from an overnight rainstorm and the water made the corn leaves so razor sharp that I had a million little cuts covering my hands by the time I went home. The next morning my hands were so swollen I couldn't open my fingers. The worst part was that I was unused to being really bad at something. I somehow lacked the right kind of coordination needed to walked twisted at the waist while ripping out the tassels. I tripped a lot and couldn't quite manage to grab the tassels on the first try. It was humiliating to see that I was usually one of the last kids to finish my rows of corn and it didn't help to know that the other kids were impatiently waiting for me to finish before we could move on to the next block. I had no idea how to improve myself and I had no guidance from the farmers observing us (beyond the occasional "Hurry up! You're slowing us down!") so I wound up resenting everyone and everything while I was in those fields.
By the end of our month stint I was so relieved we were finished that I didn't care I didn't get the pay bonus most of the other kids got and I was content with their decision not to ask me to join them for their next project - spraying soy beans. I took the money I earned and bought myself a nice stereo with dual cassettes and a turntable - this was 1987, after all. I spent the rest of that summer at the pool and riding my bike with my neighborhood friends promising myself I would never, ever enter another corn field. I actually broke this promise when I started work at the Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist but at least I was in the corn doing something I enjoyed. Well, except for that one time I was chased down by a tractor, but that's another story.
