Random Idle thoughts on a Thursday

Today i found some old friends i went to high school with and worked with at my very first job. And no matter what kind of mood i was in before that, instantly i was in a better one. Some of us had really crappy first jobs, mine was actually not bad at all. At the age of 16, my mom drove me to a pizza place in my home town that was managed by the son of a friend of hers. I filled out the application and in a couple weeks, voila! I was now part of the "system", i paid taxes, i had the responsibility of getting there on time and doing my job. But that is the mundane part of it, the real pleasure of it was learning new things, meeting people, adjusting to being part of a team. I had a lot of life experiences from working there that i am sure i would not have had if it wasnt for that job. I had a coworker there who played in a rock and roll band, and would tell wild tales of the life of a lead guitarist and his throngs of girls. I had another coworker who was always joking and playing pranks, and you never knew if you were the butt or playing along, he was a truly funny guy. There was a girl there who always had a smile on her face and could make you happy with just a hello, and another girl there who would lose her good humor completely at the slightest problem. I had a coworker pass away, when he tried to swim across a quarry pond with some of my other coworkers, and drowned halfway across. He made me wish i would have known him better. I learned the fine art of knife throwing, from some of my coworkers who would do competitions in the back room. The object was to stick the knife into the wood of the crate that the 2-liter bottles of pop came in, not the actual 2-liter bottles. I hit a Dad's Root Beer 2 liter bottle one time and i think it took my entire shift to clean it up. I had a manager who took her religion far too seriously on the job, and i had a manager who took work far too lightly. And i have never had a better pizza than the ones we used to make in the old pizza ovens, with the big spatulas to pull them out. Pizza made on a conveyor belt just cannot compete, and anyone who has had both will agree. First jobs can sometimes be a chore, sometimes cramp our lifestyle, but overall i think most of us remember them fondly.

Added note: I remember once after seeing the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", I had Dave Choka deliver a pizza to my Algebra class. I think Mr. Ivankovich about lost his mind that day because someone DARED interrupt his class.