By age 17, mariner had a very social life. His mainstay was league football and going to jitterbug dances. He was a serious art major in his high school, which allowed students to select majors very much like colleges do. He chose painting art.

Job 5 was as a water safety life guard at a church camp. These were fun days. It was there that mariner made fresh Blue Crab his favorite meal.

Mariner’s high school class graduated during this period. It was time for him to step into the real world of work.  He joined the local semipro football team and simultaneously was hired by a large department store to be an illustrator in the advertising department, establishing job 6. What he remembers best and most were the lunchtimes spent across the street in a bowling alley with three cronies from the department store. A game called duckpins was played ( a version of bowling called ‘two-ball, nine-no-count’); If the first two balls didn’t score 9 pins, that frame became zero.

Job 7 – Just months later an advertising firm asked mariner to come with them – for a much better salary.

Now, about you folks. New in the adult market place? What new interests entered your life? Did you discover a new, non-family or non-local set of people that you associated with? Did you get married? Where did you go on your first self paid vacation? Name your mayor when you took your first ‘adult’ job. Name the restaurant where you spent lunch.

Ancient Mariner

Mariner’s third job at age 16 was as a soda jerk at a small pharmacy. No one ever, ever said ‘soda clerk’ or ‘fountain clerk’ – probably accurately so. It was a pleasant job. The memories of fixing ice cream and drinks and working an adjacent cigarette/candies window exposed him to dealing mildly with many different personalities and age groups. It helped mariner emerge from a very quiet childhood.

The other thing he remembers about job 3 was that the pharmacy was on a corner on main street. It  had a large pavement area with many cement blocks about 4ftx4ft. It was every boy’s sports arena for what was known then as block ball. The game was played by using the player’s palm to hit a tennis ball aimed at his square, sending to another player’s block – just like pickleball today.

So, fellow workers, what was your earliest job where you provided a service to people you didn’t know? If applicable, did you start to smoke? What was different about your new friends? Did you have a pet? Who was the top-of-chart singer during your service job? Had you had a crush by then?

Mariner’s social life was building in those years. He quit the soda jerk job to work job 4 as a short order cook over the winter.

Ancient Mariner