When I was in junior high school, there was a group of us that usually ended up next to each other in the homeroom. It was usually James, Gary, Joe, and Me.
One morning Gary asked Joe " Hey can I borrow a quarter?" Joe replied " Nope, can't help You, Gary." Next was James. His reply was no. When my turn came, my answer was also a no.
A little later, James turned to Gary and said "I guess You will have to go shovel shit at the stockyards". Both James and Joe chuckled, but I didn't seem to get it.
Later, in another class, I asked James what that meant. James told me there was a guy a year older than us that worked on the weekends at the stockyards in town. The guy's name was Kevin. James said it was just a temporary weekend job, and that he [James] had done it before on weekends for some extra cash.
So that was the story. Both James and Joe lived a short distance from the stockyards and I lived in a small town farther away. "Shoveling shit at the stockyards " became a regular idiom for us whenever someone asked to borrow money. I knew who Kevin was, but was not personally familiar with him. I knew that Kevin was a year older than us.
Fast forward to several years later.
I was in my late 30's and occasionally I would stop in a local bar/restaurant to imbibe. As I entered the bar, I noticed Dave. I immediately said hi. Dave and I knew each other from school. Dave's Dad ran a sawmill, had a bulldozer and did land clearing and demolition. Dave was a year older than me and rode our bus at one point.
Dave bought me a beer and we started talking. I hadn't seen Dave in quite a while. We talked about family. Dave's Dad had passed away a few years ago. I asked Dave how his younger sister was doing. She was a year younger than me and I always liked her.
The time came for another round and I took out my wallet, getting ready to buy a round for the both of us. I had already ordered the round when I realized there was nothing in my wallet. I knew that I had a twenty dollar bill somewhere.
I was searching for it when Dave said "I got it", and paid for the next round. I thanked Dave and wondered what happened to that twenty.
We talked about some other things while I continued to mentally backtrack and figure out what happened to that twenty.
Hallway through the next round, I found it. I was paying some bills earlier, and I had rolled the twenty up and put it in the fob pocket of the jeans I was wearing. I told Dave that I would get the next round.
I said to Dave "I won't have to go shovel shit at the stockyards".
Dave turned to me and gave me an inquisitive look. I answered with " Like Kevin Did".
"Are You talking about Kevin?", Dave asked, mentioning Kevin's last name, looking at me eye to eye as he sipped his beer. "Yeah, that Kevin", I replied as I placed the twenty on the bar and ordered another round.
" Have You seen Kevin lately?", Dave asked. "No. I didn't really know him that well."
"I haven't seen him in a little while", said Dave. "Well, what ever happened with him?", I asked.
For the next 15 minutes, Dave filled me in on it.
Kevin did work at the stockyards on the weekends. He had just turned fifteen when he started. He could only work so many hours on a weekend.
When he was 16, he got hired, but it was seasonal, only through spring and summer. According to Dave, when Kevin was 17, he had bought a car with money he had saved.
Because he worked more extra hours, he was hired full time.
It was around this time that Kevin's Dad told him that if he turned 18 and was working full time, he'd have to move out of the house, because both his parents were on welfare and their benefit would be reduced by having a working adult in their household. Kevin spent some time looking for an apartment to rent. He did find an apartment, but the landlord would not rent to him because he was still under 18.
He made a deal with the landlord, paying him so much in advance to hold the apartment for him. Of course, he'd have to have utilities turned on once he moved in.
In the meantime, Kevin temporarily lived at Dave's Dad's saw mill, which had an old farmhouse, sparsely furnished, for 3 months until he turned 18. Kevin continued working at the stockyards, learning more about it's operations and caring for the livestock.
There would be livestock auctions on Fridays, and Kevin would work later hours on these days, helping with transactions with buyers and keeping records. By the time he was 23, Kevin knew a lot of the buyers on a first name basis and often talked with them about their operations.
A few years later, one of the buyers hired Kevin to work on a cattle operation in Illinois. The Last that Dave had heard from him, Kevin had become a business partner and part owner of the operation.
We decided that Kevin did very well for himself.
Whenever the wife and I go out to eat and get handed the check, I joke with her and say " Well, I won't have to go wash dishes now-will I?
(My first Job)