I know some of you readers are out of work and having difficulties finding jobs. With this post I’d like to twist your mind around in a way that might give you a different way of approaching the affair of starting to make money to live on.
I don’t know whether there’s any hope or not, but I can tell you it ain’t easy. From the time I gave myself a Y2K until I moved back to Texas I tried a number of desperate ideas that might have worked if I’d been smarter.
But I think there still might be something here in the way of thinking about it to give you a fresh perspective. Trying to find jobs flipping hamburgers at minimum wage or clerking in a motel graveyard shift, or stocking shelves and unloading trucks for a Dollar General didn’t prove out for me. I suspect it won’t for you. A lot of the reason is that young people don’t like working around older people. At least, they din’t in my case.
But the world’s still got niches a person might fill, things that people need doing and might pay to get done that the Chinese can’t get over here to do yet.
Polishing long-haul truck rims, bumpers, gas tanks:
I don’t know whether they’re still doing it, but truckers within the past few years [some of them] had an overweening pride in their wheels, bumpers and grilles.
Frequently they’ll pay up to $100 for the tractor wheels, gas tank, bumper and grille while they catch a snooze at a roadside park or overnight truck stop. An angle grinder/polisher, portable generator and a CB radio are the main costs of going into business.
Didn’t work out for me because my angle polishing head flew off, the knurled stem that held the head walked across the gas tank, cut through a fuel line [the truck was idling] and started squirting diesel all over the place before it caught fire [after he’d shut the rig down].
Might work out better for you. A person could make $500 – $1000 per day if he was fast and good.
Bodyguard:
Bodyguard didn’t work out well for me, either, though it paid well. Anyone who needs a bodyguard usually has a reason for needing one.
Respectable people doing legal things hire bodyguards from companies who do that for a living. But there’s a type of activity going on out there in the world that needs a different kind of bodyguard. If you’re a person who’s generally law-abiding, but desperate or open-minded enough to look into it, you might find a place there.
You’ve got to be a non-drug user, absolutely and unwaveringly, uncompromisingly honest, and you’ve got to be willing to be around some of the sleaziest human beings on the face of the earth all your waking hours. And you’ve got to be convincing that you’re uglier, colder and crazier than all those lowlifes around you.
Then there’s the danger of going to prison, which isn’t likely, but could happen. The things that go sour in that line of work tend to be of a different variety.
Tool handles:
It used to be a person could do well trading with the tribes if he was willing to go deep into the rez. Might still be so. They always have tools with broken handles, so buying a load of handles somewhere for all manner of tools, replacing the handles on the broken tools you’ve bought, then taking them by the truckload onto the rez, buying their heads with broken handles and selling them a used one you’ve repaired can be middling lucrative. But you’ve got to be relatively near a big rez or a lot of small ones.
Those mightn’t fit you and probably don’t, but they might give you an idea or two about some crack you can shine a flashlight into and find a way to make a living. Even in this brave new 21st Century.
Old Jules
So Far From Heaven 
Detailing cars is another avenue. All you need is a good vacuum cleaner, some rags, cleaning supplies and stamina.
Morning Momlady. There you go. That’s the kind of thinking I’m referring to. Probably a thousand possibilities and avenues a person could try, and I’m betting that one has a huge potential. I’m obliged you came by this morning. Thanks. J
Old Jules, given the perspicacity of your job-building suggestions I would think you could easily work for the US Congress as the Chair of a special committee on job development strategies. Or be an idea man for the Newt!
Bob: Once my Social Security retirement kicked in I was able to be a lot more picky about the company I kept. I wouldn’t want to go back into the company of lowlifes. Been there done that, though not with the ones you mentioned.
I’m not looking for a job right now, but a number of the readers here are, without a lot of success they’re dancing in the streets about. If you know some solutions you’re welcome to offer them up to them. I’m not in the market for any for me.
Thanks for the visit though. Gracias, Jules
what about writing (grin) the wisdom you obtained through the years is worth something…right? What do they get for an article these days 50.00$ wow, well, my father in law 72 cuts trees and makes cords of wood to sell but that is seasonal so he fixes cars in the summer… I know it is hard.
Morning zendictive: I dunno enough about wisdom to guess whether it’s worth anything to anyone. As for writing, I know for a fact it isn’t. Your father-in-law sounds as though he’s found a niche, though. Good thinking on his part. Obliged you came for a visit. Jules
Hey There Old Jules,
I wish I had known there was money in polishing big rigs because when I was a girl I did it for free. My dad was an owner operator for, well, forever until the years of sleep deprivation, poor diet, deregulation, road use taxes, and overwhelming costs of doing business sent him into retirement. Yes, those rare occasions when he was home in the summer, he ALWAYS rolled in for my birthday, I helped him wash, wax, and polish his Kenworth or Freightliner or Peterbuilt. That is until I wrote my initials with a heart in the axle grease on the fifth wheel. My dad was furious. Do you know how much it costs to have one of those things greased? Anyway, I am enjoying your blog. All the best to you from this Truck Driver’s Daughter.
Hi Honie: I’d honestly never thought about what a job it would be greasing one. Biggish job I reckons. Glad you came for a visit this cold morning. I’m working on my off-line machine projects with one corner-of-the-eye alert for anything popping up here and find the breaks distractions provide help to clear the mind. Other than polishing wheels, bumpers and fuel tanks I’ve never had much to do with trucking, except acting as an ad hoc hock shop/flea market for those killed in a casino. During the time I was around it I was surprised by the wide variety of people driving trucks. Cuts right through the entire spectrum of human-types, it seemed to me.
I didn’t mention it in the blog entry, but for a time I used to sit in the rest area across from the Sky City Casino on the Acoma rez with the CB on waiting for truckers who’d suffered defeat on the machines and tables and needed money for fuel to get on the way. They’d come on the CB offering to sell tire chains, radios, anything they could come up with at prices a buyer could re-sell at a good profit. The old Isuzu Trooper I was driving at the time used to sag under the weight of those chains until the axles were resting on the frame.
I always felt sorry for those guys.
Thanks for the visit. Jules
Well, that brightened my day – which is good, since I wasn’t having a particularly good one.
Hi Jane: Thanks for coming by. Hope your day grows into something more to your liking. Gracias, J
I remember hearing on the CB around truck stops as I traveled along, Women offering to “polish the steering knob” One of them finally told me what they was talking about. And it had nuthing to do with any Turtle Paste Wax. 🙂
Hi Ben. Thanks for coming by. I never recall hearing that, but I’d bet it gets used a lot at the big truckstops near major cities. A few times I stopped by a truckstop covering several acres on the outskirts of Albuquerque to gas up and there appeared to be a middling sized population of skirts headed to trucks or leaving them. Gracias, J
Well lordy. I’d never have thought of any of these without you. Thank bloody Isis I am a writer. I’d be a shitty whore. Although I might be one hell of a bodyguard. Trouble is, there’s so few I’d care to guard. Those who really need it also need a massive kick in the ass.
Anonymous: The odds are in favor the ones needing the kicking doing the kicking. Jules
I used to get paid to clean pleasure boats at marinas. Pretty good work; outside on the water is tough to beat. It paid pretty well, 25 years ago I got $10 an hour. Once a person got accustomed to it they could bid time and materials and make a decent paycheck.
Your responses are as much fun as your posts. I like the dry humor.
elroyjones: That sounds as though it is a possibility for someone on the make for a job. Thanks for adding it.
I count it a red letter day when someone actually recognizes my attempts at humor as being humor. It’s been the bane of my existance as long as I can recall, my humor. Gracias, Jules
Jules, you subscribed to my blog today, so I thought I’d cruise around yours a bit. Everything I’ve read has made me smile, so I guess I’ll return the favor and sign up. Thanks for brightening my day!
Blessings,
Linda
Linda: I apppreciate your visit. Jules