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A stucco tender. The recipe for a batch of cement stucco was one full five gallon bucket of water dumped into a plaster mixer. Also added, one ninty four pound bag of portland cement and twenty two heaping shovels of sand from a large sand pile plus a dash of autoclaved finish lime.
Mix to a perfect viscosity, or the applicator will ***** it's too watery or too stiff, and dump into a mud box under the mixer. Shovel this batch of cement into a wheel barrow. Wheel it up to a half a block away. Shovel the cement from the wheel barrow onto the "mud board" where the applicators trowel it on the wall. Wheel the barrow back to the mixing area, keep the water barrel full and police the area of empty cement and lime bags and do it all over again and again.
One day when I was 19 I mixed 21 batches of cement and distributed them to the applicators. Almost a ton of cement and almost a dump truck of sand handled that day.
Retail. Big store. I worked a dept. that was called "sporting goods & automotives". Stocked & zoned such things as car batteries, lawn mower batteries, truck boxes, cases of automotive fluids. Also the crap that was in "sporting goods" - exercise equipment (ie: back in that day it was dumb bells, weights, cardio glides, treadmills, bicycles).
2nd most physical was an unpleasant sort of physical...working in a nursing home. Lifting, turning, bathing, wipe-ing. Sweeping & mopping large areas.
Worked yard and track maintenance in a steel plant during the summers while in college.
Surprisingly...running rail cars full of heavy steel and tanks of hot metal are kinda hard on railroad tracks. If you run enough heavy trains on those rails, it pushes the rails apart so that the next locomotive that comes down the track rolls off the rails and into the dirt. Now the locomotive can't go anywhere, because his front wheels are in the dirt.
So they call up the Yard & Track gang. That's you. They tell you, "Get a crew over to the No. 2 track behind the wire mill, pronto. Train went off the rails...you gotta put that locomotive back on the track."
Wouldn't be so bad, I guess, except this was in Houston, TX, in June. Ambient airtemp: 101 deg. Humidity: 70%. You're sweating like a waterfall just loading the tools into the truck to head over to the wire mill.
And you get to spend the afternoon trying to move a 430,000 lb. locomotive back onto the rails.
At least the pay was pretty good...for a summer job, anyway. And it afforded me the opportunity to learn that I didn't want to make yard and track maintenance a career.
Worked yard and track maintenance in a steel plant during the summers while in college.
Surprisingly...running rail cars full of heavy steel and tanks of hot metal are kinda hard on railroad tracks. If you run enough heavy trains on those rails, it pushes the rails apart so that the next locomotive that comes down the track rolls off the rails and into the dirt. Now the locomotive can't go anywhere, because his front wheels are in the dirt.
So they call up the Yard & Track gang. That's you. They tell you, "Get a crew over to the No. 2 track behind the wire mill, pronto. Train went off the rails...you gotta put that locomotive back on the track."
Wouldn't be so bad, I guess, except this was in Houston, TX, in June. Ambient airtemp: 101 deg. Humidity: 70%. You're sweating like a waterfall just loading the tools into the truck to head over to the wire mill.
And you get to spend the afternoon trying to move a 430,000 lb. locomotive back onto the rails.
At least the pay was pretty good...for a summer job, anyway. And it afforded me the opportunity to learn that I didn't want to make yard and track maintenance a career.
I did "track maintenance" for 37 years............
At age 17 and one week out of high school I got hired at a union beef packing plant as a beef lugger.
I was in great shape as I had played football and was recently on the track team.
What a challenge !
Lugging 150-200 lb beef quarters on your shoulders, carrying them into a semi trailer, and hanging them on hooks.
Each lugger carried about 50 quarters per hour......truck after truck.
The 2nd Monday on the job we worked 14 hours..........nearly killed me !
Pay was great! I received my first paid holiday ( July 4th ) while still 17 years old. Also, while 18 years old I was able to afford a new 64 Chevy Malibu SS with only 24 months financing.
I used to think flood irrigating was the hardest job I'd ever do, but then I helped a friend cater a couple weddings. Awful.
But, I admit, the irritation of politely putting up with unreasonable demands by some of the guests might have made it just seem more physically demanding and exhausting. I'll take snakes and muggy heat any day.
A stucco tender. The recipe for a batch of cement stucco was one full five gallon bucket of water dumped into a plaster mixer. Also added, one ninty four pound bag of portland cement and twenty two heaping shovels of sand from a large sand pile plus a dash of autoclaved finish lime.
Mix to a perfect viscosity, or the applicator will ***** it's too watery or too stiff, and dump into a mud box under the mixer. Shovel this batch of cement into a wheel barrow. Wheel it up to a half a block away. Shovel the cement from the wheel barrow onto the "mud board" where the applicators trowel it on the wall. Wheel the barrow back to the mixing area, keep the water barrel full and police the area of empty cement and lime bags and do it all over again and again.
One day when I was 19 I mixed 21 batches of cement and distributed them to the applicators. Almost a ton of cement and almost a dump truck of sand handled that day.
And we have a winner. Hod carrier is probably the most demanding physical job you can find, though I think sheep shearing runs it a close second. At least the concrete doesn't object to being hauled around.
The most physically demanding job was unloading heavy packages many weighing over 50 pounds out of a container at a temp job in OR and doing it quickly as possible. My current job is less demanding but I still do plenty of heavy lifting. I did the lifting the right way and never hurt my back.
Slowly begin straightening your legs, lifting slowly. Never twist your body during this step. Once the lift is complete, keep the object as close to the body as possible. If the load’s center of gravity moves away from your body, there is a dramatic increase in stress to the lumbar region of the back.
If you must turn while carrying the load, turn using your feet, not your torso
Marine Salvage. late teens. Repeated Hauling 2" hawser lines was tough. I loved it. Dirty, back breaking. Great pay. very long hours. Unexpected ones as well as the call might come in the middle of the night to set out.
Before that age 18-19 a cement yard. Carried large bags of cement to-fro. 100 pounders. Did not like too much due to the dust.
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