My Illustrious Career...Part Seven

My older sister's husband at the time had a delivery job at a
local California furniture outlet, McMahan's Furniture.
We are still in 1976, I had just turned 20, so it must have been
during the summer.

So this past brother-in-law told me that there was an opening
with the company, and he could probably put in a good word for
me. He did warn me that it was hard physical work, we would be
loading furniture for delivery onto a truck, and then going out
and delivering it to customers.

This was to be what I considered my first 'real' job...a
legitimate steady job with a well-known company, making a
decent wage for hard work. It was pretty nice being able to
work with my brother-in-law, he was only a few years older
than myself, and we got along well.

We delivered sofas, beds, various tables, easy chairs and the
like. Once we were finished with all the deliveries, we could
call it a day. When we got back to the warehouse at the end of
the day, we would go over the invoices for the next day and
load everything for that day before going home. That way we
could come in the next morning and relax with coffee and maps
before going out on the route, and not be burned out right at
the beginning of our day.

This was pretty hard physical work, and even though I was a
very young person, on a hot day you could really feel it. I
was able to carry a loveseat all by myself by hoisting it over
my head and balancing it there while walking. Easy chairs, the
same thing. A long sofa did require two of us to carry it.

I remember that a delivery on the ground floor was always easy...
carrying stuff up a flight or two of stairs was real work, as
you can imagine. But it was good work...I was never afraid of
physical labor...unless it was hot.

To pass the time while driving, we would have little contests
where we would have to guess the title of a song on the radio
within the first few seconds of it coming on. In those days,
we listened to KLOS and KMET in LA...and such memories they
were...

And now I notice that I was up to six separate jobs for the year
1976 alone...

Peace be with you.