AirPro Fan & Blower Company, Rhinelander, WI

This is part 3 of my summer job series. Click the following links for part 1, 2, 4, or 5.

For my first two summers in college I worked for my dad's company, AirPro. He was starting the business manufacturing industrial fans and I was what I would label a "shop rat."

I made trips to pick up materials. I painted fans. I assembled fans. I did some light welding and metal cutting. I operated a forklift.

Of all of the jobs I've had, I think I have more memorable stories from this one. Part of it was the fact that it was a startup business. Things are always more interesting with startups. Part of it was it was a machine shop, which was really outside of my element.

I had a few incidents with the van and trailer I used to haul materials. On a return with a load of steel I realized the tailgate on the trailer had fallen off. It was big, probably 8x4 feet, and I knew it was lying in the middle of the road a few miles back, just waiting to take out someone's tires. I had to turn around ASAP. I was on a 55 MPH highway and pulled off into a driveway, deciding to attempt a 3-point turn. Halfway into maneuvering what I'm sure became at least a 5-point turn, I saw a car coming and knew I had to hurry. I made my final turn and decided I had enough clearance to keep going. The sound of metal on metal told me that I didn't have as much clearance as I thought as the trailer punctured a hole in the corner of the van.

In another incident with the van I realized I had gone past the road I needed and had to turn around. (Are you seeing a theme with turning around?) This time I was free of the trailer but no better a driver. I pulled off on the shoulder and was again going to make a 3-point turn. The tall grass on the side of the road hid the fact that after the one foot of gravel shoulder there was a 2-foot drop straight down into a marshy area. The front right side of the van plummeted and the van was left teetering. A passerby offered to call a tow truck once they got service since I was in the middle of nowhere. After about an hour, a visit from an obviously disgusted deputy to help with traffic diversion on the small county road, and a $75 tow truck fee later, I was free again.

My uncle, an engineer at the company, still talks about an incident where I got stuck with the forklift. I was taking a load outside the building and got stuck in some soft sand in front of the building where the street was being repaved. The guys working on the street came to my aid with a big front end loader. They attached a chain to the front end loader and hooked it onto the forklift. My uncle said he looked out the window and the appearance was that my rinky-dink forklift was hauling this huge front end loader.

I did a lot of painting. As a small company trying to meet shipping deadlines, we had a number of cases where I was there until 2 AM trying to finish a paint job for a fan that had to be assembled, tested, and shipped out the next day. In some cases the paint was still wet as it went on the truck, normally spots that I was touching up at the last minute. After those summers I have a huge appreciation for painters!

I have a few scars from my time there. In one case I got careless with a grinder and put a big slice into my knuckle. In another case my brother and I were trying to flip a huge sheet of metal. It was 6-8 feet long and between 1/2 and 3/4 inches thick. We were dumb enough to try to flip it on a table, which didn't work. The sheet came sliding down and did some fairly significant damage to the skin on my hands.

After two summers, I felt I had received pretty solid confirmation that I had not found my calling in life. I made $10 an hour my first summer and $7.50 an hour my second summer. (I could explain that reverse in fortunes, but I don't recall all of the details of my conversations with my dad over that agreement, just that that's what it was.)

I go back to visit the shop at least every few years. After my first summer they moved locations and have since expanded on that location a few times. The place is a professional outfit that's impressive to see.

But on the wall in the break room is a picture of me after a long day of painting, covered head to toe. It's a reminder of where the place has been - and really, of where I've been.

Shopko, Rhinelander, WI

This is part 2 of my summer job series. Click the following links for part 1, 3, 4, or 5.

My 2nd job was at a Wisconsin-based retail store called Shopko. The starting salary of $6.25 an hour was a $0.50 raise from my previous job.

I started out as a cashier since that's what I'd done at the grocery store. I was training another new employee a week after I started. Within 2-3 months my boss recognized that I was bored and moved me to stocking shelves. I spent most of my time stocking new shipments, unloading trucks, backstocking merchandise that didn't fit on the floor, and restocking the floor.

I remember them training me for a few months to take on a role of a full-time employee who would be going on vacation. Right when her vacation came up my little brother's Little League baseball team made the state tournament and my dad was pretty insistent that I go with the family. I was sure I'd lose my job for it, but as mad as my boss was, I lived to see another day at the store...

A year or so in I got a new boss, Tom. We never got along very well. I didn't like him and he didn't like me. He gave me a written warning once because he claimed that I put the price stickers in the wrong spot in the lamp aisle. He tried to deflect responsibility and say the store manager was really particular about the lamp aisle and it was him who really had the beef with me, but the store manager never said a thing about it. I argued my point with Tom since I thought he was crazy and only signed his written warning when he assured me it only meant I'd read it, not that I agreed with it.

Our security guy would occasionally ask us for backup. One time, 5 or 6 of us were called off from unloading a truck to come up to the security room and help with a bust. We watched the security cameras as a group of 3 people in their 20s with a baby in a car seat stuffed CDs into a diaper bag and the car seat. We were then stationed near the entrance of the store to help in case they tried to run for it when they left. Thankfully they didn't.

That same security guy was later fired when he used a key to get into an employee's locker, take her car keys, and prank her. I think he pulled her car up to the emergency parking area and left it there.

The music selection in Shopko was awful. To this day I refer to songs on their playlist as the "Shopko Classics." It wasn't uncommon to hear the same song twice in a shift, which got pretty old after a few years of working 5 days a week.

By the time I left I'd worked in every department except Optical. I helped out in the pharmacy a few times, lawn & garden in the spring and summer, and pulled the night shift during a couple of winter breaks in college. When I left I was making something like $7.15 an hour, not much, but enough to pay for my first year and a half of college.

I think everyone should work retail at some point in their life. It gives you a whole new appreciation for people, both customers and employees...

Cirilli's County Market, Rhinelander, WI

This week I'm going to take a look at the summer jobs I had in high school and college. Click the following links for part 2, 3, 4, or 5.

I got my first job at age 14. I had looked into getting a paper route for a while but that never went anywhere. I started looking around at places that would actually hire a 14-year-old kid and decided to go for a grocery store. I figured anyone could bag groceries.

I dropped off an application at Trig's, a local grocery store with a few locations in Northern Wisconsin. I didn't hear anything back so I turned to the only other store in town, Cirilli's County Market. The Cirilli family had owned a grocery store in Rhinelander for as long as anyone who had ever lived there could remember.

I walked into the store and asked for an application at the front desk. I left the store, spent an hour or so filling it out, and returned with my mom to hand it in. When I did, Jeff Schultz walked up to the front desk. He was the co-owner along with Tony Cirilli. My recollection is bad, but I think he was somewhere around 50, a little tall and big. Mary Raabe was working behind the counter and he asked her (and me?) who I was. She told him I was applying and handed him my application. He took a quick look at it and said, "Hire him!"

I spent the next year bagging groceries and the year after that as a cashier. Being home schooled, I often worked during school hours, which always threw people off. I wonder how many people shook their heads at the screw-up high school dropout who bagged their groceries.

I started making $4.75 an hour, which was minimum wage for the initial 90-day probationary period for a minor. When I left I was making $5.75. I remember when an older kid who'd been working there for a few years longer than me happened to see the hourly wage on my paycheck when we picked them up at the same time one day. I was making only $0.10 less than him. Let's just say I didn't know many people working there for the pay.

There are a lot of memories from that job. I remember Tuesdays, with a BOGO deal on all bakery bread and a 5% senior citizen (55+) discount that made me sweat every customer who appeared to be between the age of 50 and 60. I remember making the 3-mile bike ride in 10 minutes because I only had 10 minutes to get to work. I remember working on Christmas morning - yes, they were open Christmas Day - and thinking how horrible every person was who was shopping instead of at home. I remember Mary yelling at me for stopping for a few minutes to talk to a coworker and get a drink and then writing her an apology letter that made her feel terrible about it. I remember Tony's kid working at the store and clipping inappropriate articles from magazines and posting them in the break room. I remember Anne Marie wearing Bears shirts anytime they played the Packers. I remember taking loads of bread, cakes, cookies, donuts, etc. home from the bakery the day after it would expire.

I remember a whole lot of other things that probably don't mean much to most of you, but I learned a lot at that job.

Cirilli's County Market closed not long after I left, shutting down not long after the Walmart Supercenter opened across the street. I had a few more siblings after me who worked at either County Market or the subsequent, short-lived store they opened, Save-a-Lot. It's always sad to see a small town icon like that disappear. I'm just glad I was able to be a small part of it towards the end.