Working for the city every night and day!
This post will focus on jobs at VRD. After all, there is quite a list of locations that must be maintained and jobs required at these locations. The VRD has 2 Sports Complexes, 5 parks, a swimming pool, an office, an activities building, and walking track. This allows the Rec to employ many people, and also requires a ton of volunteers.
I have personally been very blessed to be a VRD worker and a Volunteer Coach. My first job began when I was 13 & 14 years-old. At that time, there were no volunteer coaches, so the Coaching Staff...coached. They hired studs like me (ok...kids) to umpire. Early on I learned a wonderful lesson. I was umpiring behind the plate, and I made a call at the plate with which a fan took exception. She started yelling, "Kill the Ump! Kill the Ump!" I was thinking, "REALLY?" "I'M JUST A KID!" Lesson learned: it doesn't matter your age, people have a right to hate on the umps.
My next job was a step up to Concession Stand Worker. I was stationed at what is now Field 4 at Ed Smith Complex. It was a hot box, and I had to deal with the public. Another wonderful learning experience.
After 2 years of working at Sea Island Cotton Gin, I joined the wRECking Crew (AKA Maintenance Crew) for the VRD in the Summer of 1980. It was one of the hottest summers on record, but I was 18 and I didn't care. As a matter of fact, I loved the job! I worked with the VRD Maintenance Crew for 6 summers in-a-row and several Springs. As I look back to imagine the reasons for my fondness of the wRECking Crew, I have arrived at several reasons.
1. I was young and didn't know any better.
2. I took off my shirt to work on my tan (invaluable at that time).
3. As we did manual labor, I considered it a work out for my muscles.
4. I was around athletics all the time. This was cool to me.
5. I made some good friends. I worked with some any zany characters, but I'm one, too!
***Coach Ed Smith was my immediate boss. He treated us right, and I wanted to be a good worker for him. I appreciated him and respected him. It is amazing what you can learn from someone like Coach Smith, if you pay attention. One valuable lesson I learned was having deadlines for projects in stages. I watched him write deadlines on the calendar that hung on the wall in his office. If something unexpected occurred, there was still time to complete the project. I tried to use that in my job as an educator...at least when it was possible and I was being smart.
***Coach Smith also has a great since of humor. He said so many funny things over the years, I can't remember them all. One of my favorites: "I don't mind you taking a break, but not before you START working!" And that is exactly what we had done. She wha wa!
After a career change to education, I also had an employee change at the VRD. I began working with the Sports Staff in 1987 and continued to 1996. Garry Adams was now my immediate boss, and he always had my back and supported me. Bill James was also a great positive influence on me. He had a way of knowing the right thing to say when things were not going well. I appreciate these guys treating me as an adult, even though just a few short years prior, they were my coaches when I was growing up at the VRD. This job had a variety of requirements. For the first few years, the mornings required us to do T-Ball. I am saying: we had to get a lineup, coach, umpire, and telling the kids to, "Quit climbing on the Fence!"...periodically! Billy Meritt and I took the Little League Field. He has a great sense of humor, and we had fun. The nights required us to umpire games. There were some seasons that I must have umpired every girls softball game played. One of the most multi-tasking jobs ever was Mite Girls Softball. Linda Roper and I would pitch to the girls, coach a team, and umpire! In a sudden epiphany, Garry almost belted out, "Wait a minute. We are about to change this!" (or something to that effect). His epiphany was to give each team volunteer coaches. Hallelujah! Finally, we discovered we could make the pitching machine pitch a simulated slow pitch softball. Good times! Eventually, the Sports Staff became Field Supervisors. This was a mix bag of tricks. Certain nights there was little to do. Other nights became bizzaro world! Stuff popping up that was not in any Field Supervising Manual. Once again, this was a learning experience. My best life-lesson: If someone is angry about a situation, allow them to speak their mind fully, then interject. Often after someone spills their guts, everything is fine.
My favorite part of the Coaching/Sports Staff was coaching. I coached the Midget Girls All-Stars for 3 years and the Jr. Girls All-Stars for 7 years. For a vast majority of the time, I had great kids and parents to work with, and we had a lot of fun. Final story of the post...Sometimes, I would have a parent that needed to discuss an issue with me. One hot day in the summer of 1993, I looked to my left during Jr. Girls All-Star practice. This lady with shades and a bad look---kinda FBI look was standing at the fence. She did NOT look happy! I thought to myself, "She is going to have to wait to the end of practice to talk to me." So, I ignored her. Finally, she says, "James!" Well, it was my sister! I didn't recognize her in her shades and FBI looking self! She and I still laugh about that one!
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