A few years ago, I read Barbara Ehrenreich’s NICKEL AND DIMED: On (Not) Getting By in America. Ehrenreich is a PHd who debated the merits of minimum-wage jobs with a colleague. She worked several low-paying jobs to see how difficult life is for the working-poor. Conclusion? Life is miserable.

I did an experiment of sorts of my own yesterday. I have a lot of free time on my hands but not enough intelligence to know how to use it productively. I saw an ad in the newspaper for a job cleaning McMahon Stadium after the football game of Saturday night where the Calgary Stampeders defeated the Montreal Alouettes 38-31. It paid $9 per hour and I had to be at an office at 5:00am. Here’s what I learned:

- Showing up for a low-paying job at 5:00am is not enough. I arrived at 5:10am only to be told there were at least 35 people ahead of me. Many of these men and women came from a nearby homeless shelter. The first arrived at 3:30am.
- They were a mixture of people from all walks of life: young and old; several were sleeping at a table. There were hipsters, grifters, and midnight drifters. Turns out that some were harder working than I have ever been.
- Vans shuttled us to the stadium just before dawn.
- We put on plastic gloves, were given plastic bags, and assigned to sections of the stadium to collect recyclables and trash. You would not believe how much garbage people leave behind! These football fans are absolute pigs. It’s as if they didn’t know trash bins were steps away. Bottles, cans, wrappers, popcorn, peanuts, sunflower seeds, cheap memorabilia, and annoying clappers used to cheer on the Calgary Stampeders. All of it just dumped on the ground like a baby uses a diaper.
- First shock to my system: lifting my head to see a guy younger than me taking sips from near-empty beer cans, repeatedly. This prepared me for the breakfast buffet of workers grazing on leftover popcorn and Pepsi. One guy saw me picking up a tray of his collected goodies, and yelled out, “No!” as I was going to throw it out. He was saving licorice and peanuts to take home with him. Several of my fellow workers had backpacks to horde treats.
- I appreciated having the foresight to bring my radio and headphones with me so I could tune things out and get on with the work. Most people just went about their trash-collecting with their heads down like cattle. Every half hour the news would come on and I would calculate how much had been earned. Then I started wondering how much the agency was billing us out at. No matter. Just keep cleaning the thousands of items left behind by the fans.
- 4 hours into the shift, we were provided with coffee and donuts.
- Quitting time was noon and we were each given a bag lunch to take home. Nice touch! Still, I felt grateful that I didn’t have to do this job again if I chose not to. Others looked forward to the next home game. Go Stamps go!
- Take home pay for 6 hours work: $54. Lesson learned. It put things into perspective as I thought about the $4,000 hit I took from a dvd deal gone bad recently. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. One man’s trash is another man’s opportunity to clean it up on a Sunday morning.

The national minimum wage has killed teenage employment.

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

-Henry David Thoreau

I clicked on this thinking you would be regaling us with an exciting tale of getting your latest bus stop conquest to do an IR gangbang for $54.

Former ECW World Champion Shane Douglas works for Wal Mart.

Aside from your really well written tale, did you need to read a book to find out that working minimum wage would suck as a lifestyle?

How hilarious that a Ph.D has to go work at minimum wage gigs to find out it sucks. I'm sure she had her tenure to fall back on should these gigs not pan out. Really sort o the equivalent of people who go on vacations to basket weaving factories to see how the other half lives.

I'm just passing time and smelling the roses. I used to smell colon roses but they no longer bloom where I am. Pity.

I thought Shane worked as a school teacher???

Justin Credible was a cook at Olive Garden.

X-Pac made a disgusting porn w/ Chyna for a buck.

At least those guys are probably working to put $$ in their pockets. Ric Flair, he payin off settlements w/ ex wives, former business partners, people that loaned him cash and the IRS. The problem with living your gimmick is outliving your gimmick.

I read that Flair article a few days ago. Natch has problems. In a way sad, but like you said...living your gimmick. Hogan's the same way. 60+, body's all torn up, ex-wife raped him in the divorce, probably paying most of his income to that kid his son addlepated.

Waltman was the grossest part of that flick. I've always hated that greasy mook. Cornette said the only reason Nash, HBK, et al kept him around was because they thought it was funny when he'd get drunk and puke.

I dunno what happened with Franchise's teaching career. Lost his cert, maybe? Might have just burned out. You never really know people's motivations. Not too many weeks ago I was so disgusted with my job that when I went to WalMart to pick up some stuff I found myself wondering where that little employment kiosk was. No stress, no one busting your balls. Go to work, do your gig and not take a bunch bullshit home. Of course, it was only a second or two of that before real life raises it's ugly head. I guess what I'm saying is maybe he's not pulling in the huge bucks, but he might be happy. Who knows?

Since we are doin another wrestling hi jack, I saw an interview w/ Nash the other day, his opinion on what would draw eyeballs to TV sets, 2 hours of Kelly Kelly in slow motion. Can't say he is wrong.

I am a relatively new pro wrestling fan. Most of the moves I know are from video games.

Aside from Ric Flair who is another guy who was/is really into blading?

And aside from Sabu (sp?) who can pull off a good running hurricanrana?

Thanks.

Abdullah the butcher was/is the king of blading. the fact that he is still alive and performing in his 70's is astonishing. Flair was the fucking king of the fucking world. I always imagine how it must have killed him when WWF got so popular and suddenly he was yesterday's news. This is one of my favourite bits by him....

Dusty Rhodes, although against Abby, it should probably be called forking, since he was usually hiding a fork under one a them titties.




Hogan used to do it a bit in big matches to make the "hulking up" more dramatic. Of the 5 moves he was good at, blading not one. Lots of times he was sloppy about it and got caught on camera, some are on YouTube. Pretty much anyone with bleached blonde hair, because it looks so cool when a swatch of it is bloody.



Mick Foley during his Cactus Jack days, but alot of that was "hard way".



Lotta guys go with the razor blade shard in the crease of the forehead so they don't wind up looking like New Jack.



Your other question, I can't help you with. A lot of the time I was outside smoking pot during the Mexican matches on Nitro. Maybe some TNA X division guys, but I don't watch TNA enough to tell em apart.

If you are a newer fan, check out some of the promos From Dusty and Ric in the 80's.

This one is my fave. When I was 10, I didn't really know what the fuck he was talking about, but it was about the most intense thing I'd ever seen. Stands up today, just replace textile worker with construction worker, since there are about 7 textile workers left, and computer with dot head or chink.

I see you still love John Stossel's cock down your throat while the Koch brothers do double anal up your fudge hole....maybe this is on a conference table at the Cato Institute while their board members do a circle jerk or a bukkake on you. Let's go back to the standards of 1800's england with little kids working 17 hours cleaning up cotton fluff for pocket change while running the risk of losing limbs or getting their heads crushed. Yeah I know the soviet union fucking sucked, Here's your libertarian utopia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet

Abby and the Original Sheik were the kings of blading. Have you ever seen the shoot where he sticks a quarter in one of his scars? Pretty gritty stuff.

Pretty much anyone who worked with Abby or the Sheik regularly had a pretty scarred up head. Colon, Brody, Dusty Rhodes.

Most of the guys from the 70's got colour. The AIDS scare in the 80's, plus the WWF trying to put out a more kid friendly product, put a stop to that.

Matt Bourne was a great bleeder. We saw him just butcher himself at a show at an Indian Casino a few year ago. There was a couple of moms with their kids (boys and girls from 5ish to maybe 12ish) sitting in front of us yukking it up through the whole night about how fake it all was. When Matty did the gig, he was turned so we could see him do it. When the trickle started, the moms in front of us went on about fake blood. Once it got opened up a little more the hardway, it started kind of pumping out at every heartbeat. The moms in front of us got kind of quiet. Finally, one turned around and asked us if the blood was fake. We explained to her what was happening. She got a little green after that. Didn't get any pics of her tits, tho.

Good story from the Supa Staaah.



Lazy, spoiled teens killed teenage employment. Nothing else.

Dusty did the Hard Times promo twice. Once the one above with Bob Coddle and the other with David Crockett, I think. It's classic Dream. Starts out calm and slow, then just builds up to a completely incoherent crescendo. But through it all, like a great tent preacher, he has the crowd in the palm of his hand. Even crammed like sausage into that ill fitting suit.

Kick him in the butt and say "hey, a computer took your job, daddy". That's hard times.

Not sure if it was actual blading or not but Raven, Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer were all good at bleeding.

In 1980, I used to go to Stampede Wrestling in Calgary. Brett Hart was not the most famous Hart brother. It was Bruce who was the hero. Ed Whalen used to announce the matches and the crowd would go insane.

Davy Boy Smith. The Dynamite Kid. Leo Burke. The Cuban Assasin.

Crazy times. There was some blood but it wasn't a gross-out thing. There were a lot of kids so I think they kept it as family-friendly as the times allowed. Things got a lot more hardcore later on.

It's mostly done by blading, or at least starts out that way. When you build up all that scar tissue, it's like kleenex. A few solid punches and it'll open right up.

In the territory days blood was used as a storytelling device. To show that whatever they were trying to get across was "serious".

The Calgary guys all did Portland. Dynamite Kid and The Assassin were both huge players in Owen's promotion. Kid was working out at the same gym I worked out at when they had a show in my town. Intense, juiced up little freak. Great worker, tho.

Yeah. Good times. Funny how much the biz changed in the decade to follow. Roid monsters. Total cartoon freaks.

Just shows what full-time dedication to any one thing can produce. Like MMA now. There are fighters coming up who've trained since they were in their early teens. The quality of the fighters rises exponentially.

Come to think of it, you do bear a striking resemblance to Hornswoggle.

One of my cronies midlife crisis is manifesting itself by doing TKD with a little mma mixed in. When we were in school every idiot who thought they were bad would ramble how their chosen discipline was the baddest. I never understood why people didn't just cherrypick from whatever styles that worked with their individual strengths. A grappler can take a boxer, but a guy who does both is deadly. A guy who takes what works for him and trains his ass off with those styles will tear up a guy who focuses on one discipline. Makes for entertaining fighting, too.

This thread is completely off it's original track. Hooray!

Oh, don't worry. I have plenty of stories of low-paying gigs to come. My next experience starts tomorrow night.

New Jack claim's Abby's scars where surgically implanted. I've heard stories of Abby putting poker chips in the divits to freak people out at casinos. I remember a match between foley and HHH where foley made Paul bleed the hardway, he clipped him in the forehead with a 2 by four and HHH just started bleeding, it was also the match where HHH left "a piece of my leg" in the ring. (The very edge of the 2 x 4 might have had a special sharp edge or razor to make it cut easier). yeah that stuff about scar tissue just busting open is right, there's a promo where new jack just kind of smacks himself in the head a little hard and it busts right open....oh yeah Matt bourne, I guess him and hack jim dougan have an old feud dating back to when a fan attacked jim dougan and bourne got involved, the story goes bourne beat the fan up so bad the guy's eye was out of it's socket and it caused both bourne and dougan banned from the area and dougan was pissed do this day because of the lost money and feeling like matt way over reacted.

$40 the Hard Way

Don’t know what the term “swamper” refers to? Let me enlighten you! A swamper is a labourer who unloads transport trucks. I got the opportunity to be one today as I seem to have worked my way into a job. The agency I worked for cleaning up McMahon Stadium took a shine to me and the fact that I am one of the few clientele with a full set of teeth. I showed up at 7:00pm with my hard-toed steel boots, was given a neon-coloured reflective vest (good thing, too, as less than 2 weeks ago a worker died after being run over by a truck at Western Grocers), and was driven to an industrial park with 3 other gentlemen. I asked where we were going and was told it was AG Foods or something….near Western Grocers. A lump rose in my throat.

You would not have guessed it but one of my co-workers had a shoulder bag embroidered with The Millionaire’s Club. I had no idea I was in such fine company. At first I was enraged that this rich guy said he came from the D.I. (short for Drop-In Shelter, a nearby refuge for the homeless). What nerve for him to be so ridiculously frugal as to take a bed there! Then I realized he is probably writing a book or something and needs to keep a low profile. Sorry, man….you’re busted. I saw the shoulder bag.

I worked from 8:00pm to midnight unloading pallets of food destined to be on store shelves very soon. The irony of people not accustomed to eating 3 square meals every day moving thousands of pounds of food did not escape me. I learned the job on the job through my mentor “Joe.” Joe’s story is that he once owned several houses but the pesky government came after him for over a million dollars in back taxes and penalties. Fascinating guy. He taught me how to look up the UPC code on a sheet, count the boxes, and put them on a wooden pallet. Repeat hundreds of times. Hundreds.

With stomach growling, I moved boxes with around 40kg of swiss chocolate. Midnight came. Hours sheet signed off. Got ride back to the labour office…..$40 and one millionaire contact the richer.

heh, I worked unloading a truck once when I was 16 the term was "lumper" as I remember., it wasn't payed by the hour but just a flat rate of like $50 to get the job done. This was back in the mid nineties. My back felt like total shit after about 6 hours of that shit. Where you sore seeings as you're in pretty good shape (no homo)? did you see fat slobs, and skinny fucks and wonder how they did that shit day in and day out?

Almost $100 bucks this week BI. Good for you.

I pulled a double shift tonight. Earned over $90 and it was back-breaking work. One truck had over 400 heavy boxes of glass vases....which 3 of us tossed around like frisbees.

Would you believe me if I told you I earned hundreds of thousands this week?

Did you sell your place in LA?

No.

The bank forclosed on it before he had a chance.

I had a job for years where we'd have to unload the truck sort everything and stock the shelves. Most of the time everything was already palletized so we could just roll it out of the truck but then they started stacking shit floor to ceiling so they could send more shit out on one truck so we'd have to hand stack it on pallets just to get it out of the truck and then break it all down again once it's out of the truck. also this was with hand pallets and not a forklift/walk behind and the trucks would slope down at a sharp angle and then abruptly shoot back up again on the way out to gain momentum to roll the shit out. Pretty dangerous as there would usually be at least 2 pallets of paper that would weigh over 1 ton each.....This would later have to be hand unloaded.

It's tough work, that's for sure. The warehouses I've swamped at this week were mega big box places, tens of thousands of square feet with dozens of staff. I can't believe some people do this year after year.

I've tossed tons and tons of freight over the years. even went to Schwan's warehouse school in Marshall, Minnesota. Yeah. The ice cream people. Robbed them blind. I'd show up at parties with boxes of steaks and fudgecicles.

As far as jobs go, I enjoyed tossing freight more than anything I've ever done. It's easy to do it year after year. Jut a gig, like any other.

Has anyone recognized who you are at work ?

I will try to hang in there and work towards a goal. Like earning the $1,000 or so it takes to buy a ticket to europe.

No, no one has recognized me. I wear a disguise of shame and dejection.

I wonder if you shop at the same costume store I do.

Mine has dark circles under the eyes, nicotine-stained fingers, and unkempt hat hair from always wearing a trucker's hat instead of showering.

Mine is a more subtle affair. Kind of a sense of quiet despair enhanced by a voiced disgust that's mistaken for a dry sense of humour. But it fits me nicely.

As long as it fits. Size does matter.

Great story! For many people this would be a great job

It's a great way to fill the time and not make any commitments. Today was perfect. I picked up a check from the agency and got a gig for tonight. Showed up for work at 7:45pm and was done by 8:05pm. 4 hour minimum means the easiest $40 came to me. That's stripper money. Seriously. Add that to the $36 I won at the Stampede Casino thanks to a lucky Italian rolling 6s and 8s at the craps table and the Dow Jones index shares I bought last Friday rocketing up today.

Things are going my way and the manic-depressive needle has swung full tilt to the manic side. Iron can't lose.