I never really much understood labor day or any of the other kind of lesser holidays. Those ones where the bank and a lot of business’s are closed but no one really celebrates them outside of getting a day off work. That is until now when I have (for the first time) a 5 day a week “real” job.
I had a few jobs back in Michigan but never anything too serious. I rented canoes and cross country skis when I was a kid, worked as a dishwasher at a diner, worked a K-mart. I even worked at Albe’s for a bit as a gorilla of a mechanic (wrestling and smashing early 90’s BMX bikes into shape). I moved out to Standard in Davenport Iowa for a bit and worked as a short order cook in a strip club and then finally made the move to Austin. In Austin I got a job in a health food store making smoothies. That was a pretty fun job.
Not long after the smoothie job got going I quit to take a open position riding in Sprocket Jockey shows for Hoffman. Poor Dave Mirra was in the hospital with a ruptured spleen and they needed a fill in. Someone could write a book on doing BMX shows at state and country fairs… what a wild ex-convict haven of interesting and sketchy people. I also got to learn to ride vert some. Can’t tell you how horrified I was rolling up late for my first show and being told to do an abubaca for the first time ever on a vert ramp in a show! ha ha…
After doing all the shows I could take I luckily started making enough money off bikes to not have to work. I had some golden years where all I did was get by, travel and ride bikes. Not bad at all. After a while I got kind of bored of being such a slacker and helped start T1. All of a sudden I had a job I couldn’t ever get out of my mind. Drove me a little crazy… I guess thats the danger of taking a business so personally… kind of get pretty wrapped up in it. In the end I walked away from the company because it was so mired in personal issues.
Now I’m working at Odyssey and Fairdale and its super fun. After being hurt and off BMX for so long I am really grateful to have such a good job and to be doing such fun things for work.
Even so, I appreciate (for the first time) a good long holiday weekend! Hope you had a good one too!
