What job did you have back in the '70s?

Discussion in 'Old Hippies' started by Idlewild, May 2, 2019.

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  1. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

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    Montessori school teacher, retail salesperson, printing press operator, print shop manager, sandwich chef, liveaboard charter boat chef, and cannabis cultivator.

    Always worked while the pretty people played. Where are they today? Mostly dead.
     
    ~Zen~, Dec 3, 2020
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  3. NubbinsUp

    NubbinsUp Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    in the '70s, I did every job in a restaurant other than general manager. Started out as a dishwasher. Worst role - I was a terrible waiter. Best role - I quickly became an excellent cook.

    Although I spent 37 years starting in the early 80s working in finance, I'm still an excellent cook, but now in a home kitchen, rather than in a commercial kitchen.
     
    NubbinsUp, Dec 3, 2020
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  5. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

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    Cooking is very satisfying to the soul and the tastebuds. I do most all the cooking around this castle. And the cleaning, sadly no one like to do that :(
     
    ~Zen~, Dec 3, 2020
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  7. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    I didn't know you ran a press!

    I've run letter presses and offsets. Even did a little stone lithography in college.
    I used to run and teach how to run an AB Dick 320 and 360 and a Davidson 501. We'd do duotones but not four color. (You probably ran much bigger machines)

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]​
     
    MeAgain, Dec 3, 2020
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  9. Running Horse

    Running Horse A Buddha in hiding from himself

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    The job of not existing man
     
    Running Horse, Dec 3, 2020
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  11. newo

    newo Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    When I wasn't going to school I worked a lot of factory jobs, back when there was manufacturing in the US. Sometimes working on a machine, sometimes in the warehouse. Delivered pizzas one summer. Done some basic landscaping. Various crap jobs that let a young man pay the rent and eat.
     
    newo, Dec 3, 2020
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  13. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

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    I have run an AB Dick like the last one, but usually Multilith 1250s and 1850s... with chain delivery units.

    I started early on a Heidelberg GTO in Connecticutt as the press devil. Cleaned it weekly. And the rest of the print shop. By 76 I was manager of a shop with 14 employees on St Thomas, USVI.
     
    ~Zen~, Dec 3, 2020
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  15. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

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    I went back in the 80s for awhile and ran a Heidelberg 36" KORZ with two color heads... it was a beast 14 feet tall and over 20 feet long, had a ladder on it and a ramp around one side to get to the top. But then I got into typesetting and graphic design which led to editing and book design, which led to publishing and then the Internet arrived!
     
    ~Zen~, Dec 3, 2020
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  17. Bicaptain My Captain

    Bicaptain My Captain Members

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    Driving a tractor with lift tines on the front to move mud to bricklayers working on a scaffold. I was a mortar forker.
     
    Bicaptain My Captain, Dec 3, 2020
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  19. Tman58

    Tman58 Senior Member

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    1979 I was a french service waiter in a private yacht club. I just turned 18. It was fun. I was making $6.25 an hour.
     
    Tman58, Dec 3, 2020
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  21. Cookie Man

    Cookie Man Senior Member

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    I worked for the phone company answering either directory assistance,emergency calls or connecting long distance calls.
     
    Cookie Man, Dec 4, 2020
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  23. Tman58

    Tman58 Senior Member

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    Hi, I worked on a gravure press, then some typesetting.
     
    Tman58, Dec 4, 2020
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  25. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

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    Man of many talents I see! That's how to survive...
     
    ~Zen~, Dec 4, 2020
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  27. Tman58

    Tman58 Senior Member

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    Zen, how was it on the Heidelberg? I was never comfortable with the smell of solvents. And how were you setting type? I used a typostitor.
     
    Tman58, Dec 5, 2020
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  29. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

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    I hated the solvents. I blame them for the lung condition I have now... so that was a bad thing. I cringe thinking about the pollution from printing companies... the darkrooms, the inks, the solvents. None of it good for the environment and all toxic poisons.

    The Heidelberg was a beast, but a dream once running. I had to load lifts of 36 inch wide sheets of paper into the feeder, one stack of 500 sheets at a time... that was hard work. Then changing the plates was monumental, needed two people for that. I would have preferred to be running a web fed press with a continuous roll of paper feeding the beast.

    When I was a teenager we had to set type with an old linotype which used molten metal, very hot keys and nasty work.

    Then CRT typesetters broke the mold, then Mac computers offered desktop publishing, and off we went into a whole new digital world. It was kind of fun watching the evolution before my eyes over time.
     
    ~Zen~, Dec 5, 2020
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  31. WOLF ANGEL

    WOLF ANGEL Senior Member - A Fool on the Hill Lifetime Supporter

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    1976:
    Local Authority, Pedestrian and Traffic Survey Officer: [​IMG] [​IMG]
    = Physical Collation of Statistics, Assessment/Analyse of details, Provision of Report/s.proposing Traffic lights, Crossing points, Traffic calming measures, Pedestrian areas
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2020
    WOLF ANGEL, Dec 5, 2020
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  33. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    I set type with a composing stick, IBM Selectric, Croy 24 lettering machine, wax strip printer, one of these things (I forget what it was called)
    [​IMG]​
    It was a photo type setter and must have had sixteen billion ic chips inside, Macs, and other various computers using PageMaker, Newsroom etc. and anything else that would print and we could photograph.
     
    MeAgain, Dec 5, 2020
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  35. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

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    I believe all typesetters are skilled geniuses. Having to remember all the codes, how to insert them, typing the text in and then playing with it to make it fit the space... all things most people don't have clue about. Remember the reduction wheel? Did you ever work in the darkroom with the huge cameras and develop the negatives to make the plates, then make the plates with that rub off developer? I am amazed we did all that.
     
    ~Zen~, Dec 5, 2020
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  37. WOLF ANGEL

    WOLF ANGEL Senior Member - A Fool on the Hill Lifetime Supporter

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    1977-1978:
    Newspaper 'Messenger' Supervisor. (DAILY EXPRESS)
    upload_2020-12-5_15-28-39.jpeg (Not, me in the picture) [​IMG]
    = Supervison of Office 'Messenger' service to Journalist and Editorial staff.
    Provision to 'home-based' journalists of 'copy' - from telegram (wire service) and news recieved from phone messages (Copy typists- as above) - Provision of Refreshments (Tea/coffee from Canteen, light meals) ... "and 'anything else that was required'- (Talk about making sure workers stayed at their desks all day/night)
     
    WOLF ANGEL, Dec 5, 2020
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  39. Tman58

    Tman58 Senior Member

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    I never could figure out the reduction wheel. No confidence when it came to math - I just froze. I had a good eye and steady hand though. I used to set large type and hand-paint the ligatures for tv ads.

    I remember the boss came in and told everyone to start looking for a new job. The times they are a changing.
     

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    Last edited: Dec 5, 2020
    Tman58, Dec 5, 2020
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