Monkeying Around: Worst Summer Jobs

As summer sadly comes to a close, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on our worst summer jobs. I can think of a few personally – picking up trash on the freeway, washing dishes in a truck-stop diner – but none of them match the terrible, if not strange and possibly illegal, job mentioned on the Monster boards:

“How I wanted to earn money in the summer of 1983 -- enough dough for hot dates, ice cream and Springsteen tickets. Because my older sister had an in at an amusement park in central New Jersey, I was a shoo-in to get the job at the parking lot detail.

About halfway through the summer, I got promoted to work the end gate at the Safari. My responsibilities were laid out by my manager. He dropped me off at the end gate of the Safari and asked Jose to show me the ropes -- or the bat, that is.

You see, the end gate was a passage to the real world for the monkeys and baboons. The inner fence was controlled electronically as cars drove up to it to exit the final portion of the safari. About 30 yards after that gate was my new post. The gate remained open until the safari closed. Here, Jose showed me how the baboons and monkeys would try to make a break for it by riding atop a car, under a truck or just plain rush my gate. I was trained on how to use the Baboon Beater -- a three-foot-long, six-inch-round bat -- to dissuade our fuzzy friends from exiting.

As weeks went by, the baboons and monkeys learned to respect their new master as I maintained a batting average that would assure me a seat on any major league team. One day, I fell asleep on the job in my booth. As I lay asleep inside my booth, the baboons surrounded me. And they had my bat! I had left it outside the booth against the side. One baboon started banging the bat against the roof of my booth as I awoke in horror. I scrambled to close the door just in the nick of time. I spun the tiny latch and felt a sense of security -- but not for long. They had me right where the wanted me: Stuck in the wooden shed with Plexiglas windows in 90-degree heat. Luckily, I had a radio and called for reinforcements. All this to earn $5.75 an hour and break every child labor law at the age of 15!”

Now I’m curious... anyone out there have a story that compares to this one?