can you remember when .......

Since i am in official mourning for Monza, decided to ask a new question to drown my sorrows [stupid auld git !]
It occurs to me that I can clearly remember things a long time ago but have trouble remebering what happened yesterday.
One thing I do remember is my first day at work in my first job. Can you ?
I started work at 16 with I.C.I. - the big chemical multinational which I think was also active in US. They recruited me at school on the basis that I was "good" at chemistry at the age of 14 and told to report with suitable exam results at 16.
Day came and I joined as a Junior Quality Controller. Had training in the lab and was sent out into the factory attached to a manufacturing plant. My first assignment was a plant making cyanide. So, day one, sparkling clean white coat, note book and pen in hand, I thought I was the bees knees [dogs whatsits etc]. Entered plant full of self-importance trying desperately to hide nervousness. First thing, a guy came past me sweeping the floor, dust everywhere, me coughing and sneezing. I asked him about the dust as I had a bitter taste in my mouth, he says "Dont worry son. Its only a bit of Sodium Cyanide. Nothing to worry about". Here's me crapping myself. Eventually, I plucked up courage and walked down the plant floor to a chorus of "Ice Cream, ice cream. Stop me and buy one" and "Choc Ice please".
talk about ego punctures.
Can you remember your first day ?
 

My first job was when I was 13 ..... I ran the mini-golf and batting cages at a friend of my dad's place, nearby.  They also have a driving range over a lake and a pro-shop.  I don't remember the first day, but I do remember getting a projection stereo system to work that hadn't worked right for like 5 years.  It was 1994, the year that the NY Rangers beat the NJ Devils in hockey and the NY Knicks lost to the Chicago Bulls in basketball.  Big sports year for NY and any NY vs. NJ game gets a lot of attention.

My first full time job, not mowing lawns and such, was in a huge department store in downtown San Antonio. It was a monster with many floors, restaurants, and behind the scene staging areas not for public eyes. I was 18 and had just graduated from high school. My job was to take the merchandise from the trucks (there were many stores throughout TX), check it in, then deliver it to the department that it was intended for. There were over 100 departments and on the first day I got totally lost in this monster of a store. I had to ask how to get to the hidden elevators and find my way back through the maze of hidden passageways to MY department. The problem was that my older brother headed up the department I worked for. I almost got fired the same day I went to work.......by a family member.

My first job was in a camera store.  I kinda remember being new, learning how to use a cash register, stuff like that.  The store also had greeting cards, so mostly the job was doing that & photofinishing orders.
 

i used to work at a music store. 8 months later they laid me off. I was sooo happy when i got laid off, worst job ever (for me at least. Its more suited to an introvert, and im fairly extroverted). sure it was easy and the hours were set, (none of this scheduling stuff most jobs for ppl my age have) but it was so awkward. I was the youngest employee by at least 2 years, (i was 15 at the time, almost everyone was >18, a pretty big difference at that age). The only people in my department were a gay 40ish year old guy (literally homosexual), my boss (who was cool, but still my boss, so it was always awkward talking to him about non-buisiness stuff) and some chick in her late 20s who was constantly flirting with all the late-20s dudes that worked there. Basically I was the assistant to those three. All I did was alphabatize sheet music, break down boxes, find sheet music in the shelves, and play minesweeper on the computer. I got REALLY good at minesweeper while i worked there.
havnt bothered to get another job since. I learned to live sparingly

"Alphabatize" you have invented a new word which deserves a place in the Oxford English Dictionary. Well done !

...alphabetize isnt a word?

Not the way you spelled it initially!

quote:

ORIGINAL: nafango2

...alphabetize isnt a word?

I am actually very fond of the word and plan to use it every day in formal conversations. It is far too important to be used casually.

LOL ..... I just looked up MacLeod's grand-pappy's word ..... and it is a real word!!!  It just doesn't mean what I thought.

Cattywampus ---- As in, "00Accord is a cattywampus fool ...... and a post hawr!!!"

quote:

ORIGINAL: academic

quote:

ORIGINAL: nafango2

...alphabetize isnt a word?

I am actually very fond of the word and plan to use it every day in formal conversations. It is far too important to be used casually.

...do you know what it means?

quote:

ORIGINAL: nafango2

quote:

ORIGINAL: academic

quote:

ORIGINAL: nafango2

...alphabetize isnt a word?

I am actually very fond of the word and plan to use it every day in formal conversations. It is far too important to be used casually.

...do you know what it means?

Haven't a clue !

It means to put words in order according to the alphabet. The first list below is Alphabetical the second is not.  Hoepfully you were being serious and I didn't miss the sarcastic tone *L*

1)
Army
Arrange
Bear
Cat
Dog

2)
Cat
Army
Dog
Bear

its the verb for putting things in alphabetical order.

Surely one named "academic" is aware of the word???????????????????

My first job was when I was 14 as a roofer (summer Job). Then my summer jobs went to: concrete construction for 2 summers; house construction for the next summer; painting for the University of Mississippi the next summer; then an internship program where I earned 6 hours toward my college degree as well as $11/hour pay; then I got my job here at the insurance company.
Believe it or not, probably the most fun I ever had at a job was the concrete construction job.  But that is definitaly no way to make a living if you value your knuckles, knees, elbows, etc (operating a 75lb jackhammer is tough on the joints) and you have a college education.

Oh dear ! Time to dial back on the sly humour I guess. Obviously I can work out the meaning, it is a business jargon word and it describes a sorting function perfectly. However, I have never heard it used before in business but then I always worked in the rough end of Business Management [Operations mgt.] and that is the subject I taught in university.
Reminds me of a quotation from Winston Churchill "Two nations divided by a common language"
But I do still like the word.
Truce on this one,cousins.

Afterthought. Alphabetize is American business jargon. The clue is in the word ending -ize. If it were Uk, it would end -ise. We rarely have words ending in ize.
English language is totally irregular - that is to say, it can develop new words, it evolves and changes all the time. We have many news channels on BBC. One is for our Asian citizens. The news is mostly in Urdu but littered with English words because Urdu cannot adopt new words.
Think about all the recent new words in English - internet, byte, blogging, etc. Some of these are common in all English-speaking countries and some are not. At the moment there are several streams to the Language - Britain, US, OZ/NZ, S. Africa - all evolving their own version. The day will dawn when we will need interpreting to each other.
Nafango - i was taking the p.... and for that I apologise. offence not intended.