I'm taking what they're giving 'cause I'm working for a living.

If you are a Constant Reader of my blog (and really, who isn't?), you know that I was a baker in high school, and that I hated it. Guess what? I'm still a baker, but I don't hate it anymore, because I chose it this time instead of it choosing me.

My dad bought a bakery in 1982 when I was 12 years old. He was a baker as long as I can remember, although he worked in a chemical plant with his dad when he got out of high school, I believe. Every once in awhile he would take me with him to the bakery on the weekend, which I loved. When he bought his own, I started going every Sunday. I would have to go to sleep very early on Saturday afternoon, and he woke me up around 11 pm. But I was always afraid that I wouldn't get up, so I stayed in the bed and stayed awake until he came in. I guess when you're 12, you can do this. Back then, I was just an assistant of sorts, I didn't do anything like making dough or frying doughnuts. I usually put icing on stuff. There was a luncheonette next door that opened at 5:30 am, and I used to go over there to play pinball and Space Invaders (the German lady that came with the bakery always gave me quarters). Sometimes I would sleep in the office, there was a small single bed in there that also came with the bakery. Now that I think about it, that mattress must have been totally disgusting.

I eventually learned how to fry donuts, and I also became a pan washer after school. I didn't want to learn anymore than that, mainly because I was lazy. I didn't want any more responsibility. My dad bought a second bakery in 1985, which had been abandoned for 4 months when he got it. When I say abandoned, I mean the previous owner locked up and never came back. Eventually the power was shut off, and all that product in the coolers and freezers went bad. There was a lot of cleaning to do, and it was all done in the summer. I stayed away as much as I could, because I hate to clean. Maybe I knew subconsciously that it was going to be my last free summer.

My dad taught me how to make bread in the new place, amongst other things. And my hours got stepped up after a year or so, as the second bakery was in a bad location business-wise, and we eventually dwindled down to just a few employees. We were making everything at the second bakery for both locations, and my dad had to drive all the baked goods to the first location (which became my weekend job when I learned to drive, and was also the first and last time that I fell asleep at the wheel and hit something). As I mentioned, I hated my job, and my dad and I fought a lot about my working there. He said I could quit if I wanted, but I really don't think I could have. I never got to go out with my friends on the weekends. But I always had money, and I was pretty generous with it back then (I still am now, but less so, I have the giant debt to prove it).

My dad closed the second bakery in 1990 and then the first one in 1991. I was free! But then I had to do something I never did before: find a job. I had no idea where to look, because I didn't know how to do anything else. I quit college after 3 semesters (more on that later), so I had no degree in anything. I put on a shirt and tie and went to the mall, with a RESUME. Does anyone take a resume to the mall? I had no idea what I was doing. I was hoping to get a job in Suncoast, so I went there and scheduled an interview. I was sweating like a pig and extremely nervous, and I didn't get the job. I was wandering around the mall with Sarah, and she told me to try KayBee Toys. They gave me an interview right then, and I was hired! Yay! I was supposed to be Christmas help, but I did a good job so they kept me on. I enjoyed the job, but there were bad things about it, the major one being the 3 dollar-an-hour pay cut I took after leaving the bakery. And to compound that, I started collecting toys. I bought entire lines of action figures, and lots of trading cards.

After a little over a year at KayBee, I actually began to miss working at the bakery. I had no idea why, but I wanted to go back. I went to the guy who bought the bakery from my dad, and he gave me a job with him. He also had two bakeries and had a truck driver to shuttle baked goods back and forth. I enjoyed the baking part of the job, but after awhile I became the pan washer and truck driver as well, and it wasn't fun anymore. So I got another job with my dad at Rutgers. I was the youngest baker there, and the manager didn't take me too seriously because of that. I was a better baker than the head baker on my shift, and he even went to a baking school! I also had to drive the truck every other weekend, and I hated that too.

After Sarah and I moved to DE and I served my sentence in the 9th Circle of Baking Hell (Sam's Club), I got a job at a country store called Byler's. My neighbor showed me in the newspaper where they were adding a bakery to their store, and Sarah had to push me to fill out an application. They hired me and I have been there from day 1, which turned out to be the Monday before Thanksgiving 2001. People seem to want a lot of baked goods on Thanksgiving, and it has only increased since then, exponentially at times. I get to make almost everything from scratch, and if I want to try something different, I can do it. The people there are great and they treat me embarrassingly well, and I get to work with many Amish women. It's a lot of fun learning about their culture, and vice versa. You haven't lived until you've had an Amish woman tell you to "go on with your bad self."

I hated working with my dad back when I was young, but now I'm very glad I did. He gave me a very rewarding career that I love, and he gave me a good work ethic, although it's a little too good sometimes. I got to spend a lot of time with my parents and my sister at the bakery, which I may not have done if there wasn't one. They weren't always good times, but I miss those times when we were all together, as those times are very rare now.