My Resume

When I look back at when I was a teenager, I was always trying to figure out a way to make money. I wasn’t in love with money, nor was I materialistic, but I loved the independence of money. Back in the 1970’s, I burned almost all of my money on calculators and music. Find below, the work that I did, that really never found its way on to a rsum. I have accomplished a lot in my work life, but I am equally as proud of my pre-career as well.

One important note. Somehow, somewhere, something changed. When I was a boy, me and all of my friends wanted to work. We wanted to learn how to make money, become independent of our parents, and not have an allowance. Today, it is clear that not all teenagers work. It seems almost as if the ones that work are looked down upon, by the non workers. For me, that seems upside down.

My first “job”, if you can call it that, was mowing lawns. My brother, Dave, and two other brothers, Dave and John Dagirmanjian, decided to band together and mow lawns. I remember knocking on all the neighbor’s doors hoping that one of them wanted to mow their lawn.

The man that lived next to the Dagirmanjians was named Mr. Lewis. He was a older and retired and retired military. He paid us about $5 to mow his lawn but he demanded absolute perfection. After we were done, and before we collected our money, he would come out and analyze our work. We were required to mow, bag and trim his lawn.

Kids today live off of allowance, we did not. Moreover, the world has changed remarkably. Our teenagers do not mow lawns any more. Apparently, one must speak Spanish to do yardwork nowadays.

This was the year I got my driver’s license, and the year I could start making some real money. Or so I thought. They opened up a new restaurant in Crofton, Maryland called Fass Brothers Family Seafood. It was a place where virtually all the food was fried. They were hiring bus boys and I signed up. Back then minimum wage was a little over $2.00/hour, but at the time, it seemed like an enormous amount of money to me.

Bus boys in a restaurant are the low end of the totem pole. The waiters, cooks, and dish washers all made more money than me, but it made no difference to me. I was determined to be the best bus boy I could be. After the restaurant was open for a few months, they decided that they did not need all the bus boys, and they let some of us go. I was among the ones that departed. I was truly hurt. I worked my heart out to bus tables. Most the other bus boys knew that I could clean and clear a table faster and more thoroughly than any other. But that was not the reason, I was let go.

I was let go, because I was not a very popular best boy. Many of the other bus boys were either lazy or not very smart. I was not afraid to let them know that. I was also was not shy about letting the boss know. I really didn’t care what the other bus boys thought, because after all, I was the best one. Or so I thhought. They let me go, and I learned a valuable lesson about getting along with my coworkers.

It didn’t take long for me to find another job as a fried chicken cook at Roy Rogers fast food restaurant. I worked behind the scenes to prepare the chicken, and then stick it in the oven to be fried. Then once it was done, I would stick them in the bins to be collected by the cashiers to give to customers.

Once the restaurant closed, our real work began. Our job was to clean the kitchen and it was hard and dirty work. You are already tired since it is about 10 pm, and now you have to clean all the grease and oil off of everything. I remember that I would come home and I was so tired and dirty.

Despite having landed a good job at Roy Roger’s, I kept looking for other opportunities, and I found the perfect job for me! There was a little Chinese restaurant in Bowie, Maryland called Golden Temple. I had two responsibilities. First, I was the person that greeted the customers when they first came in the restaurant. I was the only person in the restaurant that spoke perfect English. Once they were seated, I was also responsible for giving them a pot of hot Chinese tea.

I was also responsible for answering the phone and writing down the orders and giving them orders to the cooks in the kitchen. Apparently, before I came, there were a lot of order errors because the people answering the phone could not understand the customers very well. I obviously solved that problem, but it was more difficult for me to communicate with the kitchen workers. We created a little short hand which we both could understand. I would write SFR for Shrimp Fried Rice for example.

This was a totally awesome job. Just thinking back on that time makes me want to do it all over again. First, I was now making $4.00 per hour! I was rich beyong my wildest imagination. It was really fun being the only person that spoke English in the restaurant. I had to learn some Chinese in order to get along with my coworkers. Still today, almost all the Chinese that I know is from working at that restaurant.

But the major reason why this was the best job ever. In a Chinese restaurant, the workers do not eat the food on the menu. They make real Chinese food for internal consumption. It was some of the best Chinese food that I have ever eaten. These were real Chinese cooks cooking food for their coworkers. I ate so much and always looking forward to going to work.