Trina Machacek
Friends are a great source for me to draw from in writing “Is This You?” Take for instance looking at all the different jobs the people around you have. What, to you, seems to be the easiest jobs you see those you know have?
I know a ton of farmers and ranchers. Ah, the idyllic life, right? Well one lady I know who is probably near or over 80 still goes out in the winter mornings, wearing muck boots and old worn heavy jacket, scarf and all the clothes that you can imagine, to get in a tractor and go feed cows. She loves it and I remember doing that same thing.
It was fun, but not an easy job. Not from pulling on those rubber cow pie encrusted boots to pulling them off at the back door. Then going inside to cook and clean.
I would say to myself, “Well, at least I don’t have to get under the hay chopper and fix that broken drive chain.” That was NOT my job. So, did I have the easier job in the realm of feeding cows during the winters? It was a toss-up.
Another friend works at one of the many gold mines in our neck of the woods. Drives those HUGE haul trucks. She, yes, she, is a firecracker and does the job because she needs the income. Her dream job has to do with cooking and baking.
That is not in the cards for her at this time. She still gets up and goes to work in the dark. Rides a company bus or van to work, wearing heavy clothes, steel toed boots and safety equipment. I have been around miners for quite a few years and there are two sides to the mining jobs.
Drivers, mechanics and those who do manual labor, what in times past was called “grunt” work, say the guys in the office never have to get dirty therefore have it easy in the work department.
Guys in the office are prematurely gray from worrying that the people up the ladder from them are ready to step on any fingers that get close to the rungs of their upper echelon ladders. Getting their job done right, keeping the gold flowing and the mine operating.
To say one group has it easier that the other is a misnomer. Then we should take a look at government workers. I can hear the groans and moans of non-governmental workers. Saying those who work for federal, state, local governments are just putting in their time until we taxpayers pay them a healthy retirement, with benefits, for the rest of their and our lives. But hold her there Nellie.
Yes of course there are things we can point at that are beyond, way beyond making sense. But on the most part all those employees take a lot on in keeping the masses taken care of. How? Well… Do you, say, drive on a road?
Is your home hooked to the sewer and water of a town or city? If you called 911 or FIRE, would you expect someone to show up? Of course you do. We all do. But. Yes, a class on how to lean on a shovel “but.”
How many times have you heard a crack about getting “one of them thar cushy governm’t jobs.” You’re shaking your head up and down. Sure, we would all love that retirement package, but you want to work for 25-30 years doing what some of those worker bees do? Nope, I don’t either.
Case in point; You should have seen our local post office crew over Christmas! Holy Moses, shopping online has made mountains out of what just a few years ago might be considered molehills of mail today.
I am very glad there are those who have chosen that path of governmental service jobs. Especially in law enforcement. Let’s be careful out there, those who wear the blue! It is human nature to think we have it the toughest.
Truthfully living rurally, we have the wonderful options to stay living rural and do work we can live through and even sometimes enjoy. Get paid, buy a truck or a four-wheeler or even a big ole juicy steak to enjoy on days off.
It’s also human nature to think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Until you look back and see that your side is the side you chose to be on. Working, playing, living and eventually dying.
Personally, I expect to die with my check book in the red, my truck needing tires, my toilets needing a good scrubbing and a smile a mile wide on my kisser! Like everybody, seeing jobs that look better across the fence of life has said at least once, “Yeppers, its easy work. If you can get it.”
Trina Machacek lives in Diamond Valley north of Eureka. Email itybytrina@yahoo.com.