We are children, and then we work. If we’re fortunate, at any rate, we’re allowed to experience our childhood as children, and able, when the time comes to make our way in the world, to find work. Meaningful work, if we’re truly fortunate.
The truth, though, is that the introductory icebreaker for youngsters—“How old are you?”—is too quickly replaced by “What do you do?”
Work occupies a huge territory in both the conscious and unconscious minds of twenty-first-century Americans. We do it, talk about it, take it home with us, dream about it, get obsessed with TV shows about it; many of us allow it to dictate the parameters of our identities and the orbit of our social lives and what we do when we’re not working. The question of meaningful work looms larger all the time.
Yet chances are that “meaningful work” means radically different things to people, depending on their economic circumstances, ethnic backgrounds, and ambitions. Also built into the notion are such questions as who or what we are when we’re not working. How much of an alternate identity does our work allow us?
Our first notions of work, of course, take root in childhood, and in our childhood dreams and fantasies, which probably explains the wealth of evidence—first-hand, anecdotal, and statistical—suggesting that kids have largely unrealistic notions of work. Precious few have any real understanding of what their parents do for a living; thus the move, in the past decade or so, toward bring-your-kids-to-work programs. So it’s not particularly surprising that for generations, children, when presented with the inevitable question about what they want “to be” when they grow up, tend to choose highly visible occupations that involve art, public service, spectacle, and the archetypically heroic: ballerinas and painters, doctors and nurses, police officers and firemen, astronauts and professional athletes. In other words, they latch on to dream jobs—clear, simple concepts, really—that can be easily grasped at a time in their lives when they are more purely imaginative and idealistic.
The real world, such as it is, usually crowds out these early dreams, whether through economic considerations (on both ends of the spectrum: a need to simply make a living or a desire for greater affluence), or the usual, practical process of gradual disillusionment that comes with growing up. For many of us, ambition and dreams inevitably take a backseat at some point, and work becomes a series of contracts and compromises with blunt reality.
At the same time, we’re constantly bombarded with portraits of affluent achievers and annual reports featuring “executive compensation packages”; but what about all those other people who are still pursuing their dreams, or doing the sort of jobs most of us (with the possible exception of sociologists and economists) take for granted? There’s really no such thing as an “average Joe,” but what about those people who are routinely characterized as such? We went in search of random people doing random, interesting things for a living, most of whom are situated far outside the world of corporate America—a barber, a bartender, and a ballerina, for instance—and asked them not just what they do, but why and how they came to do it, and what sort of pleasures and perils their work offers. And as conscientious job interviewers have done since the beginning of time, we wondered: Where did they see themselves in five years?
There are always a number of challenges involved in any discussion of work, many of them questions of perception and definition; for instance, how do we view the work we do, especially in relation to the work of our peers? What kind of attitudes and expectations do we bring to our jobs and careers? How does the reality of our work life measure up against those childhood dreams? And what, really, is work, beyond the purely personal nature of what each of us does to make ends meet?
It’s huge, for one thing. The world is work. It’s everywhere, even if so much of it remains invisible, taken for granted, or situated outside the blinders many of us wear in our day-to-day lives. Work is a chain of connections and interconnections, the endless series of transactions and compacts that make the world run. Break down any fifteen-minute increment of your day and try to recognize all the points at which you are a participant in the ceaseless relay of work. You go to a restaurant, for instance; somebody seats you and takes your order; somebody mixes your drink, numerous other somebodies prepare your meal, somebody clears your table, somebody washes your dishes. Somebody else runs the whole shebang. Somebody owns the place. Another constellation of bodies supplies the restaurant with its meat, its produce, its liquor, its tableware; somebody hauls away its trash. Somebody built the restaurant, and somebody designed the layout and décor; somebody else cleans and maintains it. The signs and awnings are somebody’s livelihood. Somebody sells the proprietor insurance.
Look at your life. Look at yourself in the mirror. Your shoes, the clothes you’re wearing and the clothing in your closets, the food in your cupboards and refrigerator, the stuff arrayed around your kitchen sink and in your medicine cabinet. All your gadgets and gizmos. Your car. The shit in your garage. Your haircut. All that stuff is the end result of somebody’s labor, and somewhere along the line it has passed through human hands. Trace any of it to its origins and you’d encounter a human being—or several, or dozens, even hundreds—just trying to earn a paycheck, support a family, and make ends meet.
Again, how you perceive work, and how likely you are to see it all around you, probably depends largely on where and how you were raised. Certainly a kid raised on a farm, or in a family that has spent generations plying one trade or laboring in a particular industry, has a different conception of work than a kid raised in a white-collar bastion of suburbia. Such early ideas about work form the foundation for perceptions of class, and have for centuries.
The future of work is another question that gets more complex and contentious all the time. Ever since a generation of post-war blue-collar parents sent its children off to college to learn their way out from under their upbringing, there has been an explosion of well-educated, well-trained white-collar professionals. The last few decades have been unprecedented boom times for the upwardly mobile.
At what cost, though? Somebody still has to do the dirty work, the grunt work, the nuts-and-bolts stuff that keeps our cities (and our economy) afloat. Increasingly, of course, many of these sorts of jobs are filled by immigrant labor—another fact that raises complex and contentious questions. In this sense, it sometimes seems as if we’ve turned back the clock a century or more, to when America’s major cities were teeming with newly arrived workers from all over the globe. Those workers offered insane levels of productivity in return for paltry wages, and the often squalid conditions they worked under, once sufficiently publicized, helped to bring about government protections, as well as the formation of trade unions. They also inspired a wave of realist art and literature that both called attention to their plight and ennobled them and the work they did.
These days blue-collar work—and work in general—has all but disappeared from popular culture. We’re not likely any time soon to see public art on the scale of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescos, commissioned in 1932 by Edsel Ford and the subject of almost immediate controversy. White-collar labor, on the other hand, particularly of the drone variety, has become a ripe target for satire, whether in the form of television’s The Office or Joshua Ferris’s alternately hilarious and grim recent novel, Then We Came to the End. There have also been best-selling books along the lines of Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, in which the white-collar writer introduced millions of Barnes and Noble customers and frequent fliers to the travails of workers at the lower end of the economic food chain. But what we mostly get today from culture is gauzy, fictionalized treatments of upper-crust lifestyles and careers, most of which are so unrecognizable as to qualify as purely escapist entertainments. Or we’re treated, generally through advertisements, to corporate America’s fantasies of working men and women: labor as soft-focus patriotic propaganda, complete with a soundtrack from Bob Seger or John Mellencamp.
All of this comes at a time when, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 report on income and poverty, the number of uninsured Americans rose to an all-time high of forty-seven million. And when, despite reported economic expansion, the poverty rate among children and working adults is still stalled at recession levels. Americans work longer hours than the Japanese and enjoy less vacation time than Europeans, even as average CEO pay over the past decade has increased by forty-five percent and the CEOs of the largest U.S. companies make more money in a day than the average worker makes in an entire year.
According to recent data there are roughly 383,000 Minnesotans without insurance, nearly seventy percent of whom are employed. Fifty-six percent of those are self-employed or work for small businesses.
Those are all just numbers, though, even to the people who are most affected by them. People still go to work, and as we discovered in our interviews, they do what they do for all sorts of reasons. Somewhat to our surprise, many of these folks are doing exactly what they want to. These are people who’ve somehow realized their dreams, or made sacrifices for the sort of freedom and flexibility made possible by what they’ve chosen to do with their lives. Some of them, certainly, have made a kind of peace with what they’re doing. These are people who have come to the crossroads, and chosen.
All of them have presumably wrestled with the questions familiar to anyone who works for a living. How much insecurity are we willing to accommodate to square the work we do with the lives we want? How much, in a very literal sense, is our work worth? And how much are we willing to pay?
BAIL AGENT: Janet Radloff [5]
BALLET DANCER: Penelope Freeh [6]
BARTENDER: James Flemming [7]
BOOKSTORE CLERK: Clarence Thrun [8]
BARBER: Jayson Dallmann [9]
DOG GROOMER: Bonnie Kane [10]
FARMER: David Van Eeckhout [11]
TAILOR: John P. Meegan [12]
MASSAGE THERAPIST/FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Mary Thomes [13]
AUTO MECHANIC: Steve Skibbe [14]
CONSTRUCTION/HOME REMODELING: Aria Williams and Moe Dominguez [15]
HOUSE CLEANER: Heather Joyner [16]
BAIL AGENT
Janet Radloff
Goldberg Bail Bonds
History in this line of work:
I was licensed in 1992. At the time I was also working for US West. But my kids were grown up, so I began with the “nights and weekend calendar,” which is just what it sounds like—you work evenings and on the weekend. Then in 2000 I retired from US West and started working full time here.
What drew her to this vocation:
I followed my husband. He became a bail agent shortly before me, in 1992. I was working at US West, and after work followed him around as he went to the jails and showed me how to write up bonds. I thought to myself, “That’s interesting—gee whiz, I can do that.” And I’ve been at it now for fifteen years and counting.
Health insurance benefits:
My US West retirement package pays for my health coverage.
Fringe benefits or perks:
A co-worker said that my getting to work with them is a fringe benefit, and that’s true. Especially Bud and Patti Goldberg. They’re wonderful—it’s an honor to work for them. They’re good corporate citizens, good businesspeople, just good in general. We get profit sharing, a great work environment. They take care of their clients, too. It doesn’t matter who you are—if you’re an alleged felon, whatever nationality, background—it doesn’t matter, you get our respect.
It’s also great to be able to ride to work with my husband, who’s now part time. We work together better than we live together.
Education and employment background:
I worked in human resources and that’s definitely helped. When I’m talking to a client, I have to make a decision.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
Sometimes you go into areas of the city or jails in the dark, at night. Unfamiliar places. I came in from the country. But I’m not nervous talking to someone at my desk—I never think of what the person has done or is alleged to have done. When I walk to the jails I just need to be aware. This job has certainly heightened my awareness.
Interests outside of work:
My husband and I have a trailer at the Grand Marais Campground. We’re hosts. My husband takes off to work security there—he gets to work when he wants. Other than that I like to read when I have time. But up there [in Grand Marais] we’re dealing with people all the time as hosts. My whole life has been about providing service and that’s what this job is about.
Family:
I’ve been married forty-one years and have two children, ages thirty-three and thirty-one. My daughter works here, as does my niece. Patti Goldberg likes to hire families.
Housing:
We own our home and our trailer.
Transportation:
My husband and I drive to work from Ham Lake. And we used to take the bridge!
What she wanted to be as a child:
I always wanted to be a boss—I wanted to supervise. My dad told me, “Why don’t you apply at the phone company?” My cousin Gus worked there. In those days you didn’t need a degree to work your way up the ladder. Soon I was an office manager. I’ve been fulfilling my dream all along.
But thank God I’m not a boss anymore.
What else, if anything, she’d rather be doing:
Nothing really. Every once in a while I think of what I’d do if I weren’t here. I have to have something to do. I’d do other things—if Patti will have me, maybe I’ll work part time when Social Security kicks in.
Where she sees herself in five years:
Still working here but part time. You also have to know that I wouldn’t do this job for any other company in this city. I see how some people are treated elsewhere, and I’d never be a part of that.
BALLET DANCER
Penelope Freeh
James Sewell Ballet
History in this line of work:
I’ve danced for thirty years, been professional for nineteen. This is my fourteenth season as a contemporary ballet dancer with the James Sewell Ballet. I also choreograph independently and teach.
Health insurance benefits:
Yes. Though our contract is usually thirty weeks a year, we get year-round health benefits, no dental.
Fringe benefits or perks:
I consider it a fringe benefit to have a thirty-week contract. I relish having twenty-two weeks a year to do other projects. I always return to
JSB with a refreshed spirit and (hopefully) a healthier, rested body.
Education and employment background:
I graduated from high school a year early. I chose not to go to college, but immediately started dancing in a company. After one year of being an apprentice with the Dayton Ballet in Ohio, where I grew up, I moved to New York City and got a full scholarship at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, where I studied for two years. I consider this time to be like my “college” years. It was the most formative to my dance career. While in New York I waitressed, of course, along with telemarketing and working for a pointe-shoe company.
Interests outside of work:
My latest passion that is fast becoming an aspect of my career is writing. I founded a blog in January of 2006 (www.barefootpenny.blogspot.com [21]
), and ever since it’s been an inspiration, an outlet, another vehicle of expression. I am an old-film addict. I am always reading, belong to a book club. Love garage-saling, thrift stores. Cooking.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
Dance is wonderful in that it’s a lifestyle. Dance is hard because it’s a lifestyle. I have figured it out, for the most part, but it’s hard: attempting to get enough sleep, eat well, etc. Usually I can strike a balance.
Also, in dance we say not “if” but “when” in terms of injuries. I have osteoarthritis in my left big-toe joint. I have a high sprain in my left ankle that is fine when warm. Two years ago I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. Horrific words and a daily reality, but for the most part I can do almost anything. I have not suffered a traumatic injury. Of course the threat is always there, but it’s nothing I waste time thinking about.
There have been so many advances in preventive medicine that I can do a pretty good job of strengthening weaknesses. Pilates in particular helps build core strength that contributes to injury prevention and lengthens your career.
Family:
My folks are in Ohio and South Carolina. My friends here are like family. JSB is family.
Housing:
I rent the greatest apartment in Northeast Minneapolis with a balcony and the best view of downtown.
Transportation:
I take the bus whenever possible, but do have a car, which I’ve found to be a necessity.
What she wanted to be as a child:
A dancer, no kidding.
What else, if anything, she’d rather be doing:
Nothing else.
Where she sees herself in five years:
I’d like to have a family and still be dancing and making work.
Income or salary:
Just under $20,000 from JSB. I bring in another five to ten thousand in freelance work.
BARTENDER
James Flemming
Vincent—A Restaurant
History in this line of work:
I have worked at Vincent since March of this year. Before this I had worked as a bartender at Auriga for five years or so, until it closed. I have been a bartender for twenty years, working at such places as Sapor Café and Bar, The Loring Café, and The Blues Saloon in Frogtown, St. Paul. My first job in a restaurant was at an A&W in Cresco, Iowa, when I was fourteen years old. Jimmy Carter was president.
Health insurance benefits:
Vincent provides health benefits after one year. I currently pay for my own health insurance.
Fringe benefits or perks:
I like what I do, and I have had the privilege of working with many of the best people in this business in this community.
Education and employment background:
I have worked in picture framing and art sales. I have worked in landscaping and even the beauty industry. I have been a reserve [substitute] teacher for the Minneapolis Public Schools. I am an artist (oil painter) and do some commission work and have displayed my work in various places around town. But I have always been a waiter and/or bartender even while doing these other jobs.
I have a master of fine arts degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
I learned the art of bartending from working next to good bartenders.
Interests outside of work:
I make a point to read good books, take my dogs for long walks, and work in the garden with my girlfriend.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
State laws governing the sale of alcoholic beverages that put responsibility for the behavior of the person consuming the beverage on the person selling the beverage sometimes bother me, on account of the fact that I would prefer all people assume responsibility for their own behavior.
I have the same expectations for those drinking at my bar as I do my friends and family: Be fun, know your limitations, mind your manners, respect and enjoy yourself and those around you.
Family:
I live with my smart and beautiful girlfriend, Shauna, two dogs who always get into the trash, and a mean cat.
Housing:
We own our home.
Transportation:
I bike to work every day.
What he wanted to be as a child:
Pope of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, but I have made good choices in my life and now I get to be the bartender.
What else, if anything, he’d rather be doing:
I would rather live the life of the idle rich, but even then I would still be the one mixing the drinks.
Where he sees himself in five years:
Painting pictures, reading good books, gardening with my smart and beautiful girlfriend. And still mixing the drinks.
Income or salary:
I imagine I will make about fifty grand this year. Mind you, there is always room in the budget for a little more or less.
BOOKSTORE CLERK
Clarence Thrun
Big Brain Comics
History in this line of work:
I’ve been here for five years. I was working at the Triple Rock as a kitchen manager, and one day a friend who worked at the College of Comic Book Knowledge in Uptown asked me to help out while the owner was at a convention. A month later, I was working full time. Later I came here.
What drew him to this vocation:
My father and his stepdad met at a drugstore, talking comic books. My grandma wondered who this guy is who’s talking to her son. So they met, started dating, and got married.
My dad doesn’t read comics anymore. He worked at U-Haul and occasionally a person would leave stuff behind. One day someone left a pile of comic books behind and Dad would read those to me. I remember Spider-Man as my first stories. I read those until about first grade and then got into books. In about sixth grade I started again with comics, but stopped abruptly as soon as Tim Burton’s Batman came out—I hated that! But when I quit smoking I wanted something to occupy my time and spend the money I was saving on cigarettes. So it was back to comics.
Health insurance benefits:
I pay for health benefits myself.
Fringe benefits or perks:
It’s weird. The hours and the salary are not benefits. The discounts are great, but there’s so much … there’s no “free” here. I respect the job and my boss is a good friend. There’s great conversation here—no Hulk vs. Thing arguments—and it’s nice we carry actual books. I enjoy working here, I really do.
Education and employment background:
I didn’t finish college. I’ve worked in restaurants, including a Mexican restaurant in Milaca, Minnesota. I did a punk rock show on KVSC in St. Cloud called Undercurrents.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
I have free time. But I can’t take off for a month if I want. And the pay isn’t great—I happen to live in the cheapest place in downtown Minneapolis, and that helps keep me afloat.
Interests outside of work:
I’m a writer. Short stories, book reviews, no blog stuff, all autobiographical. I’m working on a series of short stories, a project where I try to do one a month over a year. I want to put out a small, self-published collection. My influences are Nabokov and Murakami—daily, mundane stuff with bits of the supernatural thrown in nonchalantly. That seems so real, doesn’t it? My stories are that way—bad dating tales—and tend to be funny.
Family:
I’m single.
Housing:
I do caretaking duties at this house and pay only $750 a month. But it’s a great house—three bedrooms in Eliot Park. I have a roommate and my friends live upstairs.
Transportation:
I almost always walk to work. I drive on payday so I can deposit my check, and I’ve got a secret spot where the parking’s cheap.
What he wanted to be as a child:
I wanted to be a writer. So I’m doing pretty much what I want.
What else, if anything, he’d rather be doing:
Nothing in Minneapolis. If I lived in another city, I wouldn’t work in a comic store. I can afford to do this in Minneapolis and it’s the right thing.
Where he sees himself in five years:
I can’t see a move not happening. I see myself in another city, like Los Angeles, or coming back from another city. For instance, I’d go to L.A. for a few years, establish myself as a writer and come back. I don’t want to never come back—I like Minnesota.
BARBER
Jayson Dallmann
Lyn-Lake Barbershop
History in this line of work:
Eighteen years of service; eight years at Lyn-Lake—which is hard to believe.
What drew him to this vocation:
I was a laid-off corporate banker and I decided I wanted a change. So I went to the Minnesota School of Barbering. My brother and his wife are barbers, and I enjoy new challenges … and barbering was certainly a challenge after banking.
There’s something relaxing about going to a barber, and being a barber. And I make a very nice living.
Health insurance benefits:
I have my own health care coverage.
Fringe benefits or perks:
I love my customers, and the many walks of life they represent. When I bought this shop it had been in the neighborhood since 1961, and some of the clients have been coming here since then. I’ve seen them come and go, seen them pass away.
Education and employment background:
I was educated at the Minnesota School of Barbering.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
[Laughs] You stand all the time. A lot. Occasionally you get the odd haircut and you have to deal with people’s varied moods. You can’t have thin skin. People can’t always be nice. And at first, when I began working at Lyn-Lake, the regular clientele thought I was too young. But over time, they saw I was good at what I do. You have to pay close attention, and listen to what people want.
Interests outside of work:
I love the local music scene—that’s definitely a hobby. I garden, work on my property—I own a duplex, and take care of that. And I love to dance, though I’m getting too old for the nightclub scene. Local theater is also great.
Family:
Just me. And Lyn-Lake Lola, my Chihuahua.
Housing:
I own a duplex in South Minneapolis.
Transportation:
I drive to work.
What he wanted to be as a child:
I wanted to be an actor. That dream gets fulfilled a little bit every time we do our print advertisements—we get the photos done once a year.
What else, if anything, he’d rather be doing:
Be on vacation. I love to travel but don’t get enough time to do it. My schedule just doesn’t allow it.
Where he sees himself in five years:
I’d like to retire—I’m not as young as I look. But I’d like to have the money to be able to travel and do what I want.
Income or salary:
I make a good living.
DOG GROOMER
Bonnie Kane
Royal Pet Beauty Shop
History in this line of work:
I’ve been grooming for 27 years.
What drew her to this vocation:
I love animals, and at first I wanted to be a veterinarian. But I lived for a while next to a grooming school, and I quickly realized that this was the best way for me to work with animals. Oddly enough, I went through grooming school with my mother. I started in high school, and this has been my only job.
Health insurance benefits:
I own the business, so I have to take care of health care on my own.
Fringe benefits or perks:
Working with the animals is the best. Each animal has a totally different personality. As you can imagine, we get every breed and mix imaginable. The work is hard, but the money is great. That’s part of the benefit, too—you’re paid well. The more you work, the more money you make, and the work is always there.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
There’s a lot of stress. You have to be aggressive, because this work has to be done for the health of the animal. Most of the time it’s not just to look good. Animals can get sick if they’re not groomed. When they fidget you can cut them, and that makes you feel awful. Plus, you get clients who don’t want to face up to the fact that their neglect has hurt their animals—you have to brush them, you know—and we can only do so much. Also, vacation’s a problem. I’ve had to cancel vacations. I’d love to have some time off.
Interests outside of work:
I love working in Uptown. I like to Rollerblade, love the lakes, the people. Of course, I love animals. I have dogs, a cat, and some birds.
Family:
I’m married with two children.
Housing:
We own our own home.
Transportation:
I drive to work from Brooklyn Park, thankfully nowhere near the I-35 bridge.
What she wanted to be as a child:
Well, I wanted to be a vet. But this turned out to be right up my alley.
What else, if anything, she’d rather be doing:
Sometimes I get it in my head to be a professional, to get out of these scrubs and work in a field that’s more professional. But I’d also love to teach dog grooming. I’d love to do that someday.
Where she sees herself in five years:
Dog grooming.
Income or salary:
You can make anywhere between $35,000 and $60,000 doing this.
FARMER
David Van Eeckhout
Hog’s Back Farm
What do you do?
I raise vegetables and chickens organically on about five acres for a hundred-member Community Supported Agriculture operation, and raise another sixty-five acres of hay.
History in this line of work:
Five years.
Education and employment background:
I spent an additional five years working on other farms before starting our own operation.
Do you have health benefits through your work?
Fresh air, ample sunshine, the songs of birds, and healthful food to eat are the main health benefits—but no, I don’t have any from the so-called “health” industry.
Fringe benefits or perks:
The food is one. I raise the best food I possibly can, first for my own family. We love good food and the best way I know to assure its ample supply is to raise it myself. As long as I’m going to the trouble I might as well raise it for some other families, too. Raising our children in a rural setting and having them enjoy the farm is another. My five-year-old daughter can just about keep up with my employees.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
The pay is low, the weather is fickle, the weeds and pests are plentiful, and the stress can be overwhelming some days. Most people think the quiet country life is low-stress, but not when you’re operating a CSA.
Family:
Wife Melinda and two kids, five-year-old Iris and eighteen-month-old boy Baker.
Housing:
Owner.
Transportation:
1995 Toyota T100 pickup truck with long bed and 4-cylinder engine with 229,000 miles on it. Two tractors, both older than me: a 1960 International Harvester 504 and a 1967 International Harvester 140.
What he wanted to be as a child:
I don’t remember if there was anything specific.
What else, if anything, he’d rather be doing:
Nothing else.
Where he sees himself in five years:
Continuing to farm with increasing help from our children, and I’ll have figured out how much to increase the size of the farming operation to be providing a more sustainable living for our family.
TAILOR
John P. Meegan
Top Shelf
History in this line of work:
I’m a tailor. Sarto as they say in Italy. That’s the root of “sartorial,” a strong tailor reference. I’ve been at this for thirty-two years, all here at Top Shelf. I came to Minneapolis from Chicago because I’d seen the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and I liked that image of her throwing the hat. Mostly in Chicago you thought that Minneapolis was Rocky and Bullwinkle. I came here and worked and put myself through vocational school, and then I went to Juster’s to find work as a tailor. They offered me $3 an hour. My business partner, Sue, was making $2.50 an hour. I didn’t take the job—I told Sue that if she could match my own $500 investment, we’d go into business together. We moved into the Uptown neighborhood before Calhoun Square came in, and we’ve been at it ever since.
What drew him to this vocation:
When I first sat down at a sewing machine I felt what a painter must feel when he picks up his brush and knows intuitively that this will be his life’s vocation. I felt electricity run through me.
Health insurance benefits:
I pay for all the health benefits for myself, and all my employees have full health coverage.
Fringe benefits or perks:
You always look like a million bucks. This is a service business, and I love doing that type of work. We all have pride here, and I’m kept humbled daily by my mistakes. We’re not perfect.
Education and employment background:
Originally, I enrolled at the University of Illinois in pre-law. But I was just going through the motions. That’s what I believed—you go to high school, you go to college, then you get a white-collar job. But I went to the Minneapolis Vocational School. My friend Sue and I were voted “Least Likely To Succeed” by our instructors. One said, “You don’t make suits, you make clown suits!” Oddly enough, I think we’re the most successful graduates they’ve ever had.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
It’s almost as perfect a life as I could have. You could say the drawbacks are the hours involved and I have two children. But my wife works here, and we made space in the shop for the kids to do their homework. I did fittings with kids strapped to my chest. So that hasn’t been a problem either.
Interests outside of work:
I’m crazy for Rollerblading. I’m happy to pay taxes for our wonderful trail system. At 6:30 in the morning I’m out blading, and I own every path in the Twin Cities. When I’m not working or Rollerblading, I like listening to music and smoking cigars. I’ve got over 40,000 songs on my iPod, playing in the shop at all times.
Family:
I’m married with two children.
Housing:
I live near the shop, just a few blocks south. I’m a huge booster of my neighborhood [the Lyn-Lake and Uptown areas of Minneapolis]—I’ve been on every urban revitalization program, a chair of the Uptown Art Fair, and so on.
Transportation:
I walk, but I also drive—I have a VW bug that’s got our advertising all over it. We have a strong marketing strategy: This isn’t your grandfather’s tailor.
What he wanted to be as a child:
I thought I was going to be a nuclear physicist. I was a nutcase. I read the biographies of the Curies, took trips to the Dresden nuclear power plant in Illinois … I was a nerd. I also enrolled in a seminary but never showed up. I discovered girls that same summer, which ended that.
What else, if anything, he’d rather be doing:
Nothing else.
Where he sees himself in five years:
I’ll be right here. There’s an old saying among tailors: “I plan to retire three years after I die.” You’re constantly learning—it keeps you vital.
MASSAGE THERAPIST/FLIGHT ATTENDANT
Mary Thomes
Sun Country/Angelnet Therapeutic Massage
History in this line of work:
I’ve been practicing massage since 2001, and have been a flight attendant for forty years. I have my own massage therapy business, Angelnet Therapeutic Massage, in Minneapolis, and am currently a flight attendant supervisor for Sun Country.
Health insurance benefits:
I receive my benefits through Sun Country.
Fringe benefits or perks:
The massage therapy allows me a flexible schedule, and I’ve developed the most interesting and amazing clientele. There’s a real energy exchange between myself and my clients. I guess the real fringe benefit is satisfaction. I love it.
Education and employment background:
Interests outside of work:
I also practice and teach yoga and am raising a child. I love reading, walking, and gardening.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
Well, you can always get weirdos, although I’ve only had a few of those, probably because I’m older and sort of a motherly figure. And if you’re not really skilled and careful about body maintenance you can develop some serious physical problems. It’s strenuous work, and unless you’re very careful you can mess up your hands, arms, and back.
Family:
I have a fifteen-year-old daughter. My partner’s deceased, and I got into massage during his cancer journey, when we realized how beneficial massage could be.
Housing:
Owner.
Transportation:
I have a car.
What she wanted to be as a child:
A flight attendant. When you come from a family like mine, you have a big urge to get away from them.
What else, if anything, she’d rather be doing:
Right now I’m really into wellness, other healing arts, and expanding my skills.
Where she sees herself in five years:
Maybe in an old folks’ home, if my daughter has her way. Or I hope to be that much more skilled in massage and yoga. You can always get better.
Income or salary:
I’ll just say that at the rates I’m charging it would be hard to make my living entirely through massage, but if I were to hike up my prices to the going Uptown rate I think it would be possible. I’ve chosen not to do that, though. I’m a real believer in making massage affordable. To me, it’s about being of service and giving something back to humanity.
AUTO MECHANIC
Steve Skibbe
Uptown Imports
History in this line of work:
I’ve been working with cars since 1990, and currently am a service writer and technician at Uptown Imports.
What drew him to this vocation:
I had a natural aptitude for working with automobiles, and then I was tricked by a friend into working at one of these places, and haven’t yet figured a way out. Beware, youth of America: Study hard and do what you want.
Health insurance benefits:
The company pays half my benefits. It’s a good package that covers my whole family.
Fringe benefits or perks:
One thing, definitely: your personal auto maintenance is drastically reduced. That’s a huge consideration for anyone who doesn’t trade in their car all the time. The facility here is available for my use—I can trade my time and work on my vehicles. I’ve got a Volvo wagon, an old rusty Subaru wagon, and a VW camper.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
This job is physically difficult. I’m in my late forties and I’m feeling the hearing loss and the vision loss. It’s getting harder and harder to put the tiny parts into their tiny places. The hours are also long—I put in fifty to sixty hours a week, and often don’t get lunch. You stay until the job’s done.
Interests outside of work:
Boating. I own a boat, but haven’t used it much. I dabble in electronics and computer programming.
Family:
I’m married with two daughters—that’s another interest. I do what those girls want.
Housing:
We own a duplex and live in one half and rent out the other.
Transportation:
Unfortunately, I drive to work, but sometimes I ride my bike. But I often have to drive to St. Paul for parts, and I hate the company van.
What he wanted to be as a child:
Broadly, I wanted to be a scientist. I came from a family of educators. Working with today’s cars addresses that dream, at least a little bit. You’ve got the network protocol involved, the physics. You don’t just throw a new part on anymore.
What else, if anything, he’d rather be doing:
When I closed my own shop—I used to own East End Imports—I hoped to repurpose myself. I’m still in pretty good health, don’t have any chronic injuries, and at some point in everyone’s life they try to do the work of a twenty-year-old when they’re fifty, and then wish they hadn’t. I didn’t want to do that. If I had my druthers, I’d learn a programming language properly and work around that. For one thing, it’s physically less trying.
Where he sees himself in five years:
Until last week I saw myself under the 35W bridge. Realistically, though, I’ll probably still be in this industry. I still hold out hope for a transition, but the family, and this and that …
Income or salary:
I make a good wage.
CONSTRUCTION/HOME REMODELING
Aria Williams and Moe Dominguez
Mayan Remodeling
History in this line of work:
We’ve been working together for almost six years. Before that, Moe did drywall for six years and commercial carpentry for eight or so. Now we are self-employed. We specialize in framing and drywall, though we do some other things and can recommend someone in most of the trades.
Health insurance benefits:
Health benefits are a luxury for the self-employed, one that we do not have.
Fringe benefits or perks:
The flexibility to come home in the middle of the day or leave early (which allows Moe to spend time with his daughter and lets us coach youth sports); being able to add value to our own house relatively cheaply (though that always gets pushed off because we are so busy); no dress code (the last time we went to a funeral Moe had to borrow a tie).
Education and employment background:
I have a BA from the U of M in philosophy. I started babysitting for money when I was nine years old and have been working ever since.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
Flexibility doesn’t equal freedom. We commonly deal with some aspect of the business seven days a week. Clients call on evenings and weekends; six a.m. finds us gathering up the crew and heading to a job site; midnight might find us doing paperwork; and I might stumble to bed at two a.m. after emailing a bid. People think it must be so great to not have a “boss,” but every client or contractor is a boss, and managing a crew requires a lot of energy and paperwork. It can be quite a juggling act to keep everyone happy.
All physical work comes with some risk, but we take safety precautions and insist that our subcontractors do as well, so we have never had a serious accident on our jobsites. Well, except that guy who backed up to the heater to warm his nylon-clad bum …
Family:
Moe has an eleven-year-old daughter.
Housing:
We own a house in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Transportation:
Regrettably, our work requires us to own two vehicles and put a lot of miles on them. We use the smaller station wagon rather than the truck whenever we don’t need to haul a lot of workers or tools. Powderhorn Park is a great area to live in as far as biking for personal needs, as we are close to the farmer’s market and many shops.
What Aria wanted to be as a child:
I wanted to be a variety of things, from doctor to farmer to a Minnesota Twin (before I noticed that major-league baseball is all-male). I had no idea remodeling was even a career, but I did used to lie awake at night wondering what was behind that crumbling plaster, vowing to someday figure out how buildings were put together and why they didn’t fall down.
What else, if anything, she’d rather be doing:
I love what we do, but I would rather be able to spend more time playing with words or digging in the dirt.
Income or salary:
À la Bartleby, I would prefer not to say this. It should be noted that our income fluctuates quite a bit with the economy, gas prices, and the weather.
HOUSE CLEANER
Heather Joyner
Clean Castle
History in this line of work:
I have owned a residential cleaning company, Clean Castle, for eight years.
What drew her to this vocation:
I started the business because I was cleaning people’s houses all through nursing school. I worked for ten years in health care, and decided to try to make a go of it as a business owner.
Health insurance benefits:
Right now I don’t have benefits, which is a bummer. It’s a frustrating thing and I know it’s something I need to get.
Fringe benefits or perks:
I essentially get to make my own schedule, and my office is my home. It’s also great to be able to meet so many different people, because I handle all the sales and new clients myself. I have no advertising other than a Yellow Pages ad, so all my business is basically through referrals and word of mouth, so I’m learning all sorts of useful skills. It works to my advantage that I know all my clients and have built up trust with them over time. They don’t like to have different people coming into their homes all the time.
Education and employment background:
I came within eight credits of being an R.N. I never took any business classes; all of my education has been in the form of on-the-job training, and it’s been a process of trial and error. There are a lot of costs built in to running a business that many people aren’t aware of: federal and state taxes, workman’s comp and Social Security, gas, supplies, and the amount of time you spend on paperwork and the nuts-and-bolts details of managing things.
Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
The lack of health insurance is a big thing. And though I do have a steady income through my regular clients, there’s always
insecurity. Cleaning is hard work, but some people have this idea that it isn’t the sort of thing that they should have to pay much for.
Family:
Single.
Transportation:
I own a car for personal use, and have a van for work.
What she wanted to be as a child:
A nurse.
What else, if anything, she’d rather be doing:
I’ve definitely learned that I’m a business person, and I’m still thinking about that.
Where she sees herself in five years:
Either in a business position involving some kind of sales, or having expanded Clean Castle to the point where I’m doing well enough to sit back and simply run it as a business.