.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Probably the highlight of my summer-job days occurred at the rock quarry in Ferguson. One afternoon as I drove a truck up a steep road cut into the wall of the pit, the engine died. So there I was, rolling backward faster and faster with no power-assisted brakes, desperately trying to restart the engine and, by the way, the truck was loaded with dynamite.

This is known as “real-world experience.”

A lot has changed for kids in recent years, but the annual three-month career lives on. In a recent Junior Achievement poll, 73.4 percent of the teenagers who responded said they plan to work this summer. Their top motivations were to make money for spending or for college.

Cash has long been recognized as a good way to get people to show up for work, but these young folks are being shortsighted. In those precious summers before adult responsibility crashes down on them like an obstetrics bill, they should look for something fulfilling, something that might add to their skills or open their minds to new possibilities. Also, the less dynamite involved, the better.

Mine was a checkered summer career. Given the chance to do it all again, I’d have to think about it.

I’m glad I learned how to sweat-solder copper pipes like a good home handyman when I worked for a plumber in Melbourne.

On the other hand, knowing what to do when explosives get hung up in a blasting hole hasn’t come in handy for quite some time. For the record, you jab at them with a long wooden pole. Or at least that’s what my lovable co-workers had me do.

As a self-employed environmental maintenance specialist – I mowed old ladies’ lawns – I learned the consequences of poor negotiation skills. One woman contracted with me to mow the grass around her mobile home every week for 60 cents. If only I had held out for 75 cents. Today I could have nicer things.

When I was employed by the Marshall County Conservation Board, taking care of the parks, I learned about effective time management. We would be headed back to Marshalltown from downtown Bangor or some other fancy tourist attraction, maybe 25 minutes from the shop, and my senior associate would say, “It’s 45 minutes to quitting time. Drive accordingly.”

From working with my carpenter dad, I learned that you should never step backward when you’re working on a roof. Fortunately it was a low roof, and I wasn’t holding any dynamite at the time.

Then there were all of those days of baling hay and walking soybeans, dreary tasks that so many Iowa baby boomers know so well. Let’s see, what did we get out of that except the occasional case of sunstroke?

I guess we learned what grinding manual labor really is, and once you’ve truly grasped that, a day in an air-conditioned office doesn’t seem so bad. But maybe repeated viewings of “Cool Hand Luke” would have done the trick just as well.

Of all the long days spent chopping weeds and corn out of bean fields, the longest might have been the one when Larry Harrendorf added vodka to our drinking water. Not all that refreshing when you’re walking for miles in 90-degree heat.

It provided an excellent summer-job lesson, though. Being under the thumb of teachers, professors and then bosses may seem like a demoralizing way to live – but it’s better than living in a society ruled by young men with alcohol and sharp tools.