\n| \n Helping at times, and watching helpless at others,
\n as our 20-year-old son searches for his first "real" job, his previous
\n renumerative resume consisting exclusively of post-snowstorm shoveling
\n duty and very occasional market research study groups. Our emotions are
\n a mixture of pride and pain, sympathy and disappointment, frustration
\n with those who fail to recognize his talent and potential and nagging
\n guilt that we have left him so unprepared to compete in the dog eat dog
\n entry-level labor market.<\/p>\n These emotions are overaid with memories of our own
\n checkered work history. When we were our son’s age (20) we were as far
\n away from the 9-to-5 workaday world as we would ever be. We were nominally
\n engaged as a full-time student at the World’s Greatest University, but
\n in reality weeks would go by without our seeing the inside of a classroom.
\n There were days in which covering our nakedness long enough to go down
\n to the store for a quart of Tropicana orange juice and the New York Times
\n was the extent of the daily workload.<\/p>\n On the other hand, by that age we had been working "real"
\n jobs for over six years and were thoroughly familiar with the costs and
\n benefits of the working world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Dowbrigade started working at the tender age of
\n 13, at the flagship store of The Toggery Shop, a small local chain of
\n men’s haberdasheries owned by our maternal grandfather. Eldest brother
\n of a Russian\/Polish family riding the greatest wave of immigration to
\n hit these shores ever (up until the current tsunami of Latin Americans
\n coming home to roost,) over 20 million Eastern European Jews fleeing
\n pogroms and the earliest intimations of a virulent anti-semetism which
\n would
\n crystalkize (mestaphasize) 30 years later in the Holocast, Joseph Feldman
\n came through Ellis Island, stopped breifly in New Jersey, and finally
\n settled in Rochester, New York. By 1960 he had founded and built up the
\n 5 store Toggery chain, giving employment to a brother, a sister, a brother-in-law,
\n a dozen other members of the mishna – and one gangly, goofy grandson.<\/p>\n When we stated at the Toggery Shop our job was mostly stocking and restocking the invnetory, which consisted of everything the well-dressed hoodlum needed, circa 1966. Boot cut chinos, Levis jeans and cords, ruffled shirts and mock turtlenecks, Nehru jackets and Rayban sunglasses. Carnaby street was coming in, and the Mod look was big; splashy, spermy paisley ties and fake silk kercheifs, accessorized with clunky cufflinks and spacey aumlets – pre-hiphop bling-bling. <\/p>\n Before long we were a full-fledged salesman, acting as a seasoned wardrobe advisor to the tragically hip young dudes just starting to flex their cultural muscle, creating a style and attitude which back then was still an affront in the face of straight society. And of course, given our immpeccable sense of style and employee discount, the Dowbrigade was the best-dressed seventh grader at the Harley School.<\/p>\n For the next three or four years we worked a couple of afternoons a week, plus Saturdays. Grandpa Joe treated us just like his other salesmen, and we learned early the <\/p>\n Crewel and Unusual<\/p>\n D & C<\/p>\n Conclusion – don’t work<\/p>\n 10 years of catch as catch can
\n Advice of counsel
\n He-Man Moving Company<\/p>\n Started teaching week Joey was born<\/p>\n Evers ince<\/p>\n current job<\/p>\n Gabe’s current job<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Helping at times, and watching helpless at others, as our 20-year-old son searches for his first "real" job, his previous renumerative resume consisting exclusively of post-snowstorm shoveling duty and very occasional market research study groups. Our emotions are a mixture … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |