so i hate golf. i mean i despise it.  it’s kind of crazy because of that that a golf job was the first job i ever had.  crazy.  i worked at a damn golf course. 

this was a crappy job in the - don’t-do-shit-really-but-this-job-still-kind-of-sucks-when-you’re-15 kind of way.  you know what i’m talking abbout.  well anyway, i had to park the carts in front of the clubhouse.  i had to bring them from this garage where they were charged and line 7 in row up front. 

i had to always make sure there were 7 out there. 

so i just ran my ass off running these carts out there.  when one came in you washed it off and backed, yes backed, it in. 

i mean there could 8 carts deep in a row…that’s how far back.  you were scared shitless because you were going backwards and you still hadn’t quite figured out that opposite-is-right backwards steering thing.  so anyway, that was hard…sometimes you’d run into a cart and hope not much damage was done.  sometimes damage was done and you hoped nile, the boss, didnt notice.  when the carts came in you had to clean all the shit out of them.  i mean there were bags of old food–half-eaten chicken wings kind of stuff.  and the beer…damn they drank a LOT. i mean these were like big-time in-the-church guys. 

anyway.. 

i also rotated over to the driving range.  where i had to drive this huge contraption that picked all the balls up. 

It sucked. 

you get what i’m implying and before you say “but you had a cage on it,” no i didn’t.  yes, i got hit.  it did, really, hurt. 

during the week it seems that i mostly changed the trash cans at every hole and picked up pine cones.  you can see the level of trust i’d earned.  so one day, it was time for a “project.” i had to lay pine straw and plant some flowers at this little section by like the 3rd hole.

well, i did it.  i did it as well as i knew how.  see, what i’ve learned in my career as a “manager of people” is that sometimes you have to coach someone and let them know how to do something and provide feedback in the process.  no, i got none of that.  so i did as well as i knew how.  i guess i also forgot to clean out the cart when i took it back up to the little shed area.  so the next day my buddy will tells me how shitty that was of me. 

“what” i say?  he’s like….nile was pissed about the job you did with that pine straw up there.  and not only that you brought back the cart with pine straw and dirt and shit all over.  stan (the grounds mgr kind of guy) was pissed and he chewed us out all morning.  we had to clean it up before we took it out.  i’m like, wow, i didn’t really realize it was done so poorly.  so i’m kind of worried about going to work that afternoon.  i get there and i’m doing something, like picking up cigarette butts out of the front shrubery.  and i see nile walking up.  i’m thinking here it commes…..and i’m like, i was scared about it, because i knew it was coming, and I knew it would be the kinf of situation that i’d never dealt with before… but i mean, i was 15….it was just a shitty job.  what did i care, right?  so he comes up to me and tells me one of the guys from college was coming back to town and he didn’t have room on his team right now for me.  this guy, the kid from college, knew the course well, nile said, and he could help out the guys a lot.  he looks at me as his says this last bit. 

i’ll never forget looking at him and it’s like right out a movie. he’s squiting a bit and his head is sorta in front of and around the sun so it’s hard to see his face that well. the guy actually had his hands held together, as if he were either wringing them, and gritting his teeth not wanting to chew me a new one and wasn’t because he knew my dad real well, or he was holding them together to show graciousness.

and my 15 yr old mind is just like, dude, just say it.  he says, i’m going to let brian come back.  i didn’t know he’d be coming back when i hired you.  i’m going to have to let you go since you were the most recently hired. 

i said, okay.  kind of solemnly.  and i turned around and walked away.