Brooms, Neck Tattoos, the Economy...

 I was pondering whether to get my $600 tattoo on my back or my neck and I thought about something I heard someone say. 

"It's a good economy for a man that does not mind pushing a broom." 

I think what he really meant was that it's a good economy for a man or a woman for that matter, who does not mind getting their hands dirty and I thought about broom pushing in my own life.  

I got my first real job, an adult job, in an economy where huge warehouses were often needed to hold all the product pouring from the great furnace of American endlessness. These were warehouses roughly the size of a downtown block in the city of Lufkin, Tx. The Keltys warehouse that had once been part of the old Angelina County Lumber Company and occasionally used for offsite storage was the size of several city blocks. These warehouses required sweeping. 

To sweep the warehouse a couple of guys were issued brooms about 18" in width and a one gallon tin bucket full of an oily, pink sawdust mixture called floor sweep. The floor sweep was scattered at random by the handful and caused dust and dirt to stick together for easy sweeping. This took awhile but it was an economy that paid by the hour and time and a half when you went over eight hours. 

As time went on and it was discovered that making money often means workforce reductions the company found that the number of employees and time required to sweep a warehouse could be reduced by having a mechanical sweeper. The last warehouse sweeping I did was sitting on one of these. A comfortable seat, propane powered to contribute to a clean low emission indoor atmosphere with whirling brushes and vacuum suction it was a dirt Zamboni and I probably received 30 minutes of instruction to qualify for a certificate to proclaim my operational prowess.  

So my view here is that the economy, at this point in time is not going to let a man get his hands on a broom. Those big warehouses I mentioned stand on empty ground that few recall the original purpose of. I retired from a second career that came after the sweeping and I checked in on the 401k associated with this work. It had made as much money as one could expect from something like this, on what I do not know and all without me hitting a lick at a snake for the last eight months. Unless you call blog writing, banjo strumming and tuba playing, things which I sometimes do get paid for hitting a lick at a snake. 

Now understand this idle wealth, made with clean hands, is not like legacy money. It could be burned through pretty quick with the purchase of top of the line bass boats, neck tattoos, Gibson guitars and trips to see U.S. Tico in Costa Rica. It will be enough money for the economy I create here on out for myself. 

A neck tattoo of a man with dirty hands pushing a broom, maybe a skeleton pushing a broom, a dolphin pushing a broom, a unicorn pushing a broom, help me, I'm brainstorming here.