Toe in the Water

Résumé

Résumé

I was thinking today about the things we writers get up to while waiting to become real writers. Steven (currently known as s) was a wrestler for a time, I’m told. It would be a fair bet that not many other members of WDC have been wrestlers. And I dare say that some of my former occupations would not be shared by others in the group (is that a fair description of what WDC is?). Some would, of course.

In the interests of full disclosure, here’s a list, in chronological order, of the roles I have assumed in the past:

A legal clerk in the civil service
A legal clerk in a bank
A machinist in a car factory
A supermarket manager (which means that I’ve done all the other jobs in a supermarket - it’s the way Kwiksave managers are trained)
A courier
A painter and decorator
A church administrator
A teacher of teenagers expelled from school

Those were the paid positions. The unpaid ones are just as numerous:

A hippy (for about a week in 1967)
A freak (that’s what my generation called themselves around the time of Woodstock)
A wannabe great artist
A wannabe great writer (poet or novelist, I didn’t care)
A model maker (slot cars)
A virtuoso on the Jew’s harp
An aficianado of F1 motor racing
A crabby old man

I maintain that they amount to a fair qualification for the title of writer. At least it means I have something to write about. Whether it’s interesting or not is entirely another matter.


Word count: 258