What's in a job?

I fully retired about 5 years ago. When I look back on my resume of previous jobs, I think I'm a "Jack of many trades" and a master of none.

I've worked in television, international earthmoving equipment sales and marketing, the advertising agency business, a short stint in foreign missions (Kenya), health care administration and physician recruiting, retail photography including for 17 years as the owner of a commercial photo lab, and finally, before fully retiring, I was a background investigator contracted to the US Defense Department. I conducted national security background investigations for the military. 

Wow! What a crazy professional background. For a while as a part-time job, I even drove cars for a local auto auction.

There's nothing that ties together all those jobs. I graduated from college with a degree in photojournalism and a minor in psychology. The only common theme that I can find is that I often ended up in management positions or leadership roles within organizations.

I worked for Caterpillar Tractor Company as a sales rep in Africa and the Middle East. I lived with my wife in the African country of Kenya. I got to travel into such garden spots as Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique. I was a frequent traveler to many European capitals as well.

My favorite job was really my first job after college. I worked for WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas. My first job there was as a studio cameraman. I learned how to light a set and toward the end of that career, I worked the late shift as the 6 pm and 10 pm newscast floor director. More on that later.

How is it that my favorite job didn't last long (3 years) and was the lowest paying but created the most memories.

Let's face it, the television business can be an exciting field. I worked every day with television personalities. I got to meet celebrities, like in the photo below with film director Otto Preminger. He was an interesting fellow for sure.

One time I was asked to do makeup for TV host Art Linkletter who was in our studio being interviewed by our news team. That was a funny experience because I had never done makeup for a celebrity before. Everyone on the floor crew learned the basics of makeup but not anything like what Art Linkletter was expecting that day. I really did not know what I was doing. He figured that out before it was all over. 

My favorite experience was a weekend commercial shoot with William Shatner of Star Trek fame. Much of the time we sat around the studio talking Trekkie stuff between taping sessions. I am a serious Trekkie. Even today I have a model of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) on my desk at home. All I can say about that weekend gig is, WOW! What a memorable experience.

Just before I left channel 8 for greener pastures, I had a fun experience with my fellow floor crew colleagues and the 6 & 10 News anchors. I was the newscast floor director. They set me up for an epic fail on one of my last nights on the job. 

As the floor director, I was responsible for cues to the anchors. That evening, all the news anchors left the set and disappeared during the commercial break. That was not unusual. But when I couldn't find them coming out of commercial break to a live shot, then it got serious with the director in the control room screaming in my headphones. 

I thought the show was rolling to "black," which means in TV lingo, there was nothing to go to after coming out of commercial break. Just BLACK! 

What I didn't know was that everything had been set up to fool me, including rewiring the studio monitors. It was an epic ruse. 

News anchor Don Harris and I were friends. We often pranked each other. One day while Don was live on the air, I scooted low behind the set and rolled his socks down while he was delivering the news. He did not flinch. That defined our relationship. Don is the one that organized it all that night. Don had told me he would get me in epic fashion before my last day. He sure did that. 

The news anchors finally came into the studio from hiding, all grinning, and it turns out what I didn't know was that we were rolling into a long network special, not "black" as I thought.

When I look back on my various jobs, it wasn't really the "work" that I remembered as much as the people. That leads me to my final bit of advice as a 76-year-old retired person. 

At the end of the day, it's not the "toys" we accumulate that will be remembered. Our bank accounts will be inherited by someone else. Our houses will be sold and remodeled. The fancy car will end up in a junkyard somewhere. Our clothes will go to Goodwill. 

We won't be remembered so much for what we owned as much as the people whose lives we affected along the way.

After I left Channel 8, Don Harris was killed in Guyana covering the "Jim Jones" news story.  But I will always remember Don as the guy who pranked me so extraordinarily in a TV studio. I don't even remember what kind of car he drove (knowing Don, it was likely a junker). 

My advice: focus on people, not things. Make memories with those you love. Have fun and take chances. Life is too short.

This was Election Night, and the studio was COLD. We finally left the station to go home around 2 am. I found an old coat hanging in the hallway and paired it with gloves. Note George Wallace being interviewed in the TV monitor behind me. I was a lowly cameraman, but I loved this job.

Otto Preminger was an Austrian American film and theatre director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than thirty-five feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre and was one of the most influential directors in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. He was at WFAA being interviewed for our morning show and took time for photos with the staff.

Don Harris (news anchor) and I were friends, despite me being fresh out of college and Don being in the News Department and higher up the food chain. We had a "pranking" relationship, and Don was fun to be around. He signed this news article before I left the station.