Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred & Sixty Nine

Appetizer - What was your first “real” job?

My first "real" job was as an usher at Halls Cinema 4 in Halls, Tennessee (north of Knoxville) the first summer of college. It will always be one of my favorite jobs I ever had, because - hey, free movies and, hey, free popcorn. But seriously, I learned to stay on a schedule, be responsible for my finances, manage my time, learn customer service, and I also made friends through that job that have lasted to this day. After a couple of years, I parleyed that job into an Assistant Manager at Sevier Cinema 3 in Sevierville, which at the time was owned by the same company.

Although technically my first job was working at the UT Music Hall as a stagehand/tech it was Work Study job arranged with the financial aid department and not one I actually applied for. I did end up working off and on there as well the whole time I was at UT.


Soup - Where would you go if you wanted to spark your creativity?

The theatre. I'm at my most creative when I'm in a theatre, surrounded my musicians or actors and in the midst of rehearsal.


Salad - Complete this sentence: I am embarrassed when…

I am embarrassed when… I once again forget something I was supposed to remember. I have the worst memory in the world, and it's not something I've been able to make any progress beating. I think I'm just brain-damaged.


Main Course - What values did your parents instill in you?

You name it. All of them. Fairness, kindness, listening to other people, empathy, patience...


Dessert - Name 3 fads from your teenage years.

I was a teenager in the 80's, so all my formative fads are from there. I remember:

1. Rubik's Cube - not just it, but a dozen other hand-held put-them-back-together puzzles. I know I had a couple others besides The Cube. People might remember all the various self-help books that came out about that time on how to beat the Rubik's Cube, plus a number of books on how to beat all the video games that were just getting popular - Defender, Qbert, all of those..
   
2. Winged Hair - not the Farrah Fawcett "feathered" look, specifically, but the parted down the middle, swept back to the sides hairstyle that a lot of teenage girls (and some guys whose hair was long enough) favored. Let's just say I REALLY liked that look on some of the girls in my school... :)
   
3. Hand-held electronic games - The precursors to GameBoys were Electronic Football and Electronic Basketball. Small boxes about the same size as a GameBoy but using LED lights you manipulated around a screen to simulate a sporting event. They were specialized - they could only play the one specific game they were designed for - and they were everywhere. I remember sitting in high school study hall and hearing, "beep boop! beep beep beep boop!" all over. The teachers eventually confiscated most of them, but we learned to disable the sound and keep them out of sight.
   
   You know, I could go on and on with 80's fads...