What I learned on my summer vacation

It has been an interesting summer.

I believe in one of my previous blogs I mentioned King and I decided I would look for seasonal employment so we could pay cash for the renovations on our travel trailer. We decided he would continued to work the farm -- cutting wood and tending the 50 acres of lawn and woods -- as we completed our caretaker gig. I garden. I don't cut and stack wood. At least not to King's liking.

Cutting wood for the winter is a never ending job. I have not been able to stack wood to King's liking. I don't believe he has figured out my lack of stacking ability is not entirely accidental.

There were a few bumps along to road to finding a job. I believe I mentioned being dismissed from a job while job shadowing because I am a former reporter and the fear was I might sell the "trade secrets" of the business. As if after 40 years of reporting, several Michigan Press Association awards, and just generally working my butt off at my chosen field, I would destroy my reputation by selling my soul to the highest bidder. Despite what people say about the media, most of us do have integrity.

Anyway, I eventually got a job at a small clothing store in the tourist town where King and I live. The shop sells t-shirts and other touristy apparel as well as several lines of women's clothing --  mostly for the more mature female.

And despite negative comments some people may say about tourists and visitors who flock to the lakeshore for the summer, I found most of the customers to be pleasant, friendly, happy to be on vacation and generally in a good mood. After all, who does not love to be on vacation? And in a few short months King and I will be on semi-permanent vacation as well, so I feel a certain kinship with these people. (Although I must confess, we probably won't be buying many t-shirts along the way).

I have often heard local residents complain that the tourism industry does not affect them positively  and only serves to create more traffic downtown and deplete limited parking availability.

Are they right? Yes and no.

In our small community many large industries left the area long ago. Good paying jobs disappeared. And yes I will agree, minimum wage jobs provided by the tourism industry don't come close to the pay of factory jobs. Families can not survive on minimum wage. Seasonal jobs such as mine make a monthly truck payment, or pay for the latest addition to our travel trailer, but we could not live on my income. We never expected to. But tourists do bring thousands of dollars to the community. Roads, schools, parks and other public spaces all benefit from the money brought to the area via the tourism industry. Think about it, hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, t-shirt shops, marinas, charter fishing boats ... all these businesses pay taxes and keep things running in the community. Embrace the crowds folks. I have lived in ghost towns with more boarded up businesses than open businesses. Trust me. It does make a difference to the well-being of the entire community.

So I spent the last half of the summer hawking t-shirts. To be honest -- and it probably sounds hokey -- working a quiet retail job in a sometimes sleepy, sometimes busy little town is something I always wanted to try. I can't say it was on my bucket list, but I have to admit, it was more fun than attending countless staff meetings as I did when I worked for a university and was certainly more fun than covering a county board of commissioners meeting as I did when I was a reporter.

Of course, being in the interviewing business, as I was for so many years, I asked a lot of questions. "Do you live in the area? Where are you from? Have you been here before? Where are you staying? How many summers have you been coming here?"

People love to talk about themselves. If you show a genuine interest in them, they will tell you a lot of things. They will also ask questions of their own: "Have you always worked here?  Where is the nearest bathroom? What do you recommend as a good place to eat? How do I find ______? Where is the lighthouse?"

I was surprised by the number of times I was asked "What do you do here in the winter?" Ummm, dress warm and generally find parking spaces in front of the stores we want to visit downtown. Yes, it becomes much quieter during the winter months. And yes, not all the shops remain open year-round. Yes, this one does. No, I am not the owner.

And I had the privilege of meeting all kinds of ... aahhh ... interesting people. There was an older couple who came into the store and asked to use our restroom. (We don't have a public restroom, but if a customer looks as though they are in dire need of the facilities, we take them through the storage area to our private restroom in the back of the store). As  I was taking the woman to the back she told me they had been at a restaurant and refused to use the facilities there because the sign on the door read, "Unisex." After she was finished using our facility I told her since all the employees in our store used the same facility I supposed our restroom was "Unisex" as well. (I can be snarky).

It's been fun. It's been an education. And despite the days when I was counting the hours until it was time to go home --15 minutes after starting my shift -- it was good.Will I do it again? Probably not.

We told the person who owns the hobby farm where we work we would come back next summer for one last season. Unless things change drastically we will keep our word. Rather than find another seasonal job, I will probably give in and learn to stack wood correctly.


Travel Trailer update: Work is going well on the trailer renovation. I decided to name our future home "The Tree House," because as kids the tree houses we built were made of leftover lumber and other scraps that we could scrounge. And we did our renovations on the cheap with whatever supplies we had on hand, purchasing things only as we really, really needed them.  However, that being said, I am pretty pleased with our progress and I think she looks pretty good.  We have the propane water heater installed and King is waiting for help to make certain it's hooked up correctly. We'd rather not asphyxiate ourselves on the road. After that, all that is needed is a little more paint, some curtains, re-covering cushions and we are done.

The couch in back has been replaced with a permanent bed. We still need to add storage underneath
and I need to recover the former couch cushions, add throw pillows and sew curtains.
(And yes, there is a door to access the water tank under the bed).

The ceiling with the AC unit. We still need to paint everything. Although it is hard to see,
there is a fold-down bunk bed in the back above the regular bed.
We can pull it down (and also convert the eating area) for additional sleeping space
when the grandchildren spend the night with us.