Judith Jack Rings

George Jonas: In search of a meaningful summer job

June is a month for — well, June is a month for many things, including Fathers Day. Fathers are people who rake leaves, cut lawns and ring friends to say their children are looking for summer jobs. It’s actually their grandchildren by now, as often as not.

“Don’t tell me little Alexis…”

“Little Alexis is six foot tall,” one grandfather tells me, “and his name isn’t Alexis. It’s Bob. You’re thinking of Thistlewhite’s kid. His name is Alexis and he already has a job, the pushy brat.”

“Bob, yes, of course.” I’ve no inkling what my friend is talking about. Bob? There used to be hordes of rug rats milling about Georgian Bay cottages during summer barbecues, eons ago. I‘ve a vague recollection of an Alexis, but a Bob?

“I’ve already hired someone to look after the garden,” I start apologetically, but Bob is after bigger game than my turf. “That’s okay, Bob doesn’t do lawns,” my friend replies. “Believe it or not, the kid is interested in show business.”

I believe it. Most grandchildren seem to be. It’s either show business or doing something meaningful. In some cases, it’s both.

“Bob’s happy to work for minimum wage,” my friend adds, which is also very today. Boy, how times have changed.

There’s nothing wrong with meaningful jobs, of course, not even when they’re in show business. Working for the minimum wage — or for nothing, literally, as an “intern” — is also fine. But my buddies and I used to view summer jobs from a vastly different perspective 50 or 60 years ago. For us a “meaningful” job was one that paid the highest wages relative to the qualifications required. In Ontario, in those days, it was picking tobacco.

Some disputed it. They said picking worms, if you were good at it, paid more. In any event, the contest was between those two. The rest were slim pickings, in comparison.

We liked meaningful jobs, all right, but interpreted the meaning of “meaning” differently. What seemed meaningful to us in the 1950s was saving five or six hundred dollars during the summer months. Those were big bucks when Elvis Presley and Harry Belafonte were topping the charts. Meaningful money made up for a menial job more than a meaningful job would have for the minimum wage. Whether this was because we were more materialistic than our grandchildren, or merely not as rich, is hard to say.

Someone may object that most youngsters seeking meaningful jobs today are far from being rich — to which I reply that to have the attitude of the rich it isn’t necessary to have their wallets. Anyone who searches for meaning before he knows where his next meal is coming from has an attitude one might describe as a bit too rich.

Mademoiselle, the magazine for the smart young woman

Chilton's jewelers' circular/keystone directory

Chilton's jewelers' circular/keystone the great all in one directory

The American magazine

Forest and stream