Knights Know Kings ( #AtoZChallenge )

      Knowledge is king.  I don't know any actual kings, but if I were a knight I might very well know a king or a queen perhaps. But I don't know any knights either so that's as far as that correlation goes.  However, I do know a lot of things as well as places and people. Or do I really know much of anything?

        Knowing certain things can play a big part in the jobs we find.  Knowing certain people can be even more important in getting a job.   Most of the best jobs I've had in my life I had gotten because of somebody whom I knew.  Like the saying goes, "It's who we know that counts" and I can vouch for that in my life.

      Knoxville is where I got my first job just by applying.  I was a student at the University of Tennessee at the time when a summer job ad came up in the newspaper. The position was at a carnival supply company where they were looking for warehouse help.  The boss was an old carny named Kermit and once I said I was a student he proclaimed, "Well, a college boy!  You're hired!  I'm giving the position of assistant manager."   

       That was pretty fine with me even though my new position also required that I'd be doing the warehouse work labor as my main job.  But I also was put in charge of maintaining the showroom and waiting on customers.  It was a great summer job that provided lots of overtime hours during the busy time.  I enjoyed the work and the people there.  I ended up staying there for the next 3 or so years as they were willing to accommodate my school schedule which didn't greatly interfere with the busy summer season when I took off to work.

       Eventually I left that job to take a job with a road show.  That was a job based on who I knew.  I was interested in show business and had some contacts that served me well over the years to keep me employed.  Knowing people helped me get jobs I wanted, liked, or needed--or all three.

       But just knowing a knight would not likely give me an opportunity to meet a king.  Nor would I likely know a knight.  Since knights don't go around in shiny armor or any semblance of that attire as a rule, a knight might seem like you or I.  

       Maybe on some strange night I'll meet a knight who will introduce me to a king.  It would all likely be a metaphorical encounter or just an encounter with people with strange names.  It all might happen.  I doubt it, but you never know.

 

         Who has been the most important contact you've had in your career?   How did you get your first job?  Did you work your way through college?

Just Juggling Jackson ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

    Just juggling Jackson--that's who I am.  I've been that for maybe sixty years?  Since I was a kid of about eleven years old or so.  That's when I learned to juggle.  I was under pressure.  My younger sister had learned, and even my cousin who came to visit that summer.  So I practiced until I could do it--juggle.  I think my father gave everyone who learned to juggle $5.  And now I was part of the family juggling act:  The Juggling Jacksons...

          "Juggler" is how some guys in high school used to address me.  Maybe they didn't know my name, but they knew who I was. My family had been featured in news articles in area papers on various occasions and our juggling act was pretty common knowledge at school. 

        I liked it because it meant extra money for me whenever we played a gig.  Sometimes I'd have to miss a day or two of school to go do shows, but usually it was something we did on weekends.  My sister now says she didn't like doing the shows, but she had more of a social life than I did.  The shows were not only nice income, but I enjoyed doing it.

       My sister eventually left the act and went on with her own life.  Not too long after that I was offered a job in a touring magic show.  Part of my job was to do a brief specialty juggling act.  I basically did most of my father's comedy act as "Juggling Jackson."  No longer the family.  Just Juggling Jackson.

        It was a great life!

       Did you have a particular identity in school related to your talent or something else?  Was this a good influence for you?  What was your favorite family activity when you were growing up?

I Incense Idiots ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

      Interstate highways are one of the greatest innovations of American history.  It's pretty amazing to think that most Americans can drive a relatively short distance to get on a highway that connects to a massive network of interconnecting roadways that can get us to any part of the country in a fairly effective manner.  I love the U.S. Interstate highway system.  Thank you, Ike!

I Incense Idiots

     I'll admit that I've lost a few friends on Facebook over the years and likely have lost a reader or so on my blog because people didn't like something I said.  Maybe I should say that what I might have said at some time or other completely outraged those who read it.  As far as I'm concerned, they are idiots.  Yeah, if they are silly enough to unfriend me, diss me, dismiss me, or whatever they want to do to me just because I'm logical and they're not then oh well--it's all of our loss even though it's not world-ending loss and it's because they are apparently idiots. 

      Several such people I don't really know, but the ones that I have actually known in real life I kind of wonder if they were really people I could have called friends.  People I thought of as friends for as much as fifty years now won't answer my phone calls or emails.  I guess they are not friends anymore. Or maybe never really were.  I miss them in a way,  But they got incensed over things I believe in.  I incense idiots.  

        Have you lost any friends over your opinions?   What is the friend with whom you have had the longest relationship?  As you get older do you find it more difficult to make new friendships?