Some jobs are really labors of love 

Those of us who labor in life all started out somewhere. For Betsy Reynolds, a physical therapist’s assistant in Lilburn, that “somewhere” was a military commissary in Brooklyn where as an eighth grader she gathered grocery carts in the parking lot. Cheryl Ellis, a past president of the Lilburn Women’s Club recalls, “As a senior in high school, I worked at a cinema for 75 cents an hour and all the popcorn and pop I could eat and drink.”

Mac McCann, an engineer in Tucker, experienced hard labor early in life. “I got a job selling encyclopedias door-to-door in college. They dropped us off on the street and said they’d pick us up at night. We didn’t know we couldn’t do this without a license.” When the police picked him up, he had no way to call home. No twitter. No texting. Not even a beeper!

Another Tucker resident, Carol Daniel, owner of Piccadilly Puppets, worked her way up from the night shift in a nursing home while in college. “I was in the basement, cold and damp, all by myself, doing the laundry. It was scary. Then, after folding the laundry, I had to bathe several elderly men,” Daniel said. 

At the other end of the career path, many who spent their lives in high-power professions, find their best jobs in life turned out to be what they now do for free.

Former Marine Kathi Mardis, Chairman of the Board for New London Theater in Snellville said, “Being in 'show biz' gives back so much more than it takes. I work with some really interesting adults and children and can let loose my creative self and put skills I learned in my careers (military and civilian) to work.”

Richard Anderson, from Carrolton said, “I retired as a Senior Research Fellow after 31 years with a global consumer products corporation. As challenging and rewarding as those years were, my most fulfilling experiences have followed retirement, providing little intellectual challenge and no monetary compensation. These activities range from washing dishes in a soup kitchen to preparing income taxes for the elderly and low-income to sorting surplus medical supplies to be shipped to third-world countries. And an occasional thanks.”

And even some people’s first jobs literally turned out to be labors of love. 

Carmen Ponder of Norcross recalls, “My most memorable job is also my husband’s most memorable. We were both students at Georgia Tech. I needed a part-time job and a friend told me about an opening at the Student Center Craft Center and said, ‘Ask for Rob.’ I showed up a little early to get my bearings, and there he was, helping other students with some pottery. This tall, skinny, friendly guy with sparkling green eyes would not stop smiling at me! After training me, he decided to stay through my entire first evening on the job – you know, just to make sure I got the hang of the job. We were immediately drawn to each other, and have stayed together ever since. We graduated together, worked together at the same architecture firm, then opened our own firm in Gwinnett County. I’m still not able to “center” a lump of clay on a pottery wheel, but I think we’ve got the hang of this marriage thing.”

To all of the above I say “job well done.”

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