For the summer of 1984, I decided that I wouldn't be taking any classes at Eastern New Mexico University. I had just experienced 21 months of education in a row and was really ready for a break. I thought I would be experiencing three months of doing nothing like I used to before college, but that didn't happen the way I wanted it to. In fact, it was actually a lot like the summers I lived through during high school.
I started out being able to return to work at my first job at the Racquet and Health Club. That lasted about three weeks before they laid me off. There really wasn't anyplace in town I wanted to work, and besides, all the summer jobs had already been taken. Mom made me dressed go to one of the banks and apply. The person doing the hiring asked me what it was I wanted to do there. I said, "I don't know. I'm only here because I lost my job my Mom doesn't want me lazing around the house like a bum all summer." Yeah, he didn't hire me.
Then we hired this guy to re-do the tiling in our entryway. Dad got to talking with him and he mentioned that he needed an assistant. Dad told me to talk to him about getting a job. While he was working on the tiling, begrudgingly discuss the possibility of me working with him. He really didn't seem that interested in having me work for him (probably because I looked too skinny to be carrying around heavy tiles), but said I could work for him. A couple of weeks passed and we never heard from him again. I was rather relieved.
But that didn't mean I got out of working. I still had to mow all the lawns at the apartments. (It was really nice getting out of that the previous summer. Maybe I should have gone to school.) Dad also made me go do the janitorial work at the building he owned, which housed Artesia's Welfare Department. Cleaning only took about 15 minutes. (It wasn't a very big building.) Dad said he would pay me $2 a day to clean the place, which meant I was making $8 an hour. I didn't want to do it, but it did get me out of the house for about a half hour every night, so I didn't really have much to complain about. One of the fun things was that the people who worked there often left sensitive documents out in the open and I would frequently come aross the welfare applications of people I went to high school with, many of whom had become single mothers.
A few months earlier while in school, I had applied for a part-time job with a radio station in Clovis, NM. Its call letters were KCPK, but went by the name of K108FM. They were looking for a part-time DJ to work on the weekends. When I got there, I realized I knew the Program Director because he had been in my Journalism class. His name was Crad. We had teamed up on an in-class project early in the semester. However, he stopped attending classes after a couple of weeks. He was doing his on-air shift when I came to the station, so he interviewed me in the broadcast room. I reminded him that we had worked together in class and he remembered me.
Since I didn't have an air-check of me doing stuff on-air when I was at the college AM station or KENM/KNIT, he had me record a quick air-check in their production studio, with me introducing and talking out of a song. I remember it was "Master Blaster" by Stevie Wonder. I also read a coupld of general announcements. I thought it turned out pretty well. However, I didn't get the job.
In July, my Mom and I planned a trip to the Portales/Clovis area. Mom needed to go up and gripe about the furniture she had purchased for the fancy living room. I wanted to see the ENMU Theatre Departtment's production of "The Boy Friend." I decided to hit up the radio stations in Clovis to get a job so I could work in my field. I went to KCLV and filled out an application. There was this guy who came out and said, "You're applying to be a DJ? Yeah, that's one thing we need around here is more DJs." At the time, I didn't know he was being facetious.
I went back to K108FM. Crad was there and he was actually happy to see me. He told me that the guy he had hired decided not to work there any longer, so he was looking to hire again. A few days later, he called me and told me I got the job. I continued working at that station, became full time during my last semester in college and continued to work there two years after I graduated. I will go into full detail about my experiences there after I finish with the college portion of this blog.
The ironic thing is that if I had continued to work at the Racquet and Health Club or had started working with the tile guy, I wouldn't have applied to that radio station again, I wouldn't have had a job when I graduated from college and I probably would have had to move back in with my parents after graduating. It may have started as what I had hoped was going to be a lazy summer, but it turned into one of the most productive vacations I've ever had.
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