Not every job is built to last forever

My wife and I took our boys to the circus when they were little.

We pointed out the lion tamers, trapeze artists and tightrope walkers. They got to see clowns, jugglers … and an elephant taking a dump.

That’s all they wanted to talk about on the way home – the elephant performing a bodily function in the middle of a three-ring circus.

Even though it was crude and embarrassing, all eyes were trained on the sideshow at the Macon
Coliseum.

What I remember most was the poor guy whose job was to stand behind the elephant holding a large garbage can.

I did not attempt to explain it to my boys. Had they been older, I might have used it as a teaching moment. 

Study hard in school so you won’t have to shovel elephant manure.

I often wonder if that circus fellow got a promotion. Or if that job still exists. It’s not exactly something you want to put on your resume.

Labor Day is a celebration of American workers. Maybe it should double as a memorial day.

Think about all occupations that have vanished, like the ferry boat captains at Dames Ferry. They were replaced when the bridge was built across the Ocmulgee at Ga. 18 in 1962.

And milkmen. Whatever became of those guys? I remember one came to our house when I was in about the fifth or sixth grade. It was in glass bottles back then. And there weren’t so many options – organic, lactose free, almond, soy, cashew, coconut and oat.

Milk was milk.

My first job was a paper boy. I delivered newspapers on my bicycle in the afternoon. My mother — bless her — drove me around on my route in her station wagon on Sunday mornings when the papers were larger and heavier.

Now, newspaper carriers are practically an endangered species. The medium has been shifting to digital platforms and many printed editions are delivered through the mail.

Next Thursday, Sept. 4, is National Newspaper Carrier Day. I wonder how many paperboys are left to celebrate.

I have watched a parade of jobs that have changed or been eliminated in my lifetime. 

The clock has run out on so many of them … like clock repairmen. 

 At age 99, Raymond Hamrick was still repairing mechanical clocks and watches at Andersen Jewelers on Second Street. He was one of the few in the country who still did it.

Now, it has almost become a lost art. We have digital watches. Our phones and TVs keep time for us.

We live in a disposable society. We quit fixing things. We throw them away. Years ago, I had to hunt for somebody  who could repair an answering machine. He leveled with me. I could buy a new machine for what it would cost to get it working again.

Geraldine Hudson sold men’s clothes for more than 50 years in Macon, most of them at the long-closed Bowen Brothers Clothiers on Mulberry Street.

But before she entered the world of button-downs, she pushed the buttons on the city’s first elevator at Jos. N. Neel Department Store.  In 1961, the elevator operator at Jos. N. Neel called in sick, and Geraldine was eventually hired as her replacement, taking the customers between floors.

She later began answering the phones at the iconic department store. Switchboard operator is another job that is all but extinct. 

We still have fossil fuel, but full-service gas stations have gone the way of the dinosaurs. The late Charles Hicks used to pump gas, check your oil, tires and wipe windshields. He began working at the Standard Oil at the corner of Broadway and Mulberry in 1949, when gas was 10 cents a gallon. He spent six years at a Gulf station on Vineville, then worked at the Amoco and Exxon stations on Riverside for almost 40 years.

Artificial Intelligence will continue to shape and restructure the American workforce. There are projections that 30% of American jobs will be automated in another five years and almost two-thirds will be significantly impacted.

I am fascinated and frightened at the same time.

The watch list of occupations possibly headed to the gallows includes everything from bank tellers to researchers, translators, lab technicians, postal workers, truck drivers, assembly line workers, paralegals, customer service representatives and telemarketers, to name a few. (I’m sure there won’t be much pushback from the public on the
telemarketers.) 

Technology has taken over. I usually avoid the self-service checkouts at stores. So many things go wrong that you end up not saving that much time. 

But my wife and I tried the new “Scan & Go” technology at Sam’s Club a few weeks ago. It allows customers to scan items with their phones and pay as they shop. The company plans to phase out its self-checkout kiosks, as well as its traditional checkout lanes.

I was prepared to show my phone code to the lady who checks receipts at the door, but she waved me on through. I later learned that this AI technology verifies purchases through image classification as customers exit the store. I guess that means receipt checkers could be  on the way out as well.

A few years ago, there was an Asian restaurant downtown near The Medical Center. A waiter or waitress would take your order then program a robot to bring the food to your table. It was amazing.  

Earlier this week, I was telling a friend about cutting my own grass. Rather than going to the expense of hiring a lawn service, I still push that mower all over the yard. And I’m not getting any younger.

My grandson was sitting next to me and spoke up.

“Gris, why don’t you get one of those robots that will cut your grass?” he asked.

“No way,’’ I said.

“Then teach me how to cut your yard,’’ he said.

I told him he was hired. In the future, he knows he has a summer job.

Sure beats the circus.

In his youth, Ed Grisamore fried chicken for Colonel Sanders, scooped 31 flavors at Baskin-Robins and grilled ribeyes at Bonanza Steakhouse. He mixed Sherwin-Williams paint in the home improvement department at Kmart. Yes, latex was on his first bucket list.