In honor of Labor Day, a look at some of Macon’s most unique jobs

B. Keith Williams has been making music in his adopted hometown since the days of bell-bottoms and long sideburns.

His name has been on marquees at local pubs and music venues for more than half a century.

Mike Fuller has been pulling rabbits out of hats at birthday parties and plucking coins from behind the ears of unsuspecting children for three generations. 

For the past 32 years, Rachel Moore has made a 120-mile daily commute from
Macon to Oglethorpe for her job as a process control engineering manager at International Paper. She also serves as a “life coach” for women, helping them navigate and balance their careers and families.

James Wolf drives a zamboni ice machine on the frozen rink at the Macon Coliseum and considers it artwork.

Monday is Labor Day, an annual celebration of American workers. Journalist Studs Terkel, who wrote the best-selling book “Working,” defined our jobs as the “search for daily meaning as well as daily bread.’’

‘I want to be a part of this’

When Wolf was the band director for 15 years at Union Elementary School in Macon, he held a variety of side jobs.

He ran dart tournaments at the Hummingbird Stage & Taproom, rented river tubes at Amerson Park, worked at local pizza restaurants  and taught at summer camps at Wesleyan College.

“I was throwing noodles at the wall until something stuck,’’ he said.

In 2016, he attended his first Macon Mayhem game and was afflicted with a serious case of hockey fever.

 “Wow,’’ he said, “I want to be a part of this.’’

He applied for a part-time job at the Coliseum with an interesting request. He wanted to drive the Zamboni, the giant resurfacer that shaves the ice with a large blade, then distributes a layer of freezing water to repair blade marks and divots on the ice.

A Zamboni is as smooth as a street sweeper and as loud as a  tractor. 

“It’s like a Jeep Wrangler with the windshield down,’’ he said.

It holds 300 gallons of water and has a state-of-the-art, laser-guided level ice system. Wolf sits 5 feet in the air on top of more than four tons of machinery.

The ice rink is 200 feet long and 80 feet wide with rounded corners. The machine sweeps across the ice with a 77-inch swath. He works in tandem with Raymond Smith, the other Zamboni driver.

“I like to tell people once you drive the Zamboni, you’ll never cut your yard the same again,’’ Wolf said. “It’s all right turns. It’s a very peaceful job, turning the ice into this perfect glass. It’s something you can be proud of. Each time you do it, you’re turning something damaged into something beautiful.’’

When Wolf was teaching, he was asked to participate in a career day at Union and talk to students about his double life as a Zamboni operator.

He is now manager of operations for the Macon Centreplex (Coliseum and City Auditorium) and the Atrium Health Amphitheater.

But whenever he introduces himself, he doesn’t always tout those credentials and his fancy title.

“I tell them I’m the Zamboni driver,’’ he said, laughing.

Success on paper

Rachel Moore spends her mornings and afternoons dodging deer and hoping she doesn’t get stuck behind a slow-moving logging truck on her way to work.

She commutes to Macon – the county, not the city. It’s a two-hour round trip from her home in Lizella to International Paper off Ga. Highway 49 in Oglethorpe.

The company was Weyerhaeuser before it was bought by International Paper. Last week, it announced it is selling its pulp division for $1.5 billion to American Industrial Partners, a private equity firm.

It is somehow fitting that Moore has spent her career at a large paper plant. 

After all, she has written three books … two of them Amazon best-sellers. In 2012, one of her stories found its way onto the pages of an edition of “Chicken Soup for the Soul.’’

Moore is a woman of many hats. In addition to her work as an engineer and writer, she has been an entrepreneur, inventor, dancer, speaker and “life coach.’’

She has also raised four sons, which may be the toughest job of all. Her “J-Stars” are Jonathan, 29, twins Jamicah and Jeremy, 26,  and 20-year-old Joshua.

 Moore holds two U.S. patents. One of them is for her “Mr. Zippy Bib” – a waterproof bib designed with pant legs. The idea came when her twins were 6 months old.

“I couldn’t keep their clothes clean when they were eating, so that situation is what inspired it,’’ she said, laughing.

The springboard for her passion as a life coach also came from her family 15 years ago.

“It all started with me wanting to do a family activity,’’ she said. “I did a ‘vision board’ to set creative goals with my children. After we did the first one, they all adopted it. We still do it every year. It helps them to stay on track.’’

She launched a website, mooreofrachel.com, where she encourages and empowers women.

“It’s fulfilling when I can inspire others,’’ she said. “It brings me joy to see how excited they get when things begin to happen, when they take that step and start being intentional.’’

  She has developed resources for a “21-Day Mindset Makeover Challenge” and a “Manifest More” self-help program. She has plans to launch a “Manager Mom’s Marketplace” online shopping project.

“I put a lot of focus on women who have children and want to be entrepreneurs,’’ she said. “I try to show them how to balance that and not have to put their dreams on hold.’’

A career made in music

In 1970, B. Keith Williams was 19 years old and working at a Publix in Lakeland, Florida. A friend who had attended a Grand Funk Railroad concert told him how exciting it was.

“That’s what I want to do with my life,’’ Williams told him.

He finished the semester in college and assembled a band. They named it “Job.”

 That’s Job, as in the Bible, not a job like going to work … even though he would make a career in music.

Job won a local “battle of the bands” contest and soon found itself playing at the Jacksonville Coliseum. It later merged with a band called Paradise Lost. Williams sang and played the guitar.

Pat Armstrong managed the band Lynyrd Skynyrd with Alan Walden, the younger brother of Phil Walden, co-founder of Capricorn Records in Macon. Armstrong convinced Paradise Lost to relocate to Macon in 1973, and Williams has been here ever since.

“Music has been my livelihood,’’ he said. “I haven’t had a ‘job’ since Publix in 1970. I never questioned that I was going to be able to do it. I had such a passion for it.’’

Paradise Lost had a loyal following in the Southeast. The band opened concerts for Ted Nugent, REO Speedwagon, Elvin Bishop, Sea Level, the Dixie Dregs, Chubby Checker, The Platters and Molly Hatchet.

One night, they were playing a club called Uncle Sam’s on Gray Highway in Macon when Gregg Allman pulled up on a motorcycle, came in and jammed with the band.

After the band broke up in 1982, Williams embarked on a solo career.  

 He was the house musician at Yesterday’s in Macon. He was the opening act for David Allan Coe at the City Auditorium and for Gregg Allman’s return to Macon in 1983. He’s also opened for Willie Nelson and Ronnie Milsap’s shows in Macon. And he worked with guitarist David Marks, one of the original Beach Boys.

Williams now performs music in places like Parish on Cherry Street, Fish N’ Pig at Lake Tobesofkee, 20’s Pub on Riverside and the American Legion on Thomaston Road.

He is especially proud that he has been able to mentor and encourage young musicians like country singer-songwriter Caylee Hammack, and guitarists Adam Gorman and Hughes Taylor. His son, Sean Williams, has followed in his dad’s footsteps.

Williams has three solo albums. He has toured the country as far west as California and to the north in Michigan and Wisconsin. 

“I was able to be a full-time musician because my wife (Barbara) worked during the day as a speech therapist, and I played at night,’’ he said. “We have four kids and never had to have daycare, which worked out well.’’

Paul Hornsby has operated Muscadine Studios in Macon since 1982. Williams said Hornsby once told him he was the “only musician he knew to make a full-time living without signing a major record deal.’’

For Williams, it has been simple. Do what you love and love what you do.

From weather to wand-waving

Mike Fuller has been a part-time meteorologist with WMAZ-TV and once peddled “Fuller’s Famous New York Hot Dogs” from vendor carts in downtown Macon.

But magic has always been his meal ticket. 

Now 72 years old, his first paying job as a magician was when he was 12. He was hired to perform at a birthday party at Idle Hour. His mother had to drive him. He did an hour’s worth of magic for about 50 guests. 

“After the show, the man asked how much he owed me, and I said, ‘Oh, well, whatever you think,’ ’’ Fuller said. “And he gave me five bucks. I have had a set price ever since.’’

His love of magic began when he was a shy first-grader at Alexander II Elementary.  He read every magic book in the school library and checked out “300 Magic Tricks You Can Do” from the Washington Library, not far from his boyhood home on Lawton Avenue.

 His mother, Iola, wanted him to take piano lessons, but Fuller   opted to hone his magic skills. He even practiced his tricks on the family’s pet parakeet. His sister, Nancy, survived his attempts to saw her in half, although they would often joke that she was his “half-sister.”

“Magic is the one thing I have always done,’’ Fuller said. “When I was a kid, and they asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would tell them I wanted to be a magician. I paid my way through college doing magic shows. 

“I’ve always done other things, but finally settled down to do magic. If you love what you’re doing,  you’ll never work a day in your life.’’

  He was a charter member of the Middle Georgia Magic Club in 1970, and the International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring local chapter No. 289 was later named in his honor. In his prime, he did as many as 300 shows a year. He had his own Saturday morning magic show on WMAZ for 10 years.

Fuller is a cancer survivor and has had two knee replacements. He wishes he could wave a magic wand and make the arthritis in his fingers disappear. Card tricks were once his signature. Now, it hurts to shuffle the deck.

In October, he will return to the Georgia National Fair in Perry. He was invited to the inaugural fair in 1990.  He missed the second year, but has been asked back every year since – except for 2020, when everybody had to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only the popular Robinson’s Racing Pigs have had a longer gig at the fair than Fuller.

“The fair will wear me out,’’ he said. “But then when it’s over, I can’t wait until next year.’’

For now, retirement is not in Fuller’s bag of tricks.

“As long as I can still entertain, I’ll still do it,’’ he said. “But if it gets to where they’re watching me because they feel sorry for the old guy who can’t shuffle cards any more …’’

He considers it a labor of love.

“I can get tired doing it,’’ he said. “But I never get tired of doing it.’’