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Thomas J. Capps
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I've only had three true jobs so far in my 11 years of employment, which
I refer to off-handedly as the three "K"'s (Hmm, K, K, and K...)
Right out of my sophomore year in high school, I applied at
Knott's Berry
Farm, and I was employed there for more than 7½ years.
Started in food service as a busworker, and worked my way up through
counter service clerk and food preparer.
Actually, I worked backstage in the employee cafeteria called Lakeside
Terrace, which became a misnomer when the lake under the neighboring
Corkscrew coaster was replaced by the Boomerang (no lake).
After a while, I became well known as the guy who threw cakes around
(another misnomer; I never actually threw any cakes).
I will say that my frustration with the way our location was treated as
compared with the rest of the park probably started to show through
there near the end.
While I was still working at Knott's, I tried to get some work in an
office-type setting.
Unfortunately, transferring to another department proved futile, so on
the advice of my good friend Mike (see
below), I signed up for additional work as a
Kelly Temp.
I only had three assignments there, each two-day jobs, at least in
theory...
My first two-day job lasted fourteen months.
I worked as a clerk for Parsons De Leuw, Inc., which later became
De Leuw,
Cather & Co.
(For those of you paying attention, I realize neither of these names
starts with a "K" — that's because I was actually
employed by Kelly, and these were just assignments.)
I eventually took over the job of the woman I was hired to help, and so
became the Structural Submittal, Mitigation, and JRT Meeting Coordinator
(is that impressive, or what?)
De Leuw is an engineering firm that at the time of my employment was
sub-contracted to design/revise the San Joaquin Hills Transportation
Corridor a.k.a. Tollroad.
After a two-day assignment that actually lasted two days, and a week
before my wedding, I began working for the SoCal distribution center of
Kraft General Foods.
Once again, began at the bottom as a shipping checker, but moved up to
stock locator and eventually supervisor of the annex warehouse.
It would prove to be the highest-paying job I have had to date, with the
most responsibility. Plus we got a lot of free food, especially when
product was too close to their expiration dates to send to stores.
This two-day assignment lasted closer to fifteen months, and lead to my
next "real" job outside of Kelly Temps.
I was offered a position with the third-party company that was taking
over the distribution of all Kraft products for the SoCal area.
I would essentially be doing the same job that I did for Kraft, except I
had to train my own boss, would make 50 cents less an hour (and $2 less
than my rate as a supervisor), and now had to drive all the way out to
Ontario.
What was I thinking?
There were lots of start-up problems and morale problems which weren't
even resolved when I quit eight months later.
The name of the company was United Refrigerated, but I have since
learned that they are now AmeriCold
Logistics.
So far, that's the last "K" job (I'm blocking out my memory of United by
pretending I worked for Kraft directly; I know, it's a stretch...)
After leaving the world of full-time employment just over a year ago, I
started making web pages for my friend Mike Washington.
He gives me space on his site for free, and has a few paying customers,
mostly cosmetic surgeons for whom I have helped design pages.
His "company" name and URL is
ADefWebserver.com,
and you can find links to his customers there.
Some of the cosmetic sites I worked on can be
found via graphic links on my actual home page
[MyTatuo!]
And that about does it, with the exception of the job I just signed up
for at Disneyland, which
begins May 30th [1998].
Just a small job working in Parking, which pays a little better than
some other beginning positions in the park, but still less than I'm
accustomed to.
However, at the moment my wife and I need me to bring home a more steady
income than what I'm earning making web pages.
And, as I mentioned on my home page, I plan to transfer to
Cal State Fullerton after one
more semester at Fullerton
Junior College.
