@Mary Stetler A natural part of life. A couple having marital discord appeared before a counselor. He advised the lady, her husband's "unnatural' interests were perfectly natural! Frank
I've had those kinds of jobs too. I was ashamed of my muscular arms in early 70s so I wore long sleeves most of the time.
professional skateboarder 14 - 27 y/o (competed well into my 50's) internet infrastructure 33 - 55 y/o cloud computing early days biofilm engineer 38 y/o - present structural biocomposites and recreating ancient medicines lots more but these are the highlights
Musician: 30 years Tattooist/Body Piercer: 15 years Certified Arborist: 17 years, and still at it. Real Estate Investor/Landlord: 35 years. (Some overlap, on all of the above. Self-employed: bands/companies/shops were/are mine.)
Arborist,. I took one semester of Horticulture at community college. All the plant science. But it was fun being the oldest in my class, spoiled by the younger students. Plus I was the teachers pet. While I was enrolled we did 250,000 plants for the 1996 Olympias in Georgia. We also won the Horticulture Olympic of that year. We beat #1 California.
So if I do the math right, you were in your mid-50s when you became an arborist. How did that happen?
Good math work, John! Tattooing and piercing were destroying my back. I needed to find something else to do, something that would get me outside, and keep me active. I had been doing my own tree work at my rent houses, and I liked doing that. I studied up, and got my CA at the age of fifty-three. Companies that used me as a climber couldn't believe my age: I outworked much younger guys. With my own company, I put together one of the top crews in Austin. I still climb, but only on solo gigs.
I probably worked for 40 yrs after divorce and had 2 jobs before marriage. Before marriage, Shoe sales, and Secretary at Westinghouse. After marriage/divorce: Engineering companies Metals broker inside/outside sales) (9 yrs) Electronics company ( 9 yrs) S&L companies (2 of them) Newspaper classified ad sales Toyota car sales (3 days) Jane Fonda Video C/S and Sales office Admin at Private School Private FT/PT Childcare when I was 63 until I collected SS They were all good and lots of variety, never a dull moment. Love Love Love Retirement.
If I may ask, did you work for an electronic manufacturer (e.g. Texas Instruments) or a wholesaler? I spent a good part of my career in purchasing, and bought components in the 70s and 80s (Arrow Electronics, Hamilton-Avnet, Hallmark, etc) and then CPUs & memory on the secondary market after that. I always felt that had I not gone into purchasing, I would have like to have been a manufacturer's rep. Shoe sales also brought a smile to my face. Thom McAn needs to come back, dammit. And so do flouroscopes.