Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

[Karmakaze]

The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

Need an occupation for one of your pulp characters? Here are some ideas.

 

I'd heard of all the occupations except for Lector (Cigar makers in Florida and New York City would sometimes pool their wages to pay a "lector" to read newspapers or political tracts aloud to them while they worked.)

 

Also interesting:

Copy Boy In the days of telegraphs and typewriters, newspaper offices ran on paper -- and the "copy boys," or errand runners, who shuttled that paper from desk to desk. Copy boys would tear mimeographed reports from The Associated Press or other wire services from telegraph machines. They would then sort them according to subject (foreign, domestic, city, and so on), and deliver them to the appropriate desks in the newsroom. After a reporter finished typing up a story, he would shout "Copy!" and a copy boy would arrive to shuttle his story to the desk of the next editor in the editorial process.

 

Pinsetter: Before bowling alleys were fully automated, pins that were knocked over would stay that way until a person came to set them back up. "Pingirls" and "pinboys," usually teenagers, would wait in the gutters at the end of the lane for bowlers to throw the ball. They would then clear away the "deadwood," or knocked-over pins, and set the pins back up in their appropriate spots after the bowler's turn was over.

 

Lamplighter: Lamplighters in New York City at the turn of the century were responsible for lighting 200-300 streetlights an hour. They carried long ladders and lanterns or matches to light the gas lamps along their assigned routes.

[assault]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

Dunny man.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

Good stuff!

[Cancer]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

My father mentioned he worked as a pinsetter a couple of summers. He said that most guys only worked one lane. If you were really in good shape you could work two, but most people couldn't make it through a shift if they tried that.

[lemming]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

My father mentioned he worked as a pinsetter a couple of summers. He said that most guys only worked one lane. If you were really in good shape you could work two' date=' but most people couldn't make it through a shift if they tried that.[/quote']

 

My mom worked as one for a couple summers as well. Small alley. I think it had two lanes.

[Yansuf]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

Copy Boy wasn't really an occupation, any more than apprentice or office boy was. It was the entry level position into the newspaper business; copyboys went on to become reporters or other positions.

And I am pretty sure they were still around into the 1980's.

 

Telegraph delivery boys were employed into the 1960's.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

newsboys/paperboys

because papers are delivered in the early moring now newspapers hire ADULTS todeliver them

[Lucius]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

newsboys/paperboys

because papers are delivered in the early moring now newspapers hire ADULTS todeliver them

 

Meaning the occupation hasn't gone away, it's just done by a different demographic.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary suspects you can still find lectors, if not by that name.

[starblaze]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

This reminds me of an episode of Lois and Clark where the power goes out in metropolis. Perry White contacts on old retired employee who used to work the mimeograph machine back in the day. Because they still had the machine they were able to print the Daily Planet even though they had no power.

[Markdoc]

Re: Inspiration: The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations

 

I used to do one of those obsolete professions - when I was in high school, i worked as a "milk boy". I'd run alongside the milk truck, taking milk out of the truck, running it up to front gate. People would leave their empty milk bottles (and money for fresh milk) by the gate and we'd grab the empties and put fresh milk there. It was hard work. Not only did you run along with a heavy-two-wheeled milk cart for a couple of hours, but the hardest part (for me, anyway) was memorizing the route - Mrs Hawkes takes half homogenised and half full cream, the Dawsons take one bottle of light milk and the rest homogenised, No. 64 takes a bottle of grapefruit juice with the milk but only Mondays and Thursdays, etc.

 

The pay was rubbish, but I took the job mostly to get in shape for my martial arts classes, so that was OK. And I got all the milk I could drink, which back then was a lot.

 

Sigh. Simpler times.

 

cheers, Mark