What was your first summer job? I bet it doesn't compare to Bob Goodale's first summer job! According to Bob, one day his father came in and said he (Bob) needed to get a summer job and that working at the cannery would be good. Bob's mother agreed. Bob was 13 at the time and started working at the factory soon thereafter.
His first assignment was a sauerkraut runner! Now, if you know what a sauerkraut runner is, give yourself a pat on the back. I had no idea this job even existed.
Apparently, on the way to becoming sauerkraut, shredded cabbage is put into huge vats along with salt. This mixture sits around in these vats for about six weeks before it's ready to be bottled. If it just sat there without being stirred thoroughly, it would get moldy and rot.
Enter the sauerkraut runner. The sauerkraut runner's job was to put on a pair of fisherman's waders and get into the vat with all the cabbage and salt. He would then proceed to run around for 8 hours, stirring up the brine. Now, Bob says it was a lot of fun because "it was his first job" and he got to talk with all the other guys running around the other vats.The money wasn't bad either. He got $.75 an hour.
I'm not going to tell you the whole story here. It's definitely worth hearing in Bob's own words. You can listen to it at American Public Radio's The Story. website.
It's from the June 22, 2009, show called Back from Afghanistan and linked to here.
You'll never look at sauerkraut in quite the same way again.
By the way, if your kids need something fun to do this summer, you could make sauerkraut with them. I found a recipe for sauerkraut at the Wild Fermentation blog. If you're really feeling ambitious, you could make a whole bunch of sauerkraut in one of those kiddie pools. Hmmm, I see some really good (?) holiday gifts coming out of this project...Bye for now.
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