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Mowing Lawns
Before the proliferation of lawn service companies, a 12-year old kid could count on mowing his neighbors' lawns to make up for a meager or non-existent allowance. I quickly learned that working under the midday Florida sun was not quite the same as playing outside, but I persevered and earned repeat customers. My dad was a Sears man, so I learned to mow our large corner lot on a Craftsman like the one in the photo. -
Hialeah Flea Market
Mowing lawns was all well and good, but I decided to go for the big bucks and find a job at the Hialeah flea market. Undeterred by the 4-mile jaunt to the market, I unpacked my boss's van at 5:30 am and sold vinyl luggage until 3 pm for $30 a weekend. I learned to hustle and picked up enough French to impress the French-Canadian tourists. "Madame, regarde! Bon qualité, juste quinze dollars! Another vendor offered me $40 to sell t-shirts and I found myself making a whopping $50 before I moved on. -
Elio's Ranch
Back in the day, several now-vanished Hialeah ranches rented horses to day trippers and offered boarding to horse owners. Combing horses, cleaning stalls, and other odd jobs brought cash, and if lucky, the opportunity to ride a grateful owners quarter horse or pinto to the Sunday rodeo at the Indio Ranch. -
Moreno Pharmacy
With my lawn mowing and flea market earnings, I bought a 1978 Yamaha 100 motorcycle and rode to my weekend job at one of the last in-store lunch counters in Hialeah, Florida. From 5 am to 3 pm, I peeled and boiled potatoes, bused and washed dishes, and mopped the floors. Good times! -
The Mailman, Inc.
I took great pride in the job I did sweeping this large paper, printing, and catalog mailing facility every day after school. I taught myself to fix the finicky machines that tied the catalogs into bundles and convinced the manager to let me use the company truck to drive large bins of paper to the recycling center for some extra cash. The machines kept working and the truck always came back, so the manager overlooked the fact that I was 15 and could not legally fix machines or drive trucks! -
Sears
My high school's work-study program allowed me to leave school early so I spent some quality time at my first retail store job. I worked the floor and register in the lawn and hardware departments at Hialeah's large Westland Mall location for minimum wage ($3.35/hr.). Customers could bring in their old Craftsman hand tools and turn them in for new ones. It got interesting when people tried to turn in a tool they just picked up in the store that day! -
Connie Edwards, Ltd
This was my first desk job, sort of. I had a desk on the first floor of this small company's warehouse, but I spent most of my time in my trusty 1970 Dodge Dart hawking merchandise for which large retailers had refused to take delivery. I drove boxes of perfume, soap, socks, shirts, and more from one dime store to another, learning and relearning the meaning of persistence at almost every stop. -
Kemron Office Supply
After high-school, my experience in sales helped me to get this job as a sales clerk. I quickly learned the difference between a 1/3- and 1/5-cut file folder and how to help customers decide between a Parker and Cross pen, if they couldn't afford the Montblanc. It was a bit of a drive from Hialeah to the corner of Bird Road and SW 87th Avenue, but the pay was good...until I found out it wasn't. I was offered a job at Long's Office Supply, and the pay even offset the long drive downtown. -
The Flyer, Inc.
This direct mail shopper functioned as the local Craigslist in the dark times before the Internet. Every weekday evening, I cold called people who had failed to sell their car, boat, bike, etc. in another publication and offered to place an ad in the Flyer. I always dreaded cold calling but became adept enough to lead my team in number of ads sold for several months running. I even won a family trip to Disney for coming up with the Summer campaign slogan: "Flyer Fever, Catch it this Summer!" -
Office Depot
Before the end of 1987, I was building and stocking shelves in advance of the grand opening of Home Depot's 7th store near the Westland Mall in Hialeah. As an area manager I was in charge of keeping my section of the store properly stocked and staffed. It was a decent gig, but as much as I liked dealing with people, I was a bit fed up with selling stuff. At the ripe old age of 20, I was ready for a change. -
Long's Office Supply
Long's was a long-established office supply company with several retail locations and a team of salesman that visited offices to take orders from established customers and knocked on doors to get new ones. I made a good impression at the downtown retail store (the fellow in the middle) and was soon hitting the pavement as the youngest outside salesman on staff. I did relatively well, but soon found myself being outpriced by a store founded only the year before. It was called Office Depot. -
Historical Museum of Southern Florida
My plan was to major in International Relations and then study law, but in 1988 I was completing an AA degree in History at Miami-Dade College. I'd long been an avid reader of history, so my position as a Museum Educator allowed me to capitalize on my people skills to teach one of my favorite topics. The kids really responded to the props, plays, and stories we used to bring the museum's artifacts to life. Adults were often a tougher crowd, but I soon developed a knack for engaging them as well. -
State Attorney's Office
I should have known I'd found my calling but I still planned to study law and this full-time position at $7/hr. was a far cry from my $5/hr. part-time gig at the museum. Among other clerical duties, I processed DUI video tapes and briefly interviewed visitors that wanted to file a criminal case. I did my best for the mostly young, overworked and underpaid attorneys, but after 6 months I knew that I didn't want to practice law. That's me on the left with a fellow clerk and a state attorney. -
Lexicon School of Languages
This company did little more than provide the name and address of students that had signed up with them to take English classes in their homes a few times a week. I got my hands on the most effective ESL materials I could find, bought a portable blackboard, and worked hard to make sure that the recently arrived immigrants that accounted for most of my students got even more than their hard-earned money had paid for. -
Tutoring/ESL Classes
I had begun helping the elementary school-aged children of some friends and colleagues with their schoolwork back in 1988. Referrals from these friends and those of the students that had come to me through the Lexicon School of Languages was such that I was now tutoring and teaching up to 12 hours a day. These were some of the most tiring and rewarding days of my working life. In this photo I am standing next to Giselle, an outwardly shy but wonderfully inquisitive student. -
Historical Museum of Southern Florida
I had really enjoyed my previous experience at the Museum, so now I returned as a veteran with more to offer. My part-time teaching position soon expanded to full-time work scheduling, supervising, and mentoring museum educators. I simultaneously worked as the operations manager, opening and closing the museum, processing admissions, and collaborating with school administrators to schedule trips. I also got the opportunity to review books and write articles for the Florida History Magazine. -
Miami Science Museum
In 1999, a friend at the science museum asked me to fix an exhibit that had been badly translated into Spanish. As I rewrote the Spanish, I noted how the English text could be improved as well. The Director of Exhibits was impressed enough to offer me a job and I spent the next 11 years researching, writing, developing, designing, and managing bilingual exhibits and visitor programs. The photo shows me and Zhou Yuanming of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum during the Dinosaurs of China exhibit in 2007. -
Babel No More, LLC
I started Babel No More back in 1999 to share my experiences in bilingual content development with museums and other educational institutions. Since then, I’ve worked closely with graphic artists, fabricators, instructional designers, and subject matter experts to bring compelling stories to life in creative and engaging formats. I currently use proven instructional methods and technologies to develop engaging exhibits, training programs, and online experiences for a variety of audiences. -
American Welding Society
As the science museum began to divert funds toward the creation of their new building with outside contractors, I returned to my work at Babel No More and then joined the American Welding Society. At AWS, I put my experience to work analyzing, researching, designing, evaluating, and managing online learning experiences. It was challenging having to simultaneously acquire an in-depth knowledge of the principles of welding and instructional design, but I came to enjoy every aspect of the process.
