Job 17

Summer 1978

Base-Fort Security - Security Guard

Ed and I decided to try a new career path after two somewhat unsatisfactory forays into the mud slogging, muscle wrenching experiences with construction labour.

An ad in the paper sought security guards to work at the University Campus during the Commonwealth Games that were being held that summer in Edmonton. The pay was $5 an hour. Well, five dollars an hour for standing around with your thumb up your ass while supposedley guarding the athletes village from terrorsit attacks seemed a no-brainer compared to six bucks an hour for working your ass off in a pit that might collapse at any moment.

So we both applied for the security job. Part of the job involved going to the Edmonton police station to have a background check done.

While at the police station Ed was arrested for failure to appear at an appointed court case for a speeding ticket. So ended his career with Base-Fort.

My own application went more smoothly and I soon found myself sitting in a little wooden booth at the athlete's village reading "The Virtue of Selfishness," by Ayn Rand.

For a short while, I remember thinking to myself, "man, this is the perfect job..." however it soon became apparent to me that this job was indeed far less than perfect. After a week on the job I had become aquainted with several of my co-workers. I learned that none of them had yet been paid. Some had been "working" there for several months already and had yet to see a single paycheque.

In spite of the lack of pay, employees were expected nevertheless, to submit to an almost military code of discipline. Something bothered me when a senior officer pulled over to the bus stop where I was standing with another off-duty guard smoking a cigarette. He chastised the two of us for smoking in public and for having our tunics only partly zipped up.

Though a huge supporter of company loyalty, I found that working for a company which did not pay it's employees was a little bit more than I was willing to bear. I think it was around that time I decided my association with Base_Fort security was destined to be rather brief.

Later that night, I recieved a phone call from Ed, who had disappeared for a couple of weeks after his ignominious termination from the prestigious Patrick Pipeline situation, and his arrest at the Edmonton police station..

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last modified:Monday,June 9, 2008 at 04:21