My First Job. Cleaning Pig Pens.
My first job was shoveling pig manure on my fathers pig farm in rural Eastern Washington State. We had to clean the pig pens out in between sows that were ready to give birth. If I wanted some quick cash I would help my dad out. He would pay me $4.00 per hour to shovel manure out of the pen. It was hard work and the smell was to die for. That smell is nasty, but after you are out in it for about 30 minutes or so, your nose would get used to it. I would wear my yellow Sony Walkman and listen to Madonna while I was shoveling pig manure...it was fun times. I had to wear heavy rubber boots to keep the manure off of my feet, but it would still splatter on your clothes. It was really disgusting. There would often be maggots hatching in the manure and often dead carcasses of baby piglets that did not make it. But I would not think about the grossness factor, it was all about the money. Now you could not pay me to do that sh$%^ fo...