The grind
It has been awhile since I posted, and sorry to those of you who wrote in wondering where I have been. The holidays proved to be busy, fairly lucrative but really just more of the same. The truth of the matter is, the intial wonder wears off, there are few surprises, and you really end up watching the clock just like in any other gig.
I guess the biggest surprise about the job for me is that I ended up liking it so much. I guess that is easy to say since I am only there two days a week and don't have to rely on it to survive. I guess it affords me the chance to show up and leave without feeling the desperation and anxiety that a lot of guys feel. The caddie life is a transient one. There are a lot of guys who work there for awhile (a year or so) but most guys seem to come and go pretty fast. The type of person who caddies at a country club is a guy looking for a quick hit. If it's not there, then it's DTR, baby. ("Down the road.") It explains a lot of the other behavior exhibited by a lot of the guys I met along the way: heavy gambling, drinking and smoking. None of these guys ever struck me as sad or desperate. Lonely, maybe. Maybe some guys felt a little cheated by life, too. It is difficult, and unfair, to generalize. I guess it is safe to say that the kind of guy who walks on the grass looking to make a few bucks looping is the the same kind of guy who can spot the next opportunity and the next one and the next one.
People mind their own business. Guys never asked each other for their last names and even in the case where you would have multiple guys with the same first name, there always seemed to be another defining characteristic to differentiate one Mike from another.
All in all, it was an interesting experience and one that I will not forget soon. Don't know that I made any lasting friendships, but I did come away with some lasting memories.
See ya DTR.
I guess the biggest surprise about the job for me is that I ended up liking it so much. I guess that is easy to say since I am only there two days a week and don't have to rely on it to survive. I guess it affords me the chance to show up and leave without feeling the desperation and anxiety that a lot of guys feel. The caddie life is a transient one. There are a lot of guys who work there for awhile (a year or so) but most guys seem to come and go pretty fast. The type of person who caddies at a country club is a guy looking for a quick hit. If it's not there, then it's DTR, baby. ("Down the road.") It explains a lot of the other behavior exhibited by a lot of the guys I met along the way: heavy gambling, drinking and smoking. None of these guys ever struck me as sad or desperate. Lonely, maybe. Maybe some guys felt a little cheated by life, too. It is difficult, and unfair, to generalize. I guess it is safe to say that the kind of guy who walks on the grass looking to make a few bucks looping is the the same kind of guy who can spot the next opportunity and the next one and the next one.
People mind their own business. Guys never asked each other for their last names and even in the case where you would have multiple guys with the same first name, there always seemed to be another defining characteristic to differentiate one Mike from another.
All in all, it was an interesting experience and one that I will not forget soon. Don't know that I made any lasting friendships, but I did come away with some lasting memories.
See ya DTR.
posted by yakker at 4:34 PM
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