What were you doing when you were 19?

[Jstas]

This isn't a pissing contest, just something fun and a way to put some perspective on things.

appdv's question thread made me think back to what I was doing when I was 19 and I thought it'd be a good way to not only give him some perspective but maybe a little insight in to each other.


I guess I can go first. When I was 19, I was a "pre-junior" in college. I went to Drexel, we had a 5 year program so the 3rd year was the pre-junior year. I was working as a co-op in the project management office at Lockheed Martin. I was working directly on a very secret program called ALI. ALI was the pre-cursor to the current ballistic missile defense program. I had just changed majors from electrical engineering to information systems and the project management office work filled a requirement for a business/management information systems elective. I got the co-op job to see what things were like. Liked it so much that I went back for my next co-op and stayed over 12 years.

I had wanted to do robotics before that but the job market was non-existent and the only jobs were barely paying research assistant jobs. So I changed my major to IS because databases just clicked with me.

I was working at Pep Boys part time which funded my daily life plus my racing habit with my Mustang. It also funded my stereo competitions with my Thunderbird. The Thunderbird was winning trophies so easily in the local competitions that I slowly dropped out because it wasn't a challenge anymore and I focused on the drag racing. I ended up dropping out of that activity a couple years later when school bills got to be too much.

Yeah, alot of stuff for a 19 year old but I was all over the board from cars to electronics to computers to school to whatever. The only thing I didn't take any time for was girls and that was something that I don't necessarily regret but probably should have thought better now because quite a few good girls and women slipped through my hands and I didn't even know it at the time.

[Danny Tse]

I am too old to remember what happened from way back. I can tell you that I have no idea what I was doing. I was in college but I had no clue as to what direction I should go. I ended up ditching classes and spending my time hanging out at the college radio station. That's all I remember....that's my story and I am sticking to it.

[George Grand]

Driving a truck for Harris Supply Company, 6 West 18th St in Manhattan. The Chelsea district to be precise. This was the greatest job I ever had. Chelsea lofts are where all the photographers were during the 70's. There were about 7 in the same building that housed Harris. Loading or unloading the truck out in front was the greatest. You could tell them a mile away, all walking like they still had the book on their head. The rest of Manhattan is of course, nothing to sneeze at babewise either.

I would eventually get a job that for thirty + years took me around the world to every continent except Antarctica. But I did not need that job to see everything. After riding the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan every morning, riding around the streets of Manhattan in the truck all day, and then riding the "D" train back to Brooklyn in the evening, I had already seen everything.

Harris Supply was the job I got after getting fired as an usher at the Kingsway movie theater for making out with some honey in the balcony that I met while I was supposed to be ushering.

[dragon1952]

I was smoking lots of weed and getting laid a lot by underage women.

[bobman1235]

College, working part time at the company I now work for full-time.

Drinking and smoking a lot of pot. Whoops.

[petrym]

Stationed overseas in the Air Force at RAF Upper Heyford England working on F-111Es. I was uninformed and naive about the world and had a lot to learn about responsibility and contributing to the common good instead of thinking only about myself. On the off-work time, I was socially interfacing with the female gender of the local community, playing darts, and contributing extensively to the pub economy. F'n good duty. :p:D;)

[sucks2beme]

Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, Japan.
Working as part of a MATCU(Marine air traffic control unit)

[George Grand]

Hey Petrym,

My first solo TDY as a boom was to Mildenhall. 1979. One night, I had just refueled one of those -111's from UH, and was waiting for his wingman who took off about 5 minutes after he did to show up for his gas. I listened to the whole rendezvous, and when he called 1/4 mile out, started looking out the window for him. Nothing. He calls "Stabilized pre-contact." That means he's 50 feet in trail and slightly below us. I got a windowful of nothing, and I told that to my aircraft commander. Then I got a brain flash. I looked out one of the side windows. Sure enough, he was flying perfect pre-contact on the other -111. I called him. "Hey Trest (never forget that call sign), if you look about 100 yds to the right you'll see the tanker." They both immediately turned as a flight and I never heard from them again. Somebody got a good talking to when they RTB'd , and it wasn't me!

Couple nights later I got my first -111 Light Show.

[F1nut]

I was smoking lots of weed and getting laid a lot by underage women.


Otherwise known as having the time of your life and I was right there with ya, bro.

[Sherardp]

@ 19 I was in the USMC, kicking a$$ and taking names.OOOOOHHH RAHHHH!! Semper fi, Blood makes the grass grow green!!

[exalted512]

Wasnt that long ago for me. During the summer I got my first real job while going to college...as a bagger for a grocery store. Late that summer I got the job that I'm currently working at. Was already with the girl im about to be married to.

And I was screwin away my life at Texas A&M and eventually had to go somewhere else because I couldn't stay in engineering and couldnt get into the business school. This is only 3 years ago for me but I'm sure doing that is going to be one of my biggest regrets.
-Cody

[Shizelbs]

Drinking beer, thinking I was studying hard, making little doing the lamest jobs I've ever had, trying to goof off as much as possible.

[disneyjoe7]

Otherwise known as having the time of your life and I was right there with ya, bro.


Maybe this should go back to my quote "To be young again" ;)

[ND13]

Stationed @ Tyndall AFB, Panama City, Fl. Can't say it was a tough duty station. Had a blast and got laid on a very regular basis. Good times.

[shack]

I was smoking lots of weed and getting laid a lot by underage women.

Add beer and college to that forumla...and there I am.

[HB27]

At 19 I was traveling to beautiful and exotic lands, enjoying the sights, and killing the residents. Kilo 3/9 3rd Plt 69 0311
Semper FI.

[amulford]

Ah, what a time. Living at the shore, good job building houses for an established custom builder, making great money for the time, Partying like there was no tomorrow, doing organized fighting and in perfect shape, getting ALL kinds of strange...

Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" is now playing in my head and won't go away, you bastads...

[SolidSqual]

I just graduated high school and went from dating Lauren S. (my last white girl) to Jen W. (My first ethnic girl) . . . sometimes I miss those days. I worked for a moving company that summer. Backbreaking work, but paid extremely well. I was living with my parents, so no living costs at all. Those were the days. Women, money and no responsibility.

[NotaSuv]

Running square groupers between Costa Rica and Key West Fla.........loved the 70's ;)

[Dennis Gardner]

After getting tired of telling business profs that the sh*t they spouted out of their text books didn't have any real world relevance and the fact they not one of them had real experience outside of academia, sent me packin'. I immediately landed a management job that took me 30 years with the same company. Now I'm on my own doing the small business thing and loving it.

[hockeyboy]

Wake n bake, college, more weed, work, more weed, and lots of big hair chicks listening to Twisted Sister.

[Sami]

19...military like many of you others. Stationed above the Arctic Circle living in a tent...when lucky. :)

[Face]

Attended college full time and worked full time as a undercover store detective at K-Mart, taking home cashiers whenever I had a chance.

[Willow]

Partying from 12am to 7am, hooking up with girls.... making life altering decisions without thinking of the future. Some of the dumbest years of my life, but then I would not have bumped into the girl (when I was 21, and almost done with that life style) who would turn out to be my wife. Best thing ever!!

[TNRabbit]

I was married & in the USAF stationed at Barksdale AFB, LA. I got married WAY too early....

[skipf]

Running square groupers between Costa Rica and Key West Fla.........loved the 70's ;)

:DWe used to land a lot of balefish off the SC coast while offshore fishin too.

[rayslifecycle]

Just broke up with my HS girlfriend.

Moved to Buffalo to go to UB's School of Architecture and Planning.

First pair of speakers - Bose 201s.

First Apartment.

Assisstant Manager @ Blockbuster Video on Grover-Cleveland Parkway in Buffalo.

Met some of my closest and longest friends.

Learned what weed, coffee, and beer were.

Raced Mountain Bikes for the first time.

Sang in a Gospel Choir.

First Time Having Sex (with someone other then my HS girlfriend).

Finally.......

[zombie boy 2000]

Best year of my life - HANDS DOWN. Freshman year in college. Love of my life in my back pocket. Booze. Herb. Video games. Every line of The Simpsons memorized. More booze. A lot of mistakes. Even more victories. Fine dining on Chowan. Running the Flame.
First experience with the "carpet matching the drapes". Buck Wild.

Good times.

[Eric W]

Would be late 2001 for me. Working at Radio Shack part time with little to no direction in my life while attending/floundering in the local community college. I had gone to a 4 year the year before that and failed out :( Buying stuff I couldn't afford cause it was the "I want it now and will take out a loan to get it" mentality. Bought a crotch rocket (which I still have) and continuously modded (and repaired) my car by hittin the drag strip and street races almost every weekend. Then hit the clubs and parties way too much (well, maybe not- I had fun) but that was probably the lowest point in my life cause I really didn't know where I was going.

[billbillw]

At 19, I was mainly attending my local Junior College on a pre-engineering path (Calc/Physics/Chemistry/etc). I ended up being able transferring more than 60 credits to the University.

I was also working part time in a restaurant as a cook. This paid for college tuition/books, my car/car insurance, and money for partying. Car was a Mustang GT ('83 with 5sp/T-tops). I was into car stereos, but didn't push it to competition level. Couldn't afford that much, just your basic system, 5" in the doors, 1" soft dome tweeters mounted high, 4-8" subs in the back, a few amps, decent head unit.

For fun, I was going across the border to Canada to drink at the bars just about every weekend. For those who live(d) in border towns at that age, you probably know what I mean. The clubs in Sarnia were the place to be at that time ('89 ish). Heck, even after I turned 21, I still went over the border for a couple years because the clubs over there were better. At 19, I didn't have any real career goals, other than get my ChemE degree and see whats out there.

[concealer404]

Going to college for something i had no interest in doing. (i would find this out a year later, and $34k in loans later)

Bartending

Partying.

Becoming dissatisfied with constantly correcting my professors, and being better at what i was going to school for than my own main professor. Sooo..... off i went within the next year.

[Joe08867]

Working for a Steel Fabrication Company during the day with my dad.
Good Job tough Boss. (See Last word of first sentence).

Smoking, Drinking, Staying Out Late and Getting Down with all the honey's I could.

Ahhh the good times.

[steveinaz]

Working as a night manager of a gas station in STL.

[MikeC78]

Working for Ingersoll-Rand and drinking lots of beer. Bought my first vehicle, 1991 SB Chevy S-10 with a 4.3L V6.

[Serendipity]

That would be right now...

Working
College, EE major
In a robotics competition
NY State Math Fair
Played at Carnegie Hall
Doing research...

[zombie boy 2000]

The Anti-Hippie....
Carry on.

[zingo]

I was a freshman in college and skipping class way too much...

[bobman1235]

That would be right now...

Working
College, EE major
In a robotics competition
NY State Math Fair
Played at Carnegie Hall
Doing research...

Wow, sounds like you're really enjoying your youth.....

[petrym]

Hey Petrym,

< snip > They both immediately turned as a flight and I never heard from them again. Somebody got a good talking to when they RTB'd , and it wasn't me!

Couple nights later I got my first -111 Light Show.

I love stories like that, thanks for sharing! :D

[dorokusai]

Jobless, selling drugs and living the good life.

[Airplay355]

College....and I still am

[jeremie]

Going to Jr. College working at CC in the Roadshop as lead installer. Traveling all over the midwest competing in USAC even in the Pro 501-1000 watt class while being sponsored by Kicker. Fun times..

http://members.tripod.com/jmeitz/t41.jpg

[Fongolio]

1980. Working at Alcan (Canadian version of Alcoa). Driving a '69 Cougar. Selling dope. Smoking hot girlfriend. Dodging cops (most of the time). Young and dumb and full of c@m.

[BottomFeeder]

Attending a JC, playing tons of tennis & working at a local sporting goods store so I could buy all my stuff inexpensively and snow ski for free!

Bought my first "real" speakers from Lafayette & had them for about 10 years (too long!)

[Sansui]

Off the coast of Nam. CNA/CVN 63.

[thebluemonkey]

Was a fresh faced kid in boot camp in new jersey

[Keiko]

I was in the Army and just finished with Basic and AIT before arriving here in Hawaii.
The Glory Days brothers and sisters.

[Rivrrat]

I was starting my first year at Pacific Northwest Bell. 30 yrs later, I still work for the same company, although it's in a different state with a different name.

Living with a blond hottie that turned out to be the psycho b***h from h*ll.

[Squidmon]

Working my way thru college and smoking lots of pot

[Willow]

For fun, I was going across the border to Canada to drink at the bars just about every weekend. For those who live(d) in border towns at that age, you probably know what I mean. The clubs in Sarnia were the place to be at that time ('89 ish). Heck, even after I turned 21, I still went over the border for a couple years because the clubs over there were better.

We did the same except a 10 min drive across the Ottawa river into Hull now called Gatineau, in the province of Quebec. drinking there was 18 so we could get away with being 16-17...

[Gadabout]

Let's see ....

19 was a long time ago. I took a year off from school before college. I was working in a mine on 1600 ft level mining for silver and gold. The ironic thing was the pumps had a power failure and flooded the 3 lowest levels of the mine.

Being friends with the GM's son, he found us a job cleaning up the Teton Dam disaster in Idaho. Was pretty good work, mainly using air pups to get rid of the water in lower levels of the house and using high pressure hoses to clean the walls and floors the best we could. You never want to smell a whole storage house of rotting potatos. There were also lots of snakes that were in the trees and upper reaches of the houses too.

Good times, lots of work, decent pay and working with friends. After the dam cleanup I went and worked in Rawlings Wyoming for a bit in a mine and then returned to the mine I was originally working in after it was back up and running.

Next fall, I was in college and having different experiances.

Fond memories.

Scott

[Gadabout]

Wow,

Didn't think my mining stories would kill the thread ;-P