Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

My first job…

…was making pizza. While that may not, at first glance, seem to be a very geno-culturally likely job for a 13 year old me, (that picture of the three guys on this blog? the guy in the middle? me… only with a few million miles of high hopes, un-realistic plans and an amazing level of half-hearted persistence, picture him as a 13 yo… Opie?  sure.. like that, only less boyish charm… I’m thinking Harry Potter with bad complexion and an inferiority complex…. you know, a clark).

The pizza place was just up the street from where I lived. A little storefront, three booths, (the molded plastic type bench seats), a counter  to place orders and a square hole in the wall behind the cashier, where the orders would be placed…. wait  wait!  just a damn moment! The memory is returning… I made the pizza but I didn’t bake or cut or do anything other than roll out the dough and put them in round pans. What the hell!
Here I am, thinking that I would remember adventures that involved late nights (in those days, ‘late night’ meant 1:00 am…), unruly customers (there was a functioning Navy Base in town in those days… you can just imagine the dialogue between the tired cashier/owner and a drunken sailor, one day away from shipping out on an aircraft carrier for 3 months at sea!), and the fact of the matter is, all I did was stand in the back room, take out trays of dough (that were in this wheeled cabinet… where balls of dough, previously measured and cut and dusted with flour, have spent 4 hours rising), and roll the dough into a pizza shape and put them in a metal pan and, finally, stacking them up, awaiting the order for a pizza, when the skilled pizza guy would take the pan, spread the sauce and pepperoni and such and bake the pizza.

I wasn’t making pizza at all!

…at last!! I finally understand why I’ve always had such trouble living up to my potential in school and, why my resume is replete with oddly difficult and challenging jobs, none of which required me to bring to bear any knowledge or expertise, learned and otherwise acquired in high school, college or graduate school!  These jobs, including, but not limited to: spindle threader (giant mill building filled with fabric making machines), machine operator (bending sheets of steel for swimming pools), commercial fisherman, replacement window salesmen, were, I now see, were simply to prepare me for this, …blog-writing about the Wakefield Doctrine and sharing the strangely interesting perspective that it offers all who read, understand and apply (the principles).

..thanks, Kristi!

(oh, wait!  I do remember something about my tenure as pizza preparer! I became bored somewhere about 3/4s of the way through my 3rd day on the job. No surprise. And, if we’re honest in our recollections, we can accept that when you’re 13, boredom is so easily transformed into resentment. Being a clark, finding an outlet for this energy is all the more important and so, I found myself  writting little messages on the bottoms of the pizza crusts (you know, like with toast?  make a depression and it’s barely visible until the browning of the toaster creates the contrast.) Nothing overly aggressive… at first, things like ‘Hi!’ and then, “Help me” and… as the novelty wore off, predictable stuff like, ‘are you sure?’  ‘who really cares?’

This is a fun bloghop. Allow me to return the favor and invite everyone to the TToT, which is tomorrow.