Substation 223

Back in the day, as they say (which always means the 70s) I worked for one summer in the Headquarters of AT&T. Back in the day before "Ma Bell" got split up.

My task was to deliver mail internal to a part of the building. And unjam the xerox machine when it got stuck. All for minimum wage, 8 hour days, boring yes but time to read. A chance to interact with the real world, engineers and such. And work at the glorious headquarters building, the one thing I remember was the blueberry pie in the cafeteria.

I heard on BBC radio today that sometimes, the illegal immigrants have an easier time getting jobs than professional middle class people. Could be they have the gut instinct to get a job, any job. And in this economy there are a plethora of professional middle class - take your pick - people with MBAs, people with advanced degrees.

Hey when I had my 3 masters degrees and was hungry for work for about 3 years, I was willing to work at SushiTown. They just looked at me - an application - for you?? Well, clearly I was not SushiTown material.

So back to substation 223 at AT&T. A chance for an 18 year old to get some work experience. Now, is this kind of experience possible? Or are others, undocumented perhaps, willing to take these jobs which eventually crowds out our young people from getting early work experience?