Rag-and-Bone Man

My best friend Lisbeth and I sometimes call each other buckey, bittiebot or totters. Little did I know a totter was someone who collected trash and sold it for cash! Too funny. A rag-and-bone man, or totter, was usually a job performed on foot with the scavenged materials (which included rags, bones and various metals) kept in…

Gong-Farmer

Gong-farmer was a profession dating back to 15th century England. A gong farmer’s job was to remove human excrement from the outhouse outside of their home. Some castles had dedicated “latrine towers” and gong-farmers would have to brave the depths of these towers to empty them from time to time. Larger towns and cities would often feature public latrines as well, but…

Street Sweeper

A street sweeper was a common profession for someone who cleaned streets. Machines were created in the 19th century to do the job of street sweeping. Today, modern street sweepers are mounted behind a truck and can vacuum debris that accumulates in streets. Street sweepers have been employed in cities since sanitation and waste removal became a priority. A street-sweeping person…

Flatulist

Professional Flatulists (farters) have been around for a long time. There is a scroll from Japan’s Kamakura era (1185 to 1333), called The King of Farts, about a performer who danced fart dances for the aristocracy.  The farting performers were called “heppiri otoko,” meaning “farting men”. There are fart jokes in Shakespeare and also in St. Augustine’s…

Video Store Clerk

Once upon a time, a busy video store wouldn’t have seemed so peculiar – after all, there were nearly 30,000 of them in the United States circa 1989. By 2014 hat number had dwindled to barely 6,000. in 2010 and 2013 some of the largest video store chains began shutting their doors following years of struggles, acquisitions…

Coppersmith

A coppersmith, also known as a redsmith, was a person who made artifacts from copper. The term redsmith comes from the colour of copper. Some items might include jewelry, plates and hardware, fenders, decorative panels and so on. Throughout history, copper has headed the list of minerals that have enhanced the life of humans and it has…

Train Caboose Man

Have you ever heard the expression, “move your caboose?” I always knew caboose signified a person’s backside, but I never took the time to think where the word came from. A caboose is actually a manned railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter at the end of the train…

Paper Boy

My uncle Tom was 14 years old when he got his first job as a newspaper boy. His friend Andre was already a paper boy for the local newspaper in Queens, so my uncle decided he would give it a shot. He got paid $30 per week to deliver approximately 150 afternoon newspapers to his neighborhood. I’ve…

Food Taster

A food taster was someone, usually a woman, who was hired by the royal families of Europe to test their food before they ate it. They usually did this to check and make sure what they consumed wasn’t altered or poisoned in any way. In addition, they wanted to make sure if the food was…

Toll Booth Collector

Who remembers waiting in their parent’s car for at least an hour and a half trying to cross the George Washington Bridge? I certainly do. This was in the era before the implementation of the E-ZPass. (Think 1992-2000). Much of my moms family lives in New York, spread throughout New York City, Whitestone, Queens and…

Hayward

A Hayward, or hedge warden as they were also called, was an officer in the English military whose main job was to man fences and gates. This profession began in the Middle Ages and continued into the 18th century. Haywards typically passed down their profession from generation to generation. If a young boy was born…

Powder Monkey

A powder monkey was a young boy, anywhere from 12 to 14 years of age, employed on a sailing warship whose job was to bring gunpowder from the powder magazine into the ships hold. They either carried them in bulk or in cartridges which was done in order to minimize the risk of fires and…