Something Smells Shrimpy

A friend and I worked at a shrimp factory once right after we graduated from high school. Being Black and living in Mississippi, the chances of getting a good job right out of high school was next to zero. We were desperate for spending money so we decided to give the local shrimp factory a try. You didn't have to fill out any paperwork to work at the shrimp factory. All you had to do was show up and they would give you a tin bucket that you were expected to fill with de-headed shrimp. You had to stand up on a platform where you could grab the shrimp as they passed by on a conveyor belt. You got paid by the bucket so the faster you were able to grab a handful of shrimp and snap the heads off, the quicker you filled your bucket. The more buckets you filled, the higher your tally was at the end of the day. At fifty-cents a bucket, you had to do some serious head-snapping to make some good pocket change.

Well, my friend and I only lasted a couple of days. We decided that pocket change was not worth smelling like a fish house every day and our fingers were pricked and sore from shrimp shells. Not to mention that I only made a little other a dollar each day. I would have to be a shrimp de-heading fool to make five bucks a day!

Whenever I think back on when I worked at the shrimp factory, I cannot help but laugh my head off. Thank goodness both me and my friend went on to furhter our education and had good careers. But that was indeed my strangest and funniest job ever.