How would you earn a living?

sheeplady · Oct 4, 2014

HeyMoe said:
The State Police here are pretty strapped manpower wise. They do patrol the interstate but they also serve as town police for most of the towns in Vermont. As an example our local barracks has 16 towns in their service area. During the day they run two troopers on patrol for 16 towns. At night the have one on with others at home on call.

So we have DMV cops to help.

Do the DMV cops have the training that troopers do to deal with dangerous individuals they might encounter on a routine traffic stop?

While I understand that there are more dangerous professions than being a police officer, police can be targets, and a routine traffic stop can quickly escalate. For instance, what happens if they pull someone over who has a gun and is inclined to use it on them? Do they have the training for that?

I also am not sure I am ethically down with "partial" police officers rather than just training (and paying for) full professionals. (I come from an area and am moving to an area which have very few troopers and sheriff deputies, but there aren't any DMV cops.)

mactire · Nov 3, 2014

Hard to tell, as an Irishman in the 1930s/1940s I would've been able to get a greencard and been able to join relatives in the US, but given my eyesight I wouldn't have been fit for the police in Boston where I could've gone. Night telephonist or bus conductor perhaps.

tomtom42 · Nov 5, 2014

Well, since my current field of work (IT security stuff) didn't even really exist when I was in school - I'd have to improvise

My first try would propably have been to work for my grandpa who manufactured pianos in Vienna - I have been told that some of his manual skills seem to have jumped over a generation and reincarnated - unfortunately not musicality though...

On the other hand I might have been attracted by the high-tech industries of that time, like radio, telephone, railroad, automotive or even the "miltary-industrial complex"

I think there would be a period of adaptation that wouldn't be easy, but I guess I'd be able to make a (modest) living somehow - preferrably in a legal way...

br,
T°M

newsman · Nov 6, 2014

sheeplady said:
I also am not sure I am ethically down with "partial" police officers rather than just training (and paying for) full professionals. (I come from an area and am moving to an area which have very few troopers and sheriff deputies, but there aren't any DMV cops.)

I agree with you about the "partial issue." The good news is in most states the difference between a reserve officer and a full-time one is who gets a pay check. Most reserves don't get paid for their time unless they are called out, sent to court, or go to training. But they do go on patrol for as many hours as they like. Most departments require 12 hours minimum a month. A shift.

In many ways being a reserve officer was a better deal that being full-time. At least for me. Our city police swat team has a full-time ER doctor serving as a reserve officer. Talk about a guy with skills.

Benzadmiral · Dec 1, 2014

Shangas said:
I'd be much like Lizzie - A writer. Maybe for a magazine, a smalltown newspaper or something like that. Or a literary journal. Same as what I want to be now, really.

There were a great many magazines, newspapers, and other markets for fiction and fact then. If a story bounced from one magazine, send it off to another. Keep it on the market, from the higher-paying outlets to the lower ones, until it sells.

I'd have a good shot at that. I know how to type (now -- I didn't in college in the '70s), though readjusting to a manual typewriter and correction materials like the eraser and brush would slow me down a little.

bond_323 · Dec 1, 2014

My modern jobs have served me well, why change things? I spent 8 1/2 years as a Marine Corps grunt, then went into police work. After being a Marine in the 30s/40s and all the action those guys saw (in addition to the places they went!), I'd probably write travel books afterward. Head over to Spain between the wars, maybe hang out with Hemingway in Cuba, drinking daiquiris (real ones, not the fruity crap from modern times) at La Floridita. ;-)

Mme Dariaux · Dec 2, 2014

As a fantasy, I like to imagine myself as a fashion writer working for some elegant ladies' magazine, with bi-annual trips to Paris and a wardrobe to go with that... But more realistic career would have been a seamstress. Not bad either, especially when I think about the fabrics available back then, and all other sewing supplies one could buy even from the most provincial little dry-goods store.

rjb1 · Dec 2, 2014

bond_323: One of my high school teachers had been a Marine fighting the Sandanistas in Nicarauga, pre-WWII. He had some *really* interesting adventure stories. If you like that sort of thing you would have had a great time.

Shangas · Dec 2, 2014

Benzadmiral said:
There were a great many magazines, newspapers, and other markets for fiction and fact then. If a story bounced from one magazine, send it off to another. Keep it on the market, from the higher-paying outlets to the lower ones, until it sells.

I'd have a good shot at that. I know how to type (now -- I didn't in college in the '70s), though readjusting to a manual typewriter and correction materials like the eraser and brush would slow me down a little.

When I was a kid we didn't have a computer at home. I learned to do my touchtyping on a typewriter. I would be quite used to going back to that.

bond_323 · Dec 2, 2014

rjb1 said:
bond_323: One of my high school teachers had been a Marine fighting the Sandanistas in Nicarauga, pre-WWII. He had some *really* interesting adventure stories. If you like that sort of thing you would have had a great time.

Absolutely! That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Politics aside, the Marines and Navy, especially, went to some exotic locales and had some experiences, to be sure.

koz5614 · Dec 19, 2014

I know what I would be doing:

Bushman · Dec 19, 2014

Same thing of what I plan on doing with my life now: journalism! I've always been fascinated with the career, and I think it will be a great fit for me.

Fading Fast · Dec 19, 2014

Bushman said:
Same thing of what I plan on doing with my life now: journalism! I've always been fascinated with the career, and I think it will be a great fit for me.

Sounds like you are pursuing your true calling - how do you plan to go about it?

Bushman · Dec 20, 2014

Well, I get my associates in communications next semester, after which I'm going to state college for my bachelor's degree.

Fading Fast · Dec 20, 2014

Bushman said:
Well, I get my associates in communications next semester, after which I'm going to state college for my bachelor's degree.

Awesome, best of luck.

Bushman · Dec 20, 2014

Thank a lot, Fading Fast!

Harp · Dec 20, 2014

Bushman said:
Same thing of what I plan on doing with my life now: journalism! I've always been fascinated with the career, and I think it will be a great fit for me.

Bushman said:
Well, I get my associates in communications next semester, after which I'm going to state college for my bachelor's degree.

Congratulations. Take the most difficult courses under the most demanding instruction. Read a broad liberal curriculum.

scottyrocks · Dec 21, 2014

I'd like to think I'd do what I am doing now - teaching. I understand that teaching was mostly a woman's profession, especially in the elementary grades.

I've always had the idea that I'd be a good LEO. But that would depend on how real we are supposing to be here. If I could suspend my health issues, I'd have more acceptable options than I do now.

I function perfectly well day to day, but I have diabetes, so certain jobs might be off limits to me. And, although insulin had been 'discovered' and made available to human patients, the delivery method, as well as keeping track of blood sugar levels, were rather primitive, or non-existent, especially at home.

I prefer a simple lifestyle. Unfortunately, everyone around me that I love and support do not. But left to my own devices, I need next to nothing.

With a little 'readjusting,' I feel I would be very comfortable in the decade of the 1930s, with a simple apartment in either NYC-proper, or an outer borough. I would live where my work was.

Bugguy · Dec 23, 2014

I'd give real estate a try. Perhaps buy a whole block of row houses across from the inner harbor at Fells Point, Baltimore, MD. Or lakefront property anywhere near a city. Or acreage outside Asheville, NC. Or, or, or...

VintageEveryday · Oct 23, 2016

Well, i don't know if this counts, but I know A LOT bout fashion history, and I can sew, so maybe I could be a designer. Now, I know astounding everyone by "predicting" what the next fashion craze would be is cheating, but I know enough to design dresses contemporary to the year i woke up in that are very smart looking and elegant. I could certainly make a living like that. Start off by approaching a tailor, looking for work, then maybe work in a department store, then hopefully catch the eye of a rich client to help me get started. if not, my backup plan would be to stay and work for the department store with my own designs, or maybe go to hollywood.

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