100 things in 100 days - number 84

84. While in the military (as a technician) I once spent a whole month bar tending (paid).

So picture this. We had just come off a couple months away on exercise and were expecting to start our summer vacations. Our boss called us together and announced that he had some bad news. He needed about a dozen volunteers (there were about a dozen of us) to go on another tasking for a whole month. Once we were done, we would be allowed to take our precious summer holidays. Once it had been made clear we had no choice, off we went - to Connaught Ranges on the western outskirts of Ottawa. Our job? To run the two messes (military jargon for bars) in support of a 2 week civilian shooting competition, followed by a 2 week military shooting competition. The mess I was tasked to work at was set up in an old army H-hut that had no real physical security (to secure thousands of dollars worth of booze plus the cash). So someone (me) had to live in the back storage room to guard the stash. My daily job was to bartend. We all took turns taking shifts tending bar. For a month. With our regular pay. And we got to keep any tips. And we got to write off anything we drank as spillage. We were cautioned to take it easy on that. Which we tried to do - honest.

All this H-hut had for tunes was a jukebox in the corner that hadn't seen a song change in over a decade. So, since I was well established as a DJ on the side by now, I borrowed someone's station wagon and drove back to Kingston to pick up my gear and tunes. So for almost the whole time, whenever I wasn't tending bar, I was DJing and passing the hat for some bucks. This got me out of a lot of bar tending shifts, because once I started spinning the tunes, it really sucked for everyone if I couldn't play because I was working. We had girls working at this camp too. So we were not lonely. It gets better.

One night, three of us had a little too much to drink (for free - spillage). I cranked on some tunes after the bar closed and by about 2am we were (literally) swinging from the rafters. It woke up some of the camp guests. It also woke up the camp boss. We were in big trouble. For which we would get severely punished. By working the staff party at the end of our tasking. My buds had to bartend that night. My punishment was to DJ the staff party for free. No hat passing that night. Bummer. It was a rough life.