Youth at Work II

In the summer of 2006, after a seven day trip to Napa Valley with my parents and sister, the arcade in my home town of Highland, Indiana was just a few weeks from being closed.  It was still scorching hot in September and every one was finishing the last few weeks before fall arrived on Navy Pier, Chicago with short shorts and flip flops.

My long time friend Sara new the bartender manager on the event yachts and I went to talk with him about a bar tending job.  I had little experience bar tending with another special event bar tender that I got the job from him through networking with family but I got the position on the yachts and would work serving drinks on the 3 hour party cruise yachts for weddings, business parties, and holidays.

The crew had been working on the yachts for over five years together and most of them were roommates.  They all were off for the summer from classes, and I found little interest in talking about school or hobbies, sports, or career plans since was summer break and the tourists that filled the city were all over with questions for us about food, sight seeing, and theater.  The drivers of the yachts were dressed in uniform and the the rest of us wore khaki shorts and navy blue polo.

The crew had fun, they were enthusiastic to set out on the water, and entertain guests from 75-300 a party.  Sometimes there was a rock group below deck, and I enjoyed taking the river route in between the Chicago Loops high rises.  I served everything from 5 dollar bottled waters to  7 dollar Sea Breezes.  After the party ended around 12am and docked back at Navy Pier the crew would go to have drinks, shots, or food.  Every weekend I found new things to do during the nightlife like concerts, playing pool, and or staying on the Navy Pier just to look at the beautiful view of the city.

The colorful clash of vibrant culture filled the pier with British and Irish youths working temporarily and then going back to study in their countries.  And even today I still think that is a cool and great idea for youth to explore and experience other parts of the world in between studying courses to learn to work with people, and experience the field students are studying from mentors or hands on experience when they get the chance.