3rd Shift #1

Big Phil fiddles some Notes From The Cube . . .

There are four reasons for working 3rd shift:
* Can't find anything better
* 2nd job
* Family to take care of during the day
* The belief that the daylight hours are now "free".

Generally, the line workers are on 3rd shift for reasons 1 and 3. Foolish writers, artists, actors and idealists are there for reason 4. The rest of us, crossing all lines of profession, are stuck there for reason 2.

3rd shift is where there's no daylight - ever - in the winter, while summer leaves the body aching for adventure just as the shift ends and it's time to head home for sleep. Summertime on the 3rd shift is like being perpetually 18, when it was possible to go to school all day, go to sports practice in the afternoon, work the 4-hour swing shift on Friday night - then party with friends till 2 a.m. and still get up in time to make the 7 a.m. start time for the weekend job. And do it again Saturday night/Sunday morning.

And when the body is no longer 18 - God, even when it's only 29! - 3rd shift is the pits in summertime, because no one is going to go home and sleep at 6 a.m. No never, whatever.

'Learned to drink cognac and espresso while watching the sun rise, from a New York bartender while working the night auditor shift. Bars don't close till 4 a.m. in New York (or didn't back in the day). Sit on the front step of the hotel while the rest of the world sleeps it's last few hours and see the sun and wish you could just walk away from it all. Not angry, not resentful, not depressed: sort of at peace with the world and, while the caffeine and alcohol work their tonic through your bones, ready to enjoy the world. 3rd shift has its attractions.