This morning on my way to work I passed a city crew that was out painting new lines on crosswalks along Albert Street. I thought to myself, “What a cool job to have.”

Hey, I’m not complaining about what I do for a living. Aside from the crazy hours, I’ve got a great job. Where else can you sit around for a few hours playing music and yakking and get paid for it? If you did that at any other job you’d be shown the front door in no time at all.

I had a couple of buddies who worked for the City of Lethbridge after we all graduated from high school. Their job? Driving around overnight watering the city parks. Great, huh? I used to think that job would be so cool. You get to stay up late and drive around watering stuff!

I had another friend who pumped gas. I thought that job was pretty cool as well. If you had to work on a nice hot sunny day, it might as well be outside, right?

All my friends thought my job was the coolest. I still remember when I started at CJOC radio in Lethbridge. It was a hard date to forget…July 1st, 1980. It seemed my friends would drop by nonstop just to see what in the heck went on in a radio station. One of my favorite high school teachers even came by. I still have some of the photos he took that early morning.

Since that summer day over 39 years ago, my career has taken a couple of detours, but here I sit at the most listened to radio station in the province. I’ve been here over 24 years now!

I haven’t seen the friends I’ve just written about in a long, long time. I think it’s safe to say that they no longer pump gas or water lawns for a living, yet here I am, still slugging away at the same job they saw me do all those years ago.

Does that mean I’m the winner?