I missed my true calling as a hawker

While filling out this form I had a hard time finding an entry in the ‘Occupation’ select box to match what I do. You can tell that the list comes from some dusty old insurance almanac, being almost completely devoid of any reference to more recent professions. In the end the wonderfully mechanical ‘Computer Operator’ was as close as I could get, conjuring up images of me pulling cranks and levers all day long at a giant steam-spewing counting machine.

I also got an insight into some of the many other ways I could be keeping the lights on, which include:

Arborist Armature Rewinding Artificial Inseminator Boxer Canal Operation Cemetery Subdivider Chewing & Smoking Tobacco Digger Driver Dry-Liner Electrotyping & Stereotyping Extraction of Pine Gum Folding Cardboard Boxes Freezer & Locker Meat Provisioner Fur/Gown Trader Gravedigger Gypsum Hawker Hypnotherapist Log Merchant Machinist Mattresses & Bedsprings Milk Agent Money Lender Mushroom Picker Net Maker Panel Beater Pigs Police Protection Pools Collector Pressed and Moulded Pulp Goods Private Detective Railroad Property Lessors Ship Building & Repairing Shoe Repair & Hat Cleaning Service Stonemason Tarmacadam Worker Tree Nuts Wood Pallets & Skids X-Ray Apparatus & Tubes

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