Remember the Graveyard

Along with my kayaking obsession I’ve been getting into fishing San Diego’s bays. I’ve been mostly out looking for spotted bay bass, but I’d eventually like to go out a little further for some of the bigger fish people are catching on kayaks. And I’m going to try my hand at catching local crab and lobster, too.

I left the house really early last weekend. On Saturday Paul and I left about 6:15 to get to Shelter Island early. Then on Sunday I left the house at 5:00 to get to Chula Vista before sunrise.

Sunday morning, with my kayak strapped to the roof of our minivan and my fishing gear in the back, I blurry-eyed drove through the sleeping streets on my neighborhood to the our local gas station. I got some gas and then headed inside for a cup of coffee.

As I doctored up my coffee the clerk came out from the back room to ring me up.

Me: Are you just starting your shift or finishing it?

Clerk: Hopefully I get off in about an hour.

Me: Dude, I feel you. Worked the graveyard for a few years back in college.

Clerk: It’s not too bad. I kind of like it.

Me: Yup, I get it. You trying to get off the graveyard?

Clerk: For like two years, man. But they just haven’t moved me yet.

Me: Thanks for the coffee. Keep working hard, good things will happen.

I got back in my van and started driving towards Chula Vista, thinking about the man pulling a graveyard shift on El Cajon Boulevard. No one likes the graveyard but it’s absolutely necessary. People who work the graveyard always hold out hope that they’ll get moved to the daylight. But the simple truth is that as a manager, when you find someone who is willing and will do a good job, you never want to move that person. It’s a rare breed. So for that guy, working a dead end job stuck in a dead end shift on a street known for it’s near constant stream of johns looking for prostitutes… he’s going to have to quit to do better. He knows it. Everyone who works the graveyard knows that you can do the graveyard forever.

Remember the Graveyard

Have you ever worked the graveyard?

I worked the graveyard from 1997 to 1999, 10 PM until 6 AM. Then from 1999 to 2002 I worked from 4:00 AM until noon. The last year of it I was joined by a fellow youth ministry friend, Jon Potes, as we were both working on our undergrad at Moody.

Here’s the thing about the graveyard: No one likes it. But you learn to like it. It’s a place of independence. It’s a place of getting stuff done. And it’s normally a place without bosses. (Technically, I was the boss. But I worked hard to pull my weight and not just be “the boss.”)

In every town, big or small, there’s an all-night population that does a lot of the grunt work that you or I rarely see. These are people who work all night at gas stations, convenience stores, factories, security, hospitals, utilities, public works, delivery, and a whole lot more… and their existence is nearly invisible to people who have never worked the graveyard.

People who work the graveyard have a camaraderie. No matter your role, you also identify with other people on the graveyard.

• You don’t talk about being tired.
• You try to keep busy.
• You take a lunch break and call it lunch, even if it’s at 3:00 AM.
• Some people sleep when they get home, others the afternoon.
• You need the radio or something that keeps you engaged.
• You learn to dread days off because it messes up your sleep schedule.
• You learn to love the independence, the lack of supervision, the lack of distraction.
• You learn to take advantage of the shift. I used it to complete college, taking classes when I got off work. I also played a lot of golf in the summer, I could be at any course in Chicago by 1:00 PM most days.

The Blue Collar Shift

Even if you’re a doctor delivering babies every night, the graveyard is a blue collar shift. You get to know your city in a completely different way. I knew cops, restaurant workers, grocery store stockers, cab drivers, dudes who worked at places I’d never go into… all kinds of people from working the graveyard.

Remember these people. Without them, your city would be a much less hospitable place.