Pablo Carcano Martinez

This is my family's furniture store in Galveston and I have been working there whenever I am needed since a young age. Here I learned to use basic tools and follow blueprints to assemble furniture. Once I grew older and got a drivers license I became in charge of delivering furniture, and teaching whomever was with me for the day on how we operate.

I began here as a greenhorn basket runner, my role was to move fish where the fisherman were at to the coolers, and to ice and care for the fish. After about 6 months i was moved up to the position of fisherman, running two gears at a time and catching and bringing fish in to the the boat. The position of fisherman meant there were now people below me and it was my job to train them. I became a very valuable part of the operation, in charge of ice, fuel, and just knew everything that had to happen on that boat before after and during a trip. At this time i have worked on 3 boats within the commercial snapper fishing community, Blackjack IV, Alice Mae, Rachel Marie and given help to the Chelsea Ann. I am very well known around pier 19 and i give that community a lot of credit for making me who i am today.

I worked with a family member in the remodeling business, learning to paint and remodel homes. I did floor, framing, painting, tile, and various other cleanliness activities, keeping myself busy at all times.

After community college I did not know what to do so i heard about salmon processing and got hired quick and flown out within 2 weeks of applying. Here I was placed in to the cannery department. Within canning, shifts were about 12-14 hours on good days, working for overtime. My main role was to position fish head first before they went in to the machine, this was one of the more demanding jobs within the operation, with so much going on, and heavy fish being dumped.

Within the plant, the season i worked wasn't a great one, with all the legal troubles peter pan has faced, it was the beginning of an end. When there wasn't work for me in canning I found work in the filet team, pet food, and the egg house, I was always eager to work and i would be rewarded with work.

Did not work here long but left on good terms. I learned to work in a shop environment at Mickey's Marine, and the value of the broom. I spent long days doing nothing but cleaning all day, my highlights of the day were being asked to fetch tools and getting to watch them work on boats. This is where I realized i liked boats, and what that really meant.