(FORTUNE Magazine) – In high school I was a member of the A-V club, and in college I used to work in a movie theater too. Then I spent 30 years in the classroom teaching and doing tech support. When I retired, I was looking for something to do and saw an ad in the paper for "projectionist wanted." I'm also a customer service rep at BJ's Wholesale Club and have been at H&R Block part-time during tax season for 20 years. I'm supposedly retired, but it keeps the brain working.

The room I'm in is about ten by 12 feet. Just me and the projection equipment. We try to feature family films--it is not a passion pit the way it was when I was a kid. We get 50 to 200 cars a night, and I'm often running around with jumper cables helping people whose battery went dead while they were watching the movie. Whenever I go to theaters, I get very upset when the film is out of frame or out of focus. You set it once, but you have to check it every five or ten minutes because it tends to wander. I watch all the movies. I like to watch the pacing, the editing, look for any lack of continuity. I've become a real critic. --Interview by Julie Schlosser