As much as I loved that job, though, there's no way I could do it for a living. There's a reason it's only high school and college kids that do it -- the pay is horrible. Which is honestly fair, since the job's not very intense.
But there's a reason a lot of guys end up as golf course rangers in their retirement years.
Totally... also, there are some places that hire summer students and pay kind of lousy money and have rough conditions. But there are other places that will prefer to hire someone older, stabler, long term, and recognize that they won't be able to hold onto such a person without at least paying a living wage. That could be alright. More like $15-20 an hour for relaxed, reasonably well respected work with plenty of exercise and outside time.
The problem with a job like this is the lack of variety. Cruising up and down the same fairways for the seventeenth year can really get to you.
It's funny how when we're young we'll look at a job like that with a sort of scorn as if we've got better things to do, but then as you get older you long a little for those nice summer days of cruising up and down the fairways, just you and your machine.
I don't think I'm ready to quit tech anytime soon as I do enjoy it and feel like I might eventually make some lasting impact somewhere, but thinking ahead towards "retirement", there's something appealing about the idea of heading down to the local country club, filling out an application and collecting my $10/hour to cut rough 3 days a week.