Hawksley Workman on the odd job he had as a teenager

Hawksley Workman is a singer/songwriter, musician and the author of Almost a Full Moon. The versatile artist wasn't always working in his field though — below, he shares the "rather strange" job he had when he first moved to Toronto as a teenager.

I worked with friends from the Catholic Worker house at a communal sawmill. It required me to get up extremely early in the morning, and — and this is in some ways a depiction of how different the times were in the early '90s — but I was required to carry my chainsaw on public transit, which at the time seemed utterly normal, but of course in contrast, we're under more worrying times, and definitely feel the weight of worry on us in a different way. I can't imagine being able to carry a chainsaw to work on public transit ever again.

Hawksley Workman's comments have been edited and condensed.