First/Summer Job

[TimW451]

Babin Farms humorous post made me think, “I’d just be glad if kids these days got a job.” So, I was think what was you summer job or “first” job while in school. I had a paper route when I was in middle and high school and worked in a furniture store warehouse on the weekends.

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[AboveTheBest]

Mowing lawns and spreading mulch was probably my first.

The worst was loading the Trap launcher for a week-long tournament. 8-hour days of sitting in a pit just big enough for an 11-year old in 90+ degree weather. The whole time trying to avoid the giant metal arm from breaking your hand every time you put a clay on it...

But they paid cash, and $350 at the end of the week went a long way for an 11-year old.

 

[Yambers]

Same summer.. Worked for an excavating company spreading straw by hand and shooting grade, sealed mobile home roofs with a bucket and roller, and pulled weeds from empty lots at the same trailer park.. It all sucked, but gave me work ethic.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Let’s see….. used to work pulling weeds, using a magnetic rake picking up nails and bolts out of the gravel to keep the fleet vehicles from getting flats, $2 an hour then would spend it all at the amusement park that night. Also learned how to lay out pipe / plate and learned how to weld. Ran one of those old arc type searchlights for openings and special events. Also spent quite a bit of time cutting firewood to sell in the forest-that was some hard ass work.

 

[Neutron]

Dishwasher at Pawtucket Country Club in RI at 14 years old.

 

[Wayloncle]

A couple friends and I would drive around and see if we could find farmers baling hay, then stop and ask if they needed help hauling it. I helped my Dad cut, bale and haul hay for other people a lot. Made quite a bit of money doing that!
First fixed hour job was working for a family friend on his farm fixing fence, bush hogging, clearing fence rows, building barbwire fences…. Worked at Wal-Mart during a Christmas season, made me never want to work retail again, that was my first actual tax deducted job.

 

[HangOutdoors]

I started working at McDonalds. I was on the grill. Stayed for about 6 months. Couldn't eat at a McDonalds for at least a year or more afterward, I ate so much of it cause at the end of the night they would let us take home what was left over. I would sack up burgers and go out with my friends and we would eat all that stuff...

 

[Ronnie]

At 14 and 15 I worked two summers at Kodiak King Crab on the island of Kodiak Alaska. My uncle was a foreman there. I iced fish most of the time but did other things on the canning and fresh frozen lines like unload crab and fish from holding tanks, put the lids into the canning machine and worked on the fresh frozen line gutting fish (it’s like an assembly line, first the dish is decapitated, before being split down the middle bottom, de-egged, put on styrofoam and under cellophane, ready for the supermarket isle). It paid $9 per hour for the first 8 hours, $13.50 for hours 9 through 12, $18 for hours 13 to 16 an $27 for hours 17 and up. We usually worked 18 to 22 hours per day, 7 days a week. I made save enough in two summers (6 to 7 weeks each summer) to buy a new car. 1985 Pontiac trans am.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Hmmmm..... I got paid $3.35 hr and barely could afford my heavily used 1976 Granada... You were doing much better than I was @Ronnie

 

[Eriejetboater]

Mowing lawns at 12, Cleaning horse barns and bailing hay at 14, lifeguard at 16, McDonalds at 17, chemical bottling plant at 18. All those jobs paid little but taught me work ethic, still paying dividends today.

 

[2kwik4u]

Much like @HangOutdoors I started in fast food. First paycheck came from a Taco Bell around the corner from home. Had to walk there at 15 and only was allowed to work 20hrs a week.

I had a ton of "jobs" before that. Hauling Hay (round bails) at 13 was entertaining. I drove the tractor while the farmer drove the truck with the bails on a trailer. He had two of us, one at the barn and one in the field. I would get all the bails from around the field, and have them in one spot, so he could pull up and I could load them quickly, then he would drive to the barn and the other boy would use his backup tractor to unload into the barn. Did this about 2-3 days a week for a few summers. Guy paid us $1/bail for loading and unloading it, and then a $50 bonus if we moved 100 bails in a week. Was stupid cheap child labor, but $150-$200/week is a lot of cash to a 13yr old boy with no expenses.

Unsure what changed, but I can't imagine cutting my oldest (almost 10 now) loose on a giant tractor, and then leaving him by himself in a field for 30-45min at a time with said tractor. Maybe he'll change significantly in the next few years, but that level of responsibility just seems enormous through my current set of "Dad Goggles".

 

[Babin Farms]

Babin Farms humorous post made me think, “I’d just be glad if kids these days got a job.” So, I was think what was you summer job or “first” job while in school. I had a paper route when I was in middle and high school and worked in a furniture store warehouse on the weekends.

My humorous post pretty much sums up my first job. Dunno how old I was but is all I know is I couldn't lift the bales. When we weren't baling hay we were detasseling corn through my youth.

 

[Sean R]

When I was 15 I did dishes at a local family restaurant, hated it. Then at 16 I worked part time at a machine shop manufacturing replacement parts for Model T's and old Ford N series tractors (yep I am from Detroit). I thought I was the shit, my buddies were making pizzas for $3.50 a hr but I was making the big bucks $5.00 a hr ?

 

[zipper]

At 14, I followed a hay wagon around fields putting bales on it to be stacked. Part time. As well as a back wrench holder and "hold this here while I put a tack weld on it" which was more full time involuntary indentured servitude.
At 15, I washed pots and pans at the Ethan Allen Club. Part time. Still holding that back wrench. lol
At 16, I worked in a lumber yard. Full time Summer.

 

[anmut]

Up on a roof scraping shingles for my dad's construction company. I learned early on that construction was not in my blood, career-wise.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

Don't know when these were but all were kind BS jobs around 14/15/16.

I did training at a call center place for 2 days. On the third day the job started, three of us went to lunch and never came back.

Did something polishing eye lens stones? I don't really remember it was weird, just basically polished and rinsed rocks but had something to do with lenses or contacts.

Tried selling Dish TV for about 2 days for a friends uncle.

That's some of what I remember - I am sure there were other weird BS ones like those. I picked up a bunch of odd jobs for family and friends. Doing stereos/detailing cars/yard work/fixing or hooking up electronics or computers, etc. In high school I bought CDs the first day they came out, burned a bunch of copies and sold them for $3 each to everyone else in school (perfectly legal, I know).

My first legitimate job was building bicycles/grilles/furniture for Walmarts. I made a crap ton of money doing that (well for that age, if the work was there I could easily make $20/hr+). It was just hard work - overnight or out in the Florida sun. Definitely built a good base for my work ethic.

 

[LakesideLaw]

First job was gas dock attendant at Romp's WaterPort in Vermilion, Ohio. I was 15 and we had a crew of 3 guys who would handle gassing up, pumping out and running pick-up of food/drinks from the Marina to the docks for all the marina boaters. Best job ever - in the sun and outside - paid like $10 an hour plus tips. We had lots of Cleveland Browns players who docked at Romp's back in the day and we would all fight to angle for that boat turn on the dock to get the big tips. Leroy Hoard was the best tipper around - he would fill up with gas and get 2 hot dogs and 2 Brisk Ice Teas and hand over 2 $100 bills and say keep the change. Usually ended up being about $30-40 bucks left over - most boaters would tip you $5 bucks.

 

[Crob83]

Pizza Hut...lol

 

[Julian]

Age 11-16 Caddy (often 2 rounds a day with 2 bags always) and Lawn mowing
Age 17 Burger King
Age 18 Selling beer at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse
Age 19 Selling beer - Also Summer job - Doorman 4 East 72nd Street NY NY

My daughter is 16 and is a hostess at Chai's Asian Bistro

 

[Acard7]

Age 14 Fareway grocery stores
Age 16 Lifeguard & Fareway
Age 18 EMT/Lifeguard/Fareway
Age 21 FT Paramedic ever since

I credit my father for many things I learned along the way growing up. We didn't have much money so working on our own cars and homes were normal for us. By 14 I could frame walls, drywall and mud, run electrical to outlets, do my own vehicle services as well as change many engine parts, suspension parts, etc. This also pushed me into taking small engines and home improvement courses in high school. Now they have quite a few hands on courses I wish they would have offered back then. Growing up like that made me want to look into problems on my own. Crazy as it sounds, my twin brother wasn't like this, I had to show him how to change a simple headlight bulb the other day. Just sad to see that the ambition to do anything anymore seems to be diminishing in all age groups.