Your first job

[azsnowman]

A lot of retailers on the mountain are in dire straights for help, this happens every autumn when the summer help returns to school.....this made me think of something, did you work after school and during summer vacation, if so....what was your first job?

I started working when I was 13 years old, yes......things have changed a LOT since the late 60's, early 70's, my first job........I worked at a service station, you remember those, FULL service, someone pumped the gas, washed your windshield, checked the oil, checked the air in the tires, all this at NO EXTRA charge :o I remember pumping gas for .28 cents a GALLON :o don't I wish "LOL!" I worked for 2 hours after school 5 days a week, then 8 hours on Saturday........all this for 1.05$ an HOUR, "I was RICH!". I bought my first car after 2 summers working there, a 67 Volkswagon Square Back Station Wagon, it took 5$ to FILL it and I drove ALMOST a full week on a full tank!

Dennis

[David]

I haven't started work yet... my first job will probablt be at my dad's antique mall.

I wish gas prices were that low today.

[azsnowman]

Yes indeed.........I thought the world had come to an end when gas hit 1.00$ a gallon in 1979, I'd settle for 1.29$ a gallon at the moment!

[Colin]

I'll probably start working in a couple years...there is a market down the street from me that I could probably get a job at!

[JetMaxx]

First job? I was mowing several lawns in my neighborhood at age 14; but my first steady job was a custodian at Mabry middle school in Marietta, GA when I was 16 (made a whopping $2.95 an hour

[streetsoldier]

My first job was as a 16-year-old "stock clerk" in the now-defunct Atlantic-Spartan store chain, at a princely $1.65 hourly; this was my first experience with unions (Retail Clerks Local 655), neurotic managers and criminally insane dock workers (imagine going into the "inventory" area and having several box-cutters miss you by inches...only to discover that the thugs they hired back there were betting on who would "hit" the first employee in a box-cutter throwing contest!).

[DaylilyDawn]

I got my first job in the summer between junior year and senior year of high school. I was hired at a gas station that was on the corner of the intersection of Highways 60 and 17 in Bartow, FL where I grew up. When the owner of the station sold it, the station across the road asked me if I would work for them. I worked there for the rest of the summer and all of my senior year of school. I worked from 2:00 pm till stationed closed at night at 10:00. I was paid 2.75 an hour and was earning more money than my classmates who were working too. I used the money to buy a new pair of glasses I needed. My dad told me not to get wire frames but I told him I was getting wire frames becasue I was paying for them. This was in the 1973-74 time frame. I also gave my mom 25 dollars a week so she could have some spending moeny that Daddy couldn't have say over how she spent it. My Dad was stingy to say the least. I also paid for new clothes I needed and I bought materials to make several outfits since I knew how to sew and use my mother's old Brother sewing machine.Most of the customers at the station were a little shocked to see a teenage girl working at the station. My job was to pump the gas, clean the rest rooms, keep the oil cabinet and drink machines filled and when customers asked about a car wash , I got to wash the cars . We charged 25.00 for a hand wash and wax. Since I was the one who washed it I got to keep the fee. The Boss was a great guy and I kept in touch with him for a few years until he moved away and I lost touch.

[isobar]

Great thread Dennis!
Well, like most girls, I babysat. Got $1 an hr back then in the late 70s. Scary to think that those kids are all grown and have kids of their own. (I know exactly what you mean, Ed!!)
At 16 it was off to the local Wendy's. I think minimum wage back then was $2.65. Walked a mile every day after school to get there, until I saved enough for that 1st car. A 1970 Bonneville - man, what a tank! 455 engine. What great times! 'Nuf said

[JCT777]

My first job was at a lawyer's office at age 16 - doing general office work (filing, photocopying, some typing, etc.)

[OtherHD]

I start my first job in 3 days...

[Miss Mary]

My first job was right out of HS. Working in a factory, that manufactured crystals for transistor radio's. Yup, I'm that old!!!! Circa 1975. I had to wear protective gear and boil the crystals in chemicals. Goggles and all. I hated that job! Didn't have it long......4 months or so. I promptly went to work for the IRS, for the busy tax season. Liked that much better but got laid off. Next job and my last one, was for a doctor's office - the best of the 3!

[j]

My first job was washing dishes in a very busy Greek Restaurant(age just shy of 16)..dirty smelly disgusting work...but I took as many hours as they would give me, and would hitchike home late at night on the weekends because I didn't think it was fair to ask my Mom or Dad to come pick me up late at night. I would lie to them and tell them I had a ride. I worked there for a couple of years.

My how times have changed.

The garbage that would collect on your shoes was so disgusting I had to keep my shoes out in the garage,THey stunk so bad.

[coriolis]

Do paper routes count? I was probably 12 at the time.
Then I loaded trucks at a soft drink bottling plant at 15
Store clerk at 16 for a brief period
Worked at a tree farm pruning Xmas trees one summer, forget which one.
Then I was a busboy at a restarurant at 17

[j]

I had me a paper route too @ age 13-14, back in the day when paper boys earned their money. No parents driving them around...we hoofed it, and it didn't matter what the weather was like. I had the morning route, and these people expected their paper early, dry, and delivered to their door, not thrown on the driveway like they do now.

[Guest]

I got my first job at the mall immediately after I turned 16. I worked in a shoe store, and thus came my fascination with owning as many pairs of shoes possible, LOL. I will never forget my first job. It was the best ever. If only work was the same as it was back then.........the money was mine, not the mortgage company's or the light company's or the phone company's etc etc. Oh the good old days....... long gone

[ameriwx2003]

First real Job was a custodian at the Y.M.CA. at age 16. Before that I earned money mowing lawns in the summer and shoveling snow int he winter:)

[CZonian]

Growing up in the Panama Canal Zone is my only excuse. No kids had jobs back then so I knew nothing about it.

My first job was at the Wine Cellar as a bus boy. High School in Florida. Fine job, but I was there till (sometimes) 1:30am 2am. Then up early for school.

This lasted 4 weeks or so.

So one day I went in early (3pm) and told the guy I couldn't do this anymore and I had to quit. His response, "You mean without any notice?" My response, "Oh, I don't start till 4:30 today." (I was serious too.)

...I had noooo clue. I left there wondering what his problem was. Until I told my folks.

[azskyman]

My first job...age 16. I worked as a night assistant/custodian/hospital helper for the local hospital. The job was a real eye opener. I held hands with dying folks, brought oxygen in tanks to the delivery room or emergency room, helped patients to the bathroom, sterilized the operating room, and did such wonderful things as burn operating remains and afterbirth in the incinerator or roll bodies down to the morgue.

Great job for a 16-yr-old.

And I got to do all that for $.50 an hour!

[weatherlover427]

I got a job at 16 pushing carts for Sam's Club in Orlando, FL. Paid $6.50 an hr, which is $.25 LESS than what I make now.

[ColdFront77]

I worked for a very brief time in the late 1990's.

Too bad I couldn't work in the meteorology field from home, on my computer.

If I went to college I would definitely major in meteorology.