OT - What Was Your First Job?

Fred19Flintstone

My daughter just landed her first job.  She's working at Barnes & Noble in the café.  It got me to thinking about my first job.  I was a paperboy delivering The Detroit News.  Everyday after school I rode my bike to the station, pick up my papers and rode my route.  Friday, I would collect from my customers and give most of that money to my Dad and he would give me a check to pay my bill at the station.  The rest was mine.  Pops was strict about it.  If I didn't collect enough to cover the bill, he wouldn't write the check.  It was that simple.  Later, my first "workplace" type job was washing dishes.

What was your first gig? 

Nobody wore helmets on bicycles in those days.

boatbum

Working on the farm.  Started young in life, don't think it hurt me a bit.

Taught me something about work, what it meant, made me appreciate the "office" job.

Was in the fields with a hoe part of the summer mornings when I was less than 10.  As I got older, got more responsibility.   Feeding livestock after school in the winter, checking the water, breaking ice when it was frozen.

Was driving a tractor by myself by the time I was 11 or 12.   First time I took a load of grain to the elevator in town ( 10 miles away), was probably 14 or 15.

Acn

First job was haying for a couple in town, $5/hour under the table, paid in cash every day. First real job was working for an inventory company, started right after high school and stayed there for about 10 years, first full time over the summers/part time during the school year, then full time while getting a Master's, then evenings and weekends after landing my first 'office' job.

fishlessman

metal fabricator /welder, started at 13 back in the 70's, still work in the same cave...shoot me
) please shoot me

nolaegghead

Army JAG office one summer when I was 15.   Boat yard 16.  Assistant cook, chef, kitchen manager after that and through college.  Must have cooked thousands of pounds of beef and seafood. 

bud812

Dish washer & kitchen helper in a nursing home. It taught me a lot of respect for old people & I heard alot of war stories from some of the old vets that lived there. There was one old vet named Mr. Nelson that I would stay after work & listen to his stories. Most of them were from WW1. Not sure many kids would do that today. Now 45+ years later I drink beer & tell my own stories. (mostly B.S. )

Eggucator

Im from Indiana so like every 13 year old from the country, I de-tasseled corn. 

Foghorn

Disney character.

BYS1981

I worked at a local deli waking dishes and graduated to making pizza.

Skiddymarker

All the best to your daughter as she enters the real world!

Like Freddie, paperboy for the Kingston Whig-Standard. During the summer I also cut grass in the neighbourhood, one of my customers owned a local independent grocery store. Liked my grass cutting and hired me for the store - steady job all through high school. 

Like NOLS, during the college days worked at a steak house. 

MJG

Golf Caddie. It has gone down hill from there.

jaydub58

In the stock room at local J C Penny.

J_Que

I was the most interesting man in the world until Jonathan Goldsmith took my job!

henapple

Foghorn said:

Disney character.

Still Goofy... Or is it Dopey?

Foghorn

 

henapple said:

Disney character.

Still Goofy... Or is it Dopey?

At the time, It was Br'er Bear, Baloo, Little John, and Ski Goofy mostly. 

Now?  You're probably spot on in your assessment - especially given that I go to functions where people like you congregate.

erblove

Lawn care with my father when I was about 8...along with any chore my parents could think of. 

Rzeancak

Paperboy i guess when i first got paid to work,  Walmart was where I learned to pay people who don't work. TAXES!!!!  (Welfare)

JRWhitee

Busboy and dishwasher at the Village Inn @ 15. 

Tjcoley

Paper boy, snow shoveler, grass cutter, pool locker room attendant.   Senior year in high school was when Hurricane Agnes hit Wilkes-Barre, PA.  Spent the summer digging mud out of basements.  $20 cash at the end of an 8 hour day.  Showed up and was assigned to a team.  If you came back with them, you were handed a $20 bill - no taxes, no record, nasty work.

Botch

Tree nursery at 13.  I hoed weeds for six hours in the am, then returned in the evenings to water thousands of roses in pots.

I had a great tan, but my calves still look like Freddy Kreuger's.  

travisstrick

Comercial fishermen age 15

EGGATL

Delivered Papers on a U.S. Air Force Base in England. My dad was a pilot in the AF.

My customers were both Americans stationed there as well as Royal Air Force members.

The Stars and Stripes went to the Americans and the Brittish received their very proper paper but I don't remember the name.

All was quiet on the western front until one day I somehow got my route mixed up and the British all got the Stars and Stripes and the Americans got the British paper. The Americans didn't mind a bit but the British all got upset. Ended up going back and redelivering the whole route.

I still laugh and chuckle about it to this day.. quite a learning experience.

 

Jon

SaltySam

I'm with you @eggucator. I also detasseled.  Three weeks of 4:30am wakeups, and 6-8 hour days walking through muddy corn rows, in 90-degree heat, 85% humidity, drinking lukewarm water from a leaky Igloo cooler, and eating bologna and cheese sandwiches for lunch.  Brutal work.  Decent cash...to a 13-year old at least.

Just about every other job in the book since then.  Paperboy, car wash, golf course groundskeeping, pro shop, retail, waiter, military. 

Streetglider

Afternoon and Sunday paperboy, still hate inserts.

Charlesmaneri

my 1st job was pumping gas at the Mobil station I did that from 15yrs old till 18 made enough money to buy my 1st car which was a 1972 Chevelle SS

SMITTYtheSMOKER

I grew up on a Midwestern farm as well, lots of work a little pay...but that was all I knew.  First paying gig was driving a fuel truck at a local airport fueling airplanes, I was 14 at the time and they didn't even check my age. LOL   After a couple of years there they realized my age and I was senior lineman at the time.   Great experience, flying is such a rush especially at takeoff.

TUTTLE871

Worked In a friends Dads body shop sanding cars, I still cringe when I look at door jams. Was a great time and learned a lot about cats and life.

Botch

EGGATL said:...one day I somehow got my route mixed up and the British all got the Stars and Stripes and the Americans got the British paper. The Americans didn't mind a bit but the British all got upset. Ended up going back and redelivering the whole route.

Jon

If that "proper british paper" was The Sun, then I know why they got upset... 

SaltySam

TUTTLE871 said:

Worked In a friends Dads body shop sanding cars, I still cringe when I look at door jams. Was a great time and learned a lot about cats and life.

I know this is just a typo, but it made me laugh.  Talking about cats, and talking about cars...two very different visualizations.

Mickey

Foghorn said:

Disney character.

Ok, you can't put that out and not say which one. Sorry, should have finished reading.

Mickey

Setting bowling pins for a nickel a frame. Blue Velvet and Sugar Shack were big songs, you guess the year.