At 14 I worked after school at the local cotton gin.
I picked up pop bottles by the side of the road and washed little red wagon loads for the deposits starting at six years old.
I got a job loading trucks for North American Van Lines when I was fourteen.
dBase II programmer for an apple orchard.
I was the quintessential high school geek.
Car hop at drive in restaurant paid 15 cents an hour.
Started at age 13. Selling popcorn, peanuts, and cokes at Tiger Stadium for LSU football games. Made a penny off each item sold. Had to climb over bleachers with a full tray, on a strap around my neck. The trick was to make change, stay balanced, and not spill.
The catch was, we had to arrive hours before the game, set up the stand, fill the ice chests, hook up soda machines, make and box the popcorn. For which we were paid nothing. Zilch. One penny each sale, plus tips.
Back at the concession stand, we had to aggressively push the customers aside, to get our trays refilled. Time was money.
One night a drunk in the bleachers yanked my hair to get attention, causing me to fall and spill my tray. I had to pay the concession boss $20 for the loss. Went home with 35 cents after 10 hours’ work.
Next job, age 15, I was a roller skating waitress at Hopper’s Drive In, an outdoor hamburger and malt joint.
When I was about 8, I sold bunches of holly from my red wagon at Christmastime. At 13 (when I could get my SS card), I rode my bike across town to cut apricots on Shannon Road for $1/tray. Babysitting for 50 cents/hour and then 75 cents/hr. When I was 16 I got a real job at Baskin Robbins and then Jack in the Box and then a local retirement home (working in the kitchen), next a banquet waitress at a hotel to get me through college and finally working for a large Aerospace company for the last 33 years. Start at the bottom kids and work your way up.....
Depending on the time of year I worked my way through school doing construction and landscaping, or bagging groceries, stocking shelves, and pumping gas. Always had at least two jobs going.
I asked him one day when I was going to get paid. He said "I saw you eat breakfast and you're probably going to get supper." The next year I got $1 an hour.
I was a “Community Organizer”, then (my handlers) blackmailed my way into the US Senate.
I spend my days on vacation paid for by people who grew up mowing lawns, shoveling snow, painting fences and pulling weeds. Chumps!
15 years old - lied about my age to work at a Shakey’s on Friday Nights and weekends.
The Brotherhood of Thieves, Nantucket 1974. 630am - 1230pm morning cleanup, day prep, supply stocking, etc. Free breakfast and sometimes lunch. One of the best parts was I could take the ends of the Colony meats they used in their sandwiches home. About a pound was left after slicing. My dog ate roast beef, pastrami, etc. I was 11 years old, cuz back then nobody nit-picked.
The old Brotherhood was fantastic. Arty Kraus had an excellent sense for period music that really made the place. Trivia: the “1840s whaling bar” was literal. The place had always been just a basement. The bar was made out of 1840s wood. Whaling was the theme with harpoons on the wall. It was meant to look like a whaling ship galley -and it did.
1973. Mowed the lawns of four elders.
1974. Worked tobacco farms in northern Ct.
From 1973 through 2013, I never woke up in the morning without a job,
1973. Mowed the lawns of four elders in the neighborhood.
1974. Worked tobacco farms in northern Ct.
From 1973 through 2013, I never woke up in the morning without a job,
Okay well, since I got paid it would qualify as a first job- I danced (ballet) as an extra with American Ballet Theatre for a couple years when they were in town. It was a real treat performing at the Kennedy Center. I know I was paid what union rules required, but I never saw the money, my parents put it in the bank and likely spent it on dance supplies lol
I moved to NYC in 1976 at 17 years old (ostensibly to continue my ballet training and enter a professional company), and got my first “real” job waiting tables when I turned 18. At this time I quit ballet and went to art school, and starting doing freelance art jobs.
My most memorable moment at my first waitressing job was bringing Cleavon Little a ginger ale for which he tipped me $20.
I have quite a few “interesting” NYC waitressing stories lol
wow how could I forget babysitting? yes did many a babysitting gig starting at about 12 or 13 years old.
My Dad had a dairy farm and he started me out very early. I shoveled cow manure, milked cows, put up hay, processed and bottled the milk, and delivered it to his customers.
Dishwasher for 1.25/hr part time in High School.
1969 - worked on crew setting up bandshell and play-sets at the Midland Center for the Arts ... paid $2.00 per hour. Eventually made crew foreman, 1971-1972, and was paid the amazing amount of $4.25 per hour.
Ride Operator at Geauga Lake Amusement Park, Ohio
Made $2.35 per hour, you got an extra 0.25 cents per hour if you stayed the whole season. I worked there 3 summers in a row and it was one of the best jobs I ever had!
That was 40 years ago and to this very day the smell of hot tarmac still makes me smile.
Carrousel, Double Loop, Music Machine, Big Dipper, Tilt-a-Whirl, Log Ride, Corkscrew...
5.56mm