What was your first job?

[hcjilson]

At the tender age of 15, my dad, in mid June, informed me that I wouldn't be able to lounge around the house all summer.( Our family had moved to Cape Cod, and lounging around seemed like a cool thing to do.) That fiat occured during a Sunday evening just after school had let out for the summer. On Monday, I was booted out of the house and told not to come back without a job.

I started banging on doors at 9 AM on Rte 28 in Bass River ( all sorts of tourist type businesses.)I got lucky on my first interview and was hired to clean a swimming pool at a motel on 28.I was on top of the world! Someone wanted me and was willing to pay the minimum wage (.75 per hour) The job was only going to require 2 hours a day and began at 7AM. I knew I had to fill some more time so I continued to bang on doors on my way home. My second interview took place less than an hour after the first. I was given a job selling lawn furniture at an annex to a gift shop (The Colonial Country Store.) My boss, Bill Hemeon, spent some time with me to teach me how to sell. The lessons he taught, I have used every day of my career since then.I held that job each summer throughout my teenage years.My pool cleaning job expanded to include 4 motels, and I was able to handle them as well as my job selling lawn furniture.Suddenly I found myself working 11 to 12 hour days.What a surprise for a goof off teen ager that wanted to spend most of the summer at the beach!

How about you?

[For-Life]

I started at 14 working for my father in his optical store. I still work there today with him (we are both licenced).

[lpdeen]

Sea World San Diego from 16 to almost 19. After that, I started working at an optical lab and the rest is history!

[harry a saake]

.50 cents an hour working for the church, making sure the pews were clean and polishing those bloody brass door knobs and plates on the three doors that led into the church. This was 1955.
.....As far as optical goes. 1965, Bausch & Lomb, polishing cylinders, glass, at 75.00 per week. 1969 B&L 125.00 per week, co manager of a lab, asked for a raise and was told, do you realize since you have been with us you have almost doubled your salary.

[chip anderson]

Working weekends and days in Summer at a car wash, nights at Modern Optics polishing buttons (segs), Weekend nights microfilming records at Hermann Hospital. My home room teacher quit teaching when he found out I made more money than he did.

Chip

[Cindy Hamlin]

I started working part-time at a donut shop icing and filling the donuts. I had a great time! There was the one day I tried to see how much filling a donut could hold........:drop: I scrubbed the walls for hours! I was sweet 16!

[Sean]

I started "working" at age 4 in the lab at my fathers optical store. Now that i think back on it.....it's funny how much cribbed glass you are willing to clean up for an ice cream cone. Then came the advent of Optyl..............used to love heating up the temples ......twist them up.......then reheat them to watch them straighten back out. I was in my glory...........well at least that is what he tells me now.:)

[Pete Hanlin]

Delivering the Patriot Evening News at age 12 (I still feel animosity when I see a thick, heavy Sunday paper).
:angry:

[JennyP]

My first PAYING job (besides occasional babysitting) was during high school: making sticker labels to go inside thread cones for textile manufacturing customers....that got old quick.
My second regular job was more interesting: I would relieve the Three year olds' "regular" teacher at a church day care after my own college classes. (I still think 3 year olds are some of the most fascinating people in the world. Especially if you get to visit with them rather than care for them all day long....they reserve the really interesting observations and statements for people they don't see every day!)

[karen]

Paper route when I was 12. When I turned 13 my dad put me to work at his office cleaning on weekends and doing recalls. I also had a job on Friday, Saturday nights and Sunday mornings as a bus girl in a restaurant (cash under the table baby!) Been working ever since...I need a vacation!!

[Jana Lewis]

My first job lasted until I went away to college.... it was a great job! I was a server at Top-Notch burger palace. If any of you are familiar with the movie "Dazed and confused" that hamburger joint was shown in the film. Top-Notch is still an Austin institution, although the owener just died a few weeks ago.

I have promised myself that if and when my husband and I start to have a family, that we will take our kids to Top-Notch!

[Texas Ranger]

We were in upper michigan at an AF base so jobs were hard come by, but I had 2, one was sacking groceries for "tips only", and the other was short order cooking at the snack bar, after school, which also included bussing tables, and doing the dishes...tips were usually a dime (but that's how much it cost to go to a movie, or for a pack of cigarettes), and the paying job was $1.03/hr. my first optical job was working in my uncle lab, packing mail, assembling frames, route delivery in an old blue ford p.u. truck, and sometimes edging lenses on those old ceramic bowl edgers...those were the days!!

[chm2023]

Camp counselor. Got a great tan, met lots of cute boys and developed a intense dislike of children. $2.50/hour which was considered great money back then.

[ioconnell]

A phone call from america said send the lad over and my father said sure it couldnt do any harm, that was two years ago, and words cannot express how fortunate I was to be given such an opportunity at an early age, and i owe a lifelong debt to Harry and his wife Sue for giving me that opportunity ( and for putting up with me for the past couple of Summers!) It was Harry that lined me up with my first job as a caddy at a golf course close to his home, I can still remember how nervous I felt on my first trial run, luckily the golfer I was caddying for enjoyed my company and put in a good word from me at the Pro-shop.

I returned last summer, and have fond memories of Cape Cod and the people that I met there. I'm leaving for the cape again this summer on the 22nd of June the day after my Leaving Cert. finishes! In one way I cant wait and in another I'm dreading the coming of June 9th when the exams start! Although I will be sure as hell happy when its all done....

[Lee Prewitt]

First real job was stock boy and checker for Payless Drugstore. Then irrigating corn fields, broccoli and beets. Worked 12- 16 hour days, made a ton of money and one hell of a workout. Imagine moving a 20 foot pipe with 4 foot tall sprinkler at one end pushing through 10 feet tall corn, all the while keping it upright while it was covered in wet mud! Did very well in football and wrestling after that summer!

[Judy Canty]

Cashiering at the local Rexall drug store then as a toll collector at the Downtown Tunnel between Norfolk and Portsmouth.

[shanbaum]

Picking lenses in my Dad's lab in the morning, taking driver's ed in the afternoon. Summer of '65.

I'm still driving, and I'm still picking lenses (albeit indirectly).

[Jim Schafer]

Mowing lawns, raking leaves and shoveling snow for several neighbors! That is steady work for a 10 to 12 year old in Ohio. Never negotiated a decent wage with my parents...something about letting me live with a roof over my head. I delivered the Cleveland Plain Dealer for several years too.

First cool job was lifeguard and pool maintenance at Eastwood Park in Tallmadge Ohio at age 15. The pool maintenance was my first experience of applied chemistry and bringing balance to the universe.

Best life advice ever came from the head life guard Ed "Bunky" Tibbs who lost his student deferment in July '68 and was leaving for 'Nam pronto...."Be nice to all the little girls. They grow up." This had been passed on to him by an earlier lifeguard sensai. I passed it on to the guards who followed me.

In about 1984, I was in a bar with my PPG softball teamates when this drop dead gorgeous mid 20 something comes out of nowhere and says Hey Jimbo, remember me?? Here she was one of the 8 year old kids that hung at the lake everyday. All I could say was..Thank you Bunky, you were so right!

[Pete Hanlin]

One of the BEST jobs from early on had to be working at the construction company my dad exec'd for... At 15, I was stuck sweeping the warehouse- but the summer after I turned 16 (let's see, that would have to be- gasp- '84) I made it out to work at actual construction sites! Of course, this involved driving "big" trucks. One was a large panel van that had one of the sliding driver's doors. Oh yeah, pull up next to a car with some gals and just ooze masculinity (or so I thought at the time ;^)...

Plus, working in the union and all, I was pulling in $13 and hour (plus, OT was calculated at anything over 8 hours a day- and I worked a 23 hour day one time...)! That was pretty awesome money for a 16 year old working in the summer... life was just grand!

Vacation that summer included a trip to Virginia Beach with a friend of mine and we skateboarded on the boardwalk... Daggonit, I wanna go back, I wanna go back!

[mlm]

First job was in high school working for the school board. I had to mix 40 lb bags of modeling clay powder with water and pack up the clay to send to all the schools. My parents didn't consider it a "real job" because I could choose which days to work after school and how long each shift would be. But I got paid $4.50/hour and learned how to get my hands dirty!

(Come to think of it though, my parents still don't think I have a real job...)