Your first job???

[Wingnut]

Gee, all those years ago I was an "Independent Contractor".  WHo knew.  No wonder my SS statement never included the years of 68-69.   

[Smokin Joe]

First job off the farm which had been tobacco, and tomatoes, and my Great Uncle had cattle and sheep, so lots of hay bales stacked was at 14. I had to get a work permit in MD.

Actually two jobs, one building seawalls and piers, including being a deckhand on a pile driver, driving seawall sheeting with a 110lb sheeting hammer, and all the associated odd labor that went with all that. Paid $2.65/hour.

The other was as a volunteer fireman, mostly getting trained and learning (although that never quit). At 14 we were not supposed to run calls, but we did even though we were relegated to 'outside' duties on structural fires, we were in the thick of it for brush fires and accidents where sometimes the extra manpower made a difference. By the end of my first summer building seawalls, I had a 34 inch waist, stood close to 6 foot, and weighed 240 lbs (a lot of muscle).
In the meantime I held a commercial crabbers (fishing) license, so I could supplement my income selling soft crabs to local restaurants for $3/dozen, which was pretty good money then.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Of course.  Age of 12, you're an Independent Contract with major newspaper.

You get charged X $$ for your weekly drop off.

The advertised cost/rate for daily home delivery is Y   Routes typically were 200-225 single family detached homes with front doors 30ft from the sidewalk easement.

To have an opportunity to run a set of books, cover the responsibility of delivering the newspaper whether rain, shine or in the middle of a too-familiar Buffalo Blizzard. 

To learn those lessons at such an age...priceless!!

That's exactly what happened.  You paid for the papers and it was up to YOU to get money collected for them.  You had to absorb the deadbeats, not the paper company.

And when I occasionally threw one that landed on the roof, I am the one who had to climb up there and claim it.  Had to pay to repair a screen door once as well.

[roamer_1]

I dunno what my first job was... That's all blended together with chores, and cowboyin, and roundup, and fish camp, and all sorts of things where a young boy just pitches in... But it probably had something to do with hay, silage, digging, poop, or killing something. 

I DID work proper jobs early on... I was a pump jockey, a mechanic's helper, worked as a grip at the fairgrounds.... but I was working long before that.

[catfish1957]

1975- Flipping burgers at our town's local burger joint for $1.10/hr.

[AllThatJazzZ]

Went to work for my neighbor (Bill Golden) in 1963 (age14) at his Phillips 66 service station. Got the Social Security records to prove it. Worked there until I got my First Phone license and a job with KILT (610 on your dial) on Lovett Blvd in Houston. I stayed there until my Uncle Sam required my services elsewhere. @AllThatJazzZ 

@Bigun

Hours and hours and hours of listening to KILT. Don't know how I would have gotten through my teen years without KILT. Thanks!

[DB]

@Bigun

Hours and hours and hours of listening to KILT. Don't know how I would have gotten through my teen years without KILT. Thanks!

In my early teens I did pirate radio... Called it KRUD... Played a stack of albums on the record changer... Only 10 watts...

[AllThatJazzZ]

   I was a paper boy for the Houston Chronicle to middle class renters.  I learned there are deadbeats everywhere while collecting.

@corbe

My late husband and I threw a route for the Chronicle (could have been the Post, but I'm old and my database is so full; seems like it was the Chronicle, though). We were newlyweds and wanted to augment our income. It didn't take us long to figure out that we didn't have enough time to do the route and do our jobs, so we only did it for a couple of cold winter months.

[AllThatJazzZ]

In my early teens I did pirate radio... Called it KRUD... Played a stack of albums on the record changer... Only 10 watts...

@DB

KRUD 

[AllThatJazzZ]

Studding tires and pumping gas ( for father's biz) at age 9.
First outside job was hospital orderly at age 16,which I kept for 8 years thru high school, college and part of grad school, though I lasted one day as a clerk at a L'il Peach convenience store. Shift was 3-11 and I was told to clock out at 11 which I did. Then owner says, " we have to mop up and close up" off the clock. I was " nah, if I'm working I'm getting paid", handed him the smock and quit when he told me we don't clock back in and don't get paid to clean up and close up...

@escapeefromtaxachusetts

Did you go into the medical profession?

[Bigun]

@Bigun

Hours and hours and hours of listening to KILT. Don't know how I would have gotten through my teen years without KILT. Thanks!

  I was never on air back then. All I did was help keep the thing on the air.

[AllThatJazzZ]

I started babysitting when I was 9 or 10 for neighbors (mom close by). But I had been sitting my baby brothers since they were born. That would certainly not pass muster in today's world. I made 25 cents an hour. In addition to keeping the kids, it included light cleaning, feeding the kids, bathing them and putting them to bed. I would save up that $$ and invariably we would have a family crisis and it would be gone.

So as soon as I could get a SS card I went to work at the Barrel O' Chicken and made in the range of $1.90 an hour. Really big bucks as far as I was concerned.  I learned how to cut up a chicken and not cut off a finger, make a really good breading and excellent fried bread...all deep fried, of course, and cooked from scratched. And most importantly...I learned how to not blow a gasket at rude, stupid customers.  Then on to Kip's Big Boy and made some really big bucks!!

@berdie

Do you still use these recipes?

[AllThatJazzZ]

First job off the farm which had been tobacco, and tomatoes, and my Great Uncle had cattle and sheep, so lots of hay bales stacked was at 14. I had to get a work permit in MD.

Actually two jobs, one building seawalls and piers, including being a deckhand on a pile driver, driving seawall sheeting with a 110lb sheeting hammer, and all the associated odd labor that went with all that. Paid $2.65/hour.

The other was as a volunteer fireman, mostly getting trained and learning (although that never quit). At 14 we were not supposed to run calls, but we did even though we were relegated to 'outside' duties on structural fires, we were in the thick of it for brush fires and accidents where sometimes the extra manpower made a difference. By the end of my first summer building seawalls, I had a 34 inch waist, stood close to 6 foot, and weighed 240 lbs (a lot of muscle).
In the meantime I held a commercial crabbers (fishing) license, so I could supplement my income selling soft crabs to local restaurants for $3/dozen, which was pretty good money then.

@Smokin Joe

What coast?

[mystery-ak]

This turned out to be a great thread...we all have something in common..we all had jobs and responsibilities in our teenage years that made us what we are today...

[Smokin Joe]

@Smokin Joe

What coast?

East. Southern Maryland, Tidewater Potomac River and tributaries.

[AllThatJazzZ]

I was never on air back then. All I did was help keep the thing on the air.

@Bigun

My first adult job was at NASA. I never understood the technical stuff in all those documents I handled, and I never directly put a man on the moon, but they couldn't have done what they did without me! 

[AllThatJazzZ]

East. Southern Maryland, Tidewater Potomac River and tributaries.

@Smokin Joe

You kinda tortured me when you brought up the soft-shell crabs. Now I can't get it out of my mind. 

[Smokin Joe]

@Smokin Joe

You kinda tortured me when you brought up the soft-shell crabs. Now I can't get it out of my mind. 

I was talking with my cousin just today, and she informed me a soft crab sandwich is going for $15 and up out there now, and a bushel of hard crabs can hit $400.00

We really did eat like kings as kids...

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I was talking with my cousin just today, and she informed me a soft crab sandwich is going for $15 and up out there now, and a bushel of hard crabs can hit $400.00

We really did eat like kings as kids...

cheap.  My Acme Oyster House in New Orleans days now charges $20.99 for a poboy https://acmeoyster.com/french-quarter/

[Smokin Joe]

cheap.  My Acme Oyster House in New Orleans days now charges $20.99 for a poboy https://acmeoyster.com/french-quarter/

Wow...

[The_Reader_David]

Library clerk for the county public library, summers of '74 and '75. Shelved books, checked books in and out, and the second summer helped with a survey to determine whether county-wide bookmobiles would actually be used. 

I think I was the only guy in my high school who managed to get a desk job instead of shaping Christmas trees with a machete or working at a poultry-processing plant for my summer job.  Yeah, those jobs paid more, but I got air conditioning and could sit down about half the time.

[DCPatriot]

Library clerk for the county public library, summers of '74 and '75. Shelved books, checked books in and out, and the second summer helped with a survey to determine whether county-wide bookmobiles would actually be used. 

I think I was the only guy in my high school who managed to get a desk job instead of shaping Christmas trees with a machete or working at a poultry-processing plant for my summer job.  Yeah, those jobs paid more, but I got air conditioning and could sit down about half the time.

Always look forward to your posts and POV  @The_Reader_David     

[jmyrlefuller]

Other than briefly substituting as a paper boy at around age 12, my first job was as a cashier at the local grocery store. Pay was not very good and the hours were a pain (good luck picking up women with that kind of work every Saturday afternoon and night) but I did like the work. You build a nice following in your community with that kind of position. I held that job until the store shut down, about 13 years.

[DefiantMassRINO]

At age 11, working in my uncle's bait and tackle shop in South Boston.  Beware, seaworms can bite/pinch.

Mike Dukakis' Boston Harbor pollution led to a decline in demand for saltwater bait and tackle in Boston proper.  One of the many reasons I loathe Dukakis and his bleeding heart liberal ilk.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

At age 11, working in my uncle's bait and tackle shop in South Boston.  Beware, seaworms can bite/pinch.

Mike Dukakis' Boston Harbor pollution led to a decline in demand for saltwater bait and tackle in Boston proper.  One of the many reasons I loathe Dukakis and his bleeding heart liberal ilk.

Also Massachusetts shore was massively overfished during the 80's.

[berdie]

This turned out to be a great thread...we all have something in common..we all had jobs and responsibilities in our teenage years that made us what we are today...

True! It was at one time a badge of honor to have a job. It was "grown up" whether the reason was to help your struggling family or have money of your own.

[berdie]

@berdie

Do you still use these recipes?

Although I'm sure I still have the recipes scribbled down some where and the deep fryer is probably out in the shed somewhere...sadly fried foods are  part of my cuisine I no longer partake of. :( Aside from having fried crappie or catfish once, maybe twice a year. Pan fried.

But in my other life we had a lot of company. It was one of the ways I used to feed a crowd. Make a big potato salad, cole slaw, salad tray...bread the chicken ahead of time. All you had to do when it was time to eat was drop the chicken in the fryer. You could enjoy your company until it was time to eat. With cobbler for dessert.

[berdie]

Shipley's make the best donuts in the world @AllThatJazzZ !!! One of the few remaining stores is in a town near me...but it is a MAJOR treat in my world to go there.

[DefiantMassRINO]

I had the misfortune of catching a flounder with fin-rot off Spectacle Island in the late 1980s.  It was sad to see it in such a sorry state.  We eventually gave up flounder fishing because all we were catching were skates.  There were no (healthy) flounder to be had.

Mike Dukakis (and his coffee boy, George Stephanopoulos; dirty tricks minion, John Sasso; and Susan Estrich) was too busy chasing the Presidency in 1988 to give a damn to the damage his own gubernatorial administration was doing to water quality and quality of life in Boston Harbor.

You'd think a 'liberal' like Dukakis would have wanted a cleaner environment.  Nope, he just wanted more Government control of our lives and our wallets.  Why allow Government more power and responsibility when it can't handle the responsibilities is already has?

Also Massachusetts shore was massively overfished during the 80's.