What was the first job that you ever had?

Mizzou

I'm not talking about working around mom and dad's house, the first real job away from home where you got a paycheck. I hauled hay one summer for a farmer but that doesn't count. I'm trying to remember, I think my first job was working at a Shoney's (burger joint) in Missouri.

Ahrensdad

I worked behind the counter of an Orange Julius. It was 1988 and I was making about $3.15/hour.

ArizonaJack

Paperboy for the Detroit News in the late 60's on my bike.........

Goldbully

Laborer on construction site when I was 14.........$25/week.

Are there jobs for laborers in this PC world anymore???

epcjimi1

14 years old, Kentucky Fried Chicken, fried chicken in the deep fryer, paid $1.10 / hr in 1972.

Oh yeah, also had to clean the grease traps out. Nasty.

lasvegasteddy

california i was in the y.a.c.c. at 16
young adult conservation corps...a us forest service training program for youths...even was part of a "fire camp" during a big blaze
at the big tijunga station just east of the san fernando valley
even thought of being a hotshot as their station was next door
but went in the navy instead
kool lil note
even scored an 18 count rattler...

sumnom

My first job was delivering papers.

What does PC have to do with laborer jobs?

How long will it be before this thread is zapped?

I did get an AU 1942 dime on my paper route once. This was in 1978. I still have it.

There, now this thread is coin-related.

Shamika

I worked at a public pool for the summer making $2.10/hr.

TURBO

Meyers beverage barn. Port Huron Michigan. $2.90 hr.

bronzemat

A mom and pop bookstore.

Coins101

Suckered grape plants and picking grapes when I was 7. $0.05 an hour suckering, $0.20 a lug picking.

illini420

worked in a transmission shop, mostly doing oil changes, cleaning up, running around town buying parts, driving customer cars around our lot

amwldcoin

I worked in a pet shop for a buck an hour when I was 15. Even at a buck an hour the owner shorted me on my hours.

LanLord

Working at a coin store in Tustin, Ca.

I used to clean the counters, windows, and try to keep things neat. Occasionally I got to put some worn out IHCs into plastic capsules to put into the gumball machine and sort out walkers and mercs to be sawn into jewelry.

WTCG

Worked various shifts at my dad's frozen yogurt shop. A place my parents still own to this day. Never actually on the payroll but got paid for the hours I worked.

Also worked as a math and history tutor at a tutoring center teaching kids in my same grade or one grade below reviewing all the stuff they were desperate to know fast to not flunk tests. Made $9/ hour. Second serious girlfriend was a gal I had a crush on in school then had the privilege to "teach" after school for six months. I was being paid to spend time with her but secretly I would've done it for free.

Here's something I learned: before you go to work for an old person make sure you have your agreed upon salary in writing. It'll save you from bad surprises come your first payday.

LanceNewmanOCC

.
dishwasher

despised every second of it

only one boss i've ever really liked

<------------
.

WhiteTornado

Busboy at a restaurant that was connected to a country music bar that featured live bands. The dinner crowd was fine, but boy let me tell you, once the bar was closed, all the hick drunks rolled right over to the restaurant. Some scary characters in there during the wee morning hours!!

TexasNationals

1991, 12 y.o. $2/hr. skeet/trap clay pigeon loader and puller and other duties at a skeet/trap range. Did until 15, then legal got a grocery bagging job for $3.75/hr. I believe and I was union. First and last union job I worked.

DrBuster

<< <i>Meyers beverage barn. Port Huron Michigan. $2.90 hr. >>



Been there!

First paycheck job was at 15 washing the used cars at Tom Jumper Chevrolet. Had been cutting grass on our street for a few years before that though, plus other stuff.

MarkInDavis

I worked at a discount department store called Hornsby's. It was like a KMart. Made $3.15/hr which was more than my grandfather ever made throughout his life.

Steviewah

Band director in a public school.

LindeDad

14 moved irrigation pipes before and after school whenever it wasn't freezing for extended crop yield. Went to dollar an hour helper when I turned fifteen and could drive.

chipper10

Delivering newspapers at age 12 in 1977 (still have the silver I got then- about $10 face in 3 years time). First job after HS was driving a school bus at age 18. That was kinda weird, getting paid to drive girls 9 months younger than me to school. It was a really sweet gig in retrospect.

tjc2120

Summer jobs house painting then day laborer at condo construction sites then moved indoors as a lab tech.

MICHAELDIXON

Paper boy in the 5th through 7th grade. Then cooked burgers at "Borden Burger" which was bought out by Burger Chef.

UNLVino

Smiths Food King - Box Boy, I think it was $3.25 per hour..

ArizonaJack

<< <i>Paper boy in the 5th through 7th grade. Then cooked burgers at "Borden Burger" which was bought out by Burger Chef. >>



Nice, another paperboy. When was the last time you heard that term?
I could nail a paper to the front door from 50 feet while peddling my ass off to get home and play my guitar:-) I had just discovered Deep Purple and wanted to be Richie Blackmore :-)

DCAM

Walmart stock boy, 1981 $3.20 hour. I could sweep the store in 1 hour so basically they paid me $3.20 to sweep the whole place.

jdimmick

worked in the electronics dept at service merchandise for 3.35 an hour in 1988-1989. got a 10c raise to 3.45 after 3 months.

123cents

Worked for Jimmy Johnson's father at a Texaco Service Station in the 60's.

AUandAG

Spent the summer between Junior and Senior year picking the weeds from between the
garlic plants in a 500 acre field in Dayton Nevada. 12 hour days and $1 per hour. 30 minute
lunches and two 15 minute breaks (we laid in the Carson River to cool off as temps were
115 degrees in the field, many days). Good work, that kept me from dating and spending
money as I reeked of garlic and my hands were stained green from the weeds/garlic that got
removed. Farm is long gone and now all houses.

bob

Guess I didn't read the OP close enough. Real job was above. But did have two paper routes
in grade school. The SF Chronicle in the a.m. before school and the Redwood City Tribune after
school. Loved the tips and got a UNC Oregon Comm as a tip once and thought it was some kind
of foreign money (Dad corrected me on that). Also was a bus boy in CC at the Windmill restaurant
after school. But the farm was the first full day, full pay job.

Casman

First job in 1983, I was 12. It was at a Chinese restaurant in Roseville, Michigan. Bus tables and or Wash Dishes. Free eats, & the drinks were awesome. I worked Fri and Sat 4PM to 1:30 a.m. and got paid $150 UTT...yup, that was $600 month. I thought I'd been to the mountain back then...

WaterSport

Worked as a bus boy at the Buckaroo Steak Ranch on Lee Highway in Arlington, Virginia. I use to call it the Buckaroo "Mung" Ranch. Mung was reference to the filth and slime of the food service industry. Interesting, I remember we had a Vietnamese Restaurant owner from Saigon who came to the US to see how American restaurants operated as he had 3 in Saigon that served American GI's. He wanted to make them as close to American restaurants as he could.

WS

WoodenJefferson

I found a job on my own at the buthcher shop after school in the early 60's from 4:00 PM, take a break, then work until about 7:00 PM. I'd then go home, eat, and do homework until 10PM...crash listening WOKY in Milwaukee...the only radio station that played rock & roll.

I was making a whopping $1.15 per hour to take out fat & bones, sweep saw dust that was picked up at the local lumberyard and spread out onto the wooden floors, carry out meats to peoples cars and any other menial tasks that arose...it turned into a summer job on the boning block, along with a nice raise.

Seen lots of silver change go into and out of the till...good times.

TwoSides2aCoin

<< <i>

<< <i>Paper boy in the 5th through 7th grade. Then cooked burgers at "Borden Burger" which was bought out by Burger Chef. >>


Nice, another paperboy. When was the last time you heard that term?
I could nail a paper to the front door from 50 feet while peddling my ass off to get home and play my guitar:-) I had just discovered Deep Purple and wanted to be Richie Blackmore :-) >>



I could fold the paper in a square and fly it like a frisbee 75 feet. My customers were not too fond of my accuracy at hitting aluminum screen doors. I was running home to learn CCR and Bread. I earned bread and sang it, too.

Started paper route in 1967. I knew it was serious because my mom insisted I maintain a checking account if I was to handle money. My mom taught me some very good skills early. Accounting, customer service, and mostly that if I wanted something : "you have to work for it". All because I said to her "Mom, I want a bike".

Of course back in those days, kids were mature enough at 12 to be doing real work. And it wasn't too bad. Immaturity didn't sink in until I was much older.

roadrunner

In Junior high school I was a referee in the town 4-6th grade basketball and football programs in the winter and fall programs ($2/hr)

Next job was carrying and pre-washing racks full of merchandise at the start of a nickel/chrome plating line ($3/hr) - 2 summers worth.

thisnamztaken

If you don't count my paper route, shoveling horse manure/cleaning Shetland pony stalls every Sat., etc., my first actual 5 day-a week paycheck job was working at a woolen mill.

amwldcoin

<< <i>Delivering newspapers at age 12 in 1977 (still have the silver I got then- about $10 face in 3 years time). First job after HS was driving a school bus at age 18. That was kinda weird, getting paid to drive girls 9 months younger than me to school. It was a really sweet gig in retrospect. >>



DANG! I didn't even think about the paper route. I was 10! Lottsa a peddlin for the local paper for small change! I delivered 212 papers! Hey! They did put me in their paper!

abitofthisabitofthat

Working grounds crew at a local little league field, around 13 years old. Got the field ready, put down the batters boxes with lime, lined the base paths, etc. Then spent an hour or so watching the girls softball games or swimiming in a lake nearby before cleaning everything up. $1.50 per hour and free hots dogs. Possibly the best job ever for a kid.

bigjpst

First job was a paper route, from 11yrs old to 15 then I worked at a steel fabrication/welding shop.

lkeigwin

I cleaned a kiddie municipal pool when I was 14, the youngest age for working papers in NY in the mid 60's. I see it on my social security earnings record.

I spent the money on buffalo nickels and wheaties for my Whitman albums.
Lance.

njcoincrank

Mowing lawns doesn't count, so...

At age 15 I went to work at the local lumber yard. Hauling Sheetrock etc. Hard manual labor. 60 hours a week for $2.10 and hour. And every penny of it was spent on coins I had bought on lay a way.

TexasNationals. Just got back from trap shooting. Got a 24.

njcc

spinaker2000

First Job was collecting admission fees to the park across the street from my house at age 15. Now at age 52, I manage that same park.

melvin289

Worked at a local tire store in the service station. I pumped gas, washed and waxed cars, balanced tires on the old Hunter high speed tire system all for 85¢ an hour. This was in the summer of 1965 when I was 16 years old. We worked 54 hours a week.

Ron

jedm

Sure seems as if an awful lot of us were paperboys, me included. My first "REAL" job after the paper route that involved a paycheck was working in a cheese plant. This was in 1973 $1.65 an hour if I remember correctly. Angie by the Stones always reminds me of that job, I guess I must have heard it at the plant.

Jinx86

Well worked family farm...I got a pay check when I sold my cattle. Had to take my own loan out and everything. That was at the age of 16 so dad co-signed.
Custom combine work for a family member that was from Texas into Canada for wheat then back down to Nebraska and back into Canada again for corn.
Joined Army
....Family farm was sold off when I returned

jessewvu

McDonald's, 16 years old making $3.75 an hour in 1994 working drive thru and front counter. Before that I mowed lawns.

erickso1

Worked on a fishing boat in Alaska processing pink salmon and pollack.

Tiny

Paperboy like most kids in the early 60s but first real job was while in high school mid 60s
pumping gas, washing windows, checking the oil and air in tires at a gas station. I really
liked to clean the windshield on certain cars when the girls where driving. Gas was 29.9 a
gallon and when the gas wars would start I remember 16.9 a gallon.

kiyote

Putting clay pigeons on a trap machine. It paid $2.25 an hour plus one cheeseburger lunch in 1986 when I was 14. My twin brother was the guy that pressed the button when the shooter yelled "Pull!".

At the end of the day I had about $15 cash and he had about $50 from the tips. Argh.

astrorat

1980 ... Big Scoop Sundae Palace ... for $2.35/hr ... I was a Soda Jerk ... now I'm just a jerk.