294 Comments »

1. Heather said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 8:58 pm

   Ooh, first comment!

   Actually, my first job was detasselling too! I’m in northern Illinois, the heart of corn country, and I detasselled at the age of 13. Unfortunately, I’m really short now, so I was REALLY short then, so I couldn’t work a full season…I simply couldn’t reach the corn by midseason. The worst part, though, was the cornrash. I hated that!

2. Amanda said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 9:01 pm

   My first job was as a hostestt in a neighborhood bar/restaurant (think 1/3 the size of an Applebees or TGIFridays). We had these regulars who played the scratch off lotto every Tuesday night. One Tuesday, while closing down the bar, one of the regulars, drunk by then, kissed me on the way out the door. Yikes! What a first kiss, eh?

3. Jen said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 9:04 pm

   My first job (aside from babysitting) was when I was 12 or 13. I grew up in northeastern Wisconsin where there is a lot of farming but rocky soil. In the early spring, the farmers would pay local kids to help “pick rocks”. Yes, that’s right, I had to walk through a field picking up all of the rocks that had been brought to the surface by the frost heave and put them onto a hay wagon. It all had to be done before the farmers plowed so that it wouldn’t ruin the plow blades. It was hard, dirty work and it was NOT a fun time!

4. Tracy said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 9:06 pm

   I suppose I can count this since it was longer than an hour! Braiding horses’ manes and tails (it’s a horse-show thing and I was good at it). We grew up showing horses and at shows most weekends, so my sisters and I were always scamming for jobs to make extra money. As far as “real world” job–fast food of course! Wendy’s. I remember some pretty rambunctious times in the back room…a few pickles stuck to the ceiling maybe? But you know what I remember best about that Wendy’s job? What I did with my first real job paycheck. I took the whole thing and bought a huge pile of takeout Chinese food (all our favorites) which was something we rarely had (money was always very tight). Made me feel so good to do that for my family

5. Beth said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 9:08 pm

   I also detassled. I think it’s a really common first job when you grew up in farm country. I lasted a whole day, but the bug nightmares haunt me all these years later.

6. ruth said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 9:08 pm

   My first job was as a supermarket checkout girl during pineapple season. This was a small market, where every customer knew the owners. Many were elderly ladies, who constantly checked that the eggs were on the top of the bag. I’ll never forget the prickly pineapples.
   From that inauspicious job, I graduated to being a page in the main library of our city. And that lead to a career as a librarian, from which I’ve recently retired. Being a librarian was much better than bagging pineapples.

7. Miss T said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 9:09 pm

   My first job? Ick. Boring and unglamorous. It was at a real estate office, back in the day when the listing sheets had to be put in 3-ring binders by hand and updated by paging through and removing anything outdated. That was my job, and it was so, so tedious.

8. Roberta said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 9:09 pm

   Mine was working as the housekeeper’s assistant at the rectory at my church. I did the dinner dishes, answered the phone and the door, and stuffed envelopes and things of that nature. The pay wasn’t much, but it was kind of fun. I’ve never looked at priests in quite the same way after spending many evenings eating pizza and watching hockey with them. It really made me realize that everyone, no matter what their role in life, is still a person with a life outside their career!

9. Kristin said,

   June 18, 2007 @ 9:10 pm

   Of course, my first job was babysitting and then waitressing! But my most unusual summer job was WELDING for a factory – very interesting, and mandatory overtime on Saturdays (kinda kills the social life at such a “delicate” age). Well, needless to say, it made me want to finish college! Not that I don’t appreciate welders out there at all, it’s just, I’m not a good one! Let’s hear it for all the nurses who work hard each and every day! That’ s what I do today, and I’m sticking by it!

10. tina said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:11 pm

    My first job was waitressing at a travel/truck stop over the interstate outside of Chicago. It was very fast paced, I was slower paced apparently! I was forever getting in trouble for not having my orders out fast enough and I always forgot which garnish went with which. I worked my tush off and it was hard work indeed. After that summer I knew that I was not cut out for waitressing and I still tip my waitresses very well.

11. Alyson said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:11 pm

    Oh my God, Wollmeise?! Wheeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

    I really *wish* my second job was my first job, at least for the purposes of this story, because that was at a bowling alley and it was SO much fun (but kinda gross). I got to bartend (at 17) and cook in the snack bar, and play with the music, and spray shoes (enter the gross part) and bowl a lot, and the pro shop owners were this sweet little elderly couple and they adored me, and they sold me a ball and shoes at less than cost and engraved my name into it, and I bowled a 201. It was great. (Oh, my first job was at a real estate office; cushy gig, nothing very interesting there – great people, office work, way better than most of my friends’ jobs…but other than the time I had to go take pictures of a property and got chased up onto the hood of my car by the owners’ Dobermans – twice – there wasn’t much excitement.)

12. debbie said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:12 pm

    hmmm…..my first job was at age 15. i worked as a sandwich maker. we made sandwiches for vending machines, and small blind vendor stands and for tourist boats…i wasn’t that good spreading the egg and tuna salad, but i could lay out a nice ham and cheese assembly line real good! i worked after school, and so every night had a sandwich for dinner – my favorite was roast beef with pickles – oh how i miss that….

13. Katie said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:12 pm

    I had my first job for 5 years. I worked doing data entry for an accountant part time while I worked on my bachelor’s degree. I quit to go to grad school. While the job wasn’t always the most challenged or time consuming, it did teach me about payroll and the tax system (knowledge which has helped me greatly even 7 years later).

    The worst job I ever had was my third job for a big red retailer. Never again!!

14. Kathy said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:14 pm

    I grew up in northern Michigan and like most kids in my town at that time, my first job was picking cherries. I was 14 and it was the only job I could get. I was paid $5 a lug (those lugs are huge) and hated every single second. Like corn, it was very buggy, not to mention the occasional worm on the trees. It was hot and humid that summer, so I was always sweaty, stinky and stained reddish pink. (The cherries also stained both skin and clothes like there was no tomorrow.)

    It’s now a couple decades later and I still can’t eat cherries without suffering horrific flashbacks.

15. Jill Day said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:18 pm

    Well….my first job was pretty typical, I worked at a Pizza restaurant. I grew up in the Seattle area and when I was 17 I lived in Bothell and got a job at Pizza Haven in town (such as it was). I worked the register and bussed tables and very quickly grew to hate it after just a few weeks! Which is funny because I also worked at Godfather’s years later….I guess I didn’t hate it enough

    My register came up short one day….due to my poor counting skills (I just couldn’t get the hang of counting change back) since I’m pathetically honest! They very nicely told me that they would have to let me go. They just couldn’t take the chance that I pocketed the money. I was both insulted and amused…I think it was off by something like $20 (it was a long time ago so I can’t remember exactly how much).

    It’s ALSO funny that years later I also worked as a teller at US Bank and at Albertson’s as a checker and my money always balanced!

    Oh well….I was tired of working there anyway

16. Tempe said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:19 pm

    My first job was when I was 14. The town had a program where you could get a part-time job at various places in the area. I worked in the kitchen at a local YMCA camp. Cleaning up tables after breakfast, helping prep for lunch, whatever needed to be done. I don’t remember a whole lot about it, but I do remember the great feeling of opening up my own savings account, and putting my paycheck in there every other week!

17. Frances said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:22 pm

    my first job was boring and typical – baby sitting.
    when i was in college I worked as a ticket taker at the outdoor amphitheater – got a lot of high and drunk people that came through. Not only did a lot of them smell bad, the worst was when they would try to hug you after you took their ticket. They did let me work the VIP gate after that though. Did I mention the horrible uniforms??? Huge oversized bright yellow and blue polo shirts with khaki shorts. Tres hideous.

18. Laurie said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:23 pm

    I see lots of farm girls read Sheri’s blog! Growing up on a farm in the Texas panhandle, one of our main crops was cotton. My first job was during junior high, hoeing weeds in the cotton fields…sheer bordom, if you ask me – Walking up and down quarter-mile rows, in loose dirt, under the hot sun, in between the new cotton plants and carefully hoeing out the weeds without disturbing the cotton…all for the sum of 25 cents a row! I finally got the bright idea that I would invite my best friend (a town girl!) along for the fun…after all, what better way to get a tan and earn a little money too?? We slathered up with baby oil and out to the cotton field we went. We were both covered with baby oil “mud” and sweat in about 30 minutes and miserable to boot…or so we thought. We heard a car coming and looked up, only to see our cute, just out of high school church youth director coming for a visit…that we both had a crush on…pure horror…

19. Tigger's Mom said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:24 pm

    My first job was in the “office” part of a mall jewelry store. I wrote sales slips, gift wrapped, answered the phone and did credit checks for store accounts. I learned a lot about jewelry – and here are some little known facts: the mark up in a mall jewlery store is at least 500% on anything in 14K gold or with diamonds or other stones. This is not the place to get the most bang for your buck! Also, the good diamonds are never on display – they are in the store’s vault and you have to ask to see them! I bought my first contact lenses and my first car with the money I made at this job.

    So glad that Casey is okay – even Troublemakers have troubles!

20. rohanknitter said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:26 pm

    Ha – you had the same first job as my dh – he lasted more than an hour, though. ; )
    I haven’t done that but I’ve walked beans which is also miserable so I can see why you hated it.
    My first job (besides babysitting) was for the summer, full-time, working in a factory where they made dip-switches. No kidding, that’s what they were called. They looked like legos, kind of. Anyway, it was mind-numbingly BORING but they paid more than minimum wage and I needed to save the $$$ for college.

21. Trish said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:27 pm

    The Loopy Ewe seems to be growing fabulously. I love all the new yarn types you’re bringing in.

    My first job was a boring job working part time at K-Mart. I was getting $5.25, which in So. Cal. it didn’t go very far. It was a miserable job. There was one manager that was always complaining about my work and I swear he hated me. I never did figure out what it was about me that he didn’t like. I finally lost it in the middle of my shift when he start accusing me of all sorts of things I didn’t do. I let out a very un-lady like string of cuss words, told him I quite, and walked out the door. I didn’t need the job, I was just trying to get a little saved up before I left for basic training. I left for the military a few months after I quit. I heard later that the store manager fired him for harassing several employees. I felt vindicated.

22. Lynn Zimmerman said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:32 pm

    It’s hard to call it a job, but since I made money, I suppose it counts. Me, my two sisters, and 5 cousins would sell sweet corn grown on my grandparent’s farm from my grandpa’s green pickup truck. My parents and my aunts and uncles had the hard job. They would pick the corn while we all played on the farm. Our job was to sit with the truck parked on the side of the highway and count the ears of corn for the customers. It was the perfect summer job.

23. Theresa P. said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:33 pm

    First job memories…boy, do they take me back. My first job was working in the office of a very large hobby shop in Miami that was owned by my step-father (newly acquired at the time) whom I despised, of course (I was 15). My job was putting invoices in numerical order (can you say BORING??). The invoices were stored in huge filing boxes and when we needed a copy of one, it was also my job to hunt through the boxes to find it. Talk about mind-numbing. But the other people I worked with were great and I still keep in touch with some of them to this day. I eventually moved on to doing other secretarial duties and actually ended up being their first computer programmer when they computerized the business. (Does that date me or what?) Thank goodness the times they have a-changed! I’d hate to think I had to go back to that job.

24. ann said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:33 pm

    My first job was working at a farm stand next to my extended family’s huge farm in upstate NY. I was 14, and my parents sent me to hang with my aunt for the summer, and she hooked me up with the job as a cashier — I guess it beat working in the fields. It was sort of like a huge produce bodega that also sold doughnuts. Our parking lot was the drop-off point for a day camp in the area, so we were swarmed every day at 7:30 and then again at 4:30. In between, the migrant workers teased me and my cousins incessantly. The upside is that I am very, very good at picking a good melon and can identify all of the herbs on sight, thanks to all of the soccer moms asking me “which one is arugula again?”

25. Anne said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:33 pm

    My first job was working at the Wholesale Club (think: Costco, BJ’s, Sam’s Club). These were the dark ages before scanners and conveyor belts. No, back then, checkout had 2 people–the cashier, and the “caller”. You had to do time as a caller before a “promotion” to cashier. The caller was the one who physically transfered every single item from your cart or flatbed to another one, while locating and calling out the SKU number to the cashier.

    My very first day on the job, as a caller of course, a Farm Family came through. Think about a family of 6 who only buy groceries (that they don’t produce themselves), clothes, motor oil, tires, soda, office supplies, cleaning supplies etc etc one day of the year in one store. Using 4 flatbeds. Paying almost $6000 in (1987) cash.

    On top of this, as a new warehouse, in Minnesota, it hadn’t earned enough money to justify airconditioning, or heat. I started work in the summer. A really hot one. 100+ temps outside meant very very hot in the warehouse. That winter? You guessed it–winter jackets never came off, all day and fingerless gloves to work the cash register. After quitting that job, I couldn’t set foot in a warehouse club for many years!

26. Kelly said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:37 pm

    Waitressing. Actually, I started out as a cook, but didn’t like it. And found the gumption (somehow, even a shy 16-year old can find cojones when she needs to) to tell my boss so. So he let me hostess. And then wait tables. By the time I graduated from high school, I could do any job in the place save for the nightly managerial stuff. Four years in that place; four years in another restaurant. And now I have funky feet, bad knees and a bad back to show for it. But I do tip well.

    Hey, it paid for college.

    Give Trouble a tummy skritch from me.

27. cecily said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:38 pm

    My first job was the summer I was 17…I ushered at the local Opera Theatre…it was minimum wage, but I loved it, because I got to see the entire season for free.

28. Janice said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:39 pm

    My first job was when I was 14. I was a telemarketer for Meridian Waterproofing company and would call people and asked them if their basement leaked. (I can still recite most of the speech that we had to memorize for our phone calls). Unfortunately, I did not get anyone to sign up to have their basement ‘waterproofed’ in 2 weeks and was ‘let go’. Don’t think I ever included that job on a resume…..

29. Liz said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:39 pm

    Well…I continued the family trend. On my Father’s side, there are 7 grandchildren. 6 boys and 1 girl (me). I also happen to be the youngest. Every single one of my cousins and my brother, all worked at McDonald’s. How could I let the family down and not work there? It wasn’t glamorous (fry grease anyone?) But it was a job.

    Believe it or not, there were two good perks… Since I worked nights closing the store down, I would always take an apple pie, put vanilla and chocolate ice cream on it. And coat it with fudge and caramel topping. Sometimes, I’d even add strawberry. Yum! The other “perk” if you could call it that…I never had any problems collecting the whole set of happy meal toys

30. Karen said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:43 pm

    My first job? Orange Julius – standing behind the counter of this fast food stand at the mall for 6 hours at a time serving hot dogs, pretzels, ice cream and their famous Orange Julius drinks – I came home from every shift smelling like the stand – YUCK – luckily I didn’t keep the job long and left to be a switchboard operator at a department store – yes, I was the one that paged “Sale in Housewares, isle 6″ (well, not exactly those words, but you get the idea)

31. Jodi said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:43 pm

    My first job was packaging handmade beeswax candles in froufrou bits of straw and raffia in plastic boxes! My mom’s friend was a beekeeper and candlemaker, and she sold them at Marshall Field’s. I actually did all the packaging at home in the basement while watching. Dull, but I made a little spending money.

32. Julia said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:44 pm

    My first job was cleaning kennels at a veterinary clinic. I’ve been “here” ever since. Not the same clinic, but in the veterinary industry. Not cleaning kennels any more either, thank goodness. I’m vet technician now, and on my way to becoming a full-fledge veterinarian… but it all started with cleaning kennels.

    And let me tell you – the kennels at the vet office are Not Pretty. I basically got paid minimum wage to clean up various and sundry bodily fluids all day. It’s hard work. It’s gross. It really kind of sucks. But unless you want to pay upteen thousand dollars for vet technician school, it’s the only place to start.

33. Nadya said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:46 pm

    Receptionist at the very first Supercuts in San Diego. I spent a lot of time explaining to people that it was going to cost extra if you wanted your hair washed or dried. But I got some great free haircuts!

34. Laura said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:49 pm

    I babysat for a long time but my first real job was a salesclerk at Borders. I loved working there and I think I spent every dime I earned on books. But at least I got the 40% discount, right? I have some hats to send you and maybe some fingerless mitts if I get my act together. Can you email me your address? Thanks!

35. Phyllis said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:51 pm

    Oh, wow. Memories! My first legitimate job, besides a ton of babysitting, was bookkeeper/receptionist for an office of door-to-door salesmen. They sold floor polishers, of all things. It lasted about 6 months. The boss’s wife decided that he had more than a mild interest in the young cutie in the front office. Jealous wives. He was cute, but no bargain, but I managed to learn a lot about sales cons.

36. Beth said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:56 pm

    The Family Fish House!! 14 years old; a line “person” in the kitchen. We took the orders from the waitstaff and worked down the line putting fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, fried clams, fried scallops, plus any grill items, on the plates then under the heat lamps. Steamed “baked” potatoes from the steam drawer, salads in the bowls, all the glamorous stuff. The main thing I remember is that one of the guys who worked the fryer and grill thought teasing and making fun of me was great entertainment. He was only a few years older than me, but I was pretty naive and an easy target. I think I lasted for two months before getting the opportunity to work at the local NBC station as an intern. No pay, but much better conditions!!!!

37. Alyssa said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:57 pm

    My first job, aside from occasional babysitting, was in retail. I was so thrilled to land a “mall job” rather than one in food service (those were the only choices in my hometown). I ended up working in retail off and on for 6 years and found that I learned a lot. Not only am I now careful to pick up a shirt that falls off a rack when I’m shopping, I always make sure to chat with the sales person.

38. Kim A. said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:58 pm

    Let’s see…my first job was in a Hallmark store, after school when I was in high school. The owners were very kind to me, and I enjoyed helping keep the cards neat and talking to the customers. When things were slow, we’d read the humorous cards aloud to each other. My second job was in the summer, in the money room of an amusement park. I remember looking at stacks of trays of rolled coins and thinking that a year of college tuition in quarters was sitting on the table in front of me…

39. Lani said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:59 pm

    The summer before my junior year of high school my dad was the head of a state organization. I decided that I would get a full time “OPS” job for two months in a tiny, tiny section of this organization. That was a really bad idea. All my coworkers found out who my dad was and the room would be deathly quiet when I walked in. No one wanted to talk in case I told my dad what I had heard (which for the most part was just office gossip anyway and he wouldn’t have cared). I spent most of the day alone in a file room pulling out files that needed to be paid. The rest of the day was spent in a huge spreadsheet (paper not electronic) highlighting all the files I pulled and stamping each individual invoice… And then I had to put all the files back. Talk about an introduction to office politics!

40. Dj said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:59 pm

    McDonald’s. When I actually had to flip the burgers. Not the new-fangled cook on both sides at once grill. I was the only female grill cook at the time and I loved it. I had that job for 1 1/2 years before I left for the military at the ripe old age of 18.

41. Camille said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 9:59 pm

    My first job was babysitting for a hyperactive child during the summer. His mother didn’t give him his medicine in the summer. All was well until he threw himself through one of those hollow interior doors. An 8 year old, straight through the door of my little brother’s room. My mom made me retire after that.

42. Beth K said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:02 pm

    I also had a “corny” first job, but we hand pollinated the test fields so that they wouldn’t do it in their own and get mixed up with the other test fields. First we would put a brown paper bag of the tassels before they put on pollen and then we would put egg roll wrappers over the little ears of corn. When they would put on the pollen we would go break off the tassel and then take the wrappers off and tap the pollen on the silk of the corn. We did this all by hand for dozens of test fields. It was the worst job! It was hot, sticky and I have really bad allergies. They had gotten better so I thought it would be ok. I would itch and sneeze it was just plain bad. Also I found out that lady bugs bite and it really, really hurts!

43. Ronni said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:04 pm

    Oh they’re all too too horrible to remember. But of course, now that you ask, I have. Babysitting an infant 5 days a week 8+ hours a day when I was only 13 made me so certain I didn’t want kids, ever, that it took nearly two decades to even begin to wear off. Cleaning other people’s houses made an even longer lasting impression. Piecework on truck wiring harnesses when I was 15 taught me a whole lot of “interesting” words I’d never have imagined existed (possibly I was a tad sheltered). And gave me callouses on my fingers that I still have today (again two+ decades later) and an abiding interest in further education as a means to avoid that as a permanent occupation. There were others but those are the highlights.

    I’m working on a hat and mitts so will need an address too. I think I can make it by the deadline.

44. Ronni said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:08 pm

    Doh! Forgot to mention our own troublemaker. We had a $400 “nope, no foxtail up the nose” experience with our previous dog, so I feel for you.

45. Terry said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:14 pm

    Oh, oh Yarn withdrawal occuring already in some….

    Have a wonderful! vacation – you deserve it!

46. Jenna said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:16 pm

    I actually just got out of my first summer job. The previous 7 summers I worked at a beach in the concession. The un-airconditioned, open building concession. Think 35 degree heat, 100% humidity and standing over a deep fryer. Fun… But my dream summer research job has finally set me free, hooray!

47. Lisa W said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:21 pm

    I was 14 when I had my first real job – working the register at the “Taco Gringo” at the Illinois State Fair. It was hot, dirty, and smelly, but a cute boy from one of the other restaurants in the food area would visit me on his break, so that made it worth while!

    My grandparents had a farm in Central Illinois, so I had many non-paying jobs, including “walking beans”, which is a sucky equivalent to detassling but in a soybean field.

48. Jackie said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:22 pm

    I grew up on a farm in Iowa also. My job was walking beans and cutting out the weeds. It was also very hot and humid and I told my dad that if he made me do
    this again that I was going to get pregnant.

49. Sarah in OH said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:22 pm

    I didn’t have my first job till I was 18 because my dad wanted us to focus on school and I took full advantage of not having to work till then! lol But it wasn’t so bad, it was at a Pizza Parlor (Shakey’s) and I always got to take him a free pizza, my younger brother (16 at the time and an eating machine) loved that little perk. When I left the job 6 months later to move in with my now husband in OH I actually got said little brother a job there to feed his need for pizza.

    I usually ran register or made pizzas but when I first started I was on fryers and that was awful. We made fired chicken and mojo potatoes too and when we did chicken we had to dig them out of a water filled bucket and bend the wings into shape, dip in batter and fry. I was never big on chicken with bones in it to begin with but that job, cracking the bones, has permanently given me a chicken with bones aversion. *shiver* yuck

    I’m looking forward to the next sneak up! I’m on a yarn diet but I have Loopy credit! yay!

50. Suzanne said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:23 pm

    Wollmeise!!! Yes!!!!
    My first job was working for my parent’s popcorn store…80+ flavors of popcorn plus ice cream, candy, soda…so good for a teenage girl to be around! It was a fun job though, and I remember always being excited when I could make the glazed caramel corn. The store has been closed for many years now, but I still have fond memories!

51. Sarah said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:26 pm

    Wollmeise? Really? I love you. You rock!

    My first job was working at my aunt and uncles rental car franchise in Olympia, WA. I was 15, and I loved it. I spent most of the time washing and cleaning the cars as they came back in from being rented. I was allowed to drive on the lot which was on the ground of this beautiful hotel, and I was the only employee so I was alone most of the time. I’d wash cars in a tank top and shorts all summer while listening to whatever music I wanted and I got to drive cars around from space to space. At 15, it was a VERY cool summer job!

52. Debi said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:29 pm

    My first job was at 14 as a counselors aide in a local summer day camp. I was never good with really little kids (still true) so was hoping to be assigned to the 7 years and older groups. Of course I was assigned to the youngest group – 4 and 5 year olds!! Boy was I in over my head and pretty unhappy until I fell in love with one little girl….”Bissy” (a nickname given by an older brother who couldn’t pronounce Elizabeth) Bissy was the most adorable lil girl and we bonded so completely that I knew I could handle all these “babies”.
    One day Bissy kept telling me about her Daddy what wonderful things they had done that weekend so in response I said “well I wish I could meet your Daddy, he sounds wonderful!” Later in the day, the owner and director of the camp came over and asked to speak to me – yikes! I was shaking in my 14 year old boots, what had I done wrong?? All he said to me was, I understand you wanted to meet me….MY DAUGHTER BISSY can’t stop talking about you
    And how fortuitous was the fact that “the bosses’ daughter” Bissy had become my favorite camper?…I worked at that day camp every summer from 14 to 21 and I got the BEST assignments, biggest tips and had the most wonderful summers of my life, spent with my sweet friend Bissy

53. Marianne Y said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:30 pm

    I started out babysitting at age 11. I had a regular clientele of a doctor, an engineer, and a sales manager of a major tv station. After I had been babysitting for a couple of years, the doctor’s wife had a second baby. The shocking thing was that they had me babysit the newborn baby, the day he came home from the hospital, and his 6-year old sister, while the parents & mother-in-law went out to dinner & for the evening! My parents were shocked that they would leave a newborn with a young babysitter on his first day home from the hospital. Obviously, they trusted me implicitly, but still, I would not have left any of my newborn sons home with anyone the day they came home from the hospital!

    Not counting babysitting, my first “real” job, I guess, was walking beans in my uncle’s bean field (in NW Iowa, of course). I had to walk beans 10 hours a day, for several days in a row. And my pay? A whopping $1/hour, which was incredible for that backbreaking work! My mom made me do it to help out her brother, so even though I was badly sunburned & blistered by the end of the first day, I had to continue: quitting was not an option. I think I was about 12 years old then. At least the corn detasslers got to ride through the rows, but the bean walkers (we had to hand pull all of the the weeds out of the soybeans’ rows, since the cultivator could not get those weeds within the rows), had to walk the whole way. That was also my worst job ever! Ugghhhhh!!!

    I’m glad that your dog is ok. What did she do to cause so much trouble? Did she get into some boxes of yarn or a bunch of wooden dpn’s & eat them, or something?

    That sounds like a huge sneak-up this time, with a lot of the things that I’ve been waiting for, and right before we go on vacation for a few days. I hope I can get in on it while the color selection is still good! I guess I should have plenty to choose from for which projects to take to knit while we’re gone, especially since it’s a 10-hour car ride each way.

54. Gina said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:40 pm

    First job was selling basement waterproofing over the phone….when telemarketing was okay =). Our opening line was…”Do you have water in your basement?” One lady actually screamed “Oh My God! I’ll go look!” Put the phone down and I could hear her running down the stairs. After one week without making any appointments I looked at my supervisor and asked him how long he was going to keep letting me do this. And that was the end of that!

55. theresa said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:41 pm

    My first job was working at the snack bar at the Seattle Tennis Club. Basically, food service, but your customers all are quite well off. I even served a former state senator, but I don’t even think he noticed I existed, despite me standing there taking his order. I think he forgot that the little people vote too. I did learn the highly valuable skill of making perfectly swirled soft serve ice cream cones those two summers, as well as gaining vehement hatred of sno-cones. You would too, if you had to make them all day.

56. melissa said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:46 pm

    glad your doggy is feeling better!

    my first job, besides babysitting, was working the counter at a teriyaki restaurant. it was ok, but i always came home smelling like bleach and sesame dressing – kind of gross!

57. Hattie said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:52 pm

    My first job, again besides babysitting, was being the phone girl at pizza hut when I was 15. I was so shy it was hard for me to do but I managed! Later I got to be a server in the dining room and quickly got over the shyness! My brother would always come sit next to me when I got home because I smelled like pizza lol.

58. Kristin said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:55 pm

    Other than babysitting (which, after 4 or 5 years as a young teenager, I’ve made into somewhat of a “career” by being a full-time nanny for the last 3 years), my first job was at an ice cream store. A couple of months before I started working there it changed from a Baskin Robbins to a generic ice cream store that used Edy’s. Like all of my first three jobs, I landed this one at 15 due to “connections.” My mom worked at the retail running store next door and knew the owner of the ice cream shop and asked her if I could have a job. And, suddenly, I did. The job was okay but horribly boring (the store went out of business about 4 months after I started working there, so business was slow). The upside was I most often worked with a guy who was two years older than me… and I developed a BIG crush on him. He made a CD for me and gave me a book for no reason and I about died and went to heaven. Five years later, I think I still have the CD! He helped me to get to know the music I love now. So, all in all, my first “real” (non-babysitting) job wasn’t too bad, especially since I could eat free ice cream and hang out with my crush for hours!

59. Deb said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:56 pm

    I grew up in south Florida. My first job was at the drug store in the Farmer’s Market – a large building with many permanent small businesses. They were the quirky businesses like the guy who made lampwork swans, the joke shop, the don’t-tell-anyone-my-mom-buys-my-second-hand-clothes-here shop, the cotton candy lady with the one-eyed dog, the hobby shop (with the glue behind the counter). the head shop (lots of black lights), and finally, the drug store. I was 15 and another classmate of mine and I were hired to be the cashiers. All the dirty old men would come to the drug store to buy their girly magazines. The boys who were too young to buy the magazines would look through them in the back of the store and then purposely leave them open to the most rude pictures because they knew that one of us “gals” would have to go back there to collect them and put them back on the shelf. Then there was the straightening up of the condom section – another chore left to the girls. I needed the job so I could earn money to go on a band trip to Canada. The MINUTE I earned what I needed, I quit.

60. Michelle in SE AZ said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:58 pm

    My first job was summer assistant at the elementary school library the summer after I finished 11th grade. With school out, we repaired and recovered books, catalogued new items and redid all the bulletin boards and displays. I still have most of the Dewey decimal system memorized and bought a really schweet bicycle with my earnings.

61. Monica said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:58 pm

    Detasseling corn is big here in Indiana too. My eldest thought she might like to try it, until I explained it to her , the heat, the aching shoiulders and most importanly to her, the bugs. She changed her mind right away.
    My first job was at Wendy’s I was playing on their softball team, my sister worked there. Well apparently I needed to be an employee to play on the team so they told me I had to come in and fill out an application. I worked there all through High School and even in college. Over the weekends I would work in the morning at Wendys and in the evening at the hospital as a Student Nurse Extern. Patients’ call lights would come on and I would ask them if I could take their orders, and it never phased them. LOL. Made all the nurses laugh though. They always knew when I was working the drive thru in the morning.

62. Stacey said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 10:59 pm

    Eeehh! Me too! First paid job was detasseling at age 12! Hey, I was a farm girl in Illinois! But, I stuck it out for the entire season and even worked doubles! What else is there to do in farm country? I love the farm!

63. kendall said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:00 pm

    I grew up in a farming family. I was the only girl in the family for 18 years and I was the youngest, so I got spoiled quite a bit. Everyone’s first job starting at about 10 years of age was raking hay. You got paid by the hour. My dad didn’t think I could handle it since I was a girl. Finally, when I was about 15 I talked him into letting me rake. However, since hay raking was a summer job, and I didn’t want a farmer’s tan I wore my bikini. I didn’t get to rake too many times that summer because Dad wouldn’t let me rake on any fields that were next to a highway. Apparently, he thought my bikini was a little too revealing.

64. Ann-Marie MacKay said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:01 pm

    my first job, other than babysitting was strawberry picking.
    i lasted one day.
    we had to be ready to go at 5am and i was 12 y/old–so getting up then was painful.
    we were out in the sun all day long–no one to tell us what to do, no one to check on us.
    i sat between the rows by myself for lunch–it was pitiful.
    at the end of the day i didn’t make very much b/c they said that the “pink” ones didn’t count.

65. Hanna said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:03 pm

    My first job other than babysitting was watching the little ones at the dance studio where I took class. The three year olds were very cute in their tutus, but they spent most of their time (and therefore most of mine) going to the bathroom.

66. Chrissy said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:06 pm

    My first real job, besides babysitting, was when I was 17 years old at a trucking company. The company had sequential numbered invoices and they wanted to find the misfiled ones. My job for 4 hours everyday was to flip through numbered invoices looking for missing or misfiled ones. While doing my tedious job, it was impossible not to overhear the truck drivers and the dispatchers cursing (which they did pretty much continuously).

67. Rebecca said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:09 pm

    I haven’t yet gotten a job besides the odd babysitting. I’m hoping I get a call from Michael’s tomorrow, though!

    Well, that and I get to start translating stuff for my pastor’s wife’s organization, which is really exciting. I mean, how likely is it to get a basically professional translating job right after graduating high school?

    And WOLLMEISE!! There goes all my potential future salary.

68. Dr. Jackie said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:23 pm

    Well, no tassles or waitressing here. My first job was…surprise, surprise…playing the cello. I worked at Disneyland in California, in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, playing the cello on the balcony overlooking the Blue Bayou Restaurant, and the little boats full of riders going into the dark tunnel to see the Pirates! Little did I know then, that Pirates would be all the rage now! I was there all dressed up like a Southern Bayou Belle, with two violin players, similarly attired, and we serenaded the dinner guests. So while everyone else at my high school was working in the “Park” sweeping streets and carrying trash for minimum wage (Uncle Walt wasn’t known for his spending…), I was up on the balcony playing sweet music for Musicians Union Scale Wages! Not a bad gig!

    I also played cello in the pit orchestra for the Long Beach summer opera theater, as well as the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters (a bizarre sort of show where people are painted and dressed as the humans in famous works of art, and then are posed in tableaus of these famous works.) The show is narrated, and the orchestra plays very moving music while the audience claps enthusiastically while they admire the show. I think they really like the nudes best (of course, the nudes are all tastefully painted, with little pieces of fabric strategically placed to cover most of the naughty parts! Nevertheless, the view from the orchestra pit was often quite entertaining!

    And I played in the Beverly Hills Symphony, and then the Sacramento (California) Symphony. And wherever else I could get paid!

    Doctoring came many years later…but I’m still playing that cello in St. Louis!

    Oh boy…maybe you shouldn’t tell me when the next sneak is happening!

69. miss violet said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:31 pm

    OMG YOU ARE GETTING WOLLEMEISE!?

    Did you hear that?

    That’s my credit card, SCREAMING IN PAIN. *I*, however, am excited beyond belief.

    And my first job: I was a phone psychic for Miss Cleo. I kid you not. I wish I was kidding, but I’m not. Made a ton of cash, but maaaaan, people are *weird*. That’s all I’m sayin’.

70. minnie said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:43 pm

    i walked beans for my dad. for $1/hour. if you thought detasseling was bad, you have no idea. at least the corn could give you a ‘LITTLE shade. b eans don’t get that tall. everyone i ever knew who walked beans was either a bronze god/goddess or a crispy critter. the sun was almost intolerable. so was getting up at 430 so we could sit in the truck and wait for the sun to come up enough to see, so we didn’t slice our toes off with the 3 ft machetes we used (they called them corn knives (don’t ask why, since we were using them in the bean fields!)). it was either the machete, or the bean hook, which was some nefarious looking contraption that you used to “hook” the weeds out.

    nobody walks beans anymore. they have bean buggies, where you ride in comfort & style, and shoot the weeds with pesticide. hmmmmmmmmmm.

71. Tammy said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:45 pm

    Hmm first job? I know I did the babysitting thing for my cousin, and I helped her clean house. She had two little ones and needed the help. I also did my grandma’s dishes that summer. 10 cents for every time I washed them after meals. Oh and I also helped out in the honeybee warehouse building the hives that summer. That was probably the best summer of my childhood, I think I was 12. My mom and dad are going back to Minnesota this summer to see the old farm. They haven’t been back for close to 30 years or more.

72. Tyler Macek said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:50 pm

    Hmm…..my first job was working at a local beads store for minimum wage. It was fun and the owner and I got along really well. I worked there for about 6 months, and then she couldn’t keep me, cause buisness was slow.

73. Dawne said,

    June 18, 2007 @ 11:54 pm

    Tree planting in Northern Ontario, Canada. 12 hour days of carrying bags of seedlings in ‘hip packs’ and bending over to put the seedlings in the ground. Lots of rain, heat, humidity, blisters and huge mosquitos. We had to plant fast too, becuz we were paid per seedling. The whole process seems kinda crazy now!

    Can’t wait for the sneak-up this week. Do enjoy your holidays Sheri – you deserve it

74. Yardgnomes said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 12:05 am

    Another Iowa farm girl here! I actually had two first jobs. The summer after I turned 14 I detassled (for a whole two weeks) and I worked in the concession stand at our local race track. My uncle used to race (either hobby stock or modified) so when ever it was time for his heat I used to take a quick break to watch him race. It was a pretty fun job but I would always come home covered in sticky pop and various condiments!

75. Alex said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 12:20 am

    My first job was at Steak ‘n Shake, as a waitress, at 17 years old. Eventually I learned every position there. Then I quit after a year and a half for myriad reasons, but mostly because the pay was horrible for all the work I would do in the kitchen and drive-thru (though when I was serving my tips were usually good–I had regulars, and I’m not too bad a waitress).

    I’m still a waitress, but I so wish I could find another job, one where I can sit down once in a while.

    See ya tomorrow!

76. Linda said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 1:09 am

    My first job was picking grapes in the hot summer sun in Pasco, Washington (one of the TriCities along the Columbia River) with some friends. We got bored and hot and started putting the bins under the vines and shaking the grapes off…then we started throwing grapes at each other. Needless to say, they didn’t ask us to come the next day!
    It seems teenagers don’t do well with hot sun and produce.

77. Kit said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 1:21 am

    Mm, my first job that didn’t involve being horrendously underpaid to prostitute myself off to parents who played popularity contests (I hate babysitting if only because the PARENTS suck) was a job as a telephone surveyor, calling various governmental authorities concerning their income and what sort of computers they had. It felt kind of sleazy but it paid and pretty well, too. I also met all sorts of interesting people.

    I’m used to people talking fast but the lady from New York talked so fast, it put my Dutch oma and great-aunts to shame.

    The guy from Texas talked so slow that I ended up drawing celtic braids all over my work folder.

    And then there was the Lonely Guy.

    And the people in the midst of a tornado (what are you answering the phone for then, eh?).

    I also had a lesbian supervisor who asked me if I minded that she was homosexual. And with all the straightforward naivete I could muster, I said “No, I don’t mind, as long as you don’t hit on me”.

    Ahh, that first job. It was an interesting one.

78. Kristen said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 1:23 am

    First job, not babysitting, was evening receptionist for the parish activity center (PAC house) for church. My mom is the actual secretary, so I just did it at night. Except high school sucked all the energy out of me, so I usually took a nap after school and overslept.

79. Lori said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 1:25 am

    Typical first job was at an Arby’s. But the owners and managers were really great and really showed me proper work ethic which helps me to this day. I always think of that when we get a newbie at our restaurant.

80. Barbara said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 1:50 am

    My first job was babysitting which wasn’t too bad, but my first real job was
    working in an insurance office filing papers. My uncle had got the job for me
    and wanted me to promise to do a good job. I really disliked the mundane work
    intensely and left the job after one week. My uncle (who I loved very much) was
    very angry with me and told me that it made him look bad. At the time, I didn’t
    care; I was 16 years old. He told me he would never do anything for me again, but
    he did. My uncle spoiled me terribly.

81. knitopia said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 2:47 am

    My first on-the-books job was in a candy store. I worked there through college and got to eat the things we sold. It was OK. I did get tired of hearing people who came in say “I feel like a kid in a candy store!” I should have kept count of how many times I heard that.

82. KarenJoSeattle said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 4:03 am

    My very first job was working weekends in an antique store in a State Historic Park in California. That means a Gold Rush-era town mostly owned by the state with restored buildings and museums. I had to dress in Gold Rush-era appropriate attire. Too bad I never reached the point of knitting my own shawls back then as I taught myself to knit on some of the really quiet winter days when I worked alone.

    In college I had a summer job with a seed company pulling male flowers off of zucchinni and rouging non-type fruit from cucumbers and tomatoes. I lasted two months. Actually, I was fine but the transmission in my Ford station wagon started leaking and the fields were far apart and far from town.

83. Heathr B said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 4:30 am

    My first job was working at a coffee shop in the Mall 45 min away. The good part of the job was that you could drink as much coffee as you wanted but I’ve never drank coffee. I remember it got really hot in the summertime with all the regular coffee. So much so that the frozen coffee would take hours to freeze in the slushy like machine. Customers would be pestering you all day about when the frozen coffee would be ready. But we did have some fun on weekdays when it was slower. I remember Star Wars light saber wars with sleeves of cups, eating packs of sugar and blowing my first paycheck on knee high black boots.
    I also found that when ever I when to another store in the mall during my break in my uniform with the coffee shop logo people still thought I worked for what ever store I was standing in. I got kind of tired of women sending their kids up to ask me where things were in the book store.

84. mo said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 4:33 am

    McDonalds here!
    Fastest drive through person in the county. I folded the bag and remembered your napkins All of my friends worked there too.
    My shift started at 4am which cramped my style a little since I stayed out with my friends til 3 or so. More than once I would take my break back in the stockroom, camping out on one of the shelves and getting some Zzzzs.
    We would also play practical jokes on the new employees. One of my favorites was with old McNuggets. The place where all the burgers are stored in the warmer is called the bin. A person would stand behind the bin and throw McNuggets to the floor. Little did the new employee know I was laying on the floor below and tossing McNuggets back up so it appeared that old McNuggets were rubber and bouncy.
    Other things we would do usually started with “Does this smell to you?” I don’t think I have to say how that ended Ah those were the days.

85. Karen B. said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 4:47 am

    My first job was as a medical secretary for a group of doctors at a VA hospital. I was 14, a high-school junior and convinced that I was headed to med school. I did the normal office stuff (filing, sorting the mail), but by far my most interesting job involved typing up death reports for Mortality and Morbidity reviews.

    I did end up doing pre-med (among other things). While I was not destined for the profession, I still have more than a passing interest in all things medical.

86. christine said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 4:49 am

    My first job, other then babysitting, was going inventory stuff for this company that went from store to store. I lasted about a week, we would go to craft stores and have to count the glue sticks and then put it in a little computer, clothes stores and count all the red sweaters, you get the idea. The icing on the cake was one night we finished very very late, and then I had to drive this random guy home, several years my senior. I called in sick the next morning then called tha tnight and said I wouldn’t be coming back. Luckily babysitting was enough to get me by!

87. Micki said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 5:17 am

    My first “real job” was as a cashier one of those dollar stores. None of the items had price tags on them. That shouldn’t have been a big deal, because everything was a dollar, right? Wrong. Lots of items were 2 or 3 for a dollar, so I had to memorize the prices of everything in the store. In truth, I guessed most of the time, and often I got it wrong. I always knew when I had underestimated the price of an item when customers suddenly remembered they wanted several more.

88. Cindy in Oregon said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 5:45 am

    I was lucky. My first job was as a secretary at the Tile Company where my older sister worked. I learned to type on that job. It paid better than working at the local fast-food place and had the advantage of not leaving your clothing smelling like french fries. This was back in the “old days” before there were decent copy machines. We typed metes and bounds property descriptions on sheets of onion-skin paper layered with sheets of carbon paper, using Olympia electric typewriters. Since you needed a lot of copies for all the paperwork in a transaction, we would sometimes have races. Sis would be working on five copies and so would I. We’d see who could finish first without leaving mistakes. If you did make a mistake, you had to stop, roll the paper up, erase the mistake on all five layers, roll the paper back, try to line everything up again, and keep going. It was challenging and remembering it makes me appreciate my keyboard and computer all the more!

89. Isobel said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 5:49 am

    I n the summer of 1976 joined the Canadian Armed Forces for my first summer job. I had just finished my first year of university and I needed to find a summer job in the small town we lived in. I went to Manpower Canada and they suggested I join the Army for the summer (yes you could really do that). I went down to the local armory and joined the 110th Field Artillery (the big guns, althought women were not allowed to work on them, or even be near them when they were fired). I learned how to shoot a rifle, a machine gun, drive a stick shift army jeep, and work with the team that tracked the shells after they were fired., drill, and bond with “the lads”, It was a great summer aided by the fact that Montreal was hosting the Olympics. The bad part was that you didn’t get paid until the end of the summer, so I lived of my mum and dad for spending money. When you signed off you could buy any of your kit if you wanted, I wanted my boots and my Arctic sleeping bag. Come September I went back to uni.

90. Lisa at Wildhorse Farm Designs said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:02 am

    My first real job (printed paycheck)was in a deli at the lunch hour rush.I was a sandwitch maker.Up until this time,I was crazy for’ hoagies’,as subs were called in the Philly area.After a few weeks of being up to my elbows in salami and provologne,not to mention smelling like a giant hoagie when I left,I swore off this food for a long time.

91. Dawn said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:02 am

    My first job was actually fine. I worked at the hardware store in town. It was family owned, although associated with ACE. It was in what felt like an old house so there were different rooms and a creaky upstairs attic for storage. I worked in the front mostly where there were housewares, candles, and such. It was pretty easy to get a schedule where I could also take driving lessons. I worked there for a couple of years and thought I’d go back during the summer of my first year of college. The boss knew I wouldn’t be back and he was right. I ended up getting an internship so I didn’t go home.
    I can still see parts of the store in my head all these years later and remember snippets of various times there laughing and working.

92. Deborah said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:04 am

    My first job was working as an assistant to my orthodontist. I was a senior in high school, and would go there every day after school to help with the after school appointments. Kids don’t brush their teeth very well. I was expected to read the doc’s mind most of the time. He would put out his hand for an instrument, and I was supposed to know which one he wanted. If I got it wrong, he would put it down and hold out his hand again. Never said a word. Eventually I caught on. The worst of it was that I was wearing braces at the time, and he would tweak and/or tighten them every day if we had time. My teeth hurt so bad I don’t think I ate solid food that whole year!

93. Mary Rose said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:20 am

    My first real job other than babysitting was working in a local ice cream shop owned by a family friend in NW PA. We had to wear uniforms (a white polyester dress – reminded me of the uniforms nurses used to wear in the days before scrubs). I often worked the afternoon shift alone. Business was slow during those hours, so to pass the time, I’d watch tv on a little black and white set. Those were the days before cable, and the only thing broadcast on the network channels locally were the Watergate hearings. Talk about some really slow afternoons!

94. Lois Mitchell said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:26 am

    When I was 14 years old, I kept three children all day while their mom worked. I fixed breakfast and lunch for them, and tried to keep them from killing themselves or each other. Getting paid each Friday was so great! The next summer, I opted for an office job. I spent the summer working for the school system, typing up lesson plans for the teachers. That was a whole lot easier than the summer before!

95. Carole said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:34 am

    My first job was at the library. I was 15 and the library had “closed” stacks which meant that people couldn’t browse themselves. They would make a list of the books they wanted, I would run around in the back and get them and bring them to the people. Good times.

96. Megan said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:42 am

    Hi Sheri!
    My first job was at a bagel shop when I was 16. I made the bagel sandwiches and cleaned the bathrooms and mopped the floors every day after school until they closed at 5. I ran fetch for the manager a lot, but they still wouldn’t let me work the bagel boiler. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I was 16.

97. Kathy said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:46 am

    My first job was at the age of 12. My siblings and I lived by my grandparents’ farm. So you can imagine the work. We baled hay, weeded gardens and picked blackberries. We were given a dollar a week. We were also given the incentive that if we worked hard we would have a few days off to swim in the pond on hot days or to go into town for ice cream. The big pay off was a trip to the county fair. I entered an embroidered tea towel and won 2nd place against adults. I was thrilled. So while my job was not much to speak of, I do have many fond memories.
    About Trouble maker: My DD is a vet tech and I showed her the pics and the article. She thinks Troublemaker is worth every cent you spent.
    ps Mind you she’s not footing the vet bill either………LOL

98. Heather B said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:50 am

    My first job was as a telemarketer. I lived in Philadelphia at the time, and I was calling over the US doing surveys..no sales. One day I got sent home because I didn’t make quota. We were doing a survey for Cotton Pickers. Well, all the cotton pickers were out in the fields picking cotton so they couldn’t talk on the phone. The wives were answering the phone and requesting send them some cash and they would answer the survey for me. At 16 and a city kid, I couldn’t belive that people still picked cotton.

    My first Intership in College was to walk around center city in a sailors outfit (in 90 degree weather) to pass out fliers for a downtown hotel who was a having a marketing blitz. They were right on the waterfront hence the sailor suits. My favorite comment was “When did your ship dock? Can I sail around on your boat?”. This came from a construction worker on top of a skyscraper. I quit at the end of the day.

99. Lisa said,

    June 19, 2007 @ 6:55 am

    My first job was ice cream scooper/dish washer/kitchen prep about 3 miles from home. Ice cream was the first responsibility, then kitchen prep and dishwashing when it was slow/raining. I got paid $4/hour and one free scoop of ice cream. I usually had soft serve vanilla, with pineapple topping, chocolate syrup and LOTS of jimmies (choc. sprinkles). YUMMMMMMM. The dishwashing sucked but whats a first job without the suckky part.

100. Linda in Ohio said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 6:59 am

     I was 16 and was a waitress at a local neighborhood fish and chips restaurant. The line of people would stretch around the block on Friday nights! I did it the whole summer after high school before I left for college. The only problem I had, was that I gained 30 pounds that summer!!! I guess that taught me that I really should not work around food…..

101. Pam said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:00 am

     When I was 16, I had a friend who had this “dream” job. She was all hot and bothered to get me on board, which should have been my first clue. Great money (I think I made $4/hour), great hours (6-10 p.m.), and all I had to do was talk on the phone. I went to King Carpet and was given a sales pitch to get the company’s reps into peoples’ homes so they could sell them carpeting. Then we had to cold call people from the phone book. Most of us spent the time calling our friends, making crank calls (Is Prince Albert in the can?), and ordering pizza. I managed to make one appointment and got chewed out the next day by the owner, since it appears I had made the appointment with the 14 year-old son of the family. I think I lasted four days. I hate phone solicitors, so I preferred to think of myself as doing the public a service by not actually calling them.

102. Molly said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:01 am

     my first non-babysitting job was a bit unusual. I worked for a coolant recycling company. We would go into machine shops, remove the coolant from the machines, then run it through a pasteurizing centrifuge while the coolant tanks were cleaned, then refill the machines. Good for the environment; hideous work.

     I got to clean tanks. Coolant tanks in machine shops are full of metal chips, which promote fungal and bacterial growth of gargantuan proportions. This process was aided by the machinists who ran the mills etc, as they would often chew tobacco and spit into the coolant tanks or throw other junk in there (sunflower seeds were a favorite, as i recall). I would shovel those suckers out then scrub them with an industrial-strength detergent. The chemicals would rot out the toes of my steel-toed boots; every day when I came home from work i had to shower twice, once with Dawn detergent and then with standard soap.

     This job was so disgusting that the crew was mostly felons who could not get any other job, and me, the sweet high-schooler child of the owner’s wife’s friend. It paid extremely well, though; I made four times what my classmates did. And it’s left me with an abiding love of desk jobs

103. adrienne said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:01 am

     Oooh, my first job was terrible! I was working at a small grocery store, and the owners were miserable, awful people. You didn’t get a break unless you worked 8 hours… Everyone smoked in the back of the store (this was only about 10 years ago, so that was so not allowed…), they didn’t pay you for your entire shift…. All of my other jobs have been so much better.

104. Laura said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:03 am

     My first job, other than babysitting, was the summer after my first year in college. I lived overseas during high school and so I couldn’t work there. While I was in college my parents moved back to Oklahoma, where I had gone to junior high school. So that summer was pretty fun, as I was reconnecting with a bunch of old friends.

     Anyway, I was a bank teller. I loved it. Something about the exactness of it all appealed to me. Plus, it was Oklahoma in the summer, so being inside a nice cool air-conditioned bank was a major bonus. And of course, the hours were easy. Oh yeah, and there was a guy working at the bank that I had had a crush on since I was 13! Yep, that was a sweet job. Everytime I go inside a bank, I have this desire to ask if they need more tellers!

105. Meri said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:05 am

     First job, huh? that’s actually tough! Of course, there was the babysitting, but we won’t count that. And if that doesn’t count, we shouldn’t count teaching piano lessons, either, because that was practically babysitting. hee hee

     So, my first job was painting! We have good friends at our church that are contractors/builders. After school/Saturdays/summers, I learned to paint. I think I was 15 when I started. The first house I did was actually their house, and his wife worked with me. She did all the cutting at the ceiling, because she didn’t trust me with the paintbrush, So I did the rolling. I remember learning to find a balance between too little and too much paint on the roller. I remember having it engrained in my head that I should use up and down strokes, not a bunch of different angles. I did a decent job, if I do say so myself! Of course, I did hit the ceiling once. And they didn’t fix it. Nope… they placed their sofa right there, and for YEARS would sit there and look up and see that little bit of cameo on the white ceiling, and laugh about it.

     From that point on, I did a lot of painting. Apartments, new houses, porches, cellar stairs. I loved it. The only thing that got old was the color — Cameo White. Always cameo white. By the time we got our first house, I was DETERMINED to have COLOR on my walls! In fact, I had our friend help me paint my kitchen when we moved in — a nice deep paprika red. I remember teasing him about it when he picked up the paintbrush — saying I couldn’t believe he was actually painting a color other than cameo!! He turned to me and said, “Its cameo red…”

106. Amy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:09 am

     My first real job, (other than working at a strawberry patch pulling weeds) was working at the first Culver’s restaurant. I worked in the very first store on the very first day they were open. I remember getting my driver’s license and then going immediately to the job interview. The inside of the store wasn’t finished yet, so the interview was conducted in the parking lot. I made a lot of friends there and it was a awesome place to work.

107. Janet said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:11 am

     My first job (way back in 1973) was working the counter at the local drive-in burger joint. This was before the major fast food vendors discovered Mount Vernon, MO. I made 50 cents an hour and was thrilled to get it! It was a great way to get dates, as the high school boys cruised the circular drive out in front multiple times a night. If someone was interested, they would offer to come pick us up when we got off work. Also, our boss was a huge supporter of the local youth, so he always brought in adult reinforcement workers (usually his wife and sister) to cover Friday night athletic events and things like homecoming, prom, etc. so us girls wouldn’t have to choose between fun and work. All in all, it was a pretty pleasant experience, even though the pay was lousy.

108. Leah said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:13 am

     My first job was working as a page at the local library. It was a super job (no fast food involved) plus I met my husband there ( he was another page and we worked together often)!!!!

109. melissaknits said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:14 am

     My first job . . . I was 13 and played music for a summer figure skating program. I got $3.00 an hour, which my mother kept. During my breaks (also then known as “patch” or school figures) she fed me quarters for video games (Frogger, Pac Man, Pole Position) and said that made it even. I never did figure out if it was even, but as long as I had an endless supply of quarters I was happy. It was harder than it sounds – balancing the delicate needs of skaters, pros and parents, sticking to the rules without making enemies. There’s nothing like an angry skating mother to liven things up. I had them come raging into the booth, arms flailing and shouting over some percieved slight to their darling. You just move verrrry slowly, explain yourself verrrry calmly, and hope they don’t lunge for your throat.

110. Rebecca said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:18 am

     My first summer job, besides babysitting, was working in a factory on an assembly line. I was 14 and my dad was the artist for a company that made
     Christmas stickers and tags. I had to sit on a stool, next to a really loud and hot machine, in the stifling heat of an unairconditioned building, and punch out stickers as they came down the line. Then I had to place them in a little container and send them on to the shrink-wrap machine. It was mindnumbing! I think I ruined my neck turning it so much to look at the clock.

111. Emilie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:22 am

     My first job was not a success. I was 17 and just about to start my final year in high school. I was looking for a job because I thought it would “look good” on my college applications.

     So I printed up a CV and went around to the shops in the local mall. I tried to work at a bookstore, filled in a couple applications and nothing. A friend of mine was working in a small fashion boutique for “women of a certain age” as the store owner called it as a stock girl. Chucking boxes and unpacking things and steaming them and dusting and general dogsbodying around the shop. They were looking to take on a second dogsbody and I happened to be at the right place at the right time (right place meaning chatting with my friend at the store counter). So I started right then (after going home to put on some slightly less nice clothes) and I worked there doing all manner of things throughout the busy holiday season until February 2nd of the next year. That day (in addition to being groundhog day) there was a really big earthquake in our little neck of the woods (the Seattle/Bellevue area of Washington state). Later in the day, after the earthquake, I got called down to the school office because the newly appointed finance manager of the shop where I worked had called me to lay me off. At school. On the day of a big earthquake. When I had a horrible horrible math test that morning. (Incidentally that math test caused me to be outside in the middle of the courtyard when the earthquake hit, which may or may not have been better than in the gymnasium with the rest of the school where they were certain the inexpertly fitted light fixtures would fall and crush people). That was highly upsetting to me. To be fair to them they did hardly any trade outside the holiday season and they didn’t really need me anymore (they had let my friend go long ago). But it wasn’t the best first job ever.

     Still, not the worst. Quite cushy compared to topping de-tassling corn. But not the best job ever.

112. Katy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:36 am

     My first job was as an evening receptionist for my church. Another kid and I would split the days and putting together the bullentins (about 500, always with something that needed to be stapled!).

113. Karen in Toledo said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:38 am

     My first job was as a lifeguard and swim instructor at our city pool. Growing up, I was a pool rat. I was there every day. As soon as I was old enough to take the course, I became a certified lifeguard and swim instructor. How cool that I got paid to be at the pool every day! During high school I worked at the indoor pool year round and the outdoor pool in the summer as well. I continued to work at the pool when I went away to college, coming home for two summers to work as pool manager. At the University, I lifeguarded and taught swimming lessons, and eventually even taught some classes for the college. It was far from glamourous much of the time – cleaning up icky things, dealing with unhappy people, taking care of injuries, fishing out little kids that parents didn’t watch. I was able to pay my way through college doing it, though. And I loved it. I loved it so much I did it from the time I was 15 until I was 28!!

114. Theresa in Italy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:44 am

     My first job: an aunt who worked in New York had a friend who got me a two-week stint at a big magazine while I was visiting. (I think my aunt did this mainly so she wouldn’t have to take me to work with HER.) I basically glued photographs onto pieces of cardboard all day. This is when I wasn’t being sent out for coffee and sandwiches, or picking up the mail. It was pretty darn exciting for a teenager from a small town, and I even got a paycheck!

     (By the way, I think you did pretty well lasting as long as you did at your first job. I’d have been out of there in two minutes. Bugs! Ick!)

     Sorry to hear about the Troublemaker (she looks pretty healthy in the picture!) and glad you get to take a vacation! Enjoy!

115. Tan said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:46 am

     A shirt full of bugs? I would have quit, too. My first job was picking potatoes–just take your description of everyone de-tassling corn and substitute picking potatoes and the word “Idaho” and it’s the same thing. It was actually fun, though, because WE GOT OUT OF SCHOOL TO DO IT!!!! Potato harvest vacation. Now it’s more mechanised and not done by child labor, they don’t have that holiday any more. It was cool, and the dirt smelled good, and sometimes you could smell a hint of snow on the air. I met lots of people from other schools in the fields, including my sister’s future husband (she was probably 8 at the time).

116. Sarah said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:50 am

     I was one of the ever glamorus Subway Sandwich Artists during highschool. It wasn’t too bad, the owners were/are still way overbearing and gossipy, but it was the local hangout, so I spent all my work time with my friends.

117. Liz said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:51 am

     My first job, other than babysitting, was pinch-hitting for a friend with a paper route one summer when she was away for a month or so. It’s only a noteworthy first job because I grew up in New York City, and there just aren’t that many of us City kids who have had suburban, door-to-door paper routes.

     My second job, and the first non-babysitting job at which I got paid by the hour, was as an intern at the New-York Historical Society (yes, the hyphen belongs there . . . long story) for a Summer Institute on Teaching the Constitution for high school teachers. Not the most fascinating job, but my history teacher was running it and she hadn’t had time to grade papers (and I wanted my paper back!) and so I offered to help out.

118. Andrea said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:55 am

     no corn here…it was strawberry picking for me. It was especially nasty if it was rainy (as it can be here in the Pactific NW). We’d get paid in cash for each flat picked…which was around 90 cents. So, at the end of the day, the pockets in our jeans were bulging with coins, we were dirty and our hands and clothes were stained with strawberries. That didn’t matter because we would still stop at the dime store to buy candy! After picking strawberries 3 summers, I couldn’t stand to eat them for many years. It was a relief that I finally started liking them and enjoying them again.

119. Karen said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:56 am

     I also grew up in Iowa and detassled. You forgot to mention that when you start inthe morning the corn is full of dew so a few steps into the field and you were soaking wet and COLD all morning but by noon it was over 90 and you sweat the rest of the day. Luckily for me our team was chosen to work the test plot – hand polenating the seed corn. We got our lunch under a shade tree then! Other jobs were cleaning out hog confinement sheds with a power washer (read jet sprayed poop) and walking beans pulling weeds (before the days of Round Up).

120. Melissa said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:06 am

     Glad the pup is feeling better and that you’re going on a much deserved vacation! Yay for you! So excited about the sneak-up!

     My first job was also working with corn. I grew up in Western Massachusetts and worked on William’s Farm packing corn. The cutest guy ever, the owners son, would go cut the corn on his tractor and they’d bring it in on huge wagons. The sides of the wagons would fold down and we’d draw up a basket or bag and pack them by the bushel. I worked there every summer for three years. The best part was in August when it was all humid at 5 am and someone would wing moldy corn at your head. Better than caffeine I tell you.

121. Emily said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:11 am

     During the summer, I was an umpire for T-ball. I played slow-pitch softball from First grade on up through high school, so by the time I made it to my teens I could get paid to umpire for the little kid games. That was so fun.

     The rest of the year I sold bras, girdles, panties, and nightgowns for a local department store. I was taught how to measure and fit a person, and although I was never asked, certain coworkers were asked by guys to be measured. (While there are many justifiable reasons for men to want girdles etc, it’s a little skeevy to ask a woman in the department store to come into the back fitting rooms and measure them.)

     Detassling sound awful! I’m so glad I didn’t have to do that.

122. Amy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:12 am

     Heh. My first job. I worked in the checking department of a bank. This was, ahem, many years ago, before computers and digital processing took over, so my job was to manually file all the checks that had been processed. We had giant file cabinets, and I’d sit with stacks of thousands of checks, individually filing them into each account. Talk about a snore of a job. Not to mention one rife with paper cuts.

123. Amy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:15 am

     Okay, I too was a 14 year-old detassler in Iowa… I made it for the entire 3 week program. By the end of the first week there were so many kids that quit I got seniority and was allowed to be the supervisor ( Walk behind a group of 4 other kids and only have to pull the things they missed, and shout every time you had to pick one!! ) Also a group of us got pulled off of one field to work another and we had to ride in the back of a van listening to “yellow submarine” on a loop for 30 minute. We all start to talk about how we were in a horror film and when the van stopped we would be killed in the field. I worked from 5:00 am to 1:00pm … which to a kid in summer is some sort of torture, but I was proud of my day. It gave me war stories to tell my family at the end of the day. I was such a grown-up

124. bungalowmum said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:16 am

     Detasseling was my first job. Only I’m one of those people who refuses to quit. Yep, I detassled corn for 10 straight days with big highschool boys and the crustiest detassling managers you’ve ever seen. While I lived in a small town at the time, I definitely lean toward “city girl” – oh and I’m short. 5’2″ so when we got to the tall fields I had to jump to detassle every single corn stalk. Our managers ran a very tight ship and they would check every row – if you left a certain number of tassles, then they’d announce it to the entire crew and dock your pay. So I worked 10 hour days for 10 days straight until the crew was through their assigned fields. I made good money that year, but my mom was so worried about me. Every night I would come home and barely be awake through dinner (not attractive when you’re 16) and she would say “Honey, I love you. You don’t have to do this. You’ve been doing a great job and you can just stay home tomorrow.” I love my mom.

     My next job that I took that summer was decorating cakes at a bakery around the corner from my house. I stood in front of a huge mixer and made frosting for a few weeks. ahhh, the sweet life! Sigh. I can still decorate cakes to this day, but don’t ask me to go near a field of corn!

125. sarah lou said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:16 am

     i worked in a hardware store in our small town. i ran the register, stocked the shelves, mixed paint, cut keys… i learned so much in that year that has been valuable to me in life. everyone in the world should work for a year in a hardware store. unlike most retail stores, the majority of the people were regulars and they were so friendly and appreciative.

126. Crystal Baker said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:17 am

     My first job was as a telemarketer when I was 17. I spent the entire summer trying to sell portrait package to people. I quit at the end of the summer not having sold a single picture. I still haven’t figured out why they just didn’t fire me.

127. Jen said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:20 am

     My first job was as an inventory taker. I did it in the summers and had to meet in the parking lot of a restaurant at 3-4 AM and go in a big van with the other people to a store before they opened. Sometimes drug stores, sometimes grocery stores or price clubs etc. I had a little machine that hung across me and I had to punch in the prices an amounts of the items on each shelf of the aisles. There were teams of us and we eventually got to have favorite types of aisles to do. We all loved the aisles like where the spices were because they were easy to count. But the canned goods were a pain because they usually werne’t lined up so nicely. It actually paid well and since it started so early in the AM, I was able to get home in plently of time to still enjoy the entire summer day.

128. Wendy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:22 am

     My first job was the summer I was 15 years old. I had to get a special work permit from the Juvenile Court because I was under 16. I worked in the Clerk’s Office at the Ciruit Court in Arlington, Virginia. Filing, typing (this was pre-pc, of course), and other general office work. Back in those days, minimum wage was $1.65 or so! Boy, did I ever work for that money.

     I continued that job through the rest of high school and through college and part of graduate school. They loved me and I loved them, and they let me work whenever I had some vacation. In the last couple of years I worked there, they even gave me a week’s paid vacation in the summer. I loved those ladies and the highest compliment one paid me once was when her son got married. (I was 17 or 18 at the time.) She said that she loved her new daughter-in-law, but she wished her son would wait until I was old enough and marry me.

129. Vickie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:31 am

     Ironically, this fits with what you said about “The Troublemaker” – I’m so glad she’s okay!

     I’m happy to say I LOVED my first job! Besides babysitting, my first job was working at a veterinary hospital as a kennel cleaner, helping techs and receptionist. I was 13 and really thought I wanted to be a veterinarian when I grew up. However the more I experienced, the more I realized that I could not be the one to do surgery – not that it made me queasy, but because I didn’t want to be the one to cut them open – I just couldn’t do it. Since then I’ve worked on and off for various veterinary hospitals all over Colorado for about 10 years total until I realized the hard way that the pay wasn’t good, the benefits weren’t good and there was really no future unless you were an owner and/or the veterinarian. Now I’m in a boring industry and my true love is still the vet hospitals. Maybe when I win the lotto I can go back to it!

     Vickie

130. Diane said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:33 am

     My first job at 14 was mowing the lawn and cleaning the church by my house…..and let me tell ya…there was alot of lawn……I got paid $5…….we didn’t belong to this church at first (we are Polish and belonged to the Polish Church)…my father was an usher at this church, my oldest son was baptized there…we attend Christmas Eve Mass there every year…..and when my Dad passed away 17 years ago the parish priest at this church was at our sides – and at that time we weren’t parishoners…we have a beautiful stained glass window that we donated in memory of my Dad…so what goes around, comes around….that $5 an hour job was priceless…

     Have a Great Trip……Blogless Diane

131. Pia said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:43 am

     My first job was as a cashier at Water Country… New England’s Largest Waterpark.
     It seems that everyone who grew up in the Northeast area has heard the poorly produced commercials. Either way, it was a great job at 16…working with everyone my own age, barefoot, and always getting my hours juggled so I was somehow working more then the alloted legal amount for a 16yr old for $4.00 an hour (in 1995)

132. Miss T said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:51 am

     My first job was at fifteen, at Dunkin Donuts. Anyone need a large regular? (said in a hardcore Boston accent) I could never get that donut smell out of my clothes. Or hair. Or car.

133. Rachael said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:53 am

     My first summer job was as a filer in the office where my mother worked. It was horrible. I hated filing, I STILL hate filing – and to make it worse, I’m actually really BAD at it! I have to sing the alphabet song in my head and I always put files back a few places from where they should actually be.

     I don’t think I sucked too badly at that office, but it was only for a few weeks and it was awful.

134. The Crafty Woman said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:56 am

     I may have had the coooooolest first job ever. Before I went to college, I would help my dad with administrative stuff in his office, but I don’t remember getting paid, and it didn’t much matter. But, when I was in college, my first real paycheck, I got a job with some patients of my father who had an exotic animal center a few minutes away from where we lived. My real job there was administrative stuff and getting their website built. But, the fun part was being able to play with all of the animals. They had everything from a Nile Monitor Lizard (not so cuddly) to Fennec Foxes (very cuddly) and I even got to help them raise a baby Wallaby (extremely cuddly). Joeys need a lot of attention and can die if they are not constantly being held close to a mother, so when the owners were busy, they would give him to me to babysit and give him a bottle etc. while I typed stuff and did my job.

     Oh they had bugs there too – like scorpions, tarantullas, and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. But I was able to stay far away from them.

135. penny said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:00 am

     I really can’t specify my first job but they are both related..

     (when I wasn’t baby sitting)

     1) I taught flute and clarinet to kids a few years younger than me while in jr high and high school (in high school I added bassoon).

     2) I was a Jr Counselor at a music “camp” .. I was paid I think $500 for the summer and added in as many extras as I could (music librarian, running coach, etc)

136. Joan Callaway said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:01 am

     As a young teenager I did the usual babysitting, berry picking, and helping out in my mother’s office where I learned requisite secretarial skills, but my first real job was the summer I got out of high school as an actuary in an insurance company in Seattle – a time to use all my math, as well. Earned $140 a month, as I recall.

137. tabitha said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:02 am

     My first job was picking and selling black-eyed peas and beans for the family farm. I did this every year from the time I was about 11 – 12 until I went to college. My dad had the silly idea that if you kept kids busy they didn’t have time to get into trouble.

     Like Sheri’s corn, peas ripen in the hottest part of the summer – the hotter it gets the better the peas like it. They don’t bloom until the temperature hits 90. The plants only get about knee high so you have to do your picking bent over – my back hurts just thinking about it. Beans like to hide at the bottom of the plants so you have to lift every plant to find the beans. The plants are itchy so shorts are out. And as an added bonus, pea plants attract wasps and fire ants – if the wasps don’t sting you, the ants will. The most fun part of the pea picking adventure is when you step in an ant hill and have to strip there in the pea field to get the ants off your legs. I promise that if you get enough ants biting at the same time, you will not care who can sees your unmentionables.

     I think I made about $8 a bushel for peas, $12 a bushel for beans because beans took twice as long to pick. I think the best price now is about $25 a bushel.

138. tracey said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:03 am

     My first job? think orange /yellow and brown polyester, and about 5,000 degrees, during closing time clean up.

     Yes- it’s true. I worked at “Hardees” the summer I turned 16. It’s where I learned hand’s on… NEVER to mix bleach with floor cleaner. (ammonia) (I was trying to cut the GREASE on the kitchen loor- faster so I could get out of there and get out of that UNIFORM!)

     Lets’ just say: 2 cleaning products is not always better than one. Although- haveing a name tag with my name on it- was pretty cool;)

139. Knittah said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:06 am

     My first job was working for my dad. He’s a biologist, and when I was 12 (-ish) he “hired” me to write up cards for his personal library. Dad had a stack of reprint scientific articles about 3 feet high, and he wanted them all catalogued on index cards that he kept in a drawer. Ah, the years before technology. Anyway, I had to write the article title, author and journal information on a 3×5 card while sitting in a squashy chair in his musty university office. He paid me 5 cents a card, an amount I insist – to this very day – was a total exploitation of my child and daughter status.

140. Janice in GA said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:14 am

     My first real job was helping out at the county library. I was a regular fixture there for most of my youth. When I got to high school, they added some room to the building, and they needed help moving and sorting books. Since I knew everything there almost as well as the librarian did , I got asked to help.

     Working with books and getting paid for it. I was in heaven.

141. Andrea (noricum) said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:15 am

     The summer after high school I tried to get my first job. I hadn’t been able to work previous summers because we spent them at a remote cabin in northern Manitoba. I couldn’t even get an interview at *McDonalds*… and they were hiring at the time! Sheesh. I ended up not working that summer either. However, the next summer I *was* able to get a job. I had gotten a scholarship from Manitoba Hydro (our power company), and they offer summer jobs first to their scholarship winners. I spent the summer doing tech support: installing software, and getting computers to do what they were supposed to do. I got paid $12.01/hour… not bad for my first job ever!

142. Kim said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:19 am

     My very first job was working in the snack bar of the bowling alley where my family bowled. The job was great becasue I could actually get homework done once the rush was over. It wasn’t too hard for work and the customers knew me from around the lanes. Of course after closing time, they would turn on the lanes and let us bowl for free. This was the best perk of the job. Of course I think minium wage was like 3.10 an hour and come pay day I thought I was rich!

143. Rahime said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:23 am

     I’m another library girl! And like Ruth, it made me want to become a librarian – I just haven’t gotten there yet! (I’m a teacher… dreaming of getting my master’s in library science.)

144. penny said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:33 am

     I TAKE IT Back!!! My first job was when I was 6. I went to a neighbor’s and fed her cat and changed the litter. (see what happens after you hit submit? )

145. Lizzardie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:42 am

     I was 15 when I got my first job. I was an assistant for the Easter Bunny at the mall. Mostly I got to try and make young kids smile, take pictures, put the pictures in the little paper frames, and run the cash register. It was exhausting, especially close to the holiday (I did the same thing around Christmas as one of Santa’s helpers). I did get to go to the smoothie stand I liked all the time, though.

     One shift I actually got to BE the Easter Bunny. My mom decided to use that shift (it was only a couple hours – those costumes are HOT!) to bring the whole family for a picture with the Easter Bunny (I’m not sure when the last time we had done that was). My littlest sister was only a few months old at the time, so I remember being really nervous about holding her with my paws (though I never did come close to dropping anyone, so I’m not sure why I was worried)! So there’s a picture in my parents’ house of my four sisters with the Easter Bunny, where I appear missing, but I’m actually the bunny!

146. julia said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:42 am

     i was a dishwasher for my first job. the guy who had the job before me worked the morning of his first day, left for lunch and never came back. i stayed for about a year.

     it was in a health food store that had a deli/sandwich cafe, and on the weekends the dishes would be piled 5ft high. i washed the enormous piles of dishes by hand, swept and mopped the kitchen – the baker’s side was particularly nasty because the dough would stick to the floor, bleached and cleaned all the cutting boards, took out the 100+ pounds of trash which usually dripped down my apron (yech) and sometimes had to clean the chicken rotisserie, which was my least favorite thing to do.

     this is probably crazy, but i still like washing dishes by hand at home. i guess it’s my ocd temperament, but it makes me feel better to come home and clean up a pile of dishes, leaving the counter empty and the sink bright.

     one thing i have to say though, is that after having worked in a couple of health food stores, the quality of the food they make in the cafes is no different than what you get at a regular restaurant. sysco provides bulk food for everyone it seems, so unless it says specifically “organic” or “free-range” or whatever, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s worth paying more for.

147. Allison said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:42 am

     My first job was as a page at the library, I had that job all through high school. Did not make much money but it paid for my car insurance.

     Glad the 4 footed child is feelling better. Hope that it wasn’t serious

148. Anne said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:42 am

     Lucky me, I actually didn’t have my first job until I was a freshman in college. I was employed to play light classical piano pieces at one of the cafeterias at the student union during lunch time. At $20/hour and being a poor college student, I jumped at the chance. Bad news: taking the job meant I had to regularly skip my chemistry class (which, being a freshman, I was definitely not taking seriously enough to begin with). But, what the heck? $20/hour! Suffice it to say that my chemistry grades soon took even a deeper plunge, prompting a “if-you-don’t-raise-that-grade-soon-that-scholarship-will-be-revoked” letter from school to my parents which marked the end of my professional lunchtime pianist career!

149. Amy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:59 am

     I really hope I can catch this sneak up this time around!! I “need” some of that yarn from the Knittery!! Anyway, my first job was as a dishwasher at our local (small town) hospital. My mom works in the physical therapy department and found out that they needed assistance for a part-time dishwasher. Not the most exciting work, but I actually became quite good at the routine required. I started working there when I was 14 and worked there on and off through my sophomore year of college – by then it was only during summer breaks. And, I was even promoted to dietary assistant and weekend cook during summers. So, I acquired a strong work ethic at a young age and have worked hard ever since… : )

150. Michelle from Arizona said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:59 am

     My first job was a cashier at Pic Pac grocery store, back in the dark ages when you had to manually enter the numbers using those key button things. No scanners back then! The eternal laughable story is what a dutiful employee I was when ringing up green onions. The sale ad said 4 for $1 so that is what I charged. 4 onions for $1. Of course it meant 4 *bundles* for $1. Lucky for me the older gentleman customer who pointed out my error was very kind and the store manager got a good laugh out of it too. I stayed at that job until I went to college. Hopefully improving. :>)

151. Ms. L said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:05 am

     Because I went to boarding school and wasn’t permitted to work, my first job was right after high school, working in the only convenience store (and only retail establishment) in town. My first week, I had a great adventure after work watching my engaged co-worker mess around with another guy (whom she’d sold beer to for $1/case a few hours before), while a crazy dude with a tongue piercing kept trying to make out with me, then ran after someone with a baseball bat.

     Later that summer, I started working for the Department of Human Services (cash benefits) office, where I’d volunteered the previous summer. Amazing how much of an overlap I saw between these two jobs.

152. Michelle from Arizona said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:10 am

     Ooops. Like Penny I recalled my REAL first job after I submit. It was to wash the supper dishes for a quarter. Doesn’t sound bad for grade schooler does it? Except I have a clean freak for a mother who always cooked. Washing the dishes included, tearing about the stove top burners and washing them and those crazy mirror polished steel canisters that got fingerprints on them the minute you touched them. And moving everything on the counters and wiping it all down. Drying and putting aways dishes, cleaning up under the dining table for crumbs and then sterilizing the sink. I’m tellin ya, that quarter was well earned. And I did that enough times to buy 3 Donny Osmond albums. That’s plenty of kitchen cleaning. :>) To this day though I keep a very clean kitchen.

153. Holly said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:31 am

     My first job, besides babysitting, was working at a fireworks stand. I guess I was 14 or so. They trusted the whole place to me and my friend, who was 15 or 16. Don’t think that would happen now days!

154. L-B said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:33 am

     Hmmmm….. your Troublemaker sounds like mine! I think Heidi is conspiring to deplete my yarn-purchase funds. Wonder if the veterinarians would barter treatment for hand-knit socks?
     My first job was at age 7, modelling in department store fashion shows and Richmond Times-Dispatch display ads.

155. Antoinette said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:43 am

     My first job was copying computer disks at age 14. No fun! I made good money helping my mom though1

     BTW – I got my first two orders from the Loopy Ewe this week and last – FABULOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE, FABULOUS FAST SHIPPING AND FABULOUS PRODUCTS! Thanks so much for being a great resource!!

156. Wollmeise said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:49 am

     Hello together

     I´m the Wollmeise and very proud, glad and excited that Sheri invited the little Wollmeisen to her shop. Please be friendly and carefully with each of them, it´s their first trip over the globe.
     My first summer job was long long time ago when I was 15. I worked in a arboretum and cultivated roses. No , I didn´t danced like Scarlett O Hara with a basket and a broad brimmed straw hat through the rosefield, cutting roses. My work was to kneel down and bandage the roses. I wasn´t sure to made a good job and visited the following year a little bit afraid and very secret the scene of the crime. Happy end, all roses were still alive! It makes me calm when I read how much salary you´ve got, the same in Germany, it was bittersweet.

     Greetings

     Claudia

157. Colleen said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:56 am

     What a great topic and appropriate as I just received my Social Security statement. My first job that paid into SS was in the summer between my freshman and sophmore years in college. I was a life guard/swimming instructor at a YWCA camp on Lake Huron (US side). I loved the rocky setting and even the cold water. We had to take the water temp. each morning to see if it was warm enough for the campers to go swimming.

     However, before this “paycheck” job, I had spent several summers at our next door neighbor’s cottage as their babysitter. They had a large (3 story) old family home on Lake Ontario (Canadian side) and 3 preschoolers. I don’t remember if I was paid, but I learned to water ski, knit continental, play ping-pong and was able to walk out the door to go swimming. The house had a wonderful glassed in porch facing the Lake – it was a wonderful place to curl up and read on rainy days. The Mom was Swedish and a great knitter – she taught me to knit continental style ( but I reverted to holding the yarn in my right hand).

     Sheri – thanks for the trip down memory lane,

     Colleen in (landlocked) Kansas City

158. Michele said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:58 am

     Wow, my first job. Well aside from babysitting I worked at Carl’s Jr. (That’s Hardee’s for those of you on the East coast) I never wanted to work in fast food but it was the only place that would hire me at 16. I applied a couple months before I turned 16 so they told me to come back after my birthday. It wasn’t so bad because I worked in the mall and my sister worked in a photography studio in the mall also. Then it got fun when my cousin got hired at Carl’s Jr too. My sister would let me know what she wanted, then he would make it and I could get her the free food. Not bad huh. I only lasted there about 6 months. Never again fast food though!

159. Michelle said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:04 am

     Picking strawberries when I was 14. I lasted about 4 hours – 2 hours the first day and I quit at the end of my second shift. At that age, I was terrified of bees, unlike now I’m only slightly anxious while they buzz around me. And apparently, bees love strawberries. And it rained every day (both of them) before I got there, so it was muddy. Not the job for a fussy girly girl. I think I made all of $10.

160. Mary said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:04 am

     My first job was teaching swimming lessons to three year olds, the summer I was 12. I think Kansas minimum wage at the time was something like $2/ hour, but boy did I feel rich when I collected my pay check!

161. Melissa said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:06 am

     I babysat on just about every other Saturday night of my teenaged years for the same wonderful family down the street. They had two incredibly sweet little boys who just loved me. When I arrived, they would already be bathed and in their PJs, and they would have had dinner, dinner would be on the stove waiting, or pizza (for all three of us) would be waiting. A kids’ movie would be ready. All I had to do was hang out and watch the movie with them, help them with tooth brushing, read a couple of stories, and put them to bed. The parents paid me really well, and the husband insisted on driving me the quarter mile up the street to my house. My parents wouldn’t let me work during the school year, so this was a great way to make pocket money (I got a teeny allowance for mowing our grass). I hope Michael and Stephen turned out to be the kind of men you would expect from children as fabulous as they were.

     My next jobs were at camps. The barn where I took riding lessons had a summer camp. I taught arts and crafts and basic pony riding for several sessions. I also taught at a summer science camp run by my school district.

     My first *real* job was the summer before college. I was a kennel worker. Hot weather, fans but no A/C, dog and cat poo, the occasional cat scratch, lots of bug bites, and some really fantastic critters. I met some of the sweetest dogs and cats, a really naughty ferret, and some nice owners. We had one problem dog and two psycho cats that summer, but most were really cool. After that job, it was all retail then professional work for me. I’ve never flipped a burger for pay!

162. Stephanie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:08 am

     My first job was tending to the front desk at my dorm…buzzing folk in if they forgot their ID, retrieving mail if they were lucky enough to have received packages…very non glamourous – and even with all my good intentions, I never did manage to get much studying done down there. Lots and lots of people watching, but hardly any studying!

163. Miranda said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:37 am

     My first real job was at McDonalds, which was interesting. They started me on the grill, and within an hour I was flipping patties like a pro and knew how many squirts of ketchup went on each size burger . My coworkers were amazed and kept asking what kind of grades I got in school and what I got on my SATs, because I learned it so fast. I lasted three days before I couldn’t take the grease or the questions any more!

164. georgia said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:48 am

     i hope casey is ok!!! did she have to spend 3 nights at the vets? oh my, i know how expensive that can be . give her a get well soon love from me!

     my first job was a dog washer. it was a terrible job, even for someone who loves dogs. i was covered with wet, smelly dog hair all day long and a lot of the dogs would get scared and poop while i was washing them. i think i lasted 4 days. i was 15.

     i hope you guys have a great vacation. you all really deserve one !!

165. Amanda said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:50 am

     When I was 14, I got my first “real” job. On weekends, I’d work about 6 hours a day cleaning rooms at Hampton Inn. Mostly it was boring work, but it did teach me that the best way to get things clean is often with just elbow grease and water. I NEVER use chemicals to wash mirrors because of this experience. Water works much better. The craziest thing I ever found while working there, outside of the occassional annoying furniture rearrangements, was a room that had an empty bottle of champagne in the bathroom sink, condom wrappers in the trash can (thankfully the actual contents were nowhere to be seen–I WAS 14, after all), and a box of fried chicken. It still boggles my mind that they would go to the trouble of champagne, only to accompany it with KFC.

166. Kelsey said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:56 am

     My first job was working full time at a summer camp for the entire summer. To give you some idea of the conditions, it was an outdoor summer camp. In the sweltering heat. I am excessively fair skinned. They only gave me a sleeveless shirt. Sunburned and bugbitten all summer. Tan? Lighter than my brother and sister’s natural tans. After winter. Thirty kids. Sometimes one other person to help during part of the day. There was a pool. The kids threw up in it several times. Towards the end of the summer it was warm as bath water. Refreshing. Several kids in our group nearly got kicked out of camp for anger problems, swearing, fighting, etc. (they don’t send the well behaved kids to camps like this) My group was nine-year-olds. I was the youngest person working there. I was fifteen.
     When people ask me about applying for summer camp or if it was fun, I must admit, I snort and chuckle. Summer camps are not for people who care. At all. It makes you stressed out to the point where you carry sun screen, bug spray, and band-aids from home. For the kids, not you. Summer camp is not fun. REALLY not fun. I have a much better job right now. Still working for the city, but a huge improvement.

167. Kari said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 12:12 pm

     Besides babysitting, I got my first real job at 16 working in the kitchen of a horse riding camp. It was a hot job, but the perk was free horse riding lessons! I also helped give pony rides to the little kids.

168. Stephanie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 12:32 pm

     WOW…..I am amazed at all of you “country farm girls”!!! I grew up in cities (am one of the few born and raised in San Francisco, CA). My first “real” job was very un-glamorus….working as an all round helper at a dry-cleaners. I think I was 14 or 15 and my mom was friends with one of the owners. Isn’t that how alot of first jobs came about????? I remember that if we found anything in the pockets – money – we got to keep it. I found a $10 bill once in a pair of suit pants and thought I was so lucky! I think I made about $1.25 and hour that summer and that was good money then!

169. Anniebananie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 12:48 pm

     My first job was really normal. I was 15 and got a job at the new Burger King on the other end of town. My first day I was taught the “line” – how to make burgers. After two weeks of this I was ready to throw myself on the char broiler. Instead, I lied to the manager telling him that I knew how to run a cash register. One of the girls was sick, so he let me do it. I kept having to ask the other cashier questions about what buttons to push, by my drawer balanced out perfectly at the end of the night (at least I knew how to make change!). After that, no more burger making for me, baby… I was a cashier – until I quit 6 months later because I simply couldn’t stand it anymore! I can’t remember what minimum wage was back then… maybe $2.75 or $3.25/hour? It was in 1983…

170. Manda said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 12:49 pm

     Oooh, if Wollmeise is what I think it is…

     Other than helping at my father’s flea market booth, my first real job wasn’t until college. For two hours every weekday and every other Saturday morning I sorted envelopes and stuffed PO boxes at the campus post office. The best bit was that on Saturdays our supervisors would bring us hot Krispy Kreme donuts for our breaktime snack!

171. Frogger said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 12:50 pm

     Woo hoo! And I thought my first job was rough! My first real job (besides mucking out stalls and exercising horses) was at the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Think Keifer Sutherland in the Lost Boys. I made millions of dipped cones and bananas, was petrified of the snow cone maker (not to mention the storage areas under the boardwalk!), burnt all my fingerprints off making waffle cones, and came home completely covered in sticky pink sugar from making cotton candy. Which my horse just loved… she’d follow me around… slurp… slurp… slurp…

172. Melissa B. said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 12:55 pm

     My first job, besides babysitting, was when I was 17 and I worked at a local drive up restaruant called “Mr. Weenies!” Yes, Mr. Weenies was its real name! The boys worked the grill and deep fryer and the girls worked the soda fountain and worked as car hops. We were also known as a “Weenie Woman.” And to get you a better picture of this wonderful establishment, the sign for was a GIANT hot dog in the sky. My husband and I were friends in high school and so he know of this and lovingly calls me “Weenie Woman” to bring back the memories. But my worst (back then, now I can laugh about it) memory was when a car of full of some of the popular guys came in and I had to take their order. I went to the driver first and took his order and asked “To stay or to go” and he answered “Stay”, then I went around to the passenger side and proceeded to take the order of the passengers. Once finished, I just out of habit, asked “Is that to stay or go!” Of course the whole car of guys broke out in laughter and and said that they wanted theirs to go! So then for the next several weeks whenever I would see any of them, they would ask “Is that to stay or to go, Weenie Woman?” Oh, that made for an interesting for such an interesting Senior year! And yes, Mr. Weenie is still in operation and everytime we go back, I still feel sorry for these poor kiddos knowing that they will NEVER live down the ridicule of working there!

173. Chan said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 1:03 pm

     Oh wow! My first job was as the Saturday morning helper in my dentist’s office. I did it all; I answered phones, greeted patients, and helped set up between patients too. I was done by noon, so it was great! It also seemed to cure me of any hang-ups at the dentist’s, which was a nice bonus. I was 14, I think…

174. Rhonda said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 1:18 pm

     It’s difficult to think back that far. My mother got me my first job at an answering service. I was 15. We handled all kinds of calls for Drs. afterhours, all kinds of companys for lunch and afterhours, funeral homes, dentists, you name it we answered it. I ended up working there for 10 years.

175. Ali said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 1:49 pm

     My first job was a Saturday job when I was in 6th form (age 16-18) working in a pet and garden shop. My task was to muck out the rabbits and guinea pigs and rodents, and work on the till, and I got paid the princely sum of 14.40 UK pounds a week. I did it till I left town for college.

     Best part was the orange rabbit we christened Houdini. We needed to put a padlock on her cage to keep her in, she would open the catch, pull off the wire tie, and be heading for the street in a flash. I ended up chasing her down many times.

176. Jessi said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 1:51 pm

     Man, my first job….I stood for 8 hours a day copying really large and messy loan files for the RTC during the Savings & Loan fiasco. Saw all kinds of *really* interesting things that I can’t talk about, lost several inches off of my thighs from all that standing and went through gallons of lotion and cartons of band-aids from all that paper

177. Heather said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 1:54 pm

     My first real job was at a drugstore during high school. I’d been babysitting for a while, but this was for a real weekly paycheck! It was terribly boring but I stayed with it for three years, between drivers ed and musical rehearsal and marching band, and gave up many a Saturday for it. I suppose it wasn’t awful, but I didn’t learn much besides how to show up on time and smile at the customers. And I made more than minimum wage, which at that time was $4.25/hour.

178. Heather said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 1:56 pm

     ps. Noricum sent me.

179. susie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 1:56 pm

     My first job was also as a kennel assistant in a local small animal veterinary clinic. Hours upon hours of cleaning up dog poop, giving dirty dogs baths, walking dogs in the Georgia summer sun + humidity, and the whole while we were only allowed to listen to pop countrry music. The vet who ran the show was convinced that was all dogs could handle, and that was Soooo Unfair to us 16 ys. olds. Nothing could have been more horrible! Oh to be young again….

180. Margie T. said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:00 pm

     Apparently, there are a lot of ex-detasselers who knit now! LOL! I also detasseled (central IL). But after I found that I was allergic to the pollen (swollen lips and face) after a day’s work, I got to drive the machine thingie. That was still too close for the allergy. So I quit and got a job at a local discount store in the fabrics and sewing patterns section. Now THAT was fun!

181. sarah said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:08 pm

     my first job was at a family fun center. the golf dome, the arcade, the go karts, the putty golf, the bumper boats. because i was a girl, i got stuck in the kitchen making pizza all day and into the night. it was hot as hell because of the ovens. and i went home every night smelling like grease and pizza cheese.

     it sucked.

     but, it was fun as hell too, because i got to work with friends, and i got almost unlimited blue moon and superman ice cream.

182. Princsstrish said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:10 pm

     My first “real” job was working at a video store! I loved every minute of it and even went back there when I needed a part time job! I got to talk to customer about teir choices. See movies before they hit the shelf. I’d put movies back, check them out, check them in, rebox them. It was so much fun and i’m still a movie addict

183. Patti in Maine said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:17 pm

     first summer job? I worked at a hamburger place on the beach in Westport, CT, called Chubby Lane’s. The worst thing was that we had to wear loafers, navy-blue knee socks, navy blue bermudas with a brown belt and an oxford blue button-down shirt. This was in the early 1970′s and I felt like I had landed smack-dab in the middle of nerdville! PLUS, they had really good burgers and fries and such and so EVERYONE would come in. While no one said anything, I just know they were thinking, “nice outfit, NOT” And chubby always hired all the athletic guys, too. The football team all worked there, the baseball team, the wrestlers, the basketball team. Basically any guy who was super popular and super cute worked there. AND I HAD TO WEAR THE KNEE SOCKS AND LOAFERS AND BERMUDAS, ETC. (well, so did they, but except for the knee socks they didn’t really care.)

     I did work there for several summers, gradually working my way up from busing tables to making fries. The guys were the only ones allowed to flip burgers at this place. Women’s lib definitely had not hit Chubby Lane’s.

184. Shelby said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:18 pm

     My first job wasn’t nearly as bad as yours, but it wasn’t much fun either. Thankfully it only lasted 2 weeks, and I never did it again! I was a “waitress” at a food stand at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, NY. I got to serve hotdogs, burgers, sausages, and fries in the hot sun all day for 2 weeks. It was $250 for the whole 2 weeks, and I was thrilled to do it! I worked with the regulars, who followed this particular family run stand around the circuit. One of which was a guy who was engaged, and broke off his engagement while I was working there. Then he hit on me non-stop for the rest of the week. Wow- I had forgotten (repressed) that part! Yikes.

185. Anita said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:21 pm

     Although it wasn’t my first job, I too, briefly detasseled corn just north of Indianapolis. I lasted one day instead of one hour. BUT nobody told us to wear long sleeves and long pants. So, being the city girl from Indianapolis, I went to my orientation at Ball State with corn rash ALL OVER my body. My first job was at the Indianapolis Zoo – concessions, train tickets, souvenir shops, etc. That job,on the other hand, at $2.62 per hour, was an absolute blast. I have gone on to other interesting jobs (such is the life of a military spouse), Most notably, working for the USO in Europe as a center director and tour guide – it’s most awesome to get paid for travelling in Europe; and after returning to the US, I managed the gift shop in the summit house on top of Pikes Peak. Interesting jobs makes it easier to be away so far away from home!

186. Pamela said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:28 pm

     My first job was similar to yours. I grew up in Connecticut where the only job 15 year-olds can do is pick tobacco. So a friend’s dad got us all jobs for the harvest season.
     Connecticut tobacco is called shade tobacco. The leaves are used for the wrappers on the world’s best cigars. But, because of this, the tobacco is grown under white tents to protect it from the sun and increase humidity. Super hot and humid with no fresh air and lots of bugs. Horrid job! But the farm also had a farm stand that sold vegetables and some lucky kids were selected to work there.
     On the advice of my best friend’s sister, we showed up the first day- hadn’t had anything to drink for 24 hours, no breakfast and wore long sleeves and pants. We both suffered for about 2 hours of picking, a really bad two hours. Then she passed out and I started puking. We were put on farmstand duty for the rest of the month!

187. Patti in Maine said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:29 pm

     DUH – I forgot that the same time I was working at the restaurant (NOT flipping burgers because that was the boys’ job), I also worked at a marina. Mostly washing boats and scraping hulls, but the time was broken up by jumping off the railroad bridge into the Saugatuck River and taking the boats out in Long Island Sound. ALSO, I got to work on Paul Newman’s boston whaler, he’s a really nice guy and tips really well.

188. Wannabe said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:42 pm

     Dude. My first job was totally illegal. Well, age wise. I was only 14. Can we say SWEAT SHOP? We lived in SC at the time and I got hired at the local McDonald’s as a party girl. I set up and did the parties for all the little kids. I am moritfied thinking of that now because I’m a total hippiy-dippy…my kid has never even been to a McDonald’s and the thought of what they put in their food makes me ill….but that was the job. I remember I got my first paycheck and had my mom make a photocopy of it. It was $5.39 after they took out all the money from my uniforms and stuff. I was so damn proud of that $5. LOL!

189. Meghann said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:44 pm

     My first full-time job was as a nanny……everyday 8am-6 or7pm and then on Friday’s I stayed overnight, stayed all day Saturday and got out in the late afternoon to go hang out with friends. The hours were killer, but I got paid GREAT and saved up enough to go to Spain my senior year of high school!

     I need an address!:)

190. Doris said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 2:50 pm

     My first job was working for my parents. They had a heating oil delivery company, and my job was to check the math on every one of the delivery tickets that the trucks had left. Can you say BORING?! However, it taught me a good work ethic, for which I have always been grateful. I started that job at 11 years old and have worked ever since (summers and a part-time job while in school and then ever since). I took a brief hiatus while my children (one of them is my College Guy) were little, but after that my husband and I started a business. I am often amazed by the lack of a work ethic in the kids we sometimes hire….and am glad that I seem to have passed mine down. Have a great vacation!

191. Joanna said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 3:19 pm

     I don’t know if it really counts, but my first job was working at my public library, and I still work for the Library (just a different branch). So my first job is my only job with one sidebar of working at a movie theatre for three years in order to supplement my income from the Library.

192. Valerie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 3:19 pm

     My first job was not nearly as rough as yours, Sheri, or as many of the others. I worked in the school library when I was 15. The job was pretty cushy until the end of the year when all the books had to come back to the library and be reshelved. That doesn’t sound too bad, except that even though there wasn’t nearly enough room on the shelves for all those books we had to get them on anyway. My arms were aching and my fingers bleeding after a week of pushing and wedging the books into nonexistent spaces. Still, there were no bugs, and I did make $2 an hour….

193. Megan said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 3:24 pm

     Aside from babysitting, my first job was cleaning my dad’s office when I was in high school. He ran a regional office for a small engineering firm that worked with waste water treatment. It wasn’t that hard. The part that took the longest was sweeping the floor in the giant wherehouse/workshop area. But, the part I hated the most was vacuuming the large office where most of the engineers sat. I always felt like I was disturbing them and was afraid they would need to use the phone while I was roaring around the room. I’m sure they understood, but I was a little shy at the time.

     I’m glad to hear The Troublemaker is alright. The worst troublemaker I ever met was a friend’s golden retriever who, over his accomplished career, managed to swallow an entire bra (the clasp got caught in his intestine and he wound up in the hospital for emergency surgery) and a faberge egg!

194. Heather said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 3:30 pm

     My first job was cleaning rooms at a Motel 6. I actually did it for almost a year. It wasn’t too bad, except for the time that I found drug paraphenalia (sp?) in a room and was interviewed by an undercover policeman about it. It was exciting, but kind of scary. There was also a time that some male “entertainers” were staying in some rooms and the head housekeeper wouldn’t let me clean them on my own. Maybe she thought I would see something that could scar me for life (this was before the drug room).

195. Denyaz said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 3:51 pm

     My first job was as a children’s bookseller. Nothing quite like picking up after children and their parents (believe it or not the parents where the worst—and the teachers, never forget the teachers who pulled out 10 books and bought none.) My favorite portion for work had to be finding the parents for our ‘strays’. Nothing like asking a 3 year-old if they know mommy or daddy’s name and then finding the parent across the store. On the bright side I got a handy book discount (33% was not too bad).

196. Maria said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 3:54 pm

     My first job was in high school – I worked as an intern at a engineering firm. I helped design telecommunication towers for two years. It was such a great experience – and fairly different from most first jobs!

197. ringer said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 4:24 pm

     My first “real” job, i.e. one that paid by check, was at sixteen, working as a lifeguard at the local community lake. Sounds good, but for the whole summer I only had Tuesdays off, and the job included raking/sifting geese droppings off the beach and cleaning the bathrooms. Otherwise it was great

198. stariel said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 4:30 pm

     My first job was working at a recycling center. It was kind of fun because I worked with my best friend. Basically we got to help people figure out where to put their recycling, stack the newspapers neatly, and sort through the mixed paper bin and pull out things that weren’t paper.

199. Jen said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 4:48 pm

     I worked in a pizza restaurant, making pizzas, at age 14. I was paid in cash, under the table, with no taxes taken out and no paperwork. I especially detested picking the gritty anchovies out of their lard to put on the pizzas. That stuff got under my nails and made them stink like nothing else. Not to mention being sexually harassed (at 14 years old, mind you) by the owner and his brother. Ugh.

200. inky said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 5:34 pm

     Taking inventory. In a supermarket. At four o’clock in the morning. By hand.

     Ever fall asleep standing up while you’re counting containers of vitamins???

201. Lesley said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 5:56 pm

     It doesn’t get any better than being a hostess at McDonalds!!!! A hostess you ask? I refilled coffee, hosted birthday parties, and walked around to talk to customers. Now obviously, this was a long time ago!! Late 70′s to be exact, so imagine red polyester pants, a white (poly) shirt with red and gold arches on it – with earth shoes on my feet!!!! I actually lasted there until I graduated HS, and moved on to work at Great Adventure for the summer!!

202. Kati said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 6:25 pm

     Ok, I worked at a “fancy” restaurant as a hostess, my boss was a creep, he constantly asked me to go out on dates with him, he was at least 40, which isn’t old, but I was only 16! YUCK. He finally got tired of me saying no and cut my hours to two hours a week on Monday evening! I quit!

203. Missy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 6:59 pm

     my first job was in college…
     I was a “hostess with the mostest” at a now-closed mexican joint.
     Come to think of it- all 3 of the restaurants I’ve worked in have now closed.
     Coincidence?
     I HOPE NOT

204. Becky said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 6:59 pm

     My first job (after babysitting) was with my dad at the annuity wholesale firm he worked at. I answered phones, filed and managed his mailing list database. I actually did that for three summers in high school. At the beginning of the fourth, my dad struck out on his own and his boss said it would be “uncomfortable” if I continued working there…I became a temp after that and had tons more interesting stuff to do! Dad bought me lunch everyday though, that was sure nice… =)

205. Lou said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:00 pm

     Unofficially, my first job was helping my Dad out on job sites. He was a contractor who built custom houses so I would help him clean up after contsruction was done and that included sweeping, cleaning toilets (gets pretty gross after all the construction crew use it multiple times!), and scraping paint from windows.

     Officially, my first job at 16 was working as a “Block girl” at Western Sizzlin’ Steak House. I greeted customers, asked if they wanted a side salad or salad bar, took their meal orders, and sometimes I helped with food prep. All in all it wasn’t a bad job because I usually had nice managers and very funn co-workers. I did sustain an injury with a steak knife (I’ll spare the details) once and when I asked my manager (the one I hated) if I could leave 5 minutes early to go to the ER to stch up my hand, he said, “Sure, but can you check the salad bar first to make sure the muffins are full.” What an uncompassionate jerk he was! Uh, righto, I didn’t care about the dang muffins and I refrained from cussing him out. Lucky him. My hand is fine now.

206. Gretchen said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:04 pm

     My first job was a lifeguard when I was fifteen. I worked at an indoor pool, watching people swim and teaching lessons most of the summer. Winter was just watching people swim. I loved at first it because of the authority. “NO RUNNING” but I soon grew to really enjoy teaching swimming lessons. I taught the youngest group and we always had lots of fun.

207. Shauna said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:17 pm

     My first real job was at the local medical school–I was a paid lab assistant. They did both biochemistry sorts of things and animal studies. At first I just worked with proteins and chemicals–that was fine, though my mom just about had a fit when she came to pick me up one time and saw the bottles marked “Danger! Neurotoxin!”. Then they wanted me to help with the animal studies: hold rats for injections, gas them (to kill them), cut them up–I was so horrified just watching somebody else gas rats, I started crying right in the animal studies room!

     (I had the job for two whole summers in high school, but they never again asked me to do anything with animals!)

208. Jenn said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:30 pm

     I got my first job at 14. I answered the phones at a funeral home. I’d go in, unforward the phones from the funeral director’s home, watch TV, run laps through all the rooms, play the organ in the chapel, basically just hang out, and then forward the phones back to his home and leave. i was paid $10 a day and worked one day a week (I picked up the shifts his daughter – also 14 – didn’t want.) Only once in two summers did the phone ever ring, and it was an old man wanting to know how much a pine box would run. I think he was just lonely. Only once did I share the building with a body, and it was my aunt-by-marriage’s mother, so she was almost related anyway.

209. joyce said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:40 pm

     I was 13 when I had my first job as a “soda jerk”. That title still makes me cranky. Actually I did more than the fountain work. We also did short order cooking too. Remember what the waitress’ wore on Happy Days? Thats the kind of uniform we had to wear. And starched so stiff that your neck would get all scratched and sore. Best of all-a big fifty cents an hour plus tips! WooHoo!

210. Kristi said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 7:56 pm

     My first real job, after babysitting of course, was working at Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant in La Mirada, CA as a hostess/cashier. I remember practicing and practicing on counting change, to make sure I gave the correct change back…the cash register didn’t tell you in those days. After graduating high school, our family moved back to Illinois and I started working at a large insurance company. I’m still there after 30 years, but now live in Ohio.

211. Donna said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:03 pm

     My first job was working on a Peach Farm in the packing shed when I was 14. I was one of the “cullers” picking out the bad peaches as they rolled down the conveyer belt to be put in the boxes to ship out all over the U.S. It was extremely hot and very itchy and boy did those belts run fast. It was hard work but fun too because all my friends worked there. I have fond memories of that summer and job because I saved my money to buy my very own pet–a miniature dachshund. She lived 14 years and was such a great pet. Your Troublemaker looks like a darling! So glad she’s doing good.

212. Nichole said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:07 pm

     My first job was actually pretty cool – esp for a Junior in High School! I worked after school for Musician Magazine (which was a national magazine, owned by Billboard). I started out doing odds & ends … everything from stuffing & mailing out CDs and other swag to data entry and telephone research. After I graduated, I was offered a full time gig there and thought I was on top of the world making $17,000 a year… WOO HOO… my how naive I was! It was a great gig though and I only moved on when they closed down the Massachusetts office and I couldn’t see any way possible to live on $17,000 in New York City if I had moved there to keep my job…….

213. Katey said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:24 pm

     My first job… fabulous job! Summers working at a playground, watching neighborhood kids for three hours in the morning and evening, dabbling in random craft projects, coaching sports teams, playing other playgrounds around the borough (like a town in the suburbs of Pittsburgh). It was great! I was little more than a kid myself, and we had such fun! Not too much of any one thing, just lots of variety, lots of fun! Great way to enter the work force!!

214. Diana said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:36 pm

     My first job was for a party company that took polaroid photos of guests at Bar & Bat Mitzvahs!

215. Jamie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:45 pm

     My first job (aside from baby-sitting and professionally baby-sitting) was as a Food Vendor at Fenway Park. Coolest job ever. I made some of my best friends and had some of the coolest boyfriends there. Took awhile to make any money, it was hard work and products were distributed by seniority. But I was one of five girls, so I did pretty good in tips alone. I also was the first girl to sell programs at Fenway. I was wicked loud.

     Oh, and there is no way to hawk without a Boston accent (you try yelling “Popcorn Here” with r’s), so even though I was born and raised in Florida till I was 14, by 16 I had a wicked Boston accent.

216. Vicki said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:46 pm

     Besides babysitting, I was a hostess at Perkins Pancake House. It wasn’t a bad job and I got to meet some interesting people. The people I worked with were nice. So no great story like some of the entries but an entry none the less!

217. Joy said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 8:57 pm

     My first job was working at a library erasing pencil marks out of books. One summer, I spent 4 hours a day, 5 days a week going page by page and book by book erasing the pencil marks of disrespectful borrowers. This boring job wasn’t even the worse part. The $2.30 per hour pay was the worse part.

218. Troy Adams said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:12 pm

     Mother’s Helper. To the mother of one of my brother’s friends who had some illness that no one discussed, but that I suspect was either rheumatoid arthritis or MS. A lovely woman and a family that was very good to me. I helped with the cooking, cleaning and assorted other household chores. We cooked their entire weeks’ worth of meals one day a week, then they heated them up as the week went along. Totally exhausting. And they kept these *huge* lizards in floor to ceiling, wall to wall cages in the basement. Creeped me out totally. They used to feed them some type of worms that were kept in the frig. The worms got out & ate their way into the lining of the frig. They did get rid of the frig, but EW!

219. claire said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 9:25 pm

     first summer job I had I was living at Clark Air Base in the Philippines in 1962. I worked in the hospital lab. They taught me to draw blood and do slide stains, and basic blood counts, and also urine microscopy. I was 16. They were desperate for help. It was really interesting, but the corpmen that worked there were just awful, always teasing me (set up a urine slide with sperm in it to see how I would react, or if I would know what it was) The worst thing was they took me into the morgue to show me the bodies of some airmen that had burned to death in a plane crash in Vietnam. It was a shocking awakening and growing up.

220. Carrie said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:03 pm

     My first job was also when I was 14. Every summer the state fair is held for a week in my hometown and there are a bunch of concession companies who hire tons of people to work at it. I signed up and ended up the “owner” of a shiney new water cart. I sold bottled water for ridiculous prices out in the sun for about 10 hours a day. The best part of the whole thing was that when I got off work, I got to stay at the fair and ride all the rides! I also got to get into all the concerts for free (even though I was working). Not too bad, I don’t think!

221. Phoebe said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 10:22 pm

     Glad to see that you hooked up with Ms. “Woolmeise”!!!! First job (I’m not counting babysitting for the evil twins around the corner fondly known as Denis and Denise Menace) was at an optical store when I was 15…helping customers get their glasses to fit again on their face and not look lopsided as well as pick out new frames. The job was pretty good except the owner was kind of a lech so I only worked an abbreviated summer. Just to be clear, he was a commenting lech versus one that actually carried through with anything.

222. Romi said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:00 pm

     My first job was at New York Fabrics. I used pretty much all of my wages expanding my fabric stash.

     Hugs to you!

223. J.P. said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:03 pm

     My first job was volunteering at a hospital when I was 14. My first PAYING job was as a cashier at a grocery store at 16. The funny thing was when I went back to college at 29, I did the same thing for the same chain. Circles, I tell ya!

224. Meg said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:20 pm

     Well, babysitting, and a paper route, and my dad had a whole list of chores with specific dollar values stuck to the fridge (I think the best paying one was mopping and “futuring” the kitchen floor and back steps for $3.00), but my first real job was at this little shop that sold just three things: BBQ grills, ceiling fans and gas fireplaces. Working there I learned all manner of odd things that can go wrong with any of the above and marveled at how much money some people are willing to pay for a grill.

     I’m pretty excited about the Wollmeise, too!

225. sheknits said,

     June 19, 2007 @ 11:36 pm

     My cousin empoyed me for my first job at 15 yrs.old in Dominicks Grocery Store in their Floral Dep. I wasn’t so bad and I NEVER has o bring my own lunch becaseu I just walked through the store each da and picked out what I wanted to eat.

     Sharon

226. Megan said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 6:02 am

     My first real job (other than babysitting) was being a referee for the local rec soccer games. It was a lot of fun and I got $20/game (that’s per hour!!). Needless to say I did it for a while because it was good money and only took up about 3 hours on a Saturday morning.

     P.S. I am SO excited about the Wollmeise!! I am moving back to the States from Germany in about a month (about when your next update is) and I was thinking about how it would be a lot more difficult to get it. Now through you it should be easy! (if I can get to it before everyone else, hahah).

227. Iris said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 6:55 am

     My first job was in high school, typing from a dictaphone for our next-door neighbor, who was a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel. He was active in a bunch of organizations, largely involving political and tax reform, and I typed from a dictaphone on a REAL TYPEWRITER. OK, I’m not THAT old. Well, maybe I am. Remember White-Out?

228. Terry said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 7:48 am

     My first job was when I was 14 too. My mother thought it would be a good idea if I volunteered with the red cross as a volunteen. They gave us a cute uniform and everything. My first assignment was in a nursing home. What an eye opener for a sheltered child like me. Needless to say after having to help lock a helpless naked old man in his room so he wouldn’t go outside naked, that was it for me. Too bad that today the care of our elderly (which I’m quickly getting closer to) has not improved very much. We treat our animals better than we do our elderly. Anyway, after that I knew that the medical field (people, anyway) was not for me.

     Is the troublemaker an aussie? We had one who recently passed away. In the end she cost us $7,000 in medical bills. But she was worth every penny. But I know how you feel though.

229. Kay said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 7:52 am

     I worked as a telephone solicitor for a low-rent carpet cleaning company. I lasted about 5 days. It was not the dream job by any means!

230. limedragon :-: Harriet said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 9:44 am

     Hmm. I used to house- and pet-sit as my first “job.” One time a cat acted up and knocked over all the house plants. It totally freaked me out and I had to get my Mom to come and help me clean up.

231. limedragon :-: Harriet said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 9:45 am

     AND! Enjoy your vacation! : )

232. Kinelle said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 9:53 am

     I worked retail. I hated it, but knew I could *not* work in Fast Food. It never even crossed my mind that I had other options!

     Retail clothes are mind numbingly boring. I rarely shop in malls to this day. When online came along I became very happy!!

233. Anne said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 10:20 am

     I was one of the lucky ones- my first job was as a ski instructor. It’s something I still daydream about when I’m logging 12+ hour days at my current job as a health care consultant (don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but I miss the skiing. And the male ski instructors…)

234. Shelly j Davis said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 10:46 am

     My first job that wasn’t babysitting was at the public library splicing broken films and repairing books. I got to run some complicated equipment that I recieved all of 15 minutes of training on and I wore these special white gloves. I loved it . Sitting by myself with shelves of much read books, going through them gingerly and searching for damage that I could repair.

235. May said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 10:57 am

     My first job was as a telemarketer. I only lasted two weeks. I was bored in 3 days and started playing a part and make up my name and tried to act out the script as different personalities. In the end, it wasn’t the making no sales part that bothered me but 1. questionable ‘charity’ that I was calling on behave of. 2. constant smoking environment. I had to quit after that. It was sad. But no more telemarketing for me.

236. MaryEllen said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 11:52 am

     My first job was at our town’s mini golf / driving range spot. Not too hard – scooping golf balls into buckets and handing out putters. And if I was lucky enough to be scheduled to work in the snack bar, I could sneak a soft-serve cone between customers! I learned to make great big cones there (a bonus when I got to college and found the cafeteria had an ice cream machine – I definitely got the most out of my meal plan!)

237. KT said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 12:39 pm

     My very first job ever was at a pet shop. I cleaned bird cages, wiped down fish tanks, restocked, fetched mice for hungry snakes, and dealt with a number of creepy-crawlies for food. I also learned a ton about freshwater fish tanks, various reptiles and poodles (it was also a grooming center run by a lady who bred standard poodles). It had its ups and it had its downs. But not a half-bad first job.

238. Tracy said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 1:03 pm

     Mine was a perfectly ordinary fast food job and a little Mom ‘n Pop place in KCMO. What is interesting about it is that I ate there with my family as a kid growing up, and now, some 25 years later the place is still there. It’s an absolute anachronism, but still a great place to get a Tenderloin sandwich and Onion Rings!

239. Ruth Ann said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 1:04 pm

     My first paying job was the summer before college when my 2 cousins and I manned the concession stand at the North Penn Twin Drive-In. We had a blast. Being from a small town in SE Oklahoma, working at a drive-in in OKC and even getting paid for it certainly was an improvement over cleaning the calf barn and working cows and NOT getting paid. All three of us went to different colleges in the fall but still have such good memories of the summer of music and movies and boys. We worked on our tans with baby oil and iodine during the day, then at dusk went to the drive-in. Ahhh those were the days.

240. Karen said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 1:06 pm

     I did a lot of babysitting through my teenage years, but my first official job was after high school. We had just moved back to Indiana and I was 17. I worked at a Wendy’s for 6 years. Yep, I was a hamburger slinger. I was what they called an “opener”. Had to be there early in the morning to patty the meat , slice the onions and tomatoes, prepare the salad bar fixins for the day, get the chili going, sometimes do inventory. And then work the grill or most times the drive up window for the lunch rush. It was fun most of the time but I sure did stink like fried food every day (didn’t/don’t miss that at all after I quit to get married).

241. Kelly said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 1:23 pm

     Ah first jobs. Mine was at 17, high school senior and I worked at Bank of America. I was customer service. Answered phones, ran the mail. Put up the statements. Oh that was fun, counting the checks before folding them in the statement and putting in the envelope!! Met a ton of wonderful people. The branch was across the street from a hospital so got to see lots of cutie doctors too. Moved up to safe deposit boxes. Stayed for 2 years while I finished high school and went too business college. Actually, back then B of A was willing to accommodate school schedules. I worked 1-5:30 M-Th and 1-7:30 on fridays. During spring, winter breaks and summer I worked full time. I remember being the only one of my friends with a checking account (direct deposit in the 1970s don’tcha know) and credit card ($200 limit woo hoo). I did enjoy that.

242. Robin said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 1:42 pm

     My first job was wrapping Christmas presents at JCPenney’s. I was just hired as Christmas help so I was only there a couple of months but I loved the discount.

243. Jan said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 1:43 pm

     My first job (other than babysitting) was as a dental assistant to a children’s dentist. On-the-job training, holding my hand over kid’s noses and mouths till they stopped screaming — I was always afraid I’d get in trouble with the law over that!

244. Victoria said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 1:48 pm

     My first job wasn’t too exciting or exotic – it was just a clerk in a variety store – along the lines of a Walmart, but in 1965, so it was a lot smaller than the smallest of the walmarts is now. The good thing about it was that I always had a job to come back to during summers and vacations when I was in college. It helped a lot that I didn’t have to deal with finding a job every summer.
     It is hard to believe the $45 I made for full time work each week seemed like a lot of money then.

245. Jen said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 1:54 pm

     My first job was working at Dog N Suds. It’s a fifty style drive in restaurant. I spent my first summer there as a fry cook and then went onto spend the next six (I think) summers as a carhop. No roller skates though, which is a good thing because there is no way I would have worked there if that was the case. My sister and brother also worked there at the same time I did and so did a bunch of our friends, so usually it was a good time!

246. Kathi in Fenton said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 2:05 pm

     My mom worked for a company that sent out coupons when you had a baby. (I don’t think they do that anymore – we’re talking 40 years ago) She would keypunch the names & addresses on her keypunch machine at home. She got the list from me. I would receive 400 – 500 newspapers a week & would have to go through each one to find the birth announcements. I paid my brother & his buddy 2 cents a newspaper to open them all up for me (the skunks went on strike for more pay). The mailman brought them everyday in a big sack. I’d find the announcement cut it out & stack them all by state for my mom to enter in. You talk about a dirty job. Who would ever think going through newspapers would be so dirty – I’d have that ink everywhere!!! But hey the pay was good, I worked in our basement & I paid for my senior trip to NY!

247. SpaceCase said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 2:24 pm

     My first “real” job was at a catalog showroom, where the entire store was filled with jewelry, vases, lamps, knick-knacks, that sort of thing – customers would see something they liked, and we’d order it for them from the catalog. (A strange concept – the place went out of business about a six months after I started working there).

     I can’t tell you how many hours I spent polishing silver and brass items to get fingerprints off and keep things looking nice – the same items, over and over and over again. To this day I don’t own anything that needs polished for that very reason.

248. Laura said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 3:35 pm

     My first job, other than babysitting, was yard work. We had a huge front yard, a couple of acres. Dad would tell me I could pick up pine cones, rake, etc. for $5, or do it for free. Guess which one I chose? I toed the line one afternoon after Dad had me picking up pine cones around the azaleas. I was looking at my arms thinking how dirty they were, when I realized the dirt was moving. I totally freaked out. I had to take a bath to get all the seed ticks off. I swore I would never enter that section of the yard again. Luckily, Dad believed me and my younger brother was getting old enough to help him out in the yard!

249. Beck said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 3:57 pm

     My first job was blueberry picking. At my interview I was informed that only the girls on the farm were allowed to do this because they were much more gentle than boys. We worked usually 2 days a week for four hours and were paid by the pound, $2.39 per pound. It was hot, muddy, and your hands were blue all the time. The most ridiculous part was that each paycheck I got averaged around 48$ and we only got paid every two weeks.
     After that they moved me inside to produce (I stacked tomatoes), then to cashiering which I did until I left for college.

250. Johanna said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 5:12 pm

     My first job was working as a nursing assistant in a nursing home. I was 16. What an eye opener! My grandparents all lived on the east coast (I am from WI) so I never really got up close and personal with the aging process until that summer. The pay was better than what I would make otherwise, but I earned every penny! Also, the impressions that I took away stuck with me. I am currently an estate planning attorney and work with a lot of older adults.

     Thanks for making your site and store such an enjoyable experience!

251. Andrea said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 6:41 pm

     First job, huh? It was working for a run of the mill X mart and I was 18. The only reason why my first job was so late in coming was that I am Canadian and through high school I lived in the States without a working visa.

     Anyway, I was a cashier and it was my first real experience with cranky, mean strangers who yelled at you and hurt your feelings for reasons that were out of your control. It was also my first intense crush on a guy much older than myself and who had little to no interest in me. In hindsight, the experience taught me two things, I could never work in retail ever again without getting fired for yelling right back at customers and that I totally need to get a life if I start getting a crush on fellow coworkers because work is the only souce of social interaction I get.

252. Debra said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 6:52 pm

     My first summer job was at Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store. I scooped on into the autumn, and we were quite a gang — all went to the same high school. We were the main ice cream store in town, so when it got warm, we were *Busy*. Imagine trying to drag your ice cream scoop through rock hard Rocky Road, with all the marshmallows and almonds. And no air conditioning — with the freezers blasting out hot air at your legs. But it was fun, way back when….

253. Lisa J said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 7:05 pm

     I had forgotten all about babysitting until I was skimming everyone else’s comments. My first “real” job was in a medical back office, and I was 13. My dad was stationed at an Air Force base in Holland (The Netherlands) and I went to the american school. What to do with 200 bored teenagers for 3 months? Put them to work and pay them $2.90 an hour! That first summer I did a lot of filing, shredding, and learning about office politics. It was fun/scary when they sent me out of the room so they could read Classified Documents (they burned them in a coffee can before I was let back in), and fun/tiring biking the 15 miles to work (Holland is very very flat). The next summer I worked as a receptionist in the dental office, making appointments and filing records. I only hung up the phone on an officer once.

254. Heddy said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 7:24 pm

     My first job was at the tender age of 15 — working at a corner store. The owners adored me (I had babysat their children for 2 years prior) and I worked pretty much ever shift that they had when i wasn’t in school 9I was a rich little 15 year old!!! LOL!)

     I nearly got fired one hot summer day (thank goodness they loved me!) — no air conditioning, so I was enjoying a giant Mr. Freezie at the cash register … it was quite melted and would up getting spilled all over the electronic cash register (the number 3 stuck fro the whole summer!)

255. meg said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 7:37 pm

     My first job was as parking lot attendant for a local department store. I was 14 years old and thought it was the greatest thing to sit in a tiny little box listeing to the radio and reading while once in a while taking a ticket and pushing a button to allow the flag to go up so cars could exit. I do rememebr crying after work one day after I realized all my friends had been able to enjoy our local Cherry Festival celebrations while I had the responsibilty of work and had missed out.

256. Michelle Martino said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 7:56 pm

     You lasted longer than me I worked an assembly line….stuffing silly putty into silly putty eggs….my friend and I went in at 8:30, left at noon for lunch break….and NEVER went back. Can you believe we had the nerve to call up and ask for our check to be mailed?!

257. Alison L said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 8:31 pm

     My first job was as a tutor but that was during the school year and didn’t quite count since it was helping with homework. My second job was an internship at a Broadway theater (I’m in NY) that was required by my high school during school hours so that technically wasn’t a job either. My first real summer job was at an architectural firm after I graduated high school. While my friends were camp counselors screaming at kids from sun up to sun down, I drafted drawings all day long on the computer. The only excitement I had was watching the man in the cube next to me get fired my first week there.

258. Jennifer said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 8:38 pm

     I worked at a grocery store. I was assigned to the area called the service center; it held all the movies to rent, cigarettes, film, and the like. Having to sell cigarettes when my Grandmother had died from smoking related cancer was bad enough. Then there was our HORRIBLE boss. She never worked; she sat in the back room and ate and ate and ate. If you were helping someone and another customer came up to the counter, she’d yell at you to come help them instead of getting up and doing it herself. I made it through the summer and planned on staying on for the school year. I even notified them of my school schedule. They ignored my schedule and put me down to work when I was suppose to be at school. I gave notice right away, but they didn’t believe me and kept scheduling me. It was the only job I have ever had to quit by just plain not showing up for a shift. I at least had the decency to tell them I wouldn’t be there. It’s really not my fault they didn’t listen, right?

259. Tess said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 9:26 pm

     First Job was as at a clothing store. My sister worked there previously so I was kinda hired in her place. It was okay work just a lot of standing around and folding clothes. The fun part was doing the displays that was kind of fun. Only worked there a year during high school. Then I went and made furnance parts and rubber brake pads for cars.( the ones you step on inside the car). Both were interesting and learned alot about manufacturing.

     Will looking for all the new stuff!!!!

260. Karen said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 9:59 pm

     Wow, fun to read all about the first jobs! I’m glad some people liked theirs. Mine was at a Wendy’s, I was a hostess — cleaned tables and took pre-orders when the line was long to speed things up. Unfortunately this was during the gas crisis of the 70′s and the lines were not long very often… so the job was short-lived too. It was a great learning experience, though.

261. Rachel said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 10:04 pm

     My first job, if you don’t count babysitting or lemonade stands, was at a frozen yogurt shop the summer after my sophomore year of high school. It was an awesome summer job, I got all the frozen yogurt and pizza I could eat – we were right next to a pizza shop and had an informal arrangement with the workers there (that the owners of the places probably didn’t know about!). AND I worked the same shifts as a hotty mcCutepants college boy. Yums all around.

262. Bev said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 10:33 pm

     My first job after babysitting was a hostess/waitress. Not an easy job by far, but I learned A LOT! I think everyone shoud work a customer service job some time in their life. It’s great experience and you learn to appreciate the people who also do those jobs. It certainly gives you an interesting view of all kinds of people!

263. Liz said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 10:49 pm

     Oh, gosh…my first job was a page at the main branch of the public library…how can that be 25 years ago? Seriously, I’m not that old! I still feel guilty about that half-inch stack of microfiche that I just shoved into the back of the drawer…I couldn’t stand to file one more freakin’ sheet of it. And there was one old guy who used to come in and have us make microfilm prints for him. He had about 3 teeth, rarely bathed, rancid breath, and he ALWAYS asked for the youngest girls to help him. Then he’d stand so close to us that he was basically touching us…ewwww! But other than that…it was a great job for a bookworm like me.

264. Nancy said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 11:04 pm

     My first job after the usual babysitting was as a lab tech in the state veterinary lab. I spent my days looking at poop under the microscope for worm eggs, doing blood analysis, and helping the vets with necropsy (animal version of autopsy). Fun! At the time I wanted to be a veterinarian, so I actually liked the job. It sure made for interesting dinnertime conversation!

265. snowdrop said,

     June 20, 2007 @ 11:53 pm

     My first job was as an office assistant… I was twelve, but I did a lot of work! It was in a museum, and I made my own fun when I wasn’t typing or making copies or taking orders for lunch… I also worked for the other resident in the building, a society for preserving historic buildings. It was’t such a bad gig!

266. Lisa said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 9:09 am

     My first job was picking strawberries for my grandparents. I must have been about 6 yrs old and I got a nickel a quart. I thought that was big money back then. I have so many great memories though, so I guess it was really “priceless”.

267. Janelle said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 10:51 am

     Hmmm. First job job for real was babysitting. In junior high, a friend and I opened up a window washing business and made what we thought were piles of money. We bicycled to jobs around the neighborhood. First job that the federal government knew about was grocery store checker. I loved having to learn all the fruits and vegetables – they didn’t come with code stickers then like they do now!

268. Beth said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 12:45 pm

     My first job was far from typical… and I love talking about it because it was just so kooky.

     I spent two summers pushing a lawn mower in a cemetery. Two reasons I took the job 1) I loved the reaction from people when they asked where I worked and 2) the guy who hired me was hessitant to hire me because I was a girl, so I had to prove him wrong. I actually kind of miss that job…. there’s something about physical labor that makes it feel like you’ve actually accomplished something during the course of the day. But boy do I have some crazy stories… you meet some interesting people working at the cemetery….

269. Lisa said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 3:03 pm

     I was a waitress .
     I think everyone should be a waitress/waiter at some point .
     It has made me a much nicer customer than if I had never been on the other side of the table. Few people work harder or longer.
     God Bless them everyone!

270. Sharon said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 4:04 pm

     My first job was in my family’s hardware store, when I was 12 my family moved from Minneapolis, MN to a small farming town were my parents bought a local hardware store, so I worked at our store for many years, during high school, college and then summers when I was a teacher….if I came home to visit, the only way to visit my folks was to work side by side in the store….smile…

271. Susan said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 6:45 pm

     One of my first jobs was picking strawberries in upstate New York. As a teenage a friend of mine convinced me we could make good money doing it. Let’s just say it lasted just a bit longer that your detassling did! Hot, sticky, bug bitten, sore back and sunburn. I still remember it.

272. Elisa said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 8:24 pm

     Can’t remember if this was my first or second job, but in high school I called people and set up appointments to have their families photographed at Olan Mills. I would sell them a package for a ridiculous low price, which had to be delivered in person by one of our salespeople. Then the salesperson would try to upsell the customer. I absolutely HATED that job, and didn’t last too long. I didn’t like pushing people into buying something they didn’t want, and I still don’t. I guess that’s why I have no patience for telemarketers…

273. Cynthia said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 10:30 pm

     I also had a very short-term job that I quit after one day! It was not my first job though, that was in a plant department in a big downtown department store. We had gardening supplies as well, but being downtown, there was not much call for bedding plants, just “gift” type plants. I built up whopping great strong shoulders from hauling the hanging plants up and down off of the overhead racks to water them – no fancy watering systems, just my the watering can full!

     Take care,

274. Lacey said,

     June 21, 2007 @ 11:29 pm

     My first job was as a waitress at Denny’s. My mom did the payroll there and got me in with the manager. I loved my job, but it was a rough learning process. I killed myself trying to be everywhere for everyone. I didn’t think I’d ever make it through that first few months. But I did and I managed to pay for my senior prom (dress and all!) and then I kept working there to put myself in college. I managed to furnish everything I needed before I got there and then the scholarships paid the rest of the way, all four years. I was so happy to be quit of that job though, since I was the youngest, when a double shift needed covering, you know who they called on. I worked a number of 3pm-6am shifts. That will kill you there. It’s that 2-4am slump that makes you want to peel your eyeballs. I always managed to stay awake though, dancing brooms through pass-through on camera. I’m sure the morning manager had a goood laugh after I worked all night long!

275. Terri said,

     June 22, 2007 @ 1:31 am

     My first job was as a volunteer at Sea World, San Diego. Now this was a volunteer job in the top secret back lots of Sea World. Animal Husbandry was its official title. Yes, I cleaned tanks, more tanks than you could ever imagine, ever. I also helped harvest plankton for food. This involved a motor boat, a big net and lot of upper body stregnth. We took bets on how long the sharks would last in the new tanks. Never long enough to learn anything other than “sharks do not live well in captivity”. We had the cooks turn out a couple of clown fish pizzas when things did not go right. And we all stayed up for days preparing the container that woudl move an Orca from here to there. A GREAT job, would not swap a single day.

276. Natalie said,

     June 22, 2007 @ 9:20 am

     Technically, my first job was babysitting. Normal kids, normal pay, normal parents (ok, well semi-normal parents). One day the kids asked me to put a video in and while looking for their selection in the cabinet I came accross a video, left in plain sight, mixed in with the kiddie videos, on how to have sex! That was kinda gross. At least put it in your bedside table… Ok so, I was not going to write about babysitting, but there, thats enough about my early career!

277. Kimberly Bradley said,

     June 22, 2007 @ 5:30 pm

     Might be too late–but my first job wasn’t that bad. I worked in the “proof” department of a bank, downtown at night two nights a week, correcting the mistakes people made on their ATM deposits. Like they’d screw up the decimal and say they’d deposited 10000 dollars when really it was 100.00 dollars. I made nighttime minimum wage, which was $3.25. After a year, the supervisor made a big deal of giving me a raise to $3.35–I worked 10 hours a week, and I thought, a one dollar raise??? That’s when I quit.

278. Susan said,

     June 22, 2007 @ 10:31 pm

     My first “real” job was at a shoe store. I was a cashier and made $3.35/hour, which was minimum wage at the time. It was either super slow and boring, or so crazy busy I didn’t have time to go to the bathroom. It ended up being just a seasonal job and I wasn’t heartbroken when it ended before I expected it to.

279. Kathy said,

     June 23, 2007 @ 11:51 am

     My first job was working for the local vet cleaning the dog and cat kennels every morning at 5 or 6 am and every evening between 5 & 6 pm. I also got to clean the surgical room, wash medicine bottles, mix and dispense medicines. I stayed at this job for 6 yrs. It evolved into assisting with small animal surgeries, vaccinating cattle and hogs (Iowa) and other things to the hogs. It was a great learning experience, but the pay was almost criminal.

280. Becky said,

     June 23, 2007 @ 9:25 pm

     My first “real” job was at a grocery store at 17. The first day I worked was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend in a river town – what a nightmare! I did “work” for my aunts and uncles on their tobacco farms before that, though… Pulling tobacco plants and hoeing weeds in the summer, cutting tobacco in late summer, and stripping tobacco in winter. It was actually fun to be around all of my family. I miss them now that I live far away.

281. Deborah Porter said,

     June 26, 2007 @ 3:58 pm

     My first job was running a program for kids the summer after I graduated high school.
     There was a boy and me who did things with these kids. Took them swimming, and did other things that I can’t remember any more. It was a wonderful summer.

282. Tamara said,

     July 1, 2007 @ 6:18 pm

     My first job was working in the child care room at Richard Simmon’s Anatomy Asylum (a gym). I watched kids while their parents worked out. I was 15. My first paycheck was HUGE. I was able to buy a pack of Big Red gum, Maybelline mascara and some purple eye shadow….. the feeling of making my own money was incredible! LOL

283. morandia said,

     July 3, 2007 @ 12:00 pm

     My first job (besides occasional babysitting) was at Burger King. Nothing like coming home smelling like pickles and grease. I met some great people, but geez… I hope I never have to go back to fast food!

284. singlewhiteknitter.com said,

     July 17, 2007 @ 9:56 pm

     i got my first job on my 16th birthday– i woke up in the morning, collected applications from all the stores within a 20 mile radius, and ended up getting a job at the independent bookstore in town.

     it was a great store, staffed by an eccentric collection of women. the bookstore owner was grumpy and penny pinching… we used to wear fingerless gloves, hats, and scarves in the winter because she refused to turn up the heat. we hardly ever sold a thing and yet she always had two or three people working together in the tiny store.

     the other staff members were a children’s book editor, a garden design/landscaper who worked in the winters, a college student who worked between treks in tibet, and the most colorful co-worker i’ve ever had, a woman who wore one long braid down the middle of her back, raised llamas and alpacas, took off every winter to drive zodiac boats in the antarctic, and would often come to work with a box containing an injured bird and would stop periodically to put water-soaked puppy chow into its beak.

     it was quite… a… job! best one i’ve ever had, too!

285. Heidi said,

     July 17, 2007 @ 10:06 pm

     I began my carreer path as a 10 year old hygenist for my father, the sadistic dentist we all have great big nightmares of. Picture your spotty 4′ 5″ ten year old niece or nephew reaching towards your face with sharp tweaky scrapey things and the huge suck-machine with the sound of a horrible old fashioned drill coming from the next room.

     As horrible as this endentured servitude was (and I had no choice in the matter until leaving in a huff/minute/and taxi at the age of 16, leaving home shortly thereafter) it has left me with a deep focus on small things, pride that I never hurt anyone and a real passion for surgical implements in crafting. Honestly, suture scissors are the very best and hemostats should be in everyone’s bag. Next time you go in for surgery, ask for a doggy bag for the scissors and hardware they will just throw away.

286. Merry said,

     July 17, 2007 @ 11:01 pm

     My first job (not including the babysitting jobs) was working for Walgreen’s Restaurant at our local mall. I’d never waited tables before. We had these ugly orange & brown plaid, polyester, very itchy, uniforms and matching aprons.
     I was not very good at first, very forgetful and so I made sure I wrote everything down. I finally got the hang of it.

     I found out after I’d worked there a month that I had waited on my boyfriend’s parents and they didn’t even bother to introduce themselves. They just sat in my section, let me wait on them and left. I don’t even know if they tipped me!
     Now they are my gracious in-laws. Still won’t tell me how much they tipped!

     To top it all off I had the worst perm in my hair of my life. My sis-in-law over permed me and my hair was like poodle hair! I just wanted to wear a hat.
     My first paycheck of $75.00 sorta made it worthwhile…..

287. yvonnep said,

     July 18, 2007 @ 2:21 am

     My first job was on the cosmetics department of a large department store. I was 15. And a real eager beaver. First days I was not allowed to do anything more than restock the shelves. Fortunately in those days there was not that big choice in deodorants, body lotions, hairsprays as nowadays. There was one thing that is now almost forgotten: dry shampoo. After days of emptying boxes I was allowed to attend to customers. During lunch time even on my own. Then it happened. A lady asked me how it was possible that the dry shampoo she bought the other day didn’t function. I gave it a look, pushed the button a bit… and yes, of course, you guessed it. The push button worked fine with me and the lady was dry shampood all over. Back to restocking the shelves again.

288. cindy said,

     July 18, 2007 @ 3:44 am

     my first job was waitressing at a burger/malt joint. we wore the “diner waitress uniform”: turquoise polyester dresses with snap buttons down the front. it was a ton of fun and good spending money at 15. my parents are somewhat dismayed that 15 years and a couple of expensive college degrees later, im still supplementing the income as a waitress.

289. Rosie said,

     July 18, 2007 @ 7:17 am

     My first job was as a cashier at Geauga Lake when I was 14. Since it was really the only place around (other than Sea World) that would hire you at 14, everyone I know worked there. My best friend lived across the street from me and convinced me to work at the front end of the park because that’s where he was going to work and we could get the same schedule and car pool (since neither one of us was old enough to drive). Sounded good to me. How wrong I was though. Had I known that I was going to be spending my summer turning into jerkey (I was either cramped in a little ticket booth when it was 90 degrees outside and it had no air or stuck out in a booth in the parking lot, again with no air) I might have changed my mind. The only perk to that summer was I got free admission to the park and discount season passes for my friends and family. Oh, and I won “Cashier of the Month” one month and won myself a 19″ tv!

290. Michelle said,

     July 18, 2007 @ 9:20 am

     OHH besides babysitting, my first “Real Job” was working at a Rite Aid Pharmacy-back before pharmacy techs had to be trained. I was a tech and I had the silliest boss ever. He would play “Play that funky music white boy” and dance all over the pharmacy. It was actually a really fun job. I enjoyed MOST of the pharmacists I worked with, except for one but that’s way too long of a story! Anyway I still wonder why I never changed my major in college to pharmacy (oh yeah, it was all the chemistry I was terrified of)

291. Megan said,

     July 20, 2007 @ 9:39 am

     My first job was at the local movie theatre in a small Texas town one hour north of Dallas. It was my first year in Texas, moving from FL. Let me tell you, all that greasy popcorn, smelly hot dogs, and big ole’ pickles really made you smell awful! Imagine being 15 and taking tickets for all the “cool” kids on Friday and Saturday nights, wreeking of the grossest food smells and wearing an awful long sleeve button down shirt with the silliest purple bow tie! What a great way to impress all my new classmates, huh?!

292. Terri said,

     July 21, 2007 @ 9:24 am

     My first job was as a counter girl at a fried chicken restaurant in Waco, Texas. I went home every night smelling like chicken and feeling greasy. This was also the summer of the triple murders at Lake Waco (the book “Careless Whispers” details the tragedy). One evening, the cook and I stayed late talking (flirting) in the back parking lot, and my mom totally freaked. Next thing I knew, I was being escorted home by the cops who all knew my good-for- nothing brother (he was a bit of a trouble maker). I was “laid off” at the end of the summer because I couldn’t work Friday nights during football season- band- and I never went back to the place again.

293. Marsha said,

     July 24, 2007 @ 9:13 am

     My first job (other than working for my father) was as a clerk in the Prudential Ins. regional office in Houston, Tx. I was 19 yrs old and I think I made about $250/mo. I spent my time coloring insurance territory boundary lines on maps of large cities in the Central US, like St. Louis; so even though I’ve never been there, I still remember many streets, etc. 40 yrs. later. I was also impressed because we got free lunch in the company cafeteria. Even that long ago, it took over 40 min. to commute from east Houston over to the Hermann Park area where the office was. I learned to drive a stick shift Volkswagen on the drive to and from work. Our brand new VW cost $1900 dollars-car payments were $60/mo. Now I feel like my mom, talking about how cheap things were-including gasoline at $.19/gal!! Yes, that is CENTS.

294. Trudi said,

     August 8, 2007 @ 12:01 pm

     I am going with 4742.

     Happy anniversary!

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