Keeping up with Sheri’s Loopy Life….

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.