[jerry455]

Paper route from 12-16, worked at Mr. Steak Restaurant for 3 weeks washing dishes, then co-op at a machine shop the rest of high school and then 2 years. 4 more years at another machine shop and then currently 34 years at GM.

[SRR]

My first real job was repairing and cleaning home heating systems. I learned that in HS and if you got a job related to your trade you could work your "shop" week at your job. The pay was great for a HS senior but the hours and my boss sucked. I ran figure 8 cars on Saturday night and our agreement was that was the only night I didn't want to be on call. Well, he would page me darn near every Saturday night and yell at me every time for not responding. When his daughter took an interest in me he fired me for a customer compliant.

[brians]

Sohio. - Can I check your oil Sir? How is your wipers today? Thank you for visiting Sohio and have a great rest of your day. (Still remember the drill)

What makes you feel old is when I tell that to anyone under 30, the response is usually Sohio? What was that?

[TAKerry]

Still doing my first job. Pop started to take me to work 'for real' when I was about 14 or 15. He had a home improvement business. I did everything from putting up aluminum siding to sweeping and cleaning up a mess. 42 years later still doing it. Kinda gone full circle. My brothers and myself were in business together and had grown to at one time 25+ employees doing commercial work. Closed down a couple of years ago and now im back to home improvement work. A little less stress.
First job I had was cutting grass for my grandparents. It was a right of passage for the grandsons in the family when they hit about 10. My grand mother was pretty particular, had to cut one section with the push mower, one section with a reel mower then the rest with the rider. Had to do all of the clipping with hand shears (before the weedeater). Got $5 a week.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by brians

Sohio. - Can I check your oil Sir? How is your wipers today? Thank you for visiting Sohio and have a great rest of your day. (Still remember the drill)

What makes you feel old is when I tell that to anyone under 30, the response is usually Sohio? What was that?

Little SOHIO Trivia. SOHIO (Standard Oil Of Ohio), was the FIRST gas station to offer leaded "Ethyl" (tetra-ethyl lead), fuel to raise octane ratings. The gas station was a SOHIO station at the corner of Washington St. and Main St. in downtown Dayton, OH. Charles Kettering, (inventor of the fuel additive) was testing the new miracle fuel at that location near his DELCO, (Dayton Electric Labs Co. headquarters around the corner from the station. Station is still in business, a BP station now. Tons of automotive history in Dayton, OH.

[Shiny]

Projectionist at a theater when I was 14. 70mm film and carbon arc lamps. Changeover from one projector to the other when the reel ended. Free movies over and over and over....

[hurryinhoosier62]

My first real job: carpenter's helper in a construction company. As a helper, you were "low" man on the totem pole; ALL the "s%&t" jobs fell to you, but getting paid $10.00 an hour in 1980 softened the blow. Before that, started mowing yards for the neighbors at 8; had a paper route most of the way through junior high and high school.

[4dblnkldude]

My first on the books job was at the local drug store. I had applied twice and called back to follow up because it was a 5 minute walk. Finally I got a call and Linda was going to interview me. She was a mid 50's goodfellas looking Italian woman. She was interviewing me to work behind the cosmetics counter. I would be stocking mascara and lipstick, selling fragrances, gift wrapping, and working the register. She was concerned because I'm obviously male. I said look I just want a job and she hired me. After a while I was giving advice on shades of foundation, recommending the perfume I liked, and judging colors of lip stick and so forth. But the best part was... I quickly became friends with all the girls, they introduced me to their friends and so forth. I dated 3 or 4 girls and one was a customer. I eventually met my high school sweetheart from a girl named Gina and dated her until I was 19. I literally checked out chicks the entire time working there. So...it worked out for $4.50 an hour!

[dataway]

First job, like many, mowing lawns. Rode my Huffy Cheater Slick with one hand while towing my Lawnboy magnesium deck two stroke and a gas can hung on the handle bars. I remember buying gas for 27 cents a gallon. Typical price was $3-5 a lawn.

First getting a pay check job, at about 15, sacking groceries at Giant food store in Memphis TN. Use to ride my ten speed about ten miles each way ... no biggie was mostly flat. Towards the end of that job I was driving my 66 Tempest to work. Off to the military at 17.

[ta6point6]

My first real job was working at the local dog track, Cloverleaf. I was the guy who walked the dogs to the box enclosures. It paid pretty well but the guy who got paid even better was the guy who walked the dogs in a circle before the race and had to capture the dogs pee in a cup. The most memorable race was a training race for the newer dogs that have not raced before. This is also training for the new people like myself. There are no people in crowd and this happens a few weeks before the season starts. Anyway the rookie dogs get nervous and usually pee themselves a little even after the walk. The way you put dogs in racing kennel is one forearm under neck and one forearm under back legs and lift. So right arm usually smells like pee for the day. Well anyway back to the rookie dogs and their first race. They are all trained to run after the white stuffed rabbit. Well after the race they do not know what to do because the rabbit disappears in a box. Well the dogs lose interest quickly and start running everywhere and anywhere. Ever try and catch a greyhound at full sprint that will scatter in 20 different directions, not happening. You are responsible for your own dog and have to get it back on the leash. One guy lost his dog and we never found him, I dont know where his dog went but we looked for an hour and it was gone.

[Stuart]

Strictly speaking, the first time I worked outside the house and got paid for it was when I was about ten years old; I spent a day picking rocks out of a field (in the part of Minnesota where I grew up, rocks tend to work themselves to the surface every spring due to the freeze/thaw cycles, and farmers need to clear them out before they can plow and plant seed.) It was backbreaking work, particularly for a little kid, and the old school farmer I worked for gave me a whole 50 cents for my day's work. After that I did a lot of haying for various farmers, but that was also intermittent work. My first steady job as a teen was working as an assistant cook at a boy's summer camp.

[getmygoat]

My first job was a paper boy but during summers in college I was a landscaper. The boss had a deal with a small jewish cemetery to dig graves. This was a traditional jewish burial so no vault, just a pine box buried six feet down (or maybe less I forget the details).

One night we got back from our regular job and there was a note on my foreman's time card to go dig a grave. It was the wife of a husband who had died in 1968. This was summer of 1986.

My foreman is running the bobcat and I am keeping the corners square with a crowbar as he digs. Suddenly he puts the bucket on the pile of dirt, turns off the bob cat with a horrified look on his face. I'm like "what?"

He says "We broke open the husband's casket." Sure enough, along the side of the hole, you could see the collapsed casket. They pack the body with shredded wood and there was a bunch of it in the hole. We decide there's nothing we can do but keep digging.

My foreman starts up the bobcat, lifts the bucket up off the pile of dirt - and there's a big human bone sticking up out of the pile of dirt.

Had a hard time sleeping that night.

[gtohunter]

Like most, cut grass, shovel snow, then started repairing the lawnmowers in the neighborhood. First "paycheck" job was busboy in Sun Drug lunch counter. On to pumping gas at Sunoco (full service then), then USS apprenticeship, Caterpillar dealer, back to Steel mills, then 32yrs at an Aluminum co in SC, and now retired.
My life fits on a cocktail napkin! lol

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by hurryinhoosier62

My first real job: carpenter's helper in a construction company. As a helper, you were "low" man on the totem pole; ALL the "s%&t" jobs fell to you, but getting paid $10.00 an hour in 1980 softened the blow. Before that, started mowing yards for the neighbors at 8; had a paper route most of the way through junior high and high school.

$400.00 a week in 1980!!! That was huge money at that time. That's 20K a year. My first job out of college with a 4-year degree was for 17.5K a year as an prototype machine builder for Hobart food systems. 1981.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by getmygoat

Suddenly he puts the bucket on the pile of dirt, turns off the bob cat with a horrified look on his face. I'm like "what?"

He says "We broke open the husband's casket."

My response would have been...WE?...lol

My brothers and I all worked Saturdays in our family shoe repair business. I was taught how to polish shoes on the big buffing machine and would get a quarter a pair. First paycheck at 14 was working as a helper to the elementary school maintenance guy. Summer job. That was everything from cutting grass to painting, changing light bulbs unstopping toilets. Found the source of the blockage wan a whole pigeon once. Ever cut a baseball field with a push mower?

[dataway]

We could sure use some freakin decent shoe repair these days. 30 years ago there was a great cobbler shop in town, could do anything you wanted. Sneakers came along and a few years later they disappeared, now there probably isn't a decent cobbler within 100 miles.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

$400.00 a week in 1980!!! That was huge money at that time. That's 20K a year. My first job out of college with a 4-year degree was for 17.5K a year as an prototype machine builder for Hobart food systems. 1981.

Yes, it was but it was my summer job between my junior and senior year of high school. The union laborers were making $12.50 per hour, but most of them were working at Marble Hill. Lots of 12 hour days humping 2 X 10s....

[RocktimusPryme]

I was a valet at a senior citizen country club in Sun City Center Florida. It was better than working as a bagger like most of my friends did. I got tips so I almost always had a little money in my pocket.

Unfortunately with all those single dollar bills to spend I quickly developed a Mons Venus habit at 18. Plagued my finances from about 18 to 23 or so.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by RocktimusPryme

I was a valet at a senior citizen country club in Sun City Center Florida. It was better than working as a bagger like most of my friends did. I got tips so I almost always had a little money in my pocket.

Unfortunately with all those single dollar bills to spend I quickly developed a Mons Venus habit at 18. Plagued my finances from about 18 to 23 or so.

Hey, I know that place!!

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by dataway

We could sure use some freakin decent shoe repair these days. 30 years ago there was a great cobbler shop in town, could do anything you wanted. Sneakers came along and a few years later they disappeared, now there probably isn't a decent cobbler within 100 miles.

Wish we still had it. My great grandfather started it in 1870 and it was still in business in 1980. My father died young in 1970 and it only lasted that last 10 years because of a cousin who kept it going for my Grandparents. When they died, the business went away. None of us boys was interested enough when we were in our early 20s and late teens.