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Thread: What was your first paying "real" job growing up...

  1. #76
    Started a parking concession at a high class restaurant. At 16 had few buddies show up each evening and park cars for the customers and kept the tips. Ran business until 4 years later the restaurant owner wanted a cut of the income. Left him high and dry to fend for himself. On holdiay evenings we woudl drive the "drunks" home with their wives and park their car in the driveway for fee(usually a good tip as the husband could not see the denomination of the bill he handed us).

  2. #77
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Kinderhook, NY
    Posts
    87
    Digging septic tanks and wells by hand. I grew up in the Adirondack mountains of NY. No city sewer systems there! Fifty dollars a day, usually 3 to 4 days a week in the Summer, weekends in Spring and Fall. Sometimes I miss that jog.

  3. My first real job was working fishing boats. I started at 14, got $25 a day, plus tips. I worked boats for about 8 years, until I started working at Dow Chemical. I had to be at work at 0100, and worked until the boat was clean that night. Great job for a young kid, but real hard work.

  4. I remember those days. We were driving through Houston one time, and my Dad filled up for, I think it was about .13 a gal, then saw a station a mile or so down the road that had it for about .09. I remember him saying "maybe we should drain the tank and refill". Most of the time it was about .25 a gal, as I remember.

  5. #80
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Northern Half of NY
    Posts
    59
    Ski instructor in the winter and built houses in the summer.

  6. #81
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Ethridge, TN
    Posts
    13
    I Worked as many here on family farms without cash pay so we'd all survive.
    When I was in 7th grade, 1962, I got a job washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant, with 2 of my best friends. We took turns working school nights and usually were done before midnight. Weekends we'd work until 3am, after the bars had closed and the late crowd came in. We got paid $.60 an hour. I thought it was the perfect wage because from the dishwashing machine I could see a big clock and as the second hand rushed around the clock I knew I was making a penny a second! Made time fly and thought I was getting rich! While they cut us no slack, they also fed us like we were their own kids, with Chinese fare I've never tasted since... delicious! I remember a sweet and sour pork that wasn't battered, just thoroughly cooked meat and bones in a sauce dripping with flavor. Yum!
    I worked in the hay fields every Summer growing up. The lucky years I worked for Grandpa... he payed me! He told me that if I'd work like a man he'd pay me like a man, so I tried to outwork any 2 men he'd ever hired! summer before my Senior year of high school he paid me $1.30 an hour, which was a nickel more than either of the adult men who helped him. But I earned it!
    Had a lot of jobs after that, including a Zoo Keeper at the Kansas City Zoo. Did stone masonry for years.
    Finally found my calling as an Auctioneer, have averaged over 80 Auctions per year since 1994. Now, I'm the Auctioneer for an Amish Produce Auction in Tennessee, sold $1.2 million in produce this year. I work April thru October there, then the rest of the year I work however needed (not auctioning) at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Great job and place to work! http://www.elephants.com

  7. #82
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Central Nebraska
    Posts
    473
    Quote Originally Posted by Wade Clark View Post
    I Worked as many here on family farms without cash pay so we'd all survive.
    When I was in 7th grade, 1962, I got a job washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant, with 2 of my best friends. We took turns working school nights and usually were done before midnight. Weekends we'd work until 3am, after the bars had closed and the late crowd came in. We got paid $.60 an hour. I thought it was the perfect wage because from the dishwashing machine I could see a big clock and as the second hand rushed around the clock I knew I was making a penny a second! Made time fly and thought I was getting rich!
    While they cut us no slack, they also fed us like we were their own kids, with Chinese fare I've never tasted since... delicious! I remember a sweet and sour pork that wasn't battered, just thoroughly cooked meat and bones in a sauce dripping with flavor. Yum!
    I worked in the hay fields every Summer growing up. The lucky years I worked for Grandpa... he payed me! He told me that if I'd work like a man he'd pay me like a man, so I tried to outwork any 2 men he'd ever hired! summer before my Senior year of high school he paid me $1.30 an hour, which was a nickel more than either of the adult men who helped him. But I earned it!
    Had a lot of jobs after that, including a Zoo Keeper at the Kansas City Zoo. Did stone masonry for years.
    Finally found my calling as an Auctioneer, have averaged over 80 Auctions per year since 1994. Now, I'm the Auctioneer for an Amish Produce Auction in Tennessee, sold $1.2 million in produce this year. I work April thru October there, then the rest of the year I work however needed (not auctioning) at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Great job and place to work! http://www.elephants.com
    Very few get that experience. You are very lucky. The nature of my job allowed me to spend many many meals eating at " the cooks table"

  8. #83
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Western U P of Michigan
    Posts
    113
    I grew up in farm country in Michigan and my first job involved working on neighbors farms. I weeded bean fields, put up hay , etc. Starting milking cows about that time. We would milk 35 head, clean up and be in school for 8 am class. Next job was at the local lumber yard, after school and weekends. Mostly moving lumber and other stock and helping with deliverys.
    All good lessons for a young man.

    Chris

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