What was your very first job?

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Sentry18

Sentry18

Thrivalist
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Nov 26, 2017
Messages
19,105
Location
US of A
The thread about purchases got me thinking, what was you very first job?

My first job was sitting in a semi-buried concrete box and loading clay pigeons onto a thrower. I got $4 and a bottle of Coke or Grape Crush soda per shift (about 3 hours) and another $0.75 for every case of missed clay pigeons I picked up afterwards. I did it 2 evenings a week from spring through summer. There were 5 of us and it was almost like we were in some kind of club. When the trap shooters decided to start drinking beer and liquor they had to stop shooting, so we could go out and start blasting the cracked or chipped pigeons. They would cheer us on and place bets on who would shoot the best. Sometimes I made more money on "tips" from half drunk guys who made a chuck of cash off of me shooting than I did from working.
 
I grew up farming… most of my neighbors were farmers and my relatives… for me job and way of life had the same meaning… but…

I was 11 the first time I made real money on my own… The power company came through cutting right-of-ways. Everyone for miles lost a few trees, mostly pine, not worth the trouble.

I got an idea… I went to every land owner and got permission to cut up the trees the power company left. My uncle had the farm to the west and mules. I rented a mule from him as needed, payable when I sold my wood. My grandpa made me a buck saw.

It took me all that fall to cut the timber up as cordwood and skid it back to the farm. When I had gathered all the wood I got a cousin with a cordwood truck to haul it to the railyard in the little town. I had two full loads. I don’t remember how much I made. After expenses I think I had almost $100. Dad insisted I put the money in the bank. He put the money in and kept the check. I kept out enough to pay my uncle and cousin. He never said a word but I knew he was proud that I had thought all this up by myself and pulled it off.
 
I sold newspapers on the corner and made a nickel each. I was eleven. I think concurrently with that I worked at Western Auto cleaning, stocking, assembling bikes, wagons, and other stuff. Eventually I ran the register. I was shown the revolver by the register and told to never touch it unless we were being robbed.
 
Aunt's dog kennel, she bred and sold little poodles... I fed dogs, cleaned out cages, took care of puppies, cleaned the run, put them in, put them out...
Eventually learned to groom and bathe them. Aunt would pay me anywhere from $80-300 per week, depending on amount of work.

I didn't like other people's kids so I never babysat. LOL
 
First job I got paid for was mowing the neighbors yard. I was 9. Later that summer started helping get up hay. I got to ride the trailer and stack that year. Next spring plowed 7 neighbors gardens, more mowing, more hay. First public job at 16, delivery driver for a pharmacy, worked 2 weeks then moved on to a local hospital working in dietary. Worked at a shop my senior year installing dump truck beds, then got a job at a car dealership as a mechanic trainee. Seems like a lot of moving around in 3 years, but each one was a better job and leading to experience that would lead to better stuff down the road. Still plowed gardens, worked in the hay, backed off on mowing to just our yard. The year I moved out step dad bought a riding mower. LOL
 
I was a morning paperboy. 3am at the shack waiting for the papers and sorting the ads. Then off to school.
 
Bacpacker said:
The year I moved out step dad bought a riding mower. LOL
Click to expand...

Same... year I left dad sold all the cattle and leased out all the land to the neighbor next door who had a dairy... I actually felt betrayed somehow... but... I guess he couldn't do it without me... Grandpa disabled... he and mom working full time jobs.
 
Of course, babysitting all the time. Then A & W Rootbeer car hop. Hated that job. Friday night carloads of boys were awful. I was a very fast typist, so I was able to get seasonal work typing at a small tax office. The owner was a close friend of our family. So, pay was good, atmosphere was good. When there wasn't typing, there was envelope stuffing or tax collating. I was 15, didn't mind. Paid cash for my first car.
 
Babysitting, snow shovelling, lawn mowing, laying sod, general construction labour, pumped gas, inventoried forest fire fighting equipment as it came back from fires, general oil field labour. Mostly part time after school or short term summer jobs.

My first full time, non temporary job was when I joined the military at 18.
 
Amish Heart said:
Of course, babysitting all the time. Then A & W Rootbeer car hop. Hated that job. Friday night carloads of boys were awful. I was a very fast typist, so I was able to get seasonal work typing at a small tax office. The owner was a close friend of our family. So, pay was good, atmosphere was good. When there wasn't typing, there was envelope stuffing or tax collating. I was 15, didn't mind. Paid cash for my first car.
Click to expand...
We didn't have A&W or carhops but I saw the pictures and they showed up in movies. Oh how I wanted to be one of those boys you had problems with.
 
I actually worked at an A&W from age 13-14 myself but I worked the counter. About 3 years later they removed the outdoor drive up stations and installed a drive-thru window. Was not the same.
 
This thread makes me think of the "real" jobs I've held in my life...construction, soil probe factory shipping department, bartender, cashier in a liquor/cigar store, packer and then molding technician in a plastic factory, assembly line in a window factory, then production wood cutter in the window factory, back to the plastic factory as a label printer, short stint as a peon in a sandpaper factory, pizza maker, and then finally the railroad...there's no rhyme or reason to anything I've done, but I think each job was a building block for the next job...
 
Same here spike, Worked at 2 car dealers as mechanic, then an independant garage. Decided to try something different, bounced between laying fiberglass building boats, several construction jobs, including roofing of warehouse type buildings. Ended up at a packing house. After 32 years decided I better get some more education, worked there for another year then moved to Ky to get in electronics school, worked several part time jobs over 2 years and ended up there building PLC controllers part time. After school moved back to ETN and got on at another PLC factory. Moved on to a TV shop, then a factory building radiation detectors. Stayed there 10 years doing all kinds of stuff, but mainly industrial maintenance. the last 6 years there company was sold 5 times. Last Company bought it for a low background counting system we built and a germainium growing process that we had developed. They moved me into chemical processing. Nope not for me. Next job was much nearer my home, running and repairing automated production equipment. Learned lazers and robots. Moved into supervision and the last 3 years of 9 as a manufacturing engineer. Found out the factory was shutting down and moving to mexico and was offered a job there. Told them nope. Moved on to my current job. 3 years as a tech repairing radiaton monitoring equipment. Then back into supervision. Now a Technical Operations manager. We take care of environmental monitoring equipment, welders and ovens in a weld test shop, and radio equipment for 2 labs, over 1000 radios. Plus other stuff as it comes up. been there 11 years and hope to retire in the next 5 or 6.
 
I assumed thats what it was... just didn't know people got paid for it. Long ago I knew a girl with a barrel racing horse she raced at rodeo's. I'd heard the term "hot walk" in relation to horses several times.

@WVDragonlady Sounds like a cool job with good money for a teen. Was it just a weekend job or a summer job with weekday work too?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top