First 'paying' job?

Thavoice

Thavoice

Well-known member
In conjunction with the Paper route thread....

What was your first 'paying' job other than mowing a families yard and those type of jobs...one you got an actual paycheck?


Mine was in 6th grade being on the chain gang for Junior High, JV and maybe FROSH games. (if we had a FROSH team then). I just know it was 13 games total for the season @ $3/game. Seemed like FOREVER to get that check after the season. And free entry into the HS games, which in all honesty was pay for my parents and not me!!!
 
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
1964--just turned 15--$.75/hr at bowling alley that also had 10 pool tables. Also got all the free bowling and pool shooting I wanted. Worked about 30 hrs/week. Was able to buy my 1st car when I turned 16, which happened to be all of $100.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Foster said:
1964--just turned 15--$.75/hr at bowling alley that also had 10 pool tables. Also got all the free bowling and pool shooting I wanted. Worked about 30 hrs/week. Was able to buy my 1st car when I turned 16, which happened to be all of $100.
Click to expand...
Mid 80s I worked at our park in the summer. Paid a whopping 1.80/hour but man...I loved it!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
PT dishwasher/busboy at local steakhouse. I think that the entire staff there (including the manager) was aged 16-21. 5 guys, and about 15 girls. Had a lot of fun there.

For some reason we sang "Help me Rhonda" a lot.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 1 Downvote
Foster said:
Being a car nut, this would have been my 2nd choice after the bowling alley.
Click to expand...
2nd? And miss that feeling when gas hits the skin on one of the coldest winters on record? lol. Man it was a cold winter, great summer. We didn't do anything beyond fluid changes, giving us a place to work on our own between cars. Great job to meet people. They still have full service stations in the NE. Maybe when I retire, I'll find me a small town somewhere....
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Not my first job, but early…

16/17 years old (1974)…I drove the parts truck for Miller Pontiac in Euclid. A good representative of the US auto industry just as the Japanese came roaring in to shock our world. Miller Pontiac was dysfunctional, sold crappy cars and had a parts department that had very few parts. So they’d send the kid (me) all over town to pick up parts from other dealers. I had a pickup truck and a radio. I had all kinds of excuses for why a pickup that should have taken 60 minutes, ended up taking 90 minutes.

Great job.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Working for my dad and his family plumbing business. The first few weeks was spent cleaning out their big old warehouse. Me and Ben, the rat that lived in the rafters. Cleared out so much scrap stuff that we hauled four or five dump trucks to the scrap yard.

After that, I spent the rest of my summer working with another guy going back and forth between the plumbing supply company and the various job sites. Much better job at that point.

I worked as a lifeguard for a number of years after that, but went back to work for him one summer in college, when I met my girlfriend (eventually wife) and wanted my weekends free.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
avnspc said:
Summer job at 13 in 1973 with the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) at Old Man's Cave. Made enough to purchase a 1967 Harley Davidson 250 Super Sprint.
Click to expand...
I'm jealous. One of my favorite places.

Night grocery stock clerk at 17. Mixed schedule: 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd shifts. $1.85/hr. w/.10 added for work after 10:00.

After doing the same thing for two years (fill the shelves only to see them low again), started college while working part time - as a stock clerk. lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I was five and dad said it was time for me to help put food on the table. I got a job at a poultry farm gathering eggs for 2 cents per dozen. I had two 300 ft rows of caged layers to gather each day after kindergarten. It took me about an hour to gather 20 dozen eggs so I made about 40 cents per hour.

When work was over the owner sometimes allowed me to ride my tricycle up and down the long aisles, which I really enjoyed. One day, I failed to pay enough attention and ran into the liquid manure pit under the cages of chickens. Fortunately, they are only about a foot deep, but it was thoroughly embarrassing to have to strip down in front of the farmers wife and get into the tub.

Did you know chicken poop smell does not come out easily?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D4fan said:
I was five and dad said it was time for me to help put food on the table. I got a job at a poultry farm gathering eggs for 2 cents per dozen. I had two 300 ft rows of caged layers to gather each day after kindergarten. It took me about an hour to gather 20 dozen eggs so I made about 40 cents per hour.

When work was over the owner sometimes allowed me to ride my tricycle up and down the long aisles, which I really enjoyed. One day, I failed to pay enough attention and ran into the liquid manure pit under the cages of chickens. Fortunately, they are only about a foot deep, but it was thoroughly embarrassing to have to strip down in front of the farmers wife and get into the tub.

Did you know chicken poop smell does not come out easily?
Click to expand...
and I thought I was jipped when I got a quarter for collecting 4 dozen eggs! I would help a friend do his chores of collecting eggs from time to time so he could play whiffleball or whatever us neighborhood kids were doing that day. In his defense tho...he paid me out of his own allowance!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thavoice said:
In conjunction with the Paper route thread....

What was your first 'paying' job other than mowing a families yard and those type of jobs...one you got an actual paycheck?


Mine was in 6th grade being on the chain gang for Junior High, JV and maybe FROSH games. (if we had a FROSH team then). I just know it was 13 games total for the season @ $3/game. Seemed like FOREVER to get that check after the season. And free entry into the HS games, which in all honesty was pay for my parents and not me!!!
Click to expand...
SOOOOOO, CASH don't count? Because I was making pretty decent money as a ten-year-old, selling lemonade, selling magazine subscriptions, picking up pecans, making and selling potholders, making and selling boiled P-Nuts. and taking care of neighborhood pets, when their owners were on vacation. But if you MUST. My FIRST paying job that garnered an actually check, was working in mu mother's bosses construction company after school and in the summer. I had a TON of side hustles!!!!!!!!!!!! I bought my first car when I was sixteen, a '54 CHEVY! I named it the Trim Mobile'!!! :rolleyes:

And IF you were getting paid for the chain gang. WHY were your parents paying for your entry into the football games?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Old&Grumpy142 said:
Car Wash. Had a roll of 5's and 1's and felt like a mllionaire.
Click to expand...
A roll of fives? I remember those days well. My HORROR story was the day my five-year old brother found my roll on top of the dresser. And I accidentally saw him walking out the door to the convenience store, with the roll coming out of his pockets.o_O
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thavoice said:
and I thought I was jipped when I got a quarter for collecting 4 dozen eggs! I would help a friend do his chores of collecting eggs from time to time so he could play whiffleball or whatever us neighborhood kids were doing that day. In his defense tho...he paid me out of his own allowance!
Click to expand...
I use to mow lawns for $3.50. And one day, after an hour behind that push mow. The lady wanted me to RAKE that yard for another buck. I suddenly had two OTHER lawns to mow!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D4fan said:
I was five and dad said it was time for me to help put food on the table. I got a job at a poultry farm gathering eggs for 2 cents per dozen. I had two 300 ft rows of caged layers to gather each day after kindergarten. It took me about an hour to gather 20 dozen eggs so I made about 40 cents per hour.

When work was over the owner sometimes allowed me to ride my tricycle up and down the long aisles, which I really enjoyed. One day, I failed to pay enough attention and ran into the liquid manure pit under the cages of chickens. Fortunately, they are only about a foot deep, but it was thoroughly embarrassing to have to strip down in front of the farmers wife and get into the tub.

Did you know chicken poop smell does not come out easily?
Click to expand...
How well I know. My first cousins had 40,000 of those lil tykes.

40 cents per hour? MONEY BAGS!!! When I was in the Navy, I made 25 cents per hour. Albeit 24 hours per day!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I got a paper route at age 10 The paper company did not want to give me the route thought I was to young but somehow I got it. Afternoon route a little over 50 customers most of the time no Sunday paper made 11 and a half cents to deliver the paper to you for 6 days.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
19AL63 said:
I got a paper route at age 10 The paper company did not want to give me the route thought I was to young but somehow I got it. Afternoon route a little over 50 customers most of the time no Sunday paper made 11 and a half cents to deliver the paper to you for 6 days.
Click to expand...
I had an afternoon route as well. Remember folding the paper like this?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thavoice said:
In conjunction with the Paper route thread....

What was your first 'paying' job other than mowing a families yard and those type of jobs...one you got an actual paycheck?


Mine was in 6th grade being on the chain gang for Junior High, JV and maybe FROSH games. (if we had a FROSH team then). I just know it was 13 games total for the season @ $3/game. Seemed like FOREVER to get that check after the season. And free entry into the HS games, which in all honesty was pay for my parents and not me!!!
Click to expand...
I dont know if this counts, but after Saturday's film session from the game last night, I would go to the youth football games and run the scoreboard. Got paid $20, 2 hotdogs, and a 20oz every Saturday.

In the spring/summer I'd umpire little league baseball. Got paid $30 if I was the only ump, $20 if I had a second ump to help me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Summer job after High school. Ran a lathe making wheels (trimming) for hospital carts et al at my older brothers father in laws shop in Penn Twp. Pa. I don’t recall what I was paid but I’m sure it wasn’t much.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top