Wednesday, December 04, 2019

Your Turn

What was your first job and how old were you?

48 comments:

  1. Grocery cashier. 15? It was the summer of Live Aid and I couldn't go because I had stupid work.

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  2. I worked at a Italian Restaurant when I was 16.

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  3. Betting on horses, I was in high school

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  4. I worked for my dad in his office. He was a pediatrician.

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  5. Babysitting, starting around 12-13.

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  6. pool cleaner and helper at a resort motel. stocking linens cleaning the parking lot etc. age 11.

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  7. Pruning apple trees when I was 8.

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  8. Babysitting from when I was 11, then McDonalds when I was 16.

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  9. First real job, lifeguard, 15

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  10. Dipping Dilly Bars at the local Dairy Queen just before I turned 15

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  11. Library, children's dept. 14.

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  12. Anonymous10:48 AM

    Babysitting then I worked in a nursing home's kitchen. I loved the job because I got to interact with the residents. It confirmed nursing was what I wanted to do for a career.

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  13. Worked at Wendy's when I was 16. It was a blast!

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  14. Ear piercer at Claire' Boutique when I was 16. There are a lot of adults running around the US with uneven holes in their earlobes!

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  15. Babysitting at 11 or 12 (if that counts); dishwasher at 14 (first job with a real paycheck, taxes, etc.).

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  16. Gross... I was the "relish boy" at this huge restaurant. Everyone would automatically get a plate of sweet peppers, tomato slices, etc., upon being seated.

    Well, not everyone ate their relish, and some ate only part. My job was to recycling/reassemble/freshen these plates to be sent out again. I was 13 or 14.

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  17. I was a freshman in High school. 14?
    I was hired by the Catholic Church to be the part time after school janitor cleaning the toilets in the elementary school I had just left.

    Hey, it paid $2 per hour when minimum wage was $1.35 per hour.
    And, it was under the table -- which my mom took to pay for groceries, etc.
    She got me the job, so it was her vig!

    =)

    RIP, Mom!

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  18. Apart from babysitting in junior high (which I hated), I worked at 14 in the medical office my older sister worked in, every Saturday. I did the accounts receivable but this was 1974 so I had huge lists of payments that I had to pull patient files on & "tick" the visit being paid for off on the patient file. Blahhh.....boring AF but that first paycheque....loved it. Even at $1.25/hour.

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  19. Babysitting at 12, movie theatre at 16.

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  20. 12.Picking strawberries 4am start. Went with my brother,

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  21. I worked in a costume shop when I was 15 and I loved it. We would put on the giant animal heads when we weren't busy, we thought we were hilarious.

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  22. Aside from babysitting, selling Christmas cards door-to-door in the neighborhood. I hated it. The money was good, but I hated it.

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  23. Hot Dog on a Stick. 17

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  24. Babysitting at 12, and a pizza place at 16. They didn't pay much, but was fun.

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  25. I worked as a glass collector in a Catholic Church's social club when I was 13.
    The air was thick with cigarette smoke and I could barely breathe.
    After trotting back from the church I was amazed at the amount of swearing, fmgambling, boozing and adultery in the place. But then they'd all confess at the end of the week and it'd all start up again on the Sunday.

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  26. 15 working for my parents furniture/Interior design store in 84. In my freshman year, I flunked english. So I had to go to summer school at a local Catholic High School. It cost $150. So I had to pay them back by working. I got $4 an hour. 1/2 to me, 1/2 to pay back my debt.

    It was a horrible place to work. My parents were going though a divorce. Made working there a real crap shoot.

    One day, me and my partner were coming back from a delivery, my dad meets us at the door, gives me $20 and tells me to go to a nearby game room and wait for him there.

    It turned out that our interior designer attempted suicide when his boyfriend dumped him in the middle of the store. He survived. Then a month later, he and my mom left the store to start their own store and took most of my dad's customers with them.

    I told mom, that I was staying at dad's store. Mom said, we don't want you at our store. We're high end.

    What a woman.

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  27. Left school at 16. Started work as apprentice storeman within two days.

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  28. Waitress 15..waffle house

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  29. Starting at age 12,I reloaded shotgun shells for my stepfather and his hunting buddies. First paycheck job was during the summers starting at 14, working the deli at the tiny local grocery when the migrant folks came in for lunch. That was a great job...I felt like I was grown, as the only piece of machinery I wasn't allowed to use was the slicer.

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  30. I did a TON of babysitting from about the age of ten on. My first "real" job was as a cashier in a doughnut shop when I was 17.

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  31. Anonymous8:45 PM

    Popcorn machine operator at a Drive-In movie. 16.

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  32. @RobH: Despite the horrible end to your story, your parents win the award for ‘best punishment’//having to pay back the $. I rarely got punished, but, when I did, my parents were very creative. They knew that grounding me wouldn’t work (I would just read books or paint) so they came up with punishments that really killed me.

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  33. Ooh Miss Davies..tell us more!

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  34. My first job outside of babysitting at age 13 was to scoop ice out of an ice machine and put it in individual size plastic bags and tie shut each one with a twist tie, it was called "bagging ice" and I was sixteen years old, and got 4.25 an hour for this privilege. My first check was a little over 100 dollars and I went to a shop on the Air Force Base and purchased a ring for my mother. :)

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  35. OMG! Can you ‘Unknowns’ please identify yourselves? Such a beautiful story! Did you go to the PX? My dad was a Colonel in the Army, and, despite the fact that I’m anti-war, I miss him every day.

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  36. Apart from babysitting my first job was at 15 or 16 as a cashier at Gemco and at the same time I worked as a lab clerk in a hospital. I lied about my age. People used to leave cups of pee on my desk. Then when I was 18 I became a singing telegram messenger and I also sold the acts...belly dancers, strippers, gorillas and we did talent for the wrap parties at Paramount and Fox etc. Our offices were in the Taft building corner of Hollywood and Vine. It was a very interesting time,

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  37. Dietary Aide and Porter, fancy name for a kitchen worker in a local hospital. I was 15 years and one month. Stayed there for five years -- all through high school and junior college.

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  38. Executive Assistant to the General Manager of a boutique label started by a famous rapper. I was 17.

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  39. At the Sizzler Steak House. I was 16 and was a salad bar person.

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  40. *Babysitting at 11 years

    *Wendy's was my first official paycheck job at 16.

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  41. Anonymous7:10 AM

    Babysitting age 12, did that for years.
    Starting at 16, I worked for a plant nursery.
    I dated a 24 year old at the nursery. Family said he was a "nice boy".
    My mom didn't give a crap about grades. She wanted me to make money and get married.

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  42. Worked in an ice cream kiosk at the mall when I was 15. Had to make shit with simple syrup and soda water and not just cones and sundaes. Then when I was 16 worked in the hospital kitchen. Shifts during the week were 4-7 which were perfect hours for a high school kid. Usually out in time for the football and basketball games.

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  43. Late 90’s i worked at Godiva in a fancy pants area where people came and spent $5000 on chocolate without blinking. Many celebs. I made $4 an hour and they took taxes out of that! I was a senior in high school. Learned a lot and still have friends from that chapter in my life.

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  44. babysitting at 14, cashier at a grocery store at 16

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