Who had afterschool jobs when they were kids?
 

I worked in a bakery store and Sweetie was a paper boy. Neither of us got allowances or prizes for good grades.

Not After School
 

When I was in high school, we had a program called DE (Distributive Education). I went to school half a day and worked half a day and all day Saturdays at a clothing store doing bookkeeping and cashiering. That was in the pre-computer era (sounds really old, huh?) when books were kept by hand. I can't imagine doing some of the things I did then now, like walking 3 city blocks to take the previous day's receipts to the bank in just a plain ole bank bag.:eek: Didn't think a thing of it back then.

We didn't get paid for our grades, either....we were just expected to keep them up. Or else!

I like Graciegirl's Sweetie was a paperboy.The daily paper cost seven cents.I loved getting those tips at Christmas.Usually a dollar from each customer and once in awhile a five.Hated Wednesdays because that was the day paper was much bigger and heavier because of the ads.Saturday was the thinnest paper so easy delivery day.Saturday morning was collection day and I would knock on doors to collect that 42 cents.People didn't pay by mail in those days.ah-MEMORIES

1) I had a paper route for a few years.

2) I worked at Mister Softee Ice CreamI(load, unload, wash the trucks).:coolsmiley:

3) My grandfather owned a pet shop, worked there on weekends.

4) Cut lawns and weeded gardens.

5) In the winter time I would go around the neighborhood and shove sidewaks and driveways.

I worked at the Strand Theatre on Duval street, Key West, Fl. as a cashier. Earned 85 cents an hour. I was also a lifeguard at Key West high. It was tough making a living on the island, but I liked the money in my purse. My parents didn't give me an allowance or pay me for chores, that was my duty and responsibility to the family.

When I left the Island to attend college, I had several jobs, I was on my own. My parents could not afford to help me. One summer I had three jobs, working in a pear factory, swim instructor and receptionist in a insurance office. I never knew what the word entitlement meant, I just did what I needed to do, I had a dream. 90% perspiration 10% inspiration.

I was the first college graduate in my family. I'm grateful for these experiences. Fast forward, I'm retired and moving to The Villages next month. I will be working hard at playing, I can hardly wait to be a Frogette.:a040:

Life is so cool.:coolsmiley:

I worked in a gas station, pumping gas, changing tires and washing cars when I was 12, at 14 worked on a dairy farm tossing hay bales from the fields to the barns and milking cows, and cleaning up you know what, through high school worked in a diner and a car dealership detailing cars. After high school worked as an electrician to pay my way through college.

Same here Gracie. My Dad owned a machine shop and an allowance meant I was allowed to come down to the shop and earn it. At 12 years I was sorting parts, and at 15 I was machining them on lathes and milling machines.

I worked at Woolworths in the pet department and they paid us cash in a tiny brown envelope. :laugh:

I didn't have a real job after school but I was required to work in my mothers and fathers business. They owned a luncheonette. My parents didn't give me an allowance or pay me for chores as that was my duty and responsibility to the family.

I started when I was eleven and when I was close to eighteen, I received two bucks for the week to go out on Friday night with my friends for thirty hours of work. I never expected anything so I never asked. I was never denied anything either as my parents were good providers. It instilled in me a strong work ethic.

A nickel for a cup of coffee, nickel and dime cokes and egg creams were 15 cents. It blows my mind that Dunkin charges $1.47 for a small container of coffee that one can make at home for pennies.

Can't wait to retire and enjoy the good life. :)

Bakery... all through high school. Lost my "sweet tooth" in those years at the bakery.

Oh WOW
 

First job before 16 was mowing grass in the neighborhood. Had many good customers that only let me do their lawns.

Second job was weekend bell-hop at the hotel we were staying while our new home was built. Dad was transferred from Jacksonville to Atlanta.

Third job was sacking groceries at a Big Apple and whatever they told me. I caught the store manager stealing from my register when I had my back turned. I was fired for whipping his fanny. Go figure !!! :boxing2:

Fourth Job was in management for A & P while I was in college. Great company and great people to work with.

Graduated college and started in my fulltime career... :a040:

Mowed lawns with the old type push mower. No gas or riding mower; just plain old push power. Those hilly lawns were a pain.

Same here. I worked in machine shop summers starting at 13. After school when I got my driving license using my old jalopy that I bought from working summers. Always bought my own clothes.

Got my working papers at 16. Then worked as a supermarket stock boy on weekday afternoons and Saturdays through high school.

My Mom volunteered me for my first paying job. I babysat for some second cousins for the summer when I was 12. My Mom negotiated my salary---offered me for less per hour because she didn't think babysitters should get good pay! It was a L-O-N-G summer!

We lived just outside a very small town as I grew up, and there were only about 2 jobs available to teens, which were taken up by townies or children of the business owners. I was expected to help around the house and never got an actual allowance, but things I needed and some I just wanted, were seldom denied me. Since I was an athlete, involved in sports year-round a regular job was almost impossible to work around school, practice, and games. In the summer when in high school and into college I worked as a hay hauler on a haying crew. 2 cents a bale, and if you had a good situation you could put up close to 1000 bales in a day -- a twenty dollar day was big-time in those days. I still remember the wonderful feeling of taking a shower and drinking an ice tea (or later a beer) after hauling alfalfa hay all day in 100 degree temps with alfalfa seeds and dust covering my body stuck to the sweat. In college I also spread hot pack asphalt on a road crew, lifeguarded, and worked for a few months at Hallmark Card Co. Fortunately scholarships along with some help from my parents got me through college without any loans. Just one of a thousand things I am forever grateful to my wonderful parents for.

i helped out at my father's country store in rural Virginia. He could never understand why I couldn't add 4 columns of figures in my head like he could. Later he put in a cash register, but I don't think he ever trusted it.

I was the full time summer baby sitter for my brother. I was only 10 when he was born . I did this until I was 18 and he was 8. Not sure how that would play out today. Happy to say I didn't do to much damage to him as he turned out to be an awesome man.

And I would wager you remain very close to this day! Our daughter was 10 when our youngest son was born, and like you became his regular baby-sitter. When he was in college she hired him to work under her and when he graduated she promoted him to her assistant. 3 years later they bought a business together which they have grown into one of the most successful of it's kind in the country. They are closer than any siblings I have ever known.

I did a few odd jobs like collecting newspapers to bring to the recycling center for pocket change, some shoveling snow or even substituting for our paperboy on his route, but my main job was getting out of doing my homework... with mixed results of course!

I had a paper route. We had to pay for the papers and whatever we collected was ours. Needless to say that I periodically got stuck.

I also worked in a movie theatre as an usher. One of my duties was to break up young couples that were too engaged. i take my flashlight and tap tap tap there seats.

Turned 16...took a bus ride to the nearest hospital to apply for nurse's aide job. That was over 50 years ago before Personnel & H.R. Depts. The Administrator, a nun, interviewed me & asked if I had any health problems. I said, "No...but I had braces removed last week". I forgot to tell her they were on my TEETH. She looked at my LEGS and said, "Poor dear". The next day, she called and I was hired! I worked at that job all through high school and college.

As a post script, the First Chief of Staff of that hospital, a respected physician, encouraged me to go into the medical field....which I did. His very grandson will be delivering a new vehicle to me from New Orleans to my house in St. James...two weeks from today!!!

That's funny about the braces, Swimdawg. And very cool how the story turned out. :clap2:

No allowance or money for good grades for me either. Good grades and choirs were expected. My Dad had ladies clothing stores. When I was around 4 or 5, I learned to make bows for Christmas gifts with a hand crank machine and later to wrap presents. While I was still in grade school I posted sales tickets, checked in merchandise, made change and use the cash register. I also was a sales girl. The customers thought it was adorable having an eight-year-old show them to their size, take them to the dressing rooms, etc. Looking back, it probably helped sales.

Back then, of course, we counted out change from the amount given to the amount due. Now cash registered figure it and I wonder if young people still knows how to do it?

When I was in high school, long before computers, my Dad bought his third store. I figured out a system to consolidate posting sales tickets from all the stores. That way, you could see on one page which store needed more of a certain garment or size and which store might be able to send it to another one.

During summers, I went with Dad to buy merchandise in the New York Garment District. Although he had membership privileges at the wholesale Atlanta Merchandise Mart, he never bought merchandise for the stores there because he didn't want his stores to have what all the other stores had.

I learned a strong work ethic; values of honesty and integrity; and much about business from my Dad and Mom-- two people as kind, smart and generous as any I have ever known.

GG, thanks for this thread and reminding me again how fortunate I am.

First job wasn't really a 'job' from my point of view at the time: From about age 13 through 15, I put in time at the local bowling alley - cleaning the lanes and approaches, running the sweeper, cleaning tables, setting up score sheets for leagues, spray disinfectant into stinky rental shoes.....just any odd job the owners wanted done. What I got in return was free bowling any time they weren't busy! I thought I was in heaven!! :D

Next: McDonald's. Had to pay for a car, gas, and insurance some way! Worked there starting at age 16 - evenings, weekends, and a couple of summers - and even worked during breaks, etc. during my first year of college whenever I was back in town. Fun times!

I also fit in a summer stint carrying mail as a substitute carrier for the Post Office. An educational experience all its own! And I paid for my next year of college with what I made!

Between my jr. and sr. years of college, my summer job was at Rink's Department Store (who's from the Ohio area and remembers these??!!). Only one guess who I met there that summer........!!!!! :MOJE_whot:

At that same time, even through my summer after graduating from college, I worked off and on at a Gray Drug store, running the cash register.

WHEW!! More jobs "than Carters had liver pills"!! :1rotfl:

Bill :)

Like most everybody posting here, our family did not give out allowances. We were allowed to work though.

While in grade school, I delivered the morning daily newspaper (I still hate mornings).

When I turned 12, I got a job at a local newspaper as a "printers devil". Then I graduated to working for an offset printing company and weekly newspaper in the darkroom, making printing plates, typesetting, graphic layouts and sports editing.

My family needed the money and I actually am very glad because this early indoctrination into a "real" work ethic came in handy down through the years in the businesses that I have owned and operated. I learned that if you want to be paid for 8 hours, then you WORK 8, not 4-6. You don't work, you don't eat.

Sold ice cream and popsicles from a three wheeled bike cart in the summertime.

Worked as a stockboy in a Jewel Tea supermarket.

Delivered newspapers.

Sold produce door to door from a converted 1940 International Laundry Panel Truck - Bought the produce at the central market in Chgo at 3 AM.

Cut lawns.

During college: Worked at the Argo Corn Starch Plant using an air hose to blast the corn dust off the equipment and building. My friend worked in the same plant but in the Bosco Chocolate Syrup Dept.

Worked in a steel mill doing scrap inventory reports and comparisons to furnace usage and output. A large rail shipment of scrap during the Big snow of 1967 was later found to contain about $100K of snow instead of scrap steel - they paid for the scrap by weight.

Worked at Washington and Arlington Park Race Tracks in the food service dept doing payroll and cash register readings. They hired about 300 union workers on Friday and let them go on Saturday night and they were paid with cash at the end of the Saturday shift. They made about $10 to $30 for the two days depending on the type of work they did (most of their income came from tips).

Worked at a large (7 story) woman's department store in the Loop on State St in the cashier's dept locked in a small back room counting the 50 or so money bags from the cash registers sales from the previous day. (They used straight pins to fasten papers together instead of staples.)


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First paying job was babysitting neighborhood kids. This was back when making 25 cents an hour was a big deal....at 15 I got a special work permit and went to work at the local library starting out re-shelving books and moving up to preparing new books to be put out on shelves. Next job was as a sales clerk in the bakery at end of our street. That was a yummy job. I often worked the last shift on Saturday and since the bakery wasn't open on Sunday's we got to take home some items after cleaning and closing up at the end of the day. I worked there till I left for college.

Suzanne

Babysat a lot when I was 13 and 14. Can't believe those little devils are in their late 30's by now. When I turned 16 I got a job at the local swimming pool as a clothes checker (like a coat checker) watching peoples' clothes while they went swimming. When I turned 18 my parents let me work the graveyard shift at the local pancake house as a hostess...the late night revelers and drunks all showed up at 2:00 a.m. when the bars closed--only worked there for about 3 months...hated that job, but that pancake house is still open 33 years later. Don't know if the pancake house is still open until 4:00 a.m. though on Fridays and Saturdays.

Once I went to college, my part-time jobs got more interesting. Spent 2 semesters work in the math department at Loyola University assisting the department administrative assistant. Math and I are like oil and water, but it was a good job for a college student. Worked for over 1 year at Crain's Chicago Business as a researcher. That was a great job. I also worked at Quaker Oats corporate headquarters in the government affairs department for one semester. Another great part-time job, and I also managed to get some class credit for it, and the food in the test kitchen that employees were invited to sample and evaluate was another great perk.

12 years old
 

Started passing papers at 12 years of age and I haven't been unemployed since. Worked two jobs most of my life. Owned and operated an income tax preparation business and still working at Cat 39 and a half years. Will retire in 4 months to come to TV. :MOJE_whot: My father worked at Cat for 32 years and his dad worked there for 33 years and was there when Holt and Best combined to become Caterpillar. My father said to never quit a job until you have another job lined up. It was great advice.

I was a caddy and ball shagger. Also worked on the farm, feeding, making hay, fixing fences, mowing, clearing snow.

I was the neighborhood babysitter beginning at age 11. In the summer, one family took me along on vacation to Cape May, NJ (loved that job). At 16...McDonald's is your kind of place...NOT, my brother was the manager (hated that job)!

In the summers, babysitting, pet sitting, and "grandma-sitting". I was a summer swim instructor at the Y, and a camp counselor at a large Girl Scout camp. Worked the night shift in a donut shop, making the donuts till dawn. Was a waitress at restaurants for bus loads of tourists coming to see Niagara Falls.

During college, worked as an engineering aide in an aeronautical lab and a nuclear fuel rod designer company. Taught middle school music for a year before finally deciding to go into computers full time. Played music professionally part time for 25 years. Wish I could have made a good living doing just that, but it all worked out!

Quirky,
That's so cool! What instrument did you play?

I play clarinet. One of the reasons I like TV is the many musical performing opportunities.

Paper route until I reached 16 then worked in many jobs until I graduated from college.

Clerk in drug store, gas stations (pumping gas and changing tires . . . Atlantic and Sears), Catering services (one hot food company and one sandwich company), tennis shop stringing rackets, proctor for state job exams, shipping clerk in a mill, lathe operator for a plastic company. Most of the time I was working two jobs and putting in about 32-40 hours a week besides going to school full time. Looking back on it I really don't know how I did it but I had to if I was going to go to school as my family needed the money.

An allowance or reward for good grades was out of the question. Dad died and we went from upper middle class to below poverty. I don't know how my mother did it, but I had no clue we were suddenly poor. She did her best to continue the same lifestyle with the difference being the house was not as nice and clothes were homemade but beautiful.

Started babysitting around age 12 -- gave my mom half of whatever I earned. Summers I worked in the local flower nursery and weekends in strawberry fields. Got into the school work program when I was 14. I worked for the city's public works department as a clerk. Honestly don't remember what I did there but I know it was WAY better than the hothouses or the fields.

Started college when I was 15 (almost 16). Worked at a local law firm as a "night" receptionist (6:00-10:00). Phone hardly ever rang but it was a great way to get paid to study, which was the idea behind this job. Then worked at Denny's about 3 blocks away. Quit the law firm and Denny's when I was 18 and started serving cocktails -- work was much easier and the money was really good. Did that until I graduated from college.

After college I got into an automobile accident and couldn't continue my education (needed at least a Master's). So, put my degree in child psychology to very good use -- became a legal secretary for the next 30 years and loved almost every second of it.

And now I have a small business in TV doing a little bit of everything. My California friends laugh every time I mention that I cleaned a house or weeded a yard (I always hired someone to do it for me cause I hated doing those two things). Strangely, I love what I'm doing now, too.

I was about 8 when I first delivered a newspaper. My brother was 4 years older than me and had a really large route for the morning paper. I would go with him sometimes delivering and when he was collecting. I think he paid me with a free chocolate milk he got from the guys at the milk company and a free donut from the owner of the diner he delivered to. At 12, I got my own route for the afternoon paper. Did that for 4 years and then, 1 day after turning 16, I got a job at McDonald's. Worked there until I went away to college. During college I always had a job on campus as well as a summer job. Thinking about this makes me realize I have been working for too long !

We lived in a small town but we were sent to our Uncle and Grandparent's farms during the summer to pick cotton (by hand in the hot Texas sun), corn and haul hay. I would mow lawns in town for 50 cents each (large lawns, my mower and gas). Worked nights and weekends at a gas station first few years of high school. Learned to work on automobiles there (other peoples automobiles :)). Worked in commercial construction the last two years of high school (digging trenches, tying steel rebar, unloading cement bags and pushing cement buggies). This was the job that made me decide to attend college. My Dad's friend owned the company and I believe to this day that he had him ensure I had every hard job there was to change my mind about going to college. It worked. Worked at a wholesale grocery ADP department nights and weekends through college. Company provided a full scholarship. Basic IBM 602 Accounting Machines, lots of punch cards and key punchers. I became the assistant manager over time. I actually applied for a job unloading rail box cars but, during the interview, the owner decided to give me a chance in the ADP Department. One of the best breaks I ever got. Adventure called and I joined the Navy to see the world.

During high school I had three short lived jobs after school. One was delivering meat for a butcher shop, I was also a soda jerk at a candy store. ( that I enjoyed) The third was selling fruit and veggies at a local super market.

Jobs I had during the summer.

I sold ice cream and orange drinks at Manhattan beach in Brooklyn NY.
I lugged the first year had a cart for two years. Enjoyed having my cart parked in front of the ladies lockers!

Then by the time I was a senior in high school, my dad got me a summer job in the NY garment industry. I was an ILGWU member (You may remember the jingle, "..look for the union label...." not sure if the ad played nationally) I packed boxes of women's clothes that were shipped to stores all over the country.

When I was in junior high school, I became friends with a kid whose dad owned and operated the local Pioneer supermarket. So, I was able to get a job delivering groceries from 3-5 every day after school and all day saturday.

In a good week, I could pull in $20. Big bucks for a kid of 13, or so.

Worked all throught HS assisting the local guitar teacher - and through college as an assistant grading test papers and also in the library, while carrying 18-20 credits a semester.