Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My dad worked at a poultry hatchery and my first "job" was selling/delivering double yolk eggs. They don't hatch and were culled by candling. Not sure if that meets your definition. My first job at an employer where I clocked in and got a paycheck was at a steak restaurant at age 14. I think minimum wage was $2.65 an hour or something near that. I was a "salad boy" and cleaned and cut salad and vegetables. Pretty much stayed employed all through high school at restaurants. One summer I "hauled hay" walking the field behind the baler throwing bales up to the stacker on the flat bed. That was one of the hardest jobs I ever had. I worked in a window screen factory another summer. I delivered auto parts a little while. I was working in a warehouse after flunking out of college (my own fault; partied too much) when I went to tech school to learn computer programming, which is what I have been doing for the over 35 years since.
age 14 -shoveling stalls at local stable for free riding privileges
age 15 -camp counselor for YMCA
age 16 -restaurant server
age 17 -restaurant / newstand cashier
age 18 -asst mgr trainee for retail ladies wear
age 20 -financial aide clerk for local women's health clinic
age 21 -joined USAF, trained to become aircraft radar maintenance tech
age 25 -computer data entry clerk for electric utility
age 26 -cost and scheduling tech for electric utlity
age 28 -customer service rep for electric utility
age 30 -energy efficiency auditor residential for electric utility
age 33 -energy efficiency auditor commercial for electric utility
age 47 -program manager for home energy efficiency improvement programs for electric utility
age 51 -retired
When I was 13, I had a job after school and on the weekends as a "press monkey" in a factory that made crates for milk bottles. My job was to sit under huge metal stamping press where the pieces fell out, and organize them into wooden boxes. I could only work about 15 minutes at a time because I would get "Press Drunk" from the noise.
The first few minutes were like being drunk, then my eyes would start watering and I would loose my hearing.
Sometimes while I was recovering, they put me on the "Dip Tank" which involved dipping wooden crates into lacquer and hanging them on a rack to dry. There were no exhaust fans to eliminate the fumes, so in another few minutes I would be "Dip Drunk".
Sometime I would be sent into the "The Bin" where sawdust from the saws upstairs came down a chute. My job was to stand waist deep in sawdust and shovel it into burlap sacks while it came down the chute and filled the room with dust. It was dark and hot in there and the sweat made the sawdust stick to my body and itch and burn. I tried to to prevent choking by putting a bandana over my nose.
The pay was ninety cents an hour.
That was thirty cents higher that my previous job in the tobacco fields.
^^^
A few times I have been chained to a press for a week to 10 days... I found I needed hearing protection and on break went to my truck to get my personal ones from going to the range.
Caused a little bit of a stir because by noon... it was the buzz on the shop floor... seemed everyone thought I was "Provided" hearing protection since I was from the engineering side of things... same with a respirator.
That all stopped after I explained for the umpteenth time... the company provided nothing.
Seems like most of us started making are way early... quite different from most I know today.
Not uncommon to meet "Kids" in the their early 20's that have never had a job or even a Driver's License.
Started babysitting at 11
14 Dishwasher at local cafe
15 Waitress at cafe
16 Car Hop - Dog N Suds
17-18 Waitress at truck stop
19 Joined USAF 8 years
28 Started with with NPS
39 Working Dept of Labor
40 back with NPS
48 VA
50 US Forest Service
Huh. Surprised at how young so many were for their responses, and yet here I am to add another young one. I think I was 12 or 13, kept score for city basketball leagues and made minimum wage $3.35. I was too young to be doing it, but my mom was friends with the head of the parks and rec dept, and we falsified my age. Also worked at a lumberyard packaging up the plastic wrapped wood people would buy for their fireplaces. My brother in law ran it, and while he wouldn't let me run machinery other then the heat gun or plastic wrap stuff....I worked HARD, and we were paid by the piece. I made less then minimum wage (so doubly illegal).
My youngest photo, shows me in a cotton diaper, with a twine chest harness leashed to a grape vine, playing in blow sand. I was being used as a row-marker by my mother and siblings as they picked grapes.
When I was 7, my family had saved enough to buy their own farm. They had been farm-workers following the 'Grapes of wrath' migration to California. Until I was 15 I worked on our family farm.
At 15 I worked in a hobby store.
At 16 a pizza parlor.
At 17 an A&W rootbeer stand [with carhops on roller skates].
At 17 1/2 I enlisted in the Navy.
At 24 I got out of the Navy, used my GI-Bill to go to college.
At 28 I went back into the Navy.
At 42 I retired on pension.
14 - worked for my dad as a typist
15 - clothing store (fired; deserved to be)
16-20 - typist and helped people with their homework (for a fee)
17-19 - food service jobs while in college; also student teacher
20 - undergraduate research assistant
21-22 - graduate research assistant
23-24 - research associate
25-39 - worked at a startup. left for senior management opportunity
40-55 - managing director of a large corp
55 - retired and set up a part-time consulting business
Last edited by Larry Siegel; 06-08-2015 at 06:12 PM..
18 - secretary
30 - went to university (started part-time at a good community college); continued working as a secretary (managed to get my BS with only $4000 outstanding debt - can't do that nowadays!)
37 - software engineer
62 - retired with savings, pension, 401K, etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
