What was your first paying "real" job growing up...

[Dennis Peacock]

Ok...time for a little yack, read, and enjoy thread.

What was your very first real paying job outside your parent's home growing up? What was your job title or what did you do at that job and what was your beginning pay?

My first real paying job was when I was in high school. I started working for Winn Dixie Grocery Store in Montgomery, AL. I started out as a bag boy, then 2 days later I got moved to the Produce Department. 4 months later, I got moved to a different store to work in the meat department. I drove 30 miles round trip to work and back and my pay was $1.50 per hour.

Ok...your turn...what's your story?

[Anthony Whitesell]

I started and worked for Shaw's Supermarkets for 6 years. They darn paid for the first car I bought (parents bought my first, I had to buy the next), my first IBM-compatible computer, and for my undergrad degree at UNH. When I was offer work-study money in school, I made twice as much per school year as they offered and only worked 3 days instead of 5 days per week (4.85/hr vs 8.50 and 12.75 on Sundays). It was a real good job. For the first 4-5 years they even offered part-timers health insurance.

[Charles Wiggins]

First job - mowing lawns for neighbors
Next - worked at a hardware store/garden center where my dad was manager (cash under the table)
Next - first "real" job - busboy/dishwasher in a steakhouse

[curtis rosche]

i started working at 15 at a local pool, that was in national news a few years ago. i started at 6.25 i think. my last paycheck there was $1.75 after taxes

[paul cottingham]

Grew up on a small farm, so was working from an early age. First job was cleaning a plywood mill on weekends. Paid well, but was a dirty, hard job. Made every job since seem easy.

[Phil Thien]

Heathkit.

I cannot remember what I was paid, probably about $6/hour. Worked there from about 16 to 17 or 17-1/2. Approx. 1981 to 1982.

[charlie knighton]

!st job was delivering papers, hard part was going around collecting, i always had money owed, never everybody caught up, now i pay by mail and never see the paperboy ........err....paperperson

[Bonnie Campbell]

First paid job was putting the pins in buttons for a Billy Graham appearance. Was paid 3 cents a button I think. A big thank you went to my dad for helping :)

And I'll add that my first day I walked two miles at the start of a blizzard to get there! lol

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Worked at the local drug store doing what needed to be done--clean restroom, stock shelves, clean floors, unpack supply orders, cashier. In 1962-1964 this was a good job for a high school kid; paid $1 an hour.

[Shawn Pixley]

I turned over apartments on weekends. We'd clean and paint two apartments over a weekend. I earned great money for a twelve year old. I got really good at painting.

[Von Bickley]

O.K., Guess I'm much older than the rest of you guys. There were 3 boys in my family and my father was a barber. Our first job when we were big enough was sweeping the floor in the barber shop and shining shoes. A shoe shine was $0.15 but we usually got a quarter.

My second job was washing cars at a local gas station and pumping gas. This included checking the oil and washing the windshield.

Next I worked at "Ed's Drive Thru" as a curb-hop. At this job, we got $1.00's worth of food a day. What money we made was in tips. If you didn't get any tips, you didn't make any money. We would usually average over $2.00 per hour which was darn good money for a kid in the mid sixtys.

Later on I moved down the street to the Grocery store. Worked as a bag boy and later was promoted to driving the delivery truck. A lot of older people would walk to the store, buy their groceries, and we would deliver the groceries to them. Some people would call in their order, we would get their groceries together, and deliver the groceries to them. Most people don't remember grocery stores delivering groceries. The grocery store job paid $10.00 for a 12 hour day.

From there it was high school graduation, then residential electrical work, US Army, more electrical work. Then Electrical and Instrumentation work, then Instrument Technician, and then a Training Coordinator.

Now it is Retirement...... Best job I ever had.

[Michael Weber]

Worked on a chicken vaccinating crew for a local feed mill. It wasn't as glamorous as it sounds. lol

[Gary Hodgin]

Other than mowing lawns, my first paying job was working at one of my best friend's dad's sporting goods store when I was 16 (this was in 1967). I was a flunky,--salesman, cleaner of minnow vats, cleaner of boats, putter together of boat trailers, cleaner of used guns, pumper of gas, minnow truck driver (wholesaler of minnows), etc....

I made $1.00 per hour although min wage was either $1.35 or $1.65 at the time. Employer was exempt due to small number of employees. Worked 6-7 ten hour days during summers and 10 hours every other Sat. and Sunday during school year. No time and a half overtime either.This store was technically open 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. There was a night man who locked the door and slept from about 10:00 - 3:30 and opened at 4:00 for hunters and fishermen. There was a buzzer for customers to wake the guy if they needed something.

I remember once when my friend's family went on a 3-week vacation I worked (along with about everyone else who worked there) 21 straight 10 hour days and received $210 when they returned. I thought I was the richest man in town.

[Cary Falk]

As soon as I could see over the push mower,I was mowing yards. When I was in 7th grade,I was the janitor of my grade school. It paid $250 a month. I did it for one year. I also stocked shelves at the local auto parts store somewhere in there.

[Brian Ashton]

I was 14 (I think) and worked as a dock boy at a place called Brentwood Boat Rentals on Vancouver Island, got paid $2.50/hour. The perks were we got to use the boats as long as they weren't booked to go fishing or what have you. Overall it was a good place to work and play. Stayed for a couple years.

[John Christian]

First job was as a paper boy, my dad co signed a loan for an 18 dollar second hand bike. Then when i had a 'connection' I got a morning route, so i could still play afterschool sports. Then bag boy at grocery store. In high school, again you needed a connection, i got on the middle of the night chicken /turkey catching crews. That was really good money and it left you free for sports.

[Rich Engelhardt]

1958 - First day of first grade.
Three of us were standing outside the school waiting for the bell to ring.
The principal approached and asked for one of us to step forward and come with him.
My two friends stepped back.... LOL!

I was taken to the cafetria and introduced to the milk man.
Every day, he dropped off 4 cases of milk cartons that had to be stacked in the cooler.
He would pay someone $.25 a day to stack the cartons.

Considering my brother (7 years older) was only making $1.75 a week on his paper route, I was doing better than ok.

I miss working/the paycheck.
(I have a feeling it's going to be a long, long, long ~ three years....)

[Jason Roehl]

My first job was in 1992 at McDonald's, making $3.35/hr (min. wage at the time). I started the day before my 18th birthday, actually flipping burgers, but the day after my birthday (didn't work that day), they had installed the clamshell grills, so there was no more flipping burgers. I also got 50% off my food there during my break, so I ate a fair amount of McD's over the next few months. I don't eat there much anymore...

[Chris Damm]

In high school I took care of a neighbor family's 4 yards. Father, 2 sons, and daughter. 7 hours a day spent doing whatever they wanted done. On Fridays I would motor their 42' sailboat over to the old sanddock and scrub it down. $1 @ hour and I liked Fridays the best! The next summer was spent shoveling sand in a foundry for $1.50 @ hour. It made me workk harder when I went away to college in the fall.

[Joe Pelonio]

I also started off doing yard work and a paper route, but then at age 14 got my first real job - peeling potatoes at a fish & chips shop. Eventually worked my way up to head fry cook, making $1.75/hour and stayed until I went off to college.

[David Weaver]

Dishwasher at shoneys - in a tourist town, age 16. Awful job, you could never quite keep up with the crowd in the summer, and you always had little cuts all over your hands (from silverware sorting) and smelled like burnt out grease, but it paid better than minimum wage. If you were closing and knew the cook, they would "make a mistake" right before close and you could munch free dinner while closing.

Waitresses there could make $200 (people on vacation are more generous and less demanding) in less time than it took me to make $35, but they would not allow boys to be on the waitstaff at that time.

[Belinda Barfield]

I got my first paying job at 14. I was the assistant to the director of the high school FFA program. I worked an hour to two per day typing and filing, etc. and got paid $3.00 an hour. I was also the secretary for our church (small church) and typed the weekly bulletin, counted the collections on Sunday, etc., - no pay for that - all through high school. I also sang in the youth choir and they dang sure should have paid me for that. :D

My next job was at 16 working half days for a visiting nurses association as a receptionist/file clerk making $4.50 an hour. That was my junior year of high school. I worked full time over the summer. The first quarter of my senior year of high school I went back to half days. I finished high school after that first quarter and went to work full time. At that point I was promoted to insurance clerk responsible for filing all Medicare/Medicaid claims and collections, and all bookkeeping. Filing insurance claims also meant that I was responsible for making sure that what was done was what was billed, and vice versa. When I left there after six years I was making $6.25 an hour.

[Rod Sheridan]

My first job that was official (not paid for mowing lawns etc with no paper trail) was working at a department store called Zellers. I was 16 years old, the pay was $1.65 per hour which was minimum wage at that time. I worked in the stockroom and as a clerk in the hardware department.

My big break came when I wound up assembling and repairing bicycles in the sporting goods section. I was fast, and had no customer call backs for sloppy work so I negotiated a flat rate of $2 per bicycle from the general manager. I could assemble/test 3 per hour so I was making more than my supervisor, who complained to the general manager.

I continued on that track for all the time I was in high school...................Rod.

[Eric DeSilva]

I was really lucky and held some jobs early that taught me some really great skills--I started as a machinist in a metal shop at 15, worked for an home renovator at 16, and then started work as a systems programmer for the gov't at 17. I'm actually only on my fourth job...

[Doug Morgan]

I worked at Jack's Mobil gas station to earn money to pay for my car. On the weekends and evening I would pump gas, change tires and oil, and easy regular service items. Back then gas was 27.9 cents a gallon (ok I just dated myself) Raising gas prices was by 1 cent increments. Gas wars would occur on our 4 corner intersection about 3 times a year. With the money I saved I bought a 1957 Chevy!

[Joe Angrisani]

My first real job was as a DMO at the Howard Johnson's restaurant in Lake George, NY. For those of you not in the know, that's Dish Machine Operator. I made about $3.50 an hour, and was happy to pile it on 50 hours a week. And free meals to boot! Thought I was rolling in dough. Ha!

Turns out the "Miss Ray" that ran the HoJo's, and who I answered to, was none other than Rachael Ray's mom. Saw her on TV with Rachael a few years ago, recognized her, and a light came on. Working for her, I sorta assumed it was Miss Rae, as in Theresa. But no. It was Rachael's mom, meaning Rachael was that little girl who played with coloring books and such at Miss Ray's desk.

[John Pratt]

11 years old, I had the morning paper route for the Des Moines Register. I had 52 papers on my route (95 on Sunday) and can still remember reading the headline that Elvis Presley had died. I can't even imagine today's society letting my 11 year-old deliver papers in the darkness by themselves.

[Mike Cutler]

The first job I got a W2 from was McDonalds. $2.05/hr.
Worked at the McDonalds on N. Garey Ave. in Pomona California.

I make a lot more $$$ now, but that job was fun. A bunch of High School Kids from Pomona and Claremont. It was ariot at times.

[Scott T Smith]

My first paying job was at 11 years old in the summer 1971, running wiring in new apartment and home construction in Phoenix, AZ. Had to get a social security number for it. Can't remember exactly what I was paid, but think that it was $1.50 per hour.

I did not attach the wires to the boxes or breakers; only drilled the studs, pulled the romex and cut it to length.

Sure made me pround to be doing "grown-up work".

[Jim Tobias]

First job was at 12 working with my granddad and uncle as an "gopher/apprentice" on construction/renovation. A few bucks per job, depending on what they were being paid.
Then a dress/clothing factory... $1.25/hour but a lot of overtime in busy season. Then a State Tree Nursery with the Forestry Dept.
Pay was around $2/hour and we earned every penny in the HOT sun(pine seedlings/no shade).
IN college, I worked part time at the State Correctional Institute for 14-17 yr olds as a "counselor". Don't remember the pay, but it was a great, interesting part time job.
All in all, I earned a lot more in experience than I did in dollars, but it was invaluable to me.
Retired now and only doing woodworking...... the pay for that is about where it all started! But, I enjoy every minute!

Jim

[Brian Elfert]

My first "real" job was working summers at the Minnesota State Fair cutting grass on the fairgrounds. I did this for seven years through high school and college. I started every year the Monday after school got out and worked until Labor day. The job was great as it was 8 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday with no weekends. We did have to work weekends the last half of August and I worked between 16 and 18 hours a day during the 12 days of the actual fair.

I have worked during the 12 days of the Minnesota State Fair every year ending last year. I had a conflict this year so I couldn't work at the Fair for the first time since I was 15.

[Rick Potter]

Cleveland Ohio, 1953 or 54, age 11. My parents managed a grocery store called Lawsons. It was a milk store that sold groceries, about three times the size of the average 7-11 store. I stocked shelves on the weekends. I think I got about 50 cents an hour.

El Monte CA., 1956, age 14. My parents moved to CA., bought a Tastee Freez store, and found out within a month or so, it could not support us. Dad got a job selling cars, and Mom and an employee ran the store. I worked there every day after school, and on weekends...$1.00 per hour. We had to stay open every day, including Christmas, per the franchise. I remember some days we only took in less than $4.

El Monte CA., 1958, age 15 1/2. I got my drivers license, my folks sold the store, and the owner of another store hired me on the spot. I started the first day opening, and closing the store on weekends, and basically running it myself after school. I was paid the minimum wage of the day...$1.15.

It goes on....cleaning carpets for my Dad's new business at age 17, for $1.50, going to Junior College and right to work at 2:00 for three years, till I got married at age 21, in 1964. At that point I was making $2.50 per hour, which was above the minimum wage of (?). If I got in my 40 hours a week it added up to $400 per month.

Ontario CA., 1964. A few months after getting married I started working for the Ontario Fire Dept. Pay was $440 a month, which was a 10% raise from my $400. Found out real quick that after paying retirement and union dues I was taking home less than before.

Los Angeles CA., 1966. Went to work for Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Hired at $617 a month. First day on the job was July 1. It was the first day of training for my class of 90 men, and they announced that our new pay scale had gone to $640
per month.

Rick Potter

[Rob Cunningham]

I started working when I was 13 at the used car dealer down the street. He started me at a whopping 75 cents/hour. My duties included scraping dog crap off the floor and sweeping the floor, mowing the 2 acre field next to the building with a 20" mower, tarring the flat roof on the building, raking leaves and cutting grass at his house, and detailing cars. There were some days when Joe would say "get in steak body truck, we're going to the junk yards today" We would spend the day driving around Philadelphia stopping at different junk yards to pick up car parts. I worked for Joe for five years (with annual increases and a full weeks pay for a Christmas bonus) and learned a lot, most importantly that hard work wasn't going to hurt you. A lesson that has stuck with me my whole life. He was a good-hearted man that only asked for an honest days work.

[Jerome Stanek]

actually mine was at my parents greenhouse. worked there fir 2 years before going into the service. Then I worked as a stripper for a printing company.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

Worked for my father at 14 and 15... free... which now doesn't seem
very fair. I did everything the paid help did.
210588

But first paying job was at 16 as dish washer for a Denny's in Tucson, AZ

[Tom Winship]

Worked at 13 as a grocery store sacker and carry outer and stocker, etc. 7:00 AM in the morning to about 8:30 at nite on Saturdays. We stayed open until the local pulp wood magnate came in on Saturday nite. He was good for $100 of groceries so they didn't shut the door until "Mr. Leon" came in. $7.50 per day.

[Ben Hatcher]

My first official job was as a bus boy at MCL Cafeteria for $3.75 an hour. The best part was that I worked every Sunday which got me out of going to church...a habit I happily continue to this day.

[Tom Green]

16 years old pulling weeds in the rice paddies at the Rice Experiment station in northern California. I got paid whatever minimum wage was in 1975.

[Mike Wilkins]

After school job in high school as a busboy/dishwasher/mop pusher at Ron and Eddys Restaurant in downtown Forest City, North Carolina.

[Eddie Watkins]

My first job was hauling hay. I was 15 years old and got a penny a bale. We started at 7:00 and worked until all the hay was up in the field we were working. Usually sometime between 6 and 9pm. We could haul about 1600 bales a day with our max a little over 1900. Wages at that time was around $1.50/hour. We had a flatbed truck and 2 guys would walk along the side and throw the bales up to one guy stacking. The owner of the truck drove and got 2 cents a bale. We had to throw the bales as high as we could and the guy on top would reach downand snag the bale with a hay hook. Stacking the hay in the barns was the hard part. THe temperatur ein the barns would reach 140-150 degrees at time.

[Charlie Reals]

I worked for my Dad for my needs and change in my pocket on the family truck farm until I went in the service at 17. My first official civilian job was the Madsen ranch in New underwood S.D. for $300 a month and found. There for 1 1/2 yrs then to Homestake mine in Lead. S.D. for just under $20 a day. Stayed there 2 yrs. Great jobs both.

[charlie knighton]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/image.php?u=34346&dateline=1292337019 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/member.php?34346-Bill-Edwards%282%29) Bill Edwards (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/member.php?34346-Bill-Edwards%282%29)

you must be about my age, i was born in '50, i seem to remember gas at 28.9, those were the days

[Larry Browning]

Paper boy at 12. I delivered the afternoon paper every day and the Sunday morning paper. I remember waiting at the drop off spot with about 5 or 6 other boys. We could get into quite a bit of mischief in that 15-20 minutes before the papers arrived. We would then get busy folding the papers and loading up those huge bags that we carried on our shoulders while riding our bikes to throw those papers. I always hated collecting, except at Christmas time. I had a couple of customers that gave me a big bonus basket of homemade baked goodies and a five dollar bill! I was rolling in the dough!!!!!!
I only remember one time my dad drove me to help deliver the Sunday morning paper. It was about 5 below zero and about 10 inches of snow on the ground. (Mom made him do it, he wasn't real happy about it, but we made the best of it.)

[Charlie Reals]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/image.php?u=34346&dateline=1292337019 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/member.php?34346-Bill-Edwards%282%29) Bill Edwards (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/member.php?34346-Bill-Edwards%282%29)

you must be about my age, i was born in '50, i seem to remember gas at 28.9, those were the days

Born in 46, that seems about right for gas. I know we didn't struggle very much on the pay. Had fun.

[Jim O'Dell]

I'll have to read all of these later...should be fun. My first paying job was a paper route when I was 11 years old. I had my own checking account because my Mom didn't want me to carry cash to pay for the papers each week, so got me a checking account. I made enough to pay for my first 2 motorcycles, and a big portion of my first car, in less than a year. Jim.

[Charles Wiggins]

First job - mowing lawns for neighbors
Next - worked at a hardware store/garden center where my dad was manager (cash under the table)
Next - first "real" job - busboy/dishwasher in a steakhouse

I missed the "pay" part the first time.

Mowing - I got $5 for a quarter acre or so and $5.50 on the other one because it was irregular
Hardware store - It was minimum wage at the time which I think was $2.90/hr. I remember it going up to $3.10 because I could walk to the steak house and get an open-faced roast beef sandwich, fries, and tea for exactly $3.10.
Steak house - Again minimum wage, which was still $3.10/hr. Not long after that minimum wage went up to $3.35 and I got my first taste of why a progressive income tax stinks. I got a raise and my take home pay went down.

[Jim Mattheiss]

I started out mowing lawns for cash. Took over my brother's paper route for a while.

First W-2 job was as the landscaper at a garden complex. The company wouldn't pay the hourly rate my boss Walter thought was fair so I worked 30 hours and he put me in for 40 hours. I remember the check was $172.60 after taxes.

Jumped to pumping gas for minimum wage. Then went to another station that paid more than minimum wage but worked for a drunk - that was interesting.

Worked for a landscaper and as a Fruit and Vegetable Delivery Driver before finding my current gig of 21 year - IT professional.

Jim

[Bill Edwards(2)]

Good guesses on the gas prices... I was born in '47

[Howard Garner]

First "job" was tending the grain wagon during threshing day. No pay, but good food. I must have been only 8 or so at the time.
Living on a small farm, there was always work to be done. Long about 1955 started working for the neighbors, plowing and lots of stacking bales on the wagon behind the baler. One neighbor did custom baling and I was his regular wagon man. I remember when the minimum wage went to $1.00
Summer after high school, drove a truck on the pea pack. Hauling the complete vines from the field to the vinery that did the separation of the peas.
Off to collage for 1 year (poor grades0, a summer working for the highway department (with sisters' father-in-law) Then off to NYC for a variety of jobs and into the Navy in '62.

Howard Garner

[Ryan Mooney]

My first job was hauling hay. I was 15 years old and got a penny a bale. We started at 7:00 and worked until all the hay was up in the field we were working. Usually sometime between 6 and 9pm. We could haul about 1600 bales a day with our max a little over 1900. Wages at that time was around $1.50/hour. We had a flatbed truck and 2 guys would walk along the side and throw the bales up to one guy stacking. The owner of the truck drove and got 2 cents a bale. We had to throw the bales as high as we could and the guy on top would reach downand snag the bale with a hay hook. Stacking the hay in the barns was the hard part. THe temperatur ein the barns would reach 140-150 degrees at time.

Heh inflation had kicked in some by the time I got there. Stacking hay was also my first outside the family paying job. By 1985 when I was 13 we were up to 27 cents per bale (split between the crew so compares to 6 cents when you were doing it - although this was also in canada so a dollar there was worth about 70c down here then if I remember correctly). Me and a friend were the crew, we had an old jeep and would block the wheel straight, one of us would run alongside throwing bales up and the other would grab and stack on the trailer. If it looked like we were going to hit something the guy on the ground would run up and turn the wheel. We got pretty fast and on our best day were able to pull in a bit over $200 after dinner one evening (about 800 bales from 6:00-10:00 pm, it was cooler in the evening and we were able to basically operate at a run the whole time, the haystack was also right next to the field so no real transit time that day). Normal operations were a fair bit slower, and I feel your pain on stacking in a barn just way harder/more miserable.

Next real paying job was cleaning stalls and feeding horses when I was about 15-16. Don't remember what it actually paid, whatever minimum wage in Alberta was.

I quit that job for the summer and went back to my grandparents ranch where I was able to pick up a couple of horses to break from some fellows who would come out to visit/hunt/etc.. If I remember correctly it was $500 and a side of leather saddle leather flat rate for the two horse for about three months training. That was a good job quality of life wise. I spent about 2 weeks on corral work each and then would ride one horse for about an hour in the morning corral training and take the other for a ride up/down the mountains in the afternoon (saddle up; go pan for some gold - never really successful there, ride up and back from the neighbors who were about ~6 miles away, etc..).

After that I had did a little more horse training after school (and also the stall cleaning, feeding, etc..) at the same place my folks worked until I left for college. That was at around whatever minimum wage in washington was (we moved some). A few crap jobs through college.. nothing interesting.

First out of school full time job was as a computer programmer and have been computer programmer/network admin/systems admin ever since. Funny when I was a kid we didn't even have electricity or a phone at the ranch. Go figure. It was a lot simpler back then anyway.

[Jerome Stanek]

I remember gas wars where the price dropped below 20 cents. When I was out I didn't feel bad about pulling in and getting a dollars worth.

[Larry Browning]

I remember gas wars where the price dropped below 20 cents. When I was out I didn't feel bad about pulling in and getting a dollars worth.
I could cruise the drag all night on a $1.00 worth of gas.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

I remember gas wars where the price dropped below 20 cents. When I was out I didn't feel bad about pulling in and getting a dollars worth.

I changed those price signs a lot during gas wars.

I remember posting 7 cent gas.:eek:

[Rick Potter]

Bill,

You put up a sign for 7 cent gas?? You sure that's not when you LOST your first job?? :)

Rick P

[Larry Browning]

I remember 19 or maybe ever 17 cent gas during a gas war. It would then go back up to 26 or 28. I worked at a gas station when I was 16. It was about 3 block from my house. I would walk to work most days, unless I had something wrong with my car (quite often). The owner would let me put my car up on the rack and use his tools. I would work on my car in between customers. He had a pair of binoculars we would use to check out the stations down the street during a gas war. I also changed the sign during a gas war. Those were fun for me, however I don't think the owner enjoyed them very much. I'd come running in and "Mr. James, the Skelly down the street just went to 19. What do you want to do?" He'd say "Damnit, I can't afford that!" Then a few minutes later, he'd say "let's go to 18, and see how he likes that!". Those were the days!

[Jim O'Dell]

Yeah, I remember filling my motorcycle up during the gas wars for 17.9/gal. That would be in the late 60's. Jim.

[Matt Meiser]

My first job was cleaning the meat department at a local grocery store, about 1988. I made whatever minimum wage was and got a grumble from my boss when that increased. After a little more than a year I got a job at a regional auto parts chain where I got a number of raises as I passed parts of the training program. They brought me back a few summers while I was in college. Then I got a summer job for 2 years at Tenneco doing tech support for Monroe Shock Absorbers making maybe $8-10/hr which was pretty good money for a summer job.

[Eddie Watkins]

Heh inflation had kicked in some by the time I got there. Stacking hay was also my first outside the family paying job. By 1985 when I was 13 we were up to 27 cents per bale (split between the crew so compares to 6 cents when you were doing it - although this was also in canada so a dollar there was worth about 70c down here then if I remember correctly). Me and a friend were the crew, we had an old jeep and would block the wheel straight, one of us would run alongside throwing bales up and the other would grab and stack on the trailer. If it looked like we were going to hit something the guy on the ground would run up and turn the wheel. We got pretty fast and on our best day were able to pull in a bit over $200 after dinner one evening (about 800 bales from 6:00-10:00 pm, it was cooler in the evening and we were able to basically operate at a run the whole time, the haystack was also right next to the field so no real transit time that day). Normal operations were a fair bit slower, and I feel your pain on stacking in a barn just way harder/more miserable.

Next real paying job was cleaning stalls and feeding horses when I was about 15-16. Don't remember what it actually paid, whatever minimum wage in Alberta was.

I quit that job for the summer and went back to my grandparents ranch where I was able to pick up a couple of horses to break from some fellows who would come out to visit/hunt/etc.. If I remember correctly it was $500 and a side of leather saddle leather flat rate for the two horse for about three months training. That was a good job quality of life wise. I spent about 2 weeks on corral work each and then would ride one horse for about an hour in the morning corral training and take the other for a ride up/down the mountains in the afternoon (saddle up; go pan for some gold - never really successful there, ride up and back from the neighbors who were about ~6 miles away, etc..).

After that I had did a little more horse training after school (and also the stall cleaning, feeding, etc..) at the same place my folks worked until I left for college. That was at around whatever minimum wage in washington was (we moved some). A few crap jobs through college.. nothing interesting.

First out of school full time job was as a computer programmer and have been computer programmer/network admin/systems admin ever since. Funny when I was a kid we didn't even have electricity or a phone at the ranch. Go figure. It was a lot simpler back then anyway.
After I graduated from high school I went to work as a plumber's helper for $1.50/hr. I really liked it thru the summer but as soon as it got cold and water lines started breaking it got really un-fun. Guess who crawls under the houses to fix broken waterlines? A hint, it's not the plumber!! Between hauling hay and plumbing I decided there had to be an easier way to earn a living. I quit in January and went back to school majoring in accounting and computer science, a new degree program. I was in computers for nearly forty years. I started writing machine language and ended up with C and BASIC.

[Steve Clardy]

Mowing lawns for the neighbors.
Running a tractor [after we moved to the rented farm] for the landlord plowing ground.
Worked in a Phillips 66 gas station in tow. Pumping gas, washing windshields, repairing flat tires.

[Bryan Morgan]

Folding stacks of blueprints. Nothing impresses the ladies like smelling of pee from the ammonia. Back before all this terrorist witch hunt stuff we had prints of missiles and fighters jets and all kinds of cool stuff.

[Don Buck]

First real money came from my paper route in Hampton, VA delivering the Times Dispatch, I had one of the largest bike routes in the area (4 bike loads on Sunday's) and even won an all expense paid trip to Spain and Portugal as a carrier. First salaried position was working as a counsler at Boy Scout Camp Chickahominy (near Williamsburg, VA) making $15/week my first year (1968). I Co-Op'ed while in college, starting out at $2.32/hour based at a pulpwood yard in Henderson, NC. First job as a college graduate was mowing grass via a bush hog in the seed orchard of the Chesapeake Corp in West Point, VA which I believed paid $3.65/hr. And those "Occupy Wall Street" college grads think they have it tough today. Pay your dues and you will be rewarded...

[Carl Babel]

Another paper route carrier. I think that I made 6.5 cents per subscriber - per week (for a daily paper). I loved and hated that paper route. The worst was when they had a "subscriber drive": for one week, they would bring you a paper for every house in your area. For me, that was ~2,000 newspapers. Sunday morning, I woke up to see a mountain of newspapers at the end of the driveway. Must have been somewhere between 10 and 20 bicycle trips.
My second job was working behind the counter at a local donut store: Spudnuts. $1.50 / hour and all of the day old donuts I could eat.

[Greg Portland]

I started working for my parents @ 12 (as a cook during the summer). My first job away from my parents was working as a bike mechanic along a busy bike trail. I became very adept at patching tires and truing wheels (lots of collisions & punctures). That same summer I worked at a dive shop filling tanks, cleaning rental gear & doing some sales. Cleaning urine-filled wetsuits during the summer makes you want to work hard @ school :-).

[Gordon Eyre]

Thining sugar beets at 25 cents a row. The rows were long and you were bent over all day. I did learn to work which was worth a lot.

[Kevin Gregoire]

my parents owned a body shop and trailer court so my first job was mowing all the yards in summer and then scooping snow in the winter.
but i consider my first real job since my parents werent involved was a mowing job for the local trap shooting club. i did that for several
years.

[Mark Patoka]

As a kid my cousins and I would all help out when it was time to bale hay, younger unloading the hay wagon and the older would either be in the hay mow stacking bales or on the wagon stacking bales. I think Grandma paid the young ones 25 cents per wagon load.

Sophomore year in high school, my first real W-2 wages job at $2/hr was as a dishwasher/busboy at a local supper club. Didn't have my driver's license yet so rode my bicycle 3 miles each way on back country roads. Fortunately rec'd my license by the time the snow started flying.

Junior year went to work on my cousin's dairy farm. Senior year started working at my uncle's full-service gas station before everything became self-serve like it is now. Loved that job. Small-town, got to know everyone and the regulars. Our gas wars were with the Shell station across the street who was always 10 cents higher than us and this is when gas was just reaching $1/gal.

[Rick Williams]

baling hay at age 11 in 1961. $.015 a bale, $.02 if we put it in the loft. Hot, sweaty, itchy work. Did it all the way through high school with our QB and his older brothers when they were home from college during the summers. Also had a job as a carhop at the same age. Had to lie and tell them I was 13. Paid me $.45 an hour plus tips. Sophmore in high school started pouring concrete splash blocks for $3.50 and hour. Thought I had died and gone to heaven. Hard work but a good wage for 1966.

[Don Orr]

Like many others I worked on our farm at home doing whatever I was told. Feeding animals, putting in hay, cleaning barns, etc. All for room & board. Mowed a few lawns too for actual money. Helped out a farmer down the road around age 13 for pay doing whatever I was told-feeding animals, putting in hay, cleaning silos, etc. Then I got a steady job in the church cemetary cutting grass and burying people 6 days a week during high school, except winters when I would plow snow at the church. If I had a burial during the week the school bus would drop me off at the cemetary and my mom would pick me up on her way home from work. I also worked weekends at a banquet hall doing prep and washing dishes til I went off to college. Lots of different jobs since then. Been in current one for 18+ years.

This is a fun and interesting thread.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I shined shoes, delivered papers, mowed lawns, helped harvest corn and worked one summer for a haying contractor moving hay....from the field to stacked in the barn. Then I turned 15 and began working as a rough neck on oil rigs for my father working morning tower (2300-0700) and going to HS days.

[Bruce Page]

My first tax paying job was dishwasher/busboy at a steak house on Ventura Boulevard called Adams Rib. It was just up the road from some of the Hollywood studios. A lot of the Hollywood types ate there - I remember that Frank Sinatra Jr. was a great tipper.
I made $1.25 an hour plus a small percentage of the waiters tips.
Prior to that I worked summers for my dad as a surveyor chainman for $10 a day.

[BOB OLINGER]

My first job was for a local general carpenter right after graduating from high school - summer job. Pay was likely $4-5 per hr.

[Dennis Peacock]

Yea, I mentioned first real paying job as I grew up on a small farm and we all worked....for free...because we liked to eat in the winter months. We worked all summer and into the fall every year putting up food we grew so that we had food to eat over the winter. We had some money, just not enough to keep us going. We worked as a family and we survived as a family. My best memories are of us working in the summer putting up veggies, drying apples, making kraut, and eating cold watermelon. :)

[Jim Becker]

My first summer job was selling shoes at WT Grant...and I made less money than my 12 year old daughter now makes working at the barn where we ride and board our horses. :o

[David Keast]

Delivering newspapers every morning before school. I was 11 when I started, but that was in 1958 and I think rules were a lot looser then. I delivered to around 50 houses by bike 7 days per week, and was paid 2 shillings and sixpence per week. For those that dont remember the UK's eccentric currency system prior to it being revised in the 1970's, there were 20 shillings to a pound sterling, so that was a weekly wage of around 20 USD cents - which at the time bought quite a lot.

[Rob Cunningham]

My first summer job was selling shoes at WT Grant...and I made less money than my 12 year old daughter now makes working at the barn where we ride and board our horses. :o

Wow, WT Grant. Haven't thought about them in years.

[Randy Alkins]

Started a parking concession at a high class restaurant. At 16 had few buddies show up each evening and park cars for the customers and kept the tips. Ran business until 4 years later the restaurant owner wanted a cut of the income. Left him high and dry to fend for himself. On holdiay evenings we woudl drive the "drunks" home with their wives and park their car in the driveway for fee(usually a good tip as the husband could not see the denomination of the bill he handed us).

[Brian Loucks]

Digging septic tanks and wells by hand. I grew up in the Adirondack mountains of NY. No city sewer systems there! Fifty dollars a day, usually 3 to 4 days a week in the Summer, weekends in Spring and Fall. Sometimes I miss that jog.

[George Jungerman]

My first real job was working fishing boats. I started at 14, got $25 a day, plus tips. I worked boats for about 8 years, until I started working at Dow Chemical. I had to be at work at 0100, and worked until the boat was clean that night. Great job for a young kid, but real hard work.

[George Jungerman]

I remember those days. We were driving through Houston one time, and my Dad filled up for, I think it was about .13 a gal, then saw a station a mile or so down the road that had it for about .09. I remember him saying "maybe we should drain the tank and refill". Most of the time it was about .25 a gal, as I remember.

[Tim Livingston]

Ski instructor in the winter and built houses in the summer.

[Wade Clark]

I Worked as many here on family farms without cash pay so we'd all survive.
When I was in 7th grade, 1962, I got a job washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant, with 2 of my best friends. We took turns working school nights and usually were done before midnight. Weekends we'd work until 3am, after the bars had closed and the late crowd came in. We got paid $.60 an hour. I thought it was the perfect wage because from the dishwashing machine I could see a big clock and as the second hand rushed around the clock I knew I was making a penny a second! Made time fly and thought I was getting rich! While they cut us no slack, they also fed us like we were their own kids, with Chinese fare I've never tasted since... delicious! I remember a sweet and sour pork that wasn't battered, just thoroughly cooked meat and bones in a sauce dripping with flavor. Yum!
I worked in the hay fields every Summer growing up. The lucky years I worked for Grandpa... he payed me! He told me that if I'd work like a man he'd pay me like a man, so I tried to outwork any 2 men he'd ever hired! summer before my Senior year of high school he paid me $1.30 an hour, which was a nickel more than either of the adult men who helped him. But I earned it!
Had a lot of jobs after that, including a Zoo Keeper at the Kansas City Zoo. Did stone masonry for years.
Finally found my calling as an Auctioneer, have averaged over 80 Auctions per year since 1994. Now, I'm the Auctioneer for an Amish Produce Auction in Tennessee, sold $1.2 million in produce this year. I work April thru October there, then the rest of the year I work however needed (not auctioning) at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Great job and place to work! http://www.elephants.com

[Charlie Reals]

I Worked as many here on family farms without cash pay so we'd all survive.
When I was in 7th grade, 1962, I got a job washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant, with 2 of my best friends. We took turns working school nights and usually were done before midnight. Weekends we'd work until 3am, after the bars had closed and the late crowd came in. We got paid $.60 an hour. I thought it was the perfect wage because from the dishwashing machine I could see a big clock and as the second hand rushed around the clock I knew I was making a penny a second! Made time fly and thought I was getting rich!
While they cut us no slack, they also fed us like we were their own kids, with Chinese fare I've never tasted since... delicious! I remember a sweet and sour pork that wasn't battered, just thoroughly cooked meat and bones in a sauce dripping with flavor. Yum!
I worked in the hay fields every Summer growing up. The lucky years I worked for Grandpa... he payed me! He told me that if I'd work like a man he'd pay me like a man, so I tried to outwork any 2 men he'd ever hired! summer before my Senior year of high school he paid me $1.30 an hour, which was a nickel more than either of the adult men who helped him. But I earned it!
Had a lot of jobs after that, including a Zoo Keeper at the Kansas City Zoo. Did stone masonry for years.
Finally found my calling as an Auctioneer, have averaged over 80 Auctions per year since 1994. Now, I'm the Auctioneer for an Amish Produce Auction in Tennessee, sold $1.2 million in produce this year. I work April thru October there, then the rest of the year I work however needed (not auctioning) at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Great job and place to work! http://www.elephants.com

Very few get that experience. You are very lucky. The nature of my job allowed me to spend many many meals eating at " the cooks table" :)

[Chris Walls]

I grew up in farm country in Michigan and my first job involved working on neighbors farms. I weeded bean fields, put up hay , etc. Starting milking cows about that time. We would milk 35 head, clean up and be in school for 8 am class. Next job was at the local lumber yard, after school and weekends. Mostly moving lumber and other stock and helping with deliverys.
All good lessons for a young man.

Chris