What was your first job?

[Syntyr]

First job that generated a tax form was a Herfey's Hamburger joint--
It got robbed one night at closing-- I promptly resigned.

For about 6 months I ran a Tilt video games center. I had to deposit 2000+ dollars in quarters every night. There were bagged in bags of $500. I figured that if someone tried to rob me they wouldn't get very far very fast cause those suckers WERE HEAVY!!!

[Syntyr]

McDonald's...Working there pushed me to go to college.

Grandy's... Same thing. Worked there for 2 years and decided I was getting no where! The only positive was that the family cat LOVED to stick her head in my work boots when I got home at night. Smelled like chicken grease...

[Syntyr]

Paperboy at a Formula 1 racetrack, age 14.

Okay I am officially jealous!!!

That would have been awesome!

[stroo]

Picked strawberries and sold them. That's how I made my first dollar when I was about 10. Did a lot of blueberry picking, onion topping, flower planting and lawn mowing until I was 16 and got a job as a gas station attendant. Actually pumped gas, washed windows, checked air pressure, etc for customers. That kind of job doesn't exist anymore.

[The Annoyed Man]

So if you are a good person or you feel certain laws aren't important or are outdated, they don't have to be acknowledged. I see.

Don't put word in my mouth. What I said in a nutshell is the law, as it stands, is ridiculous. If you want to be the one to phone the Feds about snatchel's job as a yoot, by all means go ahead.

[mojo84]

I stocked gloves and candy during the summer at Strike-It-Rich in Odessa. Was only 9 or 10 but they cut me a check anyway.

[WildBill]

McDonald's...Working there pushed me to go to college.

Grandy's... Same thing. Worked there for 2 years and decided I was getting no where! The only positive was that the family cat LOVED to stick her head in my work boots when I got home at night. Smelled like chicken grease...

If you call that a positive, go for it.

[The Annoyed Man]

I stocked gloves and candy during the summer at Strike-It-Rich in Odessa. Was only 9 or 10 but they cut me a check anyway.

Where is the federal government to butt in when you need them to?

Lawbreaker!

[ARblitz4077]

Six Flags Astro World face painter. Loved that place!

[Syntyr]

McDonald's...Working there pushed me to go to college.

Grandy's... Same thing. Worked there for 2 years and decided I was getting no where! The only positive was that the family cat LOVED to stick her head in my work boots when I got home at night. Smelled like chicken grease...

If you call that a positive, go for it.

Hey I didnt say I LIKED it... ut for some weird reson she loved it. It was like catnip. She would roll around in my boots and then flip and just wiggle around. First time she did it I thought she was having a siezure!

[LabRat]

I worked in landscaping.....back in the early 70's when folks liked that white rock around the shrubs in front of their house.
I moved the rock by wheel barrow to the house. Summertime work, North Carolina, hot and muggy. Those were the days......

[teri]

At 14 I started working for my Dad in his machine shop. I was in charge of the packaging area for our government contracts (me and my sister until she got fired, LOL). I learned at an early age how insane our govt can be and why products purchased from contractors were so ridiculously high. I was paid by the piece and my first paycheck was $16 and I rushed off to the store to spend all but $1 of it on a transistor radio with black alligator looking covering. I worked very hard because I didn't want the other employees thinking that the boss's daughter got preferential treatment, not to mention my dad was harder on me than the rest of his employees. This prepared me and has served me well in my career.

Within a year I was running the lathe and drill press...by then making all of $2 an hour. I wasn't aware of the laws then and I wonder what the lawmakers would have thought of the 6 months I went home for dinner and would come back and work until 9 or 10 pm for free because of the financial difficulties the business was going through. My dad did not ask us to work for free...my brother and I volunteered once we found out he was going to put in those extra hours himself. I hated going to school the next day finding aluminum shavings in my hair from sanding burrs off the parts. And I didn't think my hands would ever come clean! Knowing what I know now...I'd do it all over again. We had fun there.

[WildBill]

At 14 I started working for my Dad in his machine shop. I was in charge of the packaging area for our government contracts (me and my sister until she got fired, LOL). I learned at an early age how insane our govt can be and why products purchased from contractors were so ridiculously high. I was paid by the piece and my first paycheck was $16 and I rushed off to the store to spend all but $1 of it on a transistor radio with black alligator looking covering. I worked very hard because I didn't want the other employees thinking that the boss's daughter got preferential treatment, not to mention my dad was harder on me than the rest of his employees. This prepared me and has served me well in my career.

Within a year I was running the lathe and drill press...by then making all of $2 an hour. I wasn't aware of the laws then and I wonder what the lawmakers would have thought of the 6 months I went home for dinner and would come back and work until 9 or 10 pm for free because of the financial difficulties the business was going through. My dad did not ask us to work for free...my brother and I volunteered once we found out he was going to put in those extra hours himself. I hated going to school the next day finding aluminum shavings in my hair from sanding burrs off the parts. And I didn't think my hands would ever come clean! Knowing what I know now...I'd do it all over again. We had fun there.

That's a great story. Thanks for sharing it.

I have a different memory of my first check. First, the amount that the government took out! The first thing I bought was a Gruen watch. After that, I saved almost all of it for college. I cleared $35/wk [I only worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights], but I saved enough to pay room and board for my first year at college.

[Oldgringo]

Okay, first job was pumping gas for $0.50/hour in a fillin' station in Harrisburg, IL at age 14. That was when regular was $0.21-25/gal and ethyl was around $0.35-.45/gal. Pumping gas also included washin' windshields, airin' tires, fixin' flats and washin' cars. I had to know how to make change for the sales and/or services.

Diesel and kerosene was about $0.17/gallon. A pack of Luckies was a quarter out of a machine. Did I mention that neither my Mother nor any of my friends' Mothers worked outside the home and I walked to and from work and school?

My parents were children of the Great Depression and couldn't come up with a HS diploma between them. I wish they were still here. I'd like to thank them and ask a whole lot of questions now that I'm old enough to listen and learn.

[WildBill]

Did I mention that neither my Mother nor any of my friends' Mothers worked outside the home and I walked to and from work and school?

Uphill, both ways, in the snow?