First Jobs - How old, and what did you do?

[corvettedad]

I was the youngest of 3 brothers, we ran a paper route with the help of our mother, her driving one car my oldest brother driving the other. 400+ subscribers. My first job on my on was working at a restaurant busing tables. Hey it bought gas and clutches.

[Barry Donovan]

I swore I answered this here some years ago.

anyway:
picking grapes for mrs. moffett... rhode island. I must have been ten or so.
paper boy woburn mass.. age 13. I was a senior airman in the air guard in the mid 90s.. before the pay matching pay of a paper boy in middlesex county mass. (richest county in america for decades - sorry So Cal.)

my first tax paying job.. I needed permission from a guardian. That was a shoe factory. old town maine. I was 16. It must have been 1989 something.
I was the last man standing. A joke as i could not sit down setting up shoe lasts.
I saw that one go bankrupt.. no more shoe makers in the area.
I worked a milloinaires horse farm. he disappeared after bankrupt.. found him years later on the net in Indonesia with the same name and horses.(old italian mob guy)

I then worked two lumber mills.. those both went under, never came back.
I worked as classic lumber jack..wlaking to delimb etc...
that is extinct now too.

upon the "futuristic" hope of US air force..1991. gulf war. I ended up being the last of the cold war trained on kc135... my education record still has buck sergeant written as a rank.

not sure what it is with my age group. I am only 49. Cold war trained and watched it die... like the soviet union. Watched classic work go extinct...and yet watched my own age group invent Google, and Elon Musk come out of nowhere, on and on.

Quite a ride. Too much good to feel bad.
I still drive an old gen 1 sbc around, rowing gears..as my daily.

good tune

[gconnsr]

I started cutting grass at a pretty young age. Can't say I ever liked hitting a time clock.

[steve308]

From 9th thru 12th grade - Club cleaner / shoe shiner / range ball picker at the local golf course. Joined PGA apprentice program as a junior in high school and had a 20 year career in the golf business.

[V12guy]

Started off with a paper route, didn't have to collect though (about 10) Next job was dumping trash and mopping in an office building. (had to go to each secretary and empty her basket) 3.50$ per week.
Then I hit the big time, but it would give away my I.D. too easily, and half of you wouldn't believe it anyways...
(hint- look at my avatar)
Then a few years in the "Seabees', and well, here we are

[Cruisin]

Yep 850 Fiat Spyder.....if I remember right it was a 72 was a very fun car when I could keep it running. That picture makes me groan when I look at it but in my years as a trainer/supervisor it also served to remind me when I was frustrated with my pups that I was young once and just need to take a deep breath and keep putting their feet back on the path

[DanStokes]

That looks like a Fiat 850 Sports Spyder (I rebuilt an engine in one of those when I was working for the Fiat/Triumph/Volvo dealer so it looks familiar) though the car identifying part of the pic is limited. My buddy Jimmy (RIP) had one. If you knew the mass of a Jimmy you would know how truly silly that was. He was in Toyota pickups by the time I knew him.

Dan

[70chevyC-10]

Had a paper route for awhile but first real job I had was enlisting in the Air Force 17 years old Christmas of my senior year heh they put me out to pasture the end of 2003 after a bit over 24 yrs (lost my worldwide readiness due to a spinal cord injury and surgery) lol this pic was from about a year or so in.....

Thanks for your service. I'm going to take a wild guess - was that a Fiat ? Bout time for a haircut there airman.

I remember my brother came home from Vietnam (dog handler) in about 1970 and his hair was a bit shaggy (longer than above). At the dinner table my Dad asked "when you gonna get a haircut?" and my brother shoots right back "when I gotta part it to take a shit" (as he leaned out of arm's reach) - I kid you not. I spit my hot dog out of my mouth I was laughing so hard.

[Cruisin]

Had a paper route for awhile but first real job I had was enlisting in the Air Force 17 years old Christmas of my senior year heh they put me out to pasture the end of 2003 after a bit over 24 yrs (lost my worldwide readiness due to a spinal cord injury and surgery) lol this pic was from about a year or so in.....

[Turbo Regal]

16 years old got a job at the local McDonald's. After 3 weeks I decided it would be better to quit than be arrested for felony assault. It was then I discovered I was NOT a people person. Right after leaving Micky D's I landed a job at Disneyland, probably the coolest job I ever had since I worked behind the scenes and didn't have much contact with the general public.

I got my first real job at McDonald's, too. Had to get up early and make the biscuits and would come home covered in flour and eggs and smelling like a French fry. My folks let me quit when the summer ended.

[milner351]

Paper route for several years - boy I can't recall how old I was when I started, but it was years before driving age, I got paid $9.50 a week for delivering about 35 newspapers before 7am 6 days a week. The news agency paid us so we didn't have to collect door to door.

Mowed anywhere from 6-10 lawns a week for around $10 each.

Then worked for a guy up the block that had a pool - it was then I swore I'd never have a pool and I've stuck to that - too much damned maintenance. He was the guy that had me wax his air conditioners, and put rain-x on every single window in the house! Yea - he was the very definition of anal - he had a bucket of sand in the garage and an oily rag. Every yard tool that got used was run through the bucket of sand several times to be cleaned, then wiped down with the oily rag before putting back in its place - so nothing rusted. Needless to say I'll never forget that guy - Mr. Portman - he owned several McDonalds franchises. He had a Riviera and a 280Z I washed and waxed them both every two weeks!

My first REAL job was at GIANT AUTO SUPPLY for $3.35 an hour, part time - Junior and Senior year in HS('86-'88)....
one entire paycheck was required to buy the Hurst competition plus shifter for my 70 mach 1.

[JOES66FURY]

So much talk about paper routes here....I wanted one, they were all taken. I trained on one and relieved a guy one time who was away for a week. Spyder bicycle with 50 pounds of newspapers hung from the handlebars, there I went, could hit a porch pedaling at 50 yards, the best arm ever..... And guess which week it was? The week to collect the money. (See the Dan Stokes post far above).

Collecting was the worst. Customers would get behind for weeks so you had to pay for them out of your tips. It was nice when they finally did pay you because it was yours to keep but often times I would have to stop delivering their papers.

We had to put the papers in the doors so the kids who delivered for The Beaver County Times had to walk their routes.

One customer did not pay me for a few months and one day I finally got her to the door. She said she did not have any money to pay me but offered me a bicycle in trade. I pulled out this great old Schwinn out of her basement. Red white and blue, spring seat, headlight, horn, balloon white walls...I was in love. It had 2 big baskets on the back so I could ride my route...just rode hose to house.

It was not fun, looking back it was terrible...especially in the winter. trudging thru 2 feet of snow to give some old codger a news paper became less and less appealing to me as time moved on.

[antmnte]

I worked in an Italian deli slicing cold cuts and making sandwichs and stuff and taking shit from the older guys. I didnt make much but I ate for free.

[silver_bullet]

I didn't add hauling hay or feeding cow's that was normal wear and tear , no pay. Yeah everyone needs to fill a barn with square bales, whole new perspective on work for a kid! They need to still be doing it if just for the work ethic

I agree...being from a farm family, haying, milking, and other things are just chores for your keep... that's why Sean is such a hard worker... yeah, he got the Xtreme at 16, but, ask him... he worked his butt off for it! never got an allowance, but always got fair credit for what he did do... he works 40+ hours a week, and still helps at home... we are very lucky to be blessed with a wonderful son!

[silver_bullet]

Worked at the local feed mill sweeping floors and stacking feed bags.... they had a feed pellet mill on the top floor so the cleanout was always my least favorite job of the week... also worked for the local trucking company cleaning the shop and on weekends...(wait for it)... steam cleaning the livestock trailers... shitty job, but at 50 bucks per trailer, it paid pretty well for a kid with a fresh driver's license and a head full of ideas back in the seventies... that and snow removal during the winter and mowing during the summer pretty much kept me busy, but, not completely out of trouble...

BTW... started at 9 or 10...right after my older brother got his license... dad passed when I was 14, so I needed something to do in a town of about 1000 people other than play pinball in the bar... three bars in that small of a town... if the bars happenned to get the same pinball machine, the summer really sucked!