CONFESS!!!! What was your first real job

[LynneSin]

Mine? I worked at Farm Family Restaurant over on Front Street in Harrisburg, PA. I was so desparate to find any job that would take me out of Perry County and I ended up there. It was basically fast food chicken but on Tuesdays & Thursdays they had "All You Can Eat" chicken. It was funny when we'd catch people stealling hoards of fried chicken and trying to leave with with. One lady stuffed it down her shirt and seriously, you'd think we'd not see that.

[ceile]

1. Checker at Sun Harvest (TX health food store)

Came in one day to check my schedule and the doors were locked. Apparently they had closed and did not bother to notify half the staff. Cool first job though. It's where my addiction to blueberry cheesecake bars started. We had a big bulk section and for some reason corporate thought blueberry cheesecake bars would make a great addition...

[JTG of the PRB]

2. I worked at a movie theatre the summer between my junior and senior years of high school.

It was fun at first because I worked with a handful of friends from school, plus free movies and free popcorn are good things. Then a total dickwad of a new manager came in and within six weeks the entire staff had turned over 100%. I would have stayed working there through my senior year if they hadn't brought in that dickwad to run the place (into the ground).

I heard he got fired after he came in drunk on his birthday and had a physical altercation with a customer. Shame I wasn't around to see that one...

[struggle4progress]

8. I worked at a movie theatre briefly in high school. I still remember the eternal hotdog that

rolled around on the little metal rollers under the bright warming lights, dried out and wrinkly; every night, when we closed, we tucked it back in the fridge, and somebody would put it back out on the rollers the next day

[madinmaryland]

3. Bagger/Carryout/Stocker at a grocery store, junior and senior years of

high school.

NOT a teabagger.

[Brickbat]

4. I was an operator standing by to take all those 1-800 calls.

[tabbycat31]

5. camp counselor

[Kali]

6. Danny's Pepper Tree in Anchorage, Alaska

Danny and one of the cooks got busted for drugs, including smack

All those good ol' boy construction workers that used to "darlin'" me for another cup of coffee were narcs!

sometimes I can be so clueless

[MiddleFingerMom]

7. Dishwasher at an Elk's Lodge -- brought in by my two buddies to help cover a wedding reception...

.
.
.....ended up drunk and stupid from all the beer pitchers we cleared while
people were dancing (open bar -- they didn't care).
.
Worked there Fri & Sat night for almost 2 years. They would fire all three
of us for one good reason or another (we weren't, ahem... "model" employees)
damn near every other week. We came to expect the phone calls that invariably
come on Thursday evening telling us that they would "let" us come back if we
promised to behave.
.
We would. And honest, we meant it. Really. Oops, slipped again.
.
.
.
Two stereotypical diner-style beehived 40-something hot divorcee waitresses
who teased the HELL out of all three of us, mentally and physically.
.
We kinda didn't mind at all.
.
.
.

[Tobin S.]

15. My first job was as a dishwasher, too

I worked in the cafeteria of a NCR school four hours a night Monday through Friday. I was making $4 an hour and thought I was in tall cotton. Minimum wage at the time was something like $3.35 an hour. I worked with an old guy named Gib who chewed tobacco while we cleared the dirty dishes.

That school is no longer there and Gib died years ago, but I will always remember my first job and how I hated mopping floors.

[guitar man]

9. I worked on the neighbor's farm

Every day for cash when I was too young to legally work. But, my first job with a paycheck with taxes and SS and all that jazz was in 1979 when I was a sophomore in high school. Dishwasher at Walgreen's restaraunt at Edgewater Mall in Biloxi Ms. 3.10 an hour was min wage then IIRC.

[Bertha Venation]

62. Heh. We are the same age.

Or have I pointed this out before? Shit, I can't remember anything.

Enjoyed seeing your photo the other day.

[guitar man]

71. yes we are :)

Interesting times we have grown up in without a doubt

[blogslut]

10. Car Hop

Ninety cents an hour. I think I was 14. Biggest tip day was my last. I made five whole dollars.

Then again, when I was eleven I appeared in an outdoor drama and got paid a whopping $250.00 smackers at the end of the run.

[Iggo]

11. Stock Boy at Casa De Liquor & Deli. (n/t)

[Archae]

12. The Sign Of The Fallen Arches.

McDonalds, 1976.

[here_is_to_hope]

13. Packing ice into bags for a nickle each...

1972...
I could a 100 bags in 4 hours, I was 11.

[Mike 03]

14. Burger King Fry Boy

I was trying to earn money for college and got a job at Burger King for about nine months. Got in some trouble for running "hot wheels" cars through the broiler. Then it was on to bigger and better things, happily. But I loved working there and met some interesting people and had some good times.

[trackfan]

16. Sorting negatives at Drewry Photocolor labs. $2.90/hr., plus

a 10¢/hr. shift differential because it was swing shift.

[tekisui]

17. Bus boy at Fuddruckers.

[realisticphish]

18. I worked at a water testing lab

we contracted to businesses and waste water treatment plants to help them conform to EPA standards

Ironically, I was born and raised in Perry County, but in Ohio, not PA

[femmocrat]

19. Besides baby-sitting.... I worked at the concession stand in a theater during HS..

I liked working there, but got tired of seeing the same movies over and over. The concession stand was inside the old theater, not like the multi-screen theaters today.

[Taverner]

20. You mean one that paid my bills? Peace Corps.

But my first JOB JOB was at a Mexican Restaurant in San Jose called Miguelitos.

I still long for their shredded beef burrito - man that was good!

Place doesn't exist any more....

[bluedigger]

21. Another dishwasher.

Class A restaurant run by the stereotypic restaurant family. Husband was an alcoholic, and ran the books and the bar, wife was an overbearing shrew who ran the front room (and thought everything else), and the son was the cokehead head cook, chasing the waitresses.

It was between my junior and senior years in HS, $2.35/hr with 60 hour weeks working daily split shifts and no overtime or tip sharing. I made it six weeks, I think...

[blue neen]

22. PIcking blueberries for a local farm market

I wasn't very good at it.

[thirtiesgirl]

23. file clerk

File clerk at a small, local cash register repair business when I was 17. I got the job through my high school Spanish tutor who worked at the cash register repair place part time as an accountant. She recognized that I needed a little independence from my mom, so she convinced the business owner to hire me for $5 an hour. I mostly worked weekends for a few hours, filing old paper bills in their outmoded file cabinet with actual manila files for each client. It was THE most boring job ever. I usually brought my Walkman (yeah, that ages me ) and a bunch of tapes, and would work until I'd finished listening to them. I only had the job for about 8 months, and once I was 18, I started working at the local record store to put myself through college. They wouldn't hire anyone under 18, but as soon as I had my birthday, I applied and got the job. I was much more interested in records than bills and filing cabinets. I managed to pay for college on $6.25 an hour.

[Bertha Venation]

63. "I managed to pay for college on $6.25 an hour." -- Wow.

That is quite an accomplishment!

[MorningGlow]

24. Late afternoon/evening receptionist at a nursing home

My mom was office manager. She drafted me. I was 15. I begged to work at McDonald's instead--she was what you could call a tough boss. To put it mildly.

It started me on a LOOOOONG line of part-time and temp jobs answering phones and being treated like dirt (as the low man on the totem pole of every business that everyone enjoyed pushing around). I. Hate. Answering. Phones.

[nolabear]

25. Working in my grandparents' cafe. I was thirteen. The clientele were shipyard workers.

Wolves, this is a lamb. Lamb, these are wolves. That's where I learned that hot coffee is a form of self defense.

[tinkerbell41]

30. What were they thinking???

Lord, at least u survived

[El Supremo]

26. Window man at Jack In The Box.

We did not add up individual items on the cash register. We memorized a list of combinations of items (there were only a few different prices) for the total and added a penny of sales tax for each $0.25. We only rang up the total. Then we figured out the change to give back.

I sure like to see any kids today do that!

[blueamy66]

33. They couldn't do it.

I also worked at Arby's....before they had computer screens with the orders on it for the sandwich maker(s). The cashiers would call back the sandwiches on a microphone and we'd throw the appropriate bun into the toaster....that is how we knew what sandwich to make. Great times!

[Iggo]

41. I worked window at Carl's Jr.

Can't make money unless you work the window, know'm say'n?

(gawd, i can't type tonite)

[El Supremo]

42. No

[Iggo]

43. Yeah, me neither.

[tinkerbell41]

51. Yes I do!

I was taught that trick by some unsavory girls, I worked with at a KFC. Cha-ching!

[Bertha Venation]

64. What's the trick?

:clueless:

[Iggo]

67. Back when I worked at Carl's, a large Coke was $1.01.

That's just askin' for it.

[El Supremo]

68. I assume it is shortchanging the customer.

I liked working the window to see the chicks. I had a trick where I'd "accidentally" drop the change on the ground so I could check them out when they got out of the car and bent over to pick it up. Hey, I was an adolescent!

[Iggo]

72. You assume wrong, sir.

[tinkerbell41]

73. Wrong!

That would be horrible.

[tinkerbell41]

74. i'll never divulge

It's something I would kick my kids butt for.Not proud of it in any way. But it did NOT involve ripping- off customers.

[Ineeda]

27. Motel chambermaid at 15 yrs old

Gross and eye-opening. I lasted a summer.

[tinkerbell41]

28. White Castle

Craziest place I've ever worked. This place was open 24/7 on the "strip" where all the bars were, about 2 miles from the Concert Arena, only food place to go after a show at the time.
At 16, and never really having been "out of the house" this place was a mindblower.
We would get girls recreating wet t-shirt shows on the tables when the bars closed, hookers begging for food, after the pimp pocketed their money outside, WWF wrestlers would come in, Roddy Piper? The Chi-lites after a show, when the DEAD played all the deadheads would come streaming in.
It was a full weekend of shows so we had them for 3-4 days. We had drunks throw smoke bombs along with witch whistles into the store, and all the workers would scurry. You never knew wtf would happen.
All of the local vagrants, and mentally-ill, drop in center was 1/2 block down. These are fond memories, really opened my eyes. I would like to go back, but the dynamic has changed. There are now food places by the Arena, the bars aren't so booming anymore. But the hookers are still around.
And NO I never told my parents about these adventures. They probably would have made me quit.

[El Supremo]

37. Fantastic!

I don't believe you.

All we had at Jack-In-The-Crack were some Bozos who liked to climb up the light poles to knock out the parking lot lights. Guy got tied of shooting them with rock salt from a shotgun, so we wrapped barbed wire around the poles.

My gross-out was finding used condoms in the parking lot when I had to empty the trash and clean it up.

[tinkerbell41]

48. No totally true.

My gross-out was finding a dump in the corner of the guys restroom. Or puke. Why they couldn't use the toilet is beyond me.
The most exciting thing was when this Michael Jackson impersonator came in (1983) mind you, he was so good so realistic, us girls almost burst into microparticles. Considering everything else that came in, it was a possibility!

[MrMickeysMom]

47. Loved that one!

I don't blame you from hiding it from your parents, either...

[triguy46]

29. Lifeguard. I was a little dictator with a whistle. Its so embarrasing.

[blueamy66]

31. Hickory Farms at a mall during the Christmas season

It was my first real paycheck and I loved it!

Think about the snackies I had!

[JonLP24]

32. Data Entry

for a rebate processing company.

Before that I was an intramural junior high basketball referee. I also did a refed a few volleyball and flag football games. The pay was $15 a game and had to deal with parents which to my surprise are very intense and get very upset at the refs at the basketball games. I could understand if it was the official school team but these were just intramurals.

[Broken_Hero]

34. Bakers assistant,

putting icing on donuts, putting bread/cookies and what not out on the shelf, plus all the cleaning involved.

[Phentex]

35. Health Food store, which is funny now...

but I learned a lot.

[av8rdave]

36. A 60,000 bird chicken factory in northeast Ohio

I have many fond memories of standing thigh deep in chicken &^%$ with a shovel in my hand...

But I was making a whopping $1.25/hour. Woo Hoo!

[MilesColtrane]

38. Busboy/Dish Washer at a seafood restaurant

It was nasty.

I quickly knew that I never wanted to work at a real job ever again.

[stray cat]

39. Chopping down monster weeds in a soybean field ie bean walking

[Inchworm]

40. I give this one chick a job...

and she blew it..

Best day evah!

[Bertha Venation]

65. In the words of my fabulous hillbilly spouse:

You ain't right!

[applegrove]

44. I had a job in a teahouse on top of a moutain in Lake Louise. We cooked, cleaned, waitressed each

for 3 hours a day. It was great. No electricity. No assholes (assholes apparently don't hike 2 1/2 miles up a mountain). I showered in the waterfall every morning. And I learnt how to really enjoy working very hard every day. The only downside was when the whole place was evacuated because of a rogue mother grizzly one day and I was left there alone to watch the turkey cook in the wood stove. LOL! I was terrified. Of course the bear never showed up.

[pinboy3niner]

53. That sounds like Lake Agnes

What a beautiful place to work! I hiked there many years ago. The teahouse was closed at the time, but I was greeted by a marmot at the stream. I had sandwiches and a beer in a backpack, and the beer was chilled after only a few minutes in the stream. And after hiking those switchback trails all the way up, those may have been the best sandwiches I've had in my life.

It's probably a good thing nobody told me at the time about the grizzlies.

[applegrove]

54. Yes it was Lake Agnes. A beautiful part of the world. And yes the teahouse was only

open from june to October so it veryv well could have been closed when you were up there. Were you there when the tea house was a log cabin? I was there the summer the stone wall around the base was built. 1983 I believe.

[pinboy3niner]

55. It was 1974

I'd driven up to Expo '74 in Spokane, then into Canada to do some camping and hiking. It was Summer, and I don't remember why the teahouse wasn't open that day. I hope it wasn't because of grizzlies.

[applegrove]

57. We never saw grizzlies at the tea house. The one they evacuated for

was in the trash bins of the staff quarters of the Chateau Lake Louise. Because she was a problem bear they shot and hit her. Then she ran away with her cubs into the mountains behind the chateau. So they flew up some men with rifles to the tea house, collected all the hikkers, and marched everyone (except for me with the turkey in the oven) down the mountain.They couldn't find her because they were looking for her with the helicopter and I could tell that the helicopter had no idea where she and her cubs were. I can't remember what happened to her in the end. I didn't sleep a wink that night.

[cherokeeprogressive]

45. I baited hooks.

I wound up quitting before achieving the lofty title of Master Baiter though.

[MrMickeysMom]

46. I worked for 2 weeks before being fired...

Cold calling for Arthur Murray in a back room with a bunch of other teenagers, one who actually didn't fuck off like we did.

My real job after that which I did work at was salad lady in Morrison's Cafeteria, making about 1.45/hour

[Luciferous]

49. Drive thru at Taco Bell. I was 16 and I only lasted 3 months.

[sakabatou]

50. Martial arts instructor

[csziggy]

52. Part time library worker - I don't remember the exact title

I worked at the front desk of the university library checking out books. Their new improved system used IBM punch cards in each book and the student IDs were punched. We fed the cards and IDs into a machine to get them on record and stamped the books, put the cards back in the books and it was done. When the books were returned, we fed the IBM punch cards back into the computer. Sometimes I got to ferry cartloads of books to the various sections of the library for re-shelving.

One of the more exciting things that happened was some students decided to steal books. One opened a window on an upper floor and threw books out to a cohort outside. The defect in the plan was that with roads and sidewalks completely surrounding the building, their activities were easily witnessed. And there was also the fact that one of the books he decided to steal weighed a lot and the guy outside ended up with a broken collarbone. Campus cops arrived about that time so he got a lift to the medical center.

[bluesbassman]

56. Construction - Summer between 8th and 9th grade.

Helped on an apartment project in Oakland. Saved all my money to buy one of these:

[axelfox]

58. Secretary at a health desk

as a desk jockey for a nurse's office.

[petronius]

59. Food sales at Disneyland (nt)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

60. Telephone sales at the local semi-rural branch of Sears

We had to make 8 contacts per hour. If no calls were coming in, we had to cold call people who had ordered from us before.

I HATED cold calling, and to this day, I will not volunteer for phone banks. I will leaflet and door knock, but I will not cold call.

[Bertha Venation]

61. fast food -- Del Taco, Unit 69, corner of Atlanta and Magnolia in Huntington Beach, CA

Loved every minute of it. Well, not really, but in retrospect, it was a great first job.

[Heidi]

66. Intern reporter at a Gannett newspaper.

I was 17 and it was a big, big, big awakening.

[tk2kewl]

69. repairing copy machines

[Orsino]

70. Teaching high school chem/physics...

...in a private Christian academy. Half students boarded, so I had plenty of after-hours dorm duty to keep me busy.

When I later enlisted in the Army, it was for much higher pay.

[mnhtnbb]

75. Nursing unit clerk at the local hospital the summer after I graduated HS.

I would fill in for the clerks who were taking summer vacation so I floated all over the hospital:
med/surg, ortho, ER, Postpartum...worked day shift. Some days I'd end up assigned to two different floors and I would run up and down the back stairs, splitting my time between units. Did it for 3 summers until I stayed in Los Angeles the summer before my senior year at UCLA.

The one overheard comment I remember to this day was in the ER. One of the docs was flirting
with one of the RN's. He told her, "If I take you to lunch, I'm taking you to bed."

Yowza. I was 18 and this was 1969. I didn't tell my parents everything about my day at work that day!