How old were you when you first began making some money?

[NNN0LHI]

I was 12 when I began caddying at Olympia Fields Country Club. Used to hitchhike about 10 miles to get there every morning. Didn't make a lot of money. But it was steady work through the summer and occasionally you would get lucky and get to go out with a big tipper.

That's where I learned how to smoke and gamble too. Lagging quarters with a Marlboro hanging out of my mouth. The caddy master didn't care. He was smoking and gambling right along with us.

Don

[Tunkamerica]

1. 15.

Ice cream shop/restaurant. Worked as a dish washer, then later as a "scooper".

[Odin2005]

38. HA! I worked at a ma-and-pa ice cream place when i was 15, too!

Worked the till and made the ice cream cones and malts.

[DJ13]

2. 11

late 60's, worked for a lady from 5am to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays at a swap meet in Orange County selling pottery from Mexico.

Made $50 per day.

Worked for her until I turned 18, by then I was making $300 per weekend.

[shanti]

23. hey!

from one OC'er to another :hi: that was pretty good money for a teenager back then.

[DJ13]

27. Well, my family actually lived in Paramount

My parents sold at that swap meet (old twin screen drive in near Anaheim Stadium), thats how I got there.

But I still have fond memories of OC.

:toast:

[Odin2005]

39. Wow, that was good money back then!

that would be, what, $300 a day in today's money?

[seabeyond]

3. 12. my parents bought a couple small businesses. i was babysitting for about a year. nt

[Speck Tater]

4. I was about 11 or 12 when me and some friends built a kick-ass koolaid stand

We lived only 3 blocks from a popular lake, so we set up our stand on the beach and made 20 or 30 dollars a day. That was in 1956, so that was BIG money for kids back then.

[EFerrari]

5. I was 12, too. My mom bought a restaurant

and I learned how to wait tables. Actually, before then, I started baby sitting when I was 8. I was the oldest kid on the block and I must have had an honest face.

lol

[Book Lover]

6. 13

Chambermaid for the summer resort hotel that my father was the head chef for. Eventually I moved up into running the laundry department. That's where I learned that hard work has its rewards, but is not inherently ennobling. It's also where I became radicalized, though I didn't have the words for it back then.

[CoffeeCat]

7. My father owned fast-food restaurants...

...in malls.

I began working there when I was eight. By the time I was ten, I was waiting on customers, running
the cash register and counting back change and doing most of the things his high-school help was doing.

The experience was invaluable.

It still bothers me today, when you go into a grocery store or Target--and they hand you back
your change and they don't count it back!

[Roon]

55. I have a learning disability in math

And I was horrible with counting my change, let alone counting back change.

Then I got a job at a "cash only" weekly motel as resident manager. The motel took in about a grand a day and believe me, I had to figure out a way to learn how to handle money or I am going to lose my apartment and job. So I practiced in my head all day. If the bill was X amount and he gives you X amount of money,how much change would he get and would you count it back? I would do this all day.

Today? It's simple for me, I can handle huge amounts of cash all day long, even though I haven't done it in years.

I still don't know my multiplication tables though....

[lazarus]

8. 13 or 14

loading 50 pound bags of dog feed at my uncle's store. Then hauling hay on a friend's farm as I got bigger. My first "real" job, with a time clock and pay check, was at 16. I turned 16, bought a truck with my mom's help, and immediately got a job at the local Dairy Queen as a cook. Kept that job for 2 years, until I left for college. Still hauled hay for extra money on weekends and afternoons when I wasn't working at the DQ.

In the meantime, my 18 year old can't keep a part time job handing out samples at the local Farmer's Market because it's "boring". I'm about to cut off the allowance.

[madmom]

9. 12 babysitting & mowing lawns, 15 working in an ice cream shop.

[liberal N proud]

10. 12

I was mowing lawns at 12, working on the farm (baling hay and walking beans) at 13 and bagging groceries at 15.

[stevedeshazer]

11. Zero

I win.

[NNN0LHI]

18. Which just goes to prove the first liar ain't got a chance

:rofl:

[stevedeshazer]

19. Bingo.

:)

[Kurovski]

12. 10.

I cut grass and passed out flyers for KFC. I drew some posters for an uncle. I held-up banks.

Just kidding.

Did you attend Rich Central?

[NNN0LHI]

15. Graduated from Bloom in 1973

[shraby]

13. 7 or 8..picked strawberries for 5 cents a quart.

My mother and my aunt took turns going to pick cause one had to watch the younger kids (2 for each) and I went every day to keep the continuity so when picking for money was done, they could pick what was left in the field to can it.
Also picked raspberries for 10 cents a quart for the same reason and same conditions..they were harder to do cause the darn berries would settle as I picked. Gramma showed me how to "fluff" them before I took them up to the stand for my dimes. What was about 3/4 of a quart would become a full quart.

[spanone]

14. 11

[JCMach1]

16. 7 picking nitecrawlers for Grandfather's business at .25cent a cup

YUCK!

[Kali]

17. 9 or 10

Ironing for my Mom
12 or so - babysitting
13 or 14 - typing bibliography cards for my father

all my life - my Grampa "paid" me for "helping" him on the ranch, usually at the end of summer

first "on the books" job was waiting tables, then a pet store

[shanti]

20. 16

my first job was carl's jr. in south santa ana (ca) as a waitress. we had to wear hose, a white polyester nurse's type dress and shoes, a rubberized green frilly apron and a little hat. :eyes: i drove back and forth to work in my aunt's hand me down '55 chevy bel air. that was in 1971. oh, and i think i made $1.75 an hour.

[bpositive]

21. A long time ago

Depends on what you mean by money. I started taking out garbage for the elderly for change when I was 8 YO. Worked my way up to shoveling snow for neighbors at age 10. Worked under the table bussing tables at 13. been working a number of jobs since. Now I am a professional working in the insurance industry.

[Snarkoleptic]

22. I used to detassel popcorn at age 14.

Hard work w/ low pay but a great character builder.

[customerserviceguy]

24. If you don't count my paper route, or college work-study jobs

then I was 20 when I got my first "real" job. Only $525 a month in 1976, but I thought I was finally joining the working class. My then-wife got a job a few months later, and we got ourselves to thinking that we might be able to buy a house. That didn't happen until 1979, though.

[David Zephyr]

25. 12 also.

Before that I'd mow yards with my neighbor's son.

But at 12, I'd pick up golf balls at a driving range for pennies on the hour.

By 15, I was working at the local pharmacy after school.

[Skittles]

26. 12, babysitting

[appleannie1]

28. I started babysitting at age 9 across the street from where I lived.

[DFW]

29. That depends on what you mean by "some"

When I was in my early teens, I used to mow lawns, help out my dad in the National Press Building during school recess,
but I don't consider my self to really have made "some" money until I was in my mid-20s, when I had a decent steady salary,
and could afford to pay for stuff I really wanted (vacations with my girlfriend, buy guitars I wanted, etc.) all on my own.

[flvegan]

30. 10. I had 2 paper routes.

365 days a year. The winters sucked. Heading out before Christmas presents sucked more.

[ThomasQED]

48. Same as me. (nt)

[TBF]

31. 6 -

I grew seeds from grapefruit in dixie cups and sold my "trees" around the neighborhood. Some of my mom's friends still have them.

But in terms of actual jobs I started babysitting at 12.

[proteus_lives]

32. 15.

Shoveling shit in the Arizona heat.

[LostinVA]

33. 12

[Old Codger]

34. Same

Almost exactly the same, same age, same results,except playing blackjack instead of lagging. Woodhill Country Club, outside of Wayzata Minn.

[Subdivisions]

35. My first real job was at 15. I worked for a brick company reclaiming

used brick from demo sites. My job was to knock off all the old mortar with a hammer witout breaking the brick. These would then be used in antique brick projects. I made a nickle for each brick I cleaned.

[Odin2005]

36. 14, working as a summer assistant janitor at the local school.

[X_Digger]

37. 9 or 10 as clean-up / gofer on a construction site in the summer.

On the weekends, I'd mow lawns and cut brush for spending money.

[madokie]

40. somewhere around the first or second grade

picking blackberries for a nickel a gallon to help buy school clothes

[sakabatou]

41. As a job? 16 or 17.

Worked as a part-time martial arts instructor.

[Booster]

42. I'm going to assume you mean started making "real" money,

I worked for my Mother in her record shop when I was in High School. But real money: that started when I was the highest paid legal secretary for one of the large TV networks. I went from that job to a union job for the same company and my salary went to FIVE times what it was before. As you can imagine, I am totally for unions and this country needs them back RIGHT NOW.

[Bitwit1234]

43. I worked in a christmas ball factory and made $25.00 a week in

1949 at the age of 16 ready to turn 17. I thought I was rich.

[Hardrada]

44. 9 Shoveling sidewalks and mowing lawns with a push mower.

Later at 16 moved up to working part time at a Five and Dime Store opening boxes in the back room and stacking shelves. Same summer I did house painting too. I miss being young and doing all that so eagerly.

[Ter]

45. 20

I was a spoiled brat if there ever was one.

[Chipper Chat]

46. 11 (in 1951)

Worked Saturday mornings at a nursery. Mostly weeding the tomato plants. It was hard work. And hot. I dont remember the pay. Maybe 20 cents an hour.

[csziggy]

47. 14 - made custom lead ropes for horse people

I had my customers buy the materials so they'd get the color, size and type of rope and snap they wanted. Then I spliced the ends. Charged 50 cents per splice. That was in the mid 1960s so it was not bad pay, considering that it took me about five minutes per splice unless the rope was very tightly twisted.

I had done baby sitting a few times earlier in life, but I hated it except for one family that had a couple of wonderful kids.

My first hourly pay job was at 19 when I worked for the public library. I made less there than I did splicing rope but the work was steadier.

[MilesColtrane]

49. I'll let you know when it happens.

[era veteran]

50. 13 mowing yards, good money, 15 first real job, sorting

bottles by hand for Coca-Cola @ $1.60 an hour.

[Regret My New Name]

51. 45... I' m a late bloomer.

[Hannah Bell]

52. 12 for babysitting, 15 at a fast-food place.

& before that i cleaned my room for allowance money. lol.

[Roon]

53. My first job was delivering the daily newspaper when I was 13

Got up at 5am...rubber banded my papers,and hit the route. Halfway through the route I would come home and get my second load. Every once in a great while, on big paper sundays, I would come back for my second load and my Mother would have the car all loaded with newspapers and ready to go and she would drive me. Then we would go get dough nuts. :-)

They didn't bill by mail back then. The carrier had to hit the route after school and collect. That was the first time anyone has ever written me an IOU. My brother and sister were wonderful though,they would often collect for me because they enjoyed it.

I delivered papers for about a year before I burned out and quit. It just sucked, I was making money, but I was out delivering early in the morning every damn morning without a break.

I started delivering papers again a few years later when I turned 16,but I had a CAR now!! I had to give it up after a couple of months though because I kept falling asleep in class. You know how teens are with sleep! I started working at a brand new Skippers after that.

It's kind of sad,the newspaper companies don't let kids deliver any more. I don't know if it's because they tend to be unreliable or if it's just too dangerous for the kid, etc.

[Jeanette in FL]

54. 12 babysitting

For neighbor kids at night. I used to get a 1.00/hour

Been working ever since, though I make more than a 1.00/hour nowadays.

[Roon]

56. My 14-year-old cousin has a babysitting client

that pays her 8.00 an hour!

[Arkansas Granny]

57. When I was 12 I started doing some babysitting. I had my first full time job

at 17, right after I graduated high school.