Tell me about your first job WINNER PICKED

My first job was cutting lawns (self employed using my dad's mower in the summer). I also had a paper route. When I was around 14, I worked for a local carpenter who was remodeling the old farm house where he lived. He had a timeclock in the kitchen and I would punch in and out.

I lied about my age at 15 and began working as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. I wanted to work so I could pay for my dirt biking needs, and then later my automobile needs.

best

mqqn
 
At fourteen I started working at a convent altar bread department full-time through the summers, primarily as a baker (baking communion wafers and hosts) but sometimes as a cutter (cutting out the same, one at a time). The ovens were like pressurized waffle-irons, some plain and others with the circular designs engraved in their plates (agnus dei, crucifix, IHS, etc.). Each baker was responsible for 2 or three ovens per shift, starting at 6am. It was hot, steamy work, and the gummy by-product that squeezed out of the ovens every time they closed was gross, but-- nothing like the jobs a lot of you guys have described.

(Sorry, Frank: my only tools were tongue depressors to scrape the gummy gook out of the oven gutters every time they were closed, and scissors to trim the sheets-- though I wish I could find a picture of the cutting machines, the round, sharp hole punches in various sizes, and wonder now if/how they were sharpened.)

While the bakers were baking, the cutters were cutting, punching wafers out of the humidified baked sheets from the day before. At the end of the morning and into the afternoon, everyone gathered to count and roll and package the day's finished wafers in waxed paper-- like counting and rolling coins, only much more slippery.

My parents required me to save half the money I made; my first summer of work, I used all of the other half to buy my first guitar, a Guild I still have.


(Thanks for the contest and the thread, OP. I'll let others have a [better] chance at the knife; not an entry. :))

~ P.
 
Summer I turned 14 I started in with the family business, construction, locksmithing and security products. You know those heavy iron bars on people's windows in bad neighborhoods? That's our line of work.

I started out at $4 an hour post-taxes, eventually got my way to $10 (about $14 in the real world). Hot enough most summers to sweat through a leather belt, you always have at least one or two cuts and deep scratches that are healing, and there's always dirt under your fingernails. I worked in about every neighborhood Detroit and Toledo had to offer, saw my first shooting victim dead on his porch at 15, and beat the cops to the site of break-ins more than a few times. I blew my knee out in '09 and went to work the next day in a brace, worked 6 weeks on it while it healed. We all got close to heatstroke every so often- there's only so much you can do to prevent it when it's 98F, 90% humidity and you're working in the direct sun/

Honest work, paid for private high school and my undergrad, but tough as hell. Gatorade never tasted so good.

ETA: Almost forgot the knife side! The two primaries for about eight years were a Buck 450 (basically a rubber-scaled 112) and an Old Timer 8. Branched out a bit after that.
 
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Not in, My first job started at home helping my dad in the garden. We would get up around 6 or so I recall always a lot of weeding and hoeing I can still remember the feeling of the earth between my toes. The best part of that was the fruits of my labor at the breakfast and dinner table! I loved fresh tomatoes and cucumbers! In the fall it was out in the woods cutting firewood and gathering kindling. As I grew older my younger brother and I would haul hay for Mr. Doughty during the summer for a nickel a bail. Hot work that but swimming in the spring nearby was always looked forward to! I sure miss those days, things were simple and straight forward.
 
I'm in!!! My first job was at a pet store. I would have to stick my arm up to my elbow in fish tanks and count out feeder fish for people and also get fish out of the tank. I would have to stick my hand in a box full of crickets and count them out as I got stung by their legs, I also had to feed them to the reptiles and I was scared to death of the spiders. I also had to feed pinky mice to the snakes. Ewww. :(
 
Not an entry please, but I'll join in the fun.

I got my first job at 16 years old working in a downtown music store. I stocked the record racks and ran the register in the record department, always on the lookout for someone trying to pilfer a 45.

On occasion I was left alone and had to extol the virtues of instruments, pianos and organs to prospective customers. I was in High School and worked Saturday and one or two times a week after school.

If it was really dead in the store and all work was caught up I was allowed to pull a guitar off the display and entertain myself and maybe some pretty high school girl browsing the records.;)

I used the money to pay for guitar lessons and gas for my Honda motorcycle.The shop manager always let me park my bike inside one of the back alley loading docks. I appreciated that as it was downtown and things were always subject to vandalism. I always had a pocket knife on me, usually a small Old Timer stockmen and used it to cut open shipping boxes of records or instruments.

Thanks for the contest, Leatherman.

Here's that knife I was using in 1966. A little wobbly and she's has been retired.
DSC01971 r.jpg
 
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Started at about 10 years old mowing yards. Did that for a few years just for extra money then went to apply for my first real job the day I turned 15. Had an interview that day at an amusement park. Was informed that they had reached their limit of under 16 employs. Went back to mowing yards for a year then went back the day I turned 16. Started the next day at the same amusement park working food and beverage in a pizza shop. Tennessee summer heat. 90s-100s temps with extreme humidity, working a shop that had a 500 degree pizza oven that was half the size of the building all with no air-conditioning. To date with the few jobs I have worked it is still one of the most difficult I have done, but also one of the most fun. Girls everywhere and free admission to ride all I wanted during my off times. The only way to make this any better would be if beer flowed from the water fountains.
 
I was 13 when i had my first REAL paying job,i helped my uncle dig the footings for his new engineering workshop..Most of it was rock and in the middle of Summer..It was a real eye opener to hard work..it took us 3 weeks and he gave me $300...Id never seen so much money in my whole life! and yeah i bought a knife and ammo for my .22 and wasted the rest...Started my apprenticeship at 15, was a tradesman at 20 and been a Wood Butcher (carpenter) ever since...............................FES
 
pwcb2005 said:
My first job is still my job. I have been a plumber since I was 17. I only had stockman knives with broken tips that my dad gave me until I went to work as an apprentice. I was at a hardware store one day and bought an "industrial" lock back knife for work. It cost $11. I thought being "industrial" meant that it was a "professionals" knife. My master carried a yellow case trapper and he literally cut everything with it.

To do plumbing work, a good knife is essential! I saw my master ream out a hole he drilled in a fiberglass tub with his Case knife. It worked fine. I later tried another tub with my knife and the blade actually bent! He laughed at me and said to get a "real" knife. Later, when we were at another hardware store, I was looking at the Case knifes in the display. I asked to look at my masters knife and it was a large two blade knife which i found out later was a Trapper. My father had always just carried medium stockman knives so this was a new thing for me.

In the display there were two trappers. A purple one and a red pocketworn one. I asked my boss which one to get and he said he would get the purple. It was $32!!!! I only made $5.15 / hr. then. That was a LOT of money for a knife! I went ahead and bought the purple trapper. i didn't want to carry it but he convinced me to since it was a tool of the trade. Later that same year, he lost his trapper and I bought him the red one for Christmas.

I still have that knife, and used it for many years but now it sits in a display as a sentiment to my first (and only) real job and my first "real" knife. I have bought several Case trappers since then and I never do plumbing work without one in my pocket but that one is my favorite. My boss eventually lost his red bone trapper after carrying it for 10 years and I bought him another in blue bone. He carried that knife everyday until he died in 2010. He was buried with the knife still in his pants pocket. He also had a snuff can in his shirt pocket.

I think of him everyday. He was a great man and a wonderful person to work for. He was like a second dad to me and I have since become a Master myself and now I have an apprentice. The day after his first job with me I gave him a Case trapper as a gift because he did such a good job. I also told him to NEVER do any plumbing without it!

Thanks for reading. Sorry so long.

Paul
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Great post, Thanks! Sounds like your Boss was a lot more than just your employer. Way to keep the tradition alive. Cheers to you both.
 
Not in for the knife

Earned a bit of pocket money doing chores around the house. Got my first real job at 16 as a lifeguard, working over christmas season. Was a fantastic job and paid better than any other job I could get at that age. Continued to do it when I was 17 and 18 after finishing high school. Did it again this past christmas season, at the age of 21, I'm 22 now. Don't let anybody fool you, lifeguarding can be tough work, dealing with a lot of rude, sometimes very drunk people, especially on public holidays! It's good pay though, and I got to surf in my lunchbreaks :cool:. When I was 19 I worked at a mining company as a vacation geology student for my one month of July holiday, since I'm studying geology, it was nice to learn what I'll be doing when I finish my degree. This past christmas season, inbetween being a lifeguard and the previous christmas season I drove a tractor, cutting grass for the local horse paddocks. Hard, dirty work, no idea what I was getting paid until I was paid, but a nice satisfying job. Learnt how to fix basic problems on that old tractor. Always carried some sort of pocket knife with me when I worked, except when I was going to swim or do beach patrol

I love working. It gives one great satisfaction. I love working with my hands, in the outdoors, and I'm not scared of manual labour
 
festerfromnzed said:
I was 13 when i had my first REAL paying job,i helped my uncle dig the footings for his new engineering workshop..Most of it was rock and in the middle of Summer..It was a real eye opener to hard work..it took us 3 weeks and he gave me $300...Id never seen so much money in my whole life! and yeah i bought a knife and ammo for my .22 and wasted the rest...Started my apprenticeship at 15, was a tradesman at 20 and been a Wood Butcher (carpenter) ever since...............................FES
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When Georgie Best RIP one of the first superstar highly paid professional soccer players and inveterate bad boy was asked what he'd done with all his money he replied I spent most of it on booze, fast cars and loose women ,the rest I wasted.
I'm enjoying reading these accounts. Wondering if the kids of today are working like this at such young ages. My eldest son is now the age that I was when I joined the firies. I had my 21st whilst still in training college with my new found team of reprobates.Mind you he works hard and has a lot more money in the bank than I ever did.
 
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I'm in.

I first started working with my dad, a professional painter and finish carpenter, when I was about 8 years old. I didn't go to work with him everyday, but I did go about 30 days a year, at $5 an hour. I got a raise from him when I was about 14, and now when I work with him I make $10 an hour. I always carried a Stanley utility knife and until I was about 13, I carried my SAK Sentry. Now I carry a medium stockman, my GEC or Case, and a Leatherman. I still have the same Stanley on my belt.

My first job that paid checks was as a caddy, which I started this summer. I rose very quickly through the ranks because I came in every day and, as a fellow caddy put it, am "one of the top five caddies at Red Run." I made $1000+ in two month's time, averaging $9-10 an hour. I love caddying, it's great to be out there enjoying golf and meeting people, and making money as well.

Here's the knife I take with me, wrapped in a microfiber washcloth to keep out sand. The ashtray it is resting on has the crest from the country club I work at.



Did I mention I live along the edge of the course? It's great for my reputation to say hi to members from the backyard. :D

Thanks for the chance,
Connor
 
My first paycheck, albeit a seasonal one, was at my church's summer kids program. It runs essentially the full course of the summer vacation. It's like school in that it's a fairly large program (averaging 70-80 kids) and they are split into different age-based classes. 3 days out of the week we are on the church campus where we have games, crafts, and other activities. The other two days are field trip days. One is to a location of note, like the zoo, or the interactive kids museum, or the ice rink (a good choice for summer). The other is to one of Hawaii's fine beaches (to be clear, I'm from Hawaii and so we don't fly the kids out to Hawaii everyday to splash in the water for 10 minutes before leaving for the airport again).

My first year not as a volunteer but receiving a check was fairly simple: I was more of an office assistant and I helped to keep things going smoothly in there. The other year I did it, I was a class leader. This meant hands-on with the fighting, screaming, and general kid chaos. It was the first time since second grade that I've had a second grader scream at me. But, it was a time of personal growth for me and I know that the time I spent with these kids wasn't wasted. So, while it was harder than I imagined, I was also blessed more than I thought.
 
Alright guys, I went over to random.org to find a winner, and it spat out the number 13, so the knife goes to.......................CJZ! Congrats Chris, pm inbound. To everybody that participated, thank you all so much for sharing your good and bad first-job experiences. I loved reading through all of your stories. Thanks everybody for entering and telling your stories, and sharing a little wisdom too.

Edan
 
LeatherMan64 said:
Alright guys, I went over to random.org to find a winner, and it spat out the number 13, so the knife goes to.......................CJZ! Congrats Chris, pm inbound. To everybody that participated, thank you all so much for sharing your good and bad first-job experiences. I loved reading through all of your stories. Thanks everybody for entering and telling your stories, and sharing a little wisdom too.

Edan
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Sweet, thanks! :D

VM inbound.
 
Congrats CJZ. Great idea Edan, and very generous too. It's been great to read all your experiences folks :)

(Of course, you do realise I started work dahn pit as a babby! ;) :D )
 
aye. well ah wokked in t uranium mine as an unborn foetus.in me mams belly. aahhh them were the days.
Actually I shouldn't laugh about that.
My grandad (god bless and rest him) lost the sight of one eye in the Nottingham coal mines as a young man in the 1930s.
Caused by a flying shard of metal from some machine or lathe or something.
The judge(who had the word Lord in front of his name and probably never got his hands dirty with work) in charge of the case for what passed as compensation back then deemed it unneccesary to pay him compensation because he hadn't "lost" the eye- i.e it was still in the socket.
Anyway congrats CJZ and great thread. Some good tales in there -how things have changed in just the last 20 years.
 
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