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Childhood jobs - What did you have?

budman

budman

General Menace
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Joined
Apr 4, 2002
Location
Menlo Park, Ca.
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Keep me rocking life
Name
Budman
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AMA Life Member #203453
I needed money for models and rockets as a 10 yo so I started to hustle early.
First stuff was any yardwork I could get my Mom to pay me for. A nickel here, a dime there or a quarter if it took an hour.

At 12 I needed gas so I took my show on the road asking neighbors for chores. Mow, rake leaves, heck for one I picked up their doggie doo doo.

At 14 or so I did substitute paperboy stuff and I was good enough to paint and do other light construction stuff for my Dad's friends. Still did the odd yard work stuff of course. I did get an allowance from the parents but it did not cover all the stuff I wanted. Gas, comics, motorcycle magazines. I was living the high life. :teeth

At 15-1/2 I bootlegged my way into a busboy job at Sizzler a bit early. A buck sixty five an hour. I was rich with gas money! :laughing

Summers still did the paint and light construction stuff.

Then at 16 I bumped up to dishwasher. 2.25 hr. I was fat with scrilla then.
Parents still gave me 1.50 a day for lunch money. Had a hard time not spending a dollar of it on the doobie. :smoking

Summers now became working for Pop in his Architectural Office. I don't recall the pay, but I do recall riding the RD and parking in front of his office proudly.

I was a pretty lucky kid.
 
I delivered the Times Tribune from my bicycle as a 12-13 year old. Then played trumpet in "The Marx Bros. Band" at Great America in the 1994 season coupled with a few other random trumpet gigs in high school. Tail end of senior year, I worked at the Century Theater behind Flames on Winchester for a few months before shipping off to the Fort Benning school for wayward boys.
 
My dad worked on the tree crew for CalTrans. He also did tree work on the side, and I helped him out a lot when I was pretty young. Dragging brush, wrapping up his rope, cleaning up, etc. My main job was to stay out of the way, though, and I think he just liked having me along. I got school credit for some of it when I got older.

Moved out my mom's house 1 month after my 16th birthday, moved to Toledo, WA, and got a job on an apple tree farm. We grew the baby trees that got sold to actual apple farms. It was hard physical work, but the pay was actually pretty good for my age bracket. It was great working outside and growing something. Good for my mental health at that time. Did it for a little over a year while doing my best to stay in high school. My mom sent me the child support my dad was still paying so that helped.

Edit: Forgot about my job at Holland Aviation at Hayward Airport! Moved back to CA after a hard year in WA, and my aviation teacher got me a job at the airport. Sweeping out the hangar, cleaning and restocking the planes, picking up parts, driving the pilot's cars down to SJ Airport when they would deliver planes, etc. It was good pay, but mind-numbingly boring. The only cool thing was being so close to the aviation industry.

Got a job at Grand Central Sauna and Hot Tub Co. in Hayward before my 18th birthday. When they realized I wasn't 18 yet they wanted me out the door pronto. I managed to hang on, and worked there for a few years, bouncing between Hayward, Berkeley and the SF location. My sister and I were sharing a house then, and she got a job there, too, as did my other sister at the Mountain View property. Weird job, especially at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, but the pay was crazy good for a teenager trying to graduate high school.
 
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stratslingr77 said:
I delivered the Times Tribune from my bicycle as a 12-13 year old. Then played trumpet in "The Marx Bros. Band" at Great America in the 1994 season coupled with a few other random trumpet gigs in high school. Tail end of senior year, I worked at the Century Theater behind Flames on Winchester for a few months before shipping off to the Fort Benning school for wayward boys.
Click to expand...

Playing trumpet at Great America! What a cool job!
 
Mowed yards and washed cars in our Phoenix neighborhood, and posted for odd jobs at the local supermarket. We'd clean backyards, gutters, etc (9-12)

Delivered newspapers for a few years in my teens

First real job was when I was in the Boys' Home around 16, worked at Naugles.

Spent a lot of time in the kitchens of restaurants and diners in my late teens/early twenties first as prep then cooking.

Cleaned apartments for free rent in Wyoming.

Worked at a glass factory in Seattle, then started working on the docks off-loading fishing vessels. One of the biggest regrets of my life is not accepting an offer to jump onboard one heading back to Alaska.
 
Mowed lawns starting at age 10. Took the family lawnmower and weedwhacker, a pair of gas cans, and pushed them down the block, asking people if I could mow their lawns for $20. Did that for two summers and weekends until I had $1k saved up and bought a riding lawnmower to take on even more lawns. Got to use it for two weekends before it was stolen out from under our carport.

I also got a job that year as a concessions runner at the local events center. Pushing flatbed carts loaded up with hot dogs, cheese, soda pony kegs and post-mix boxes, candy, popcorn, etc. My job was to stock the stands before events, resupply them during events, and then tear them down after events. Paid $3.25 cash under the table for my time, got a raise to $3.75 two years later when promoted to head runner. This included football events at the stadium next to the dome center, rodeo and outdoor events at the rodeo center down the block, and festivals/fairs held in the parking lots of these venues.

At 14 I got hired at my first ISP as a helpdesk technician after school from 3-7pm, paid cash under the table for six months of work in the form of a used 386 CPU PC with a 20MB hard drive and 4MB of RAM.
 
My first job was a cashier and customer service for Hallmark at the local mall. Friggin $4.25 an hour. First day on the job was on black friday. Over the course of the job, I dealt with crazy people fighting over beanie babies, blew up balloons for folks for their birthday parties, helped cute girls hunt for cards for their moms, and wrapped presents. I worked this job for about 2 years through high school and came to hate every holiday.

I saw Brett the Hitman Hart sign autographs across from at the Giants Dugout once, and secretly wanted to go work for Victoria's Secret.
 
Lawn mowing and babysitting and then eventually the worst Grand Union Cashier in history.

I couldn't tell one vegetable from another and couldn't figure out what was taxable vs not back in the early 70s when the cash register was dumb but the cashier was expected to be smart.
 
I cleaned cars starting at about 12 then worked in an ce cream store. At around 16 I started working auto shows. In my 20s I supplemented my day income by working as. Jaeger girl.
 
Didn't do it for the money, it got me out of class, a bit.
4th grade, in Vandenburg Village, La Mesa grade school.
I was the purveyor of milk, I sold half pints, for lunch, drop a nickel,

I have done field work, harvesting tomatoes, prunes, and walnuts,
Led me into Mobile/RV industry driving forklifts, yard man, finally ended it with making beer.

One job, working @ Coachman, an ancient 3 ton forklift, huge & slow, it even would twist itself out of gear. going thru a slight dip off center.
There was a guy that worked on special projects that needed to be built, He had run of the place, no questions asked, Top Dog.

This guy and his helper snagged that ol' lift and headed out into the field for some job to do, and drove over a cement chunk, in the field. This has kicked it into neutral, stuck over that concrete, 4 x 4 lumber used to try and pry the weighted end of the forklift, off the chunk. Three tons of counter weight ?
I'm watching all this, with two of my helpers, Material Handlers, We as a team supply the production line with materials, our lift, is stuck. I tell my guys to stay and watch, I need to minimize what happens next.
I walk out, and climb on the lift, fire it up, crank the wheel over to one side, spin the lift off the rock, then park it, and walk back without a word.
 
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Sharpened ice skates and was the rink patrol guy at 14.
At 15 I worked for McDonalds until I got fired for telling my 20 year old boss to do something physically impossible.
After that it was restaurants until the automotive industry finally found me, consumed me and spit me out.
 
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Oakland Tribune newspaper boy from 10 to about 12 or 13.
Loved that job. $50/mo for working an hour a day 7 days a week.
At 17 I started at Best gas station on upper Broadway on Oakland on the graveyard shift 11-7.
That’s when full service gas stations were still a thing.

I set up a TV in the office because we never got any customers between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM.

Got robbed one morning at gunpoint.
 
Flipped bicycles, mainly 10-speeds, before moving on to motorcycles.

Was a sub paper route carrier for a buddy. SF Examiner when it was still a major afternoon paper. Weekdays were easy, but Sundays... gawd. Could only take about eight at a time in the over-the-shoulder bags, and his route was all apartments. A workout, for sure.

Waxed cars in the summertime... Palo Alto Times had a deal for schoolkids to run ads for free at the beginning of summer. "Be the envy of your neighborhood. Have your car waxed. Reasonable rates."

Delivered meals, similar to Meals on Wheels. Great afterschool gig. Paid $7.50 for about 1 1/2 hours work.

Parts dept at House of Honda. Dream gig, but was only there for a month, before getting recruited to Pop Kenyon's / Honda Peninsula, where I stayed for 2 1/2 years. Best job ever.
 
At 9 started mowing lawns around my neighborhood. From 13-17 I washed dishes and bused tables at a local restaurant. From 16-18 I worked at a ski area, first in the parking lot than as a ski instructor. My restaurant and ski gigs overlapped and that sucked having two jobs that were 80 miles apart. Lots of driving and very very long days.
 
3 Paper routes over 400 papers.
apt. tennis court maintenance
McD fry slinger
Woolworth stock boy and 10-key jockey. Easter was the worst.
Shoreline golf course cart boy and range picker
PA airport mechanic's grunt and plane polisher
Machine shop drill pusher and all things fab, except welding
Drafter/detailer, civil
Heavy nuclear industries shop rat, rebuilt all hydraulics (4M T rams) and control panels
Back to machine shop to pay for engineering school

Probably forgot some and did not include basic gardening or babysitting.
 
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