Open Thread Update: Your First Jobs
Last time we opened the floor to first jobs and what we learned. Most folks started around 15, but Reader James gets the Early Bird Prize.
I started working at 12 years old for a distant cousin in his Machine shop cleaning the floor and washing part for 25 cents a hour and only worked 1 hour a day.
-James
We also learned about some first gigs you likely will never see again. Vegetable Girls (Nancy L.)? Pump Bunnies (Marlene D.)? And how about this one?
My first job was galley hand and cleaning fish for people who went out deep-sea fishing on my father’s boat.
-Paula M.
I saw that my real job was to lie over the phone to the many customers who were home waiting for their work to be done… I learned a lot of curse words.
Lucy I.
First Jobs and First Bosses
First bosses got a lot of love. Reader Sandy B. cites her first boss as a clerk-typist at the LAPD…
Our supervisor was a retired Marine, and she ran the Bureau like she was in the military. It was the best thing to happen to me
-Sandy B
And what about all those skills that seem almost quaint now, like the one that scored Reader Nancy a part time secretarial gig…
My first paycheck job was Part Time in the Faculty-Student Association at the college I was attending. So proud of my 120 wpm steno skills…
-Nancy
My first job was working on a plugboard switchboard answering telephones…
-Barbara
Last Thoughts on First Jobs
We’ll close with this great reminiscence.
My first job was working the Concession stand at the Ascot Drive-In Movie Theater. I’d cook hamburgers, put them in foil bags under the heat lamp. I made popcorn and french fries. When the movie was playing it was slow. My boss and I would chit-chat and smoke cigarettes, back when you could smoke anywhere. Sometimes I would play the pinball game they had. It was kept unplugged because it was broken in a way that everyone got a free game. Watching the movies was fun. It was a great first job.
-Elizabeth R.
Sure sounds it, Elizabeth!
Please read all the comments about first jobs and add your own! Thanks to all the commenters – keep ’em coming!
Original column below:
I started working at 13. Unlike many girls that age, it wasn’t babysitting – I had an office job after school. My high school friend Vicky was quitting, so one day we walked to a small office near Columbus Circle and she introduced me to Miss Drum.
In retrospect, I owe Miss Drum an apology. I could answer the phone OK. But the money was in typing out the order forms for customers for Marcal Paper products, and I singlehandedly kept the White Out company afloat.
Oops, I Did it Again. And Again…
Miss Drum was a bottle redhead with cat’s-eye eyeglasses suspended by a chain. I”m sure she stayed late to retype my forms. I was amazed at how fast she was, even on a manual typewriter. If she typed any faster she’d achieve liftoff and power right through the ceiling of the dinky office.
Maybe she stayed late because the gangly high schooler with the bad teeth and the worn out pennyloafers touched something in her. She was unfailingly kind and patient. I’d show her the latest atrocity I committed and she’d take a ladylike puff from her ever-present Parliament, tap it gently on her ashtray, adjust her sweater clasp (the office was chilly) and say, “That’s okay dear, here’s another form. Just take your time.”
After I left for the day, I imagined her retyping my mangled forms in a matter of nanoseconds, neatly putting a plastic cover over her Remington, buttoning up her cloth coat and going to her efficiency apartment for a martini.
She earned it.
I was not her apprentice. Even then I knew I was going to earn my living on a typewriter – but not typing someone else’s words.
But I will always remember her patience with an awkward young girl..and how she taught me to take the time to do things right the first time. I’ve been working for 55 years now, in dozens of jobs. I could have done worse than start things off with her.
Your Turn
But that’s me. How about you? What was your first job like? What lessons did it teach you? Share your story in the comments!
Virge Randall is Senior Planet’s Managing Editor. She is also a freelance culture reporter who seeks out hidden gems and unsung (or undersung) treasures for Straus Newspapers; her blog “Don’t Get Me Started” puts a quirky new spin on Old School New York City. Send your suggestions for Open Threads to her at editor@seniorplanet.org.
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Comments
My first job at 16 was typing affidavits for the NJ Law Journal. They hired high school boys to deliver papers to law offices (hence the affidavits). I remember taking the bus downtown after school. I cannot remember what I made but the job paid for all of my senior activities: prom (including my gown), pictures and class trips. And of course, the almighty SHOES from the 34th St. Bootery in NY!
First jobs? Wow! Takes me back. My first job was housesitting with a nine-year-old. I was 12, and had been recommended to a recently divorced woman who did not want her child mingling with the children of factory workers during the summer. So, I “sat” with her daughter in a nice house all summer. And I used my skills as an older sister to communicate successfully with the nine-year-old.
My first real job was working as a page in my local branch of the N Y Public Library. That is someone whose primary job is reshelving books and keeping them in order. The head of that branch was someone for whom I worked, in the same branch, later as a librarian. Eventually I actually worked for her at another location when we were both in higher positions. To this day I still wonder if anyone in NYPL ever worked in three different capacities for the same person.
My first real job was in East Los Angeles in a non profit Hospital Medical Records clerk. I had a Wonderful Supervisor Linda M. thought me a lot. Trained in all desks in case one coworker was out we knew what to do, pull charts for Dr’s to sign for when Join commission will all will be in order Type Birth certificates make sure all information was correct. So many tasks .I really loved the job we work together, we all share and had a good time like a big family. The Best Boss was the glue
The first job I had that took out taxes was working for Hiram College a couple of months during the summer delivering the mail and putting together print jobs. I was 15. Learned how those plastic spines with the teeth are put on making a cookbook for the college! Worked with another girl I went to high school with. We had a good time walking the campus delivering mail to the different departments in that were in century homes. My Aunt was the boss.