What Was Your 1st Job - Any Stories

[gab13by13]

Junior in high school, worked at a grocery store, the owner was strict, he did the meat cutting, hands were like bear paws.

I stocked shelves, packed groceries, carried them out for the customer: 2 experiences

1. Carrying groceries out for an old geezer to his Studebaker, got to the car and a ferocious raccoon inside the car wouldn't let me near the car, I backed off.

2. Shouldn't give teenagers box cutters. One night I took a #303 can of DelMonte peas, took a #303 can of Hershey's chocolate syrup. I took my boxcutter and carefully cut the labels off both of them and then switched them with scotch tape.

Trying to figure who was the most surprised, the person who opened the peas with a can opener but found chocolate syrup, or the person who punched a hole in the peas looking for syrup? I never heard a peep about that but my fingerprints were all over the scotch tape.

Sorry, don't spank me for putting this in the wrong forum, I don't know how to switch it now.

[RazorbackExpat]

1. Delivering newspapers for $1 a day

36 subscribers to a small 6-day local newspaper, 1968

[hlthe2b]

2. I posted this earlier in a Floyd D. Turbo Lounge OP, but it probably fits here too All my professional jobs pale

--in comparison to my first week at this job I held in high school...

I'm going to age myself, but among my first jobs was working the catalog department at Sears in a new store/new mall that faced out to a very wooded area beyond the parking lot and was closest (within the store) to the garden/hardware department. Well, among the bizarre occurrences on day 2, was a deer buck that did not see the glass and ran directly through and literally over the counter--just missing me and one other--and then just as quickly jumped back up and outside the now broken glass.

So, day 4 of the same week (with glass taped/boarded over), a big, burly guy goes to the hardware/garden department, grabs a chainsaw on display, and proceeds to run out that same glass door, but not before menacing those of us still vigilantly staffing the catalog counter. Shortly thereafter, the store security and supervisors (whom WE had called) chastised us for not stopping the guy with the chainsaw. Yeah, right... Just like we were going to stop the deer buck.

So, yeah... crank up a chainsaw (or follow the deer buck into and out of the store).

Oh, and that doesn't even include the stories of people taking full advantage of Sears' (then) "no questions asked guarantee" and bringing in 30-year-old mattresses (does it REALLY take 30 years to decide if you like a mattress or not)... and having to process as well as TOUCH (yuck) things like that. Oh my. Better the nut with the chainsaw...

[RoeVWade]

3. First job was for my dad.

Worked as the janitor in his office. I made some mistakes. Used too much "Mop & Glow" on the bathroom floor and it was all sticky when people went in. Also, thought, do I really need to dust under objects? They just sit there. Apparently so. A few other things.

I got let go! (fired). Well, it was a lesson, you know. Nobody died!

[Scrivener7]

4. Burger King

Back in the days when you had to wear these groovy uniforms and you had to sing the song if a customer asked you to.
We used to get to work early to meet up and go down the street to McDonalds for breakfast. In the uniforms.

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[Bobstandard]

5. Dishwasher and busboy when I was a senior in high school

The manager made a point of giving me some advice on one of my very first days. “Watch out for some of the waitress. Getting involved with them (and here he gave a significant eyebrow raise) won’t end well.”

Sure enough, I ended up losing the job and another thing you only lose once. I’m grateful still. But I did take his advice for subsequent jobs.

[usonian]

6. After lawn mowing to buy baseball cards,

Tutoring (high school?) and then Mickey D's.

About this time!



I saved my pranks for later jobs in aerospace, where they were spectacular. Waiting for the statute of limitations to expire!

[Attilatheblond]

7. Saturday receptionist/assistant at the photography studio on the Hueneme SeaBee base.

Kinda boring, no fun stories, but I did learn some stuff about photography and how important good record keeping was.

[Walleye]

27. My father had a little photos studio when I was growing up.

He did all kinds of commercial things, including home, snapshots, wedding pictures, portraits, etc. I learned a lot too, and went on to make a living as a photographer

[Attilatheblond]

41. Hmm, I went on to date a photographer, many years later

Learned how to switch from left brain thinking to right brain thinking, which seems to be how most of you artists seem to function. It was a good exercise to see things as he saw them, without applying words to the task in my head. One does lose track of time when that left to right thinking switch is thrown. Interesting experience.

edited for typo

[Vinca]

8. I was a parttime cashier at a Kroger Grocery Store in high school. The only things I really remember from

the experience were when my high school history teacher was arrested for shoplifting and when I let some of my friends by booze. LOL.

[Haggard Celine]

9. I cut yards.

I've never worked that hard since. And it was hot as hell, always in the sun. Thus began my love affair with air conditioning.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. Paper Boy

Had a huge route, 120 houses. Made like $50-60 a week in the 80ss which was a lot of money to a 12 year old.

After that, a local greasy spoon family restaurant bussing tables and washing dishes. They had a waiver to not pay minimum wage so I made $2.85 an hour.

The Burger King, made $3.55 an hour and had a lot of fun. Worked late night drive through and got to work with a whole mess of people I would have never gotten to know anywhere else.

[Freddie]

11. Clothing factory

Sewing cuffs on blouses. Hated it and I haven’t looked at a sewing machine since. Made $55 a week after taxes, paid in cash.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. What if it was like the job Steve Martin got in The Jerk?

[-misanthroptimist]

13. Working for myself was my first job

In the summer, I'd hitch an old manual push mower to my bike and cruise town looking for tall grass. Eventually, I established a small group of regular customers.

In the winter, I'd shovel snow. There was a storefront with three or four businesses that hired me. That entailed rising at 4am and trudging a mile through the still pristine snow and spending 15-60+ minutes shoveling off the sidewalk, then trudging back home. But it was worth the money! They paid me $10. Adjusted for inflation, that works out to over $80 in 2025 dollars. Many a friend got to bowl for free.

[cbabe]

14. A couple weeks filing in my dad's office for

25cents per hour. Ran out of stuff to file plus I think it was supposed to teach me good work habits.

After some babysitting (I hated it) I got a job at Bob’s Big Boy burger restaurant.

Ran out of coke and ketchup on the Fourth of July. Plus I dropped a full steak dinner in a guy’s lap.

I’d go down the street to Dunkin Donuts after work around midnight. My friend would give me bags of donuts that were being tossed after the four hour freshness limit. Sweet.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

15. 1st job?

U. S. Marines.

[NewHendoLib]

16. Grocery store - part time. Produce, then Deli.

Age 16 to 22 ( high school and undergrad). Loved it - union store, great pay!

[OLDMDDEM]

17. Delivered newspapers

[Ping Tung]

18. 1958. Dishwasher/busboy at a deli. $1 per hour under the table. I was 15.

There were 3 of us. 2 teens and an old man, The two teens weren't supposed to work more than 4 hours a day or 20 h0urs a week but we did.

The owner got busted for tax evasion. The best part was the kosher food

I came from an Irish/English background. Irish cookery consists of putting a lot of stuff in a pot of water and boiling it until all the flavor is gone. Jewish cooking consists of a variety of ultra tasty food.

[Mark.b2]

19. I worked at a pharmacy...

This was in the late 80s.

Three things that stick out in my mind about that job:

—Mrs Warner was in her late 70s/early 80s. She would come in every day to buy our largest bottle of NyQuil. I guess she was addicted to it.
—Swisher Sweets, a cheap brand of cigarillos, were very popular with old black men.
—We provided film developing service. A third party would pick up the day’s drop-offs and deliver developed pics that customers had dropped off in the days before. I would have to document in a ledger that we had received each envelope of developed photos. I was shocked at the number of people taking naughty photos. I wouldn’t look at everyone’s, but over time, I learned which customers had proclivities!

[leftyladyfrommo]

20. My first real job was labeling artifacts that archeologists sent in

from Hogup Cave. I think I made $1.50 an hour part time. My apartment cost $50 a month.

[Stacey Grove]

21. First thing I got paid for?

Helping my dad's friend in his freight yard moving cinder blocks when I was 11. Think I got about $10 bucks for 2 or 3 hours of work.

[Happy Hoosier]

22. Fun story....

My first job was making sandwiches for for the "roach coach" on our local Navy base. I was technically a Federal employee (making minimum wage). I did that for 2 years in High School. Fast forward.... I graduate from college in 1990 and go to work for the Navy as a Flight Test Engineer. I work for the Navy for 20 years before leaving the Federal Government and going private. Some years later, I realize I am eligible to start drawing my Federal pension. I fill out the mountain of paperwork. It takes over a year to get it processed. Finally, I get an email from my final processor.

It says I had 2 years in the 80's where I was a Federal Employee but did not participate in the pension plan. Yup. When I was a sandwich maker. But I had a one-time opportunity to pay the pension contruibutions (with interest) to have those years count. Because of the way the pension formula works, those two years as a GS-2 Sandwich Maker count as years of service at "high three" salary. I left the Government as a GS-13 Senior Flight Test Engineer. The required contribution was a tad salty, but the impact on my pension was crazy. In the first year alon, I recoup the required pension contribution and and in two years, I actually make more in pension than I did in my entire time as a GS-2 sandwich maker. Good times!

[Shambala]

23. I used to hang out and play at this small neighborhood grocery store when I was a kid

I was there so often they put me to work separating and sorting the soda bottles that were returned for deposit. I’d spend a few hours each week putting them in the correct crates (7 Up, Coca Cola, etc) for pick up. That was my first job.

Eventually became old enough to bag groceries, then stock shelves, and then work in the produce section where I sliced both my thumbs the first week trimming vegetables.

The most mischievous thing we did was go in the deli case and suck the nitrous out of the Redi-Whip. A few moments of “wheeeeee!” I always wondered if anyone returned the cans for being defective.

[MineralMan]

24. Delivering Milk to People's Houses

When I was 16, I was informed by my father that my weekly allowance privileges were over. "Find a part-time job," He said.

So, I did. A week later, I started delivering milk for the local dairy. Six days a week, from 5 AM to 8 AM, and a full day on Saturday working at the dairy doing cleaning chores. Every morning, the milk truck picked me up at my house at 5 AM and dropped me off at school at 8 AM. $1.50/hour. I was working halftime, and earning pretty good money for a 16 year old in 1962.

I did that for two years, putting half of what I earned in the bank. It was relatively hard work, since the deliveries were made literally on the run. Jumping off the moving truck carrying up to 12 quarts of bottled milk in wire carriers, and then running up to house doors to drop it off, then running back to the truck. for three hours every morning.

I had plenty of money for dates, etc. I had the entire day, as well. I made my own breakfast before getting picked up. Always bacon and eggs and toast.

[Emile]

25. Curb hop at Steak-n-Shake.

[gab13by13]

29. Cool,

When I worked at Zanesville, Ohio, if I had a few too many after work, I went to Steak-n-Shake, because the food was a bit greasy and that coated my stomach. Don't get me wrong, I liked the food and shakes.

[Marthe48]

26. Multitasking

Started staying home to keep an eye on my great aunt. She had suffered a stroke, and was kind of odd without the stroke. I also helped out at my parents' grocery store. I remember doing inventory on Jan. 1 of each year. I also stocked, ran the register, helped in the meat department. I could trim scraps from bones, to add to beef that was ground. I took turns with my brothers to clean the saw, the grinder head, the meat slicer. My Dad would process deer and other game after hours, so we'd have to stay to help, weighing and wrapping, then really cleaning and disinfecting the fixtures and surfaces. I wasn't crazy about staying on school nights, but my Dad put the money he got toward Christmas. I learned everything I needed when I worked at the store. My brothers and Dad were the jokers. Lots of silliness when there weren't many shoppers.

When I was old enough, I got a part time job as a salad girl at Johnny Garneau's. I worked there till I moved away.

[Walleye]

28. Milk store, which was an outlet for a dairy. At night I would serve customers.

Usually not much going on. We had hotdogs with chili for a while. I was getting $1.25 an hour which was farm wages back then. The dairy farmer then bought the land and opened a Dairy Queen across the road where I worked when I was in 10th grade I got all the way up to $1.60 an hour the man who bought that property and opened the Dairy Queen is very rich today

[Goonch]

30. ;-{) Soda Jerk in a drug store

[Silent Type]

31. Other than cutting grass, I too began in a grocery store-- A&P at 16 years old. I remember the join Union speech.

The shop steward was a big, burly butcher. He called all us young new hires into the back room. Looked at us and said, "You will be joining the union," as he threw a meat cleaver 10 yards into the wooden outside door to the meat locker. All us young folks simply said, "Where do we sign."

There was also the time I caught my finger slamming the door of an elderly lady's Cadillac. I was bleeding all over the place, as she fumble through her coin purse before giving me a penny tip. "Yes, mam, thank you and I hope you have a wonderful day."

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

32. First job probably a paper boy

for the Detroit Free Press (morning paper). Caddied at a local country club for a couple summers. Fry cook/cashier at a place called Henry's Hamburgers (a chain that shrunk), busboy at a fancy restaurant. Then I joined the service after high school.
As a caddy I learned many of the golfers would cheat. I would look the other way

[CanonRay]

33. At age 16, I passed a lie detector while lying

I worked in a store, and I knew a few guys were stealing out of the warehouse. They asked me if I knew anything about it and said no. Passed with flying colors. I was no rat. The George Costaza near principle at work.

[Mme. Defarge]

34. A sales clerk in a cigar store.

That was during the summer. Then, as a college student in the late 1960’s, a library helper, followed by a brief career as a nightclub singer in Morocco - long story. . .

[Pinback]

35. Yard work

I mowed grass for a few regular neighborhood customers and occasionally did other stuff like weeding and hedge trimming. Most of them were nice, but occasionally one would provide me with “a learning experience.”

The first job where I got an actual paycheck was at a car wash / gas station. I did a couple of other “unskilled” or low-paying jobs in my youth, and met many interesting characters and learned many lessons, both positive and negative, in the process.

Waiting tables was probably the most instructive. My wife and I are generous tippers to this day because we know first-hand what a tough job that is.

[Coldwater]

36. When I was a kid I made a fortune

mowing lawns throughout the neighborhood, and in the winter shoveling out driveways.

We only average about 50 inches of snow per year, but there were some epic snow years, I made so much money I didn't know what to do with it.

When I was 16, I got my first real job during the summer as a dishwasher at the local church.

I didn't care what type of job I had as long as I could save up enough to buy my first car.

[tinrobot]

37. Summer job at 16 writing software for the Altair 8800

I wrote it in Tiny Basic (Microsoft's first product). Mostly business applications.

The next summer, I worked at a grocery store. Took a while to get another software job.

Last job before retiring was at Microsoft. Mostly computer graphics stuff. They were a lot bigger than they were 1977.

[Bayard]

38. Spice Girl

I went up to stay with my sister in MN during summer break after 10th grade. I found a job on the night shift at a local pickle factory. As the open jars came down the line, I had to drop in some spices as quickly as possible--bop bop bop. All night. I think minimum wage then was about $2 an hour.
My BIL was not happy that he had to go pick me up in the wee hours of the morning. My sister made me take my clothes off on the front steps because I reeked of pickles.

[ProfessorGAC]

39. Janitor's Helper At A Banquet Hall

I was a freshman in HS. I worked Saturday & Sunday mornings, so 10 hours a week.
The first summer we (my brousin & i) got hired to strip, clean & relax all the floors for about 2 weeks, then they had me show up on Tuesdays so the janitor could have a day off.
Stroke of luck was that the summer between sophomore & junior year of HS, the janitor retired. They neededspmeone 6 days a week & me being available gave them a few months to find someone. So, I had a FT job fir the summer.
The next summer, that guy got fired for drinking on the job (oh, and it was the hall's liquor) so another summer another FT job. I left HS for college after the 3rd year but still lived around there, so I still worked on weekends & I ran the fish fry on Friday nights.
The next summer, the new janitor had a heart attack, so they needed me for June through mid-August.
Between my 2nd & 3rd year of college, they just decided to have me work full-time in the summer even though they had a good reliable janitor.
I graduated after 3 years of college so I got a job in my field.
But, for 5 years or so I did that janitors job.

[DiverDave]

40. 13 years old

Bussing tables at the restaurant my mom worked at.
Just 2-3 bucks a night. Thr hotel the restaurant was in got nervous and I had to go before some judge, at 14, to get a work permit.
Could only work if my mom was there.
.95 an hour.
Before the "meat shortage". Lots of prime rib and steak dinners.
Heaven for a 14-15 year old.
I felt proud to help my mom out. My bastard of a dad had ran off.

[Raftergirl]

42. Summer after my freshman year in college. My father was a partner in a large fast food chains franchise and

he made me work in one that summer. I lasted all of two weeks before asking if I could go back to school and take a few classes. My parents were glad to see me go. The next summer he put me to work in one of their movie theaters (they owned a chain of them, too.) I worked behind the candy counter. It was awful, and to this day I cannot eat movie theater popcorn.)

Later, when I was in grad school I worked in the distribution warehouse where everyone was a teamster except me. I checked the pallets before the were loaded onto the trucks. I loved that job. I worked 3pm-11pm, so I could go out to the bars with my friends after and not worry about having to get up early the next day to go to work.

[oberle]

43. Substitute organist in the DC area

I started when I was 14, substituting for various organists. Made pretty good money doing it. And learned to sight read like crazy. But my mom had to drive me to the churches.