Here she is. The Troublemaker. This dog has cost more time and money the past week than … well, than I don’t know what. 3 nights at the vets last week, an ultrasound today, plenty of $, and the upshot is that she’ll probably live forever after all this. Jeesh. (Yes, she’s feeling just fine now, for those of you who are feeling sorry for her. I won’t give you the laundry list of issues, but I know you’ll ask so the answer is she’s going to be fine.) Troublemaker.
Sneak Up list, right? It’s going to be a big one this week, and then we’ll have two to three weeks without a Sneak Up. 🙁 I don’t know if I’m actually capable of not doing a Sneak Up for 3 weeks, but WH is entirely capable of it and thinks it’s a marvelous idea. We will be leaving on vacation next week and gone the week of the Fourth of July as well – thus, no new products to go up. However, Sarah-the-housesitter will be here taking care of Zoe and The Troublemaker and bringing in boxes of yarn every day as it arrives, and Susan-the-Awesome-Assistant will be here packing your orders and getting them out to you while we’re gone. So you can still find plenty of fun things to satisfy your yarn cravings. Indeed, you may look at this week’s list and think spreading it out over 3 weeks is a good idea. Why three weeks if we’re only going to be gone for 2? Because the week we get back, WH will have to put some extra time in on his regular job to catch up from vacation, in addition to doing a lot of photography on all of the things that arrived while we were gone. So I’m guessing the next Sneak Up will be the week of July 16th. Of course earlier if it works. And I’ll be re-stocking some of the regular stuff as it comes in between now and then. (Shhh – did you see that we have ALL of the colors of Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in at one time? I’m sure it’s a fluke, and I’m sure we’ll sell out of something soon, but for a few minutes, they’re all here. And there is a lot of it.)
So on this week’s list for Sneaking Up….
For sure: The Knittery, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Fiesta Boomerang, Chewy Spaghetti, Seacoast Merino, Duets, and Dream in Color. Also, more Kitchener Stitchmarkers, more Counting Bracelets, and more Loopy/Louise/Bart stitchmarkers. I have sock photos of Fiesta, Duets, and Dream in Color to share with you on Wednesday. I have loved knitting with each of them.
For maybe: Posh, Spritely Goods, and Scarlet Fleece (depending on how many photos WH can get done.)
New things coming in between now and when we do our next Sneak Up: The Plucky Knitter (from one of our very own Loopy Groupies!), Urban GypZ (with a cool twisted yarn base), Wollmeise (an indie dyer all the way from Germany and we’re so excited to get her beautiful yarn here), new fabrics in Mrs. Kwitty bags and needleholders, the Maruca Designs fall fabrics (oooohhhh), plus our regular monthly indie-dyer orders and a few other surprises. Lots of boxes to come home to after vacation to look forward to.
So – the contest for the month – tell me about your first job. It’s summertime and many of us had our very first jobs during the summer, right? (Besides babysitting, which I did often, too.) My first summer job was a Disaster with a capital D. I was 14 and I signed up to de-tassle corn. (I lived in Iowa. Everyone de-tassled corn in Iowa in junior high or high school. It was “good money”.) You dressed in long sleeves and long pants so that the cornstalk leaves wouldn’t cut your arms and legs, you walked down the rows of stalks that had grown over your head, and you plucked the tops off of the stalks and tossed them behind you as you went along. When you pulled the tassles out, you frequently got a shower of bugs on you. The aisles held in all of the heat and humidity that the summer had to offer. And it was downright awful. After an hour, my shoulders ached, my shirt was filled with bugs (ok – maybe I exaggerate a bit – but not much) and I was feeling nauseous from all the heat and humidity. So I quit. My very first job, and I got paid for a whopping hour of time. There – now don’t you feel better about YOUR first job? What was it? (Nobody quits after an hour. Your experience had to have been better!) Leave it in the comments and I’ll use the random number generator to pick a Loopy Loot winner this Friday.
Sheri Ihavestuckwithalltherestofmyjobsandworkedhardsincethen-ifonlytoprovethatIcould. 🙂
P.S. Email me if you have Q2 hats/mitts to mail and I will send you my addresss. I don’t want to list it on the blog!
Because I went to boarding school and wasn’t permitted to work, my first job was right after high school, working in the only convenience store (and only retail establishment) in town. My first week, I had a great adventure after work watching my engaged co-worker mess around with another guy (whom she’d sold beer to for $1/case a few hours before), while a crazy dude with a tongue piercing kept trying to make out with me, then ran after someone with a baseball bat.
Later that summer, I started working for the Department of Human Services (cash benefits) office, where I’d volunteered the previous summer. Amazing how much of an overlap I saw between these two jobs.
Ooops. Like Penny I recalled my REAL first job after I submit. It was to wash the supper dishes for a quarter. Doesn’t sound bad for grade schooler does it? Except I have a clean freak for a mother who always cooked. Washing the dishes included, tearing about the stove top burners and washing them and those crazy mirror polished steel canisters that got fingerprints on them the minute you touched them. And moving everything on the counters and wiping it all down. Drying and putting aways dishes, cleaning up under the dining table for crumbs and then sterilizing the sink. I’m tellin ya, that quarter was well earned. And I did that enough times to buy 3 Donny Osmond albums. That’s plenty of kitchen cleaning. :>) To this day though I keep a very clean kitchen.
My first job, besides babysitting, was working at a fireworks stand. I guess I was 14 or so. They trusted the whole place to me and my friend, who was 15 or 16. Don’t think that would happen now days!
Hmmmm….. your Troublemaker sounds like mine! I think Heidi is conspiring to deplete my yarn-purchase funds. 🙁 Wonder if the veterinarians would barter treatment for hand-knit socks?
My first job was at age 7, modelling in department store fashion shows and Richmond Times-Dispatch display ads.
My first job was copying computer disks at age 14. No fun! I made good money helping my mom though1
BTW – I got my first two orders from the Loopy Ewe this week and last – FABULOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE, FABULOUS FAST SHIPPING AND FABULOUS PRODUCTS! Thanks so much for being a great resource!!
Hello together
I´m the Wollmeise and very proud, glad and excited that Sheri invited the little Wollmeisen to her shop. Please be friendly and carefully with each of them, it´s their first trip over the globe.
My first summer job was long long time ago when I was 15. I worked in a arboretum and cultivated roses. No , I didn´t danced like Scarlett O Hara with a basket and a broad brimmed straw hat through the rosefield, cutting roses. My work was to kneel down and bandage the roses. I wasn´t sure to made a good job and visited the following year a little bit afraid and very secret the scene of the crime. Happy end, all roses were still alive! It makes me calm when I read how much salary you´ve got, the same in Germany, it was bittersweet.
Greetings
Claudia
What a great topic and appropriate as I just received my Social Security statement. My first job that paid into SS was in the summer between my freshman and sophmore years in college. I was a life guard/swimming instructor at a YWCA camp on Lake Huron (US side). I loved the rocky setting and even the cold water. We had to take the water temp. each morning to see if it was warm enough for the campers to go swimming.
However, before this “paycheck” job, I had spent several summers at our next door neighbor’s cottage as their babysitter. They had a large (3 story) old family home on Lake Ontario (Canadian side) and 3 preschoolers. I don’t remember if I was paid, but I learned to water ski, knit continental, play ping-pong and was able to walk out the door to go swimming. The house had a wonderful glassed in porch facing the Lake – it was a wonderful place to curl up and read on rainy days. The Mom was Swedish and a great knitter – she taught me to knit continental style ( but I reverted to holding the yarn in my right hand).
Sheri – thanks for the trip down memory lane,
Colleen in (landlocked) Kansas City
Wow, my first job. Well aside from babysitting I worked at Carl’s Jr. (That’s Hardee’s for those of you on the East coast) I never wanted to work in fast food but it was the only place that would hire me at 16. I applied a couple months before I turned 16 so they told me to come back after my birthday. It wasn’t so bad because I worked in the mall and my sister worked in a photography studio in the mall also. Then it got fun when my cousin got hired at Carl’s Jr too. My sister would let me know what she wanted, then he would make it and I could get her the free food. Not bad huh. I only lasted there about 6 months. Never again fast food though!
Picking strawberries when I was 14. I lasted about 4 hours – 2 hours the first day and I quit at the end of my second shift. At that age, I was terrified of bees, unlike now I’m only slightly anxious while they buzz around me. And apparently, bees love strawberries. And it rained every day (both of them) before I got there, so it was muddy. Not the job for a fussy girly girl. I think I made all of $10.
My first job was teaching swimming lessons to three year olds, the summer I was 12. I think Kansas minimum wage at the time was something like $2/ hour, but boy did I feel rich when I collected my pay check!
I babysat on just about every other Saturday night of my teenaged years for the same wonderful family down the street. They had two incredibly sweet little boys who just loved me. When I arrived, they would already be bathed and in their PJs, and they would have had dinner, dinner would be on the stove waiting, or pizza (for all three of us) would be waiting. A kids’ movie would be ready. All I had to do was hang out and watch the movie with them, help them with tooth brushing, read a couple of stories, and put them to bed. The parents paid me really well, and the husband insisted on driving me the quarter mile up the street to my house. My parents wouldn’t let me work during the school year, so this was a great way to make pocket money (I got a teeny allowance for mowing our grass). I hope Michael and Stephen turned out to be the kind of men you would expect from children as fabulous as they were.
My next jobs were at camps. The barn where I took riding lessons had a summer camp. I taught arts and crafts and basic pony riding for several sessions. I also taught at a summer science camp run by my school district.
My first *real* job was the summer before college. I was a kennel worker. Hot weather, fans but no A/C, dog and cat poo, the occasional cat scratch, lots of bug bites, and some really fantastic critters. I met some of the sweetest dogs and cats, a really naughty ferret, and some nice owners. We had one problem dog and two psycho cats that summer, but most were really cool. After that job, it was all retail then professional work for me. I’ve never flipped a burger for pay!
My first job was tending to the front desk at my dorm…buzzing folk in if they forgot their ID, retrieving mail if they were lucky enough to have received packages…very non glamourous – and even with all my good intentions, I never did manage to get much studying done down there. Lots and lots of people watching, but hardly any studying!
My first real job was at McDonalds, which was interesting. They started me on the grill, and within an hour I was flipping patties like a pro and knew how many squirts of ketchup went on each size burger . My coworkers were amazed and kept asking what kind of grades I got in school and what I got on my SATs, because I learned it so fast. I lasted three days before I couldn’t take the grease or the questions any more!
i hope casey is ok!!! did she have to spend 3 nights at the vets? oh my, i know how expensive that can be :(. give her a get well soon love from me!
my first job was a dog washer. it was a terrible job, even for someone who loves dogs. i was covered with wet, smelly dog hair all day long and a lot of the dogs would get scared and poop while i was washing them. i think i lasted 4 days. i was 15.
i hope you guys have a great vacation. you all really deserve one :)!!
When I was 14, I got my first “real” job. On weekends, I’d work about 6 hours a day cleaning rooms at Hampton Inn. Mostly it was boring work, but it did teach me that the best way to get things clean is often with just elbow grease and water. I NEVER use chemicals to wash mirrors because of this experience. Water works much better. 🙂 The craziest thing I ever found while working there, outside of the occassional annoying furniture rearrangements, was a room that had an empty bottle of champagne in the bathroom sink, condom wrappers in the trash can (thankfully the actual contents were nowhere to be seen–I WAS 14, after all), and a box of fried chicken. It still boggles my mind that they would go to the trouble of champagne, only to accompany it with KFC.
My first job was working full time at a summer camp for the entire summer. To give you some idea of the conditions, it was an outdoor summer camp. In the sweltering heat. I am excessively fair skinned. They only gave me a sleeveless shirt. Sunburned and bugbitten all summer. Tan? Lighter than my brother and sister’s natural tans. After winter. Thirty kids. Sometimes one other person to help during part of the day. There was a pool. The kids threw up in it several times. Towards the end of the summer it was warm as bath water. Refreshing. Several kids in our group nearly got kicked out of camp for anger problems, swearing, fighting, etc. (they don’t send the well behaved kids to camps like this) My group was nine-year-olds. I was the youngest person working there. I was fifteen.
When people ask me about applying for summer camp or if it was fun, I must admit, I snort and chuckle. Summer camps are not for people who care. At all. It makes you stressed out to the point where you carry sun screen, bug spray, and band-aids from home. For the kids, not you. Summer camp is not fun. REALLY not fun. I have a much better job right now. Still working for the city, but a huge improvement.
Besides babysitting, I got my first real job at 16 working in the kitchen of a horse riding camp. It was a hot job, but the perk was free horse riding lessons! I also helped give pony rides to the little kids.
WOW…..I am amazed at all of you “country farm girls”!!! I grew up in cities (am one of the few born and raised in San Francisco, CA). My first “real” job was very un-glamorus….working as an all round helper at a dry-cleaners. I think I was 14 or 15 and my mom was friends with one of the owners. Isn’t that how alot of first jobs came about????? I remember that if we found anything in the pockets – money – we got to keep it. I found a $10 bill once in a pair of suit pants and thought I was so lucky! I think I made about $1.25 and hour that summer and that was good money then!
My first job was really normal. I was 15 and got a job at the new Burger King on the other end of town. My first day I was taught the “line” – how to make burgers. After two weeks of this I was ready to throw myself on the char broiler. Instead, I lied to the manager telling him that I knew how to run a cash register. One of the girls was sick, so he let me do it. I kept having to ask the other cashier questions about what buttons to push, by my drawer balanced out perfectly at the end of the night (at least I knew how to make change!). After that, no more burger making for me, baby… I was a cashier – until I quit 6 months later because I simply couldn’t stand it anymore! I can’t remember what minimum wage was back then… maybe $2.75 or $3.25/hour? It was in 1983…
Oooh, if Wollmeise is what I think it is… 😀
Other than helping at my father’s flea market booth, my first real job wasn’t until college. For two hours every weekday and every other Saturday morning I sorted envelopes and stuffed PO boxes at the campus post office. The best bit was that on Saturdays our supervisors would bring us hot Krispy Kreme donuts for our breaktime snack!
Woo hoo! And I thought my first job was rough! My first real job (besides mucking out stalls and exercising horses) was at the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Think Keifer Sutherland in the Lost Boys. I made millions of dipped cones and bananas, was petrified of the snow cone maker (not to mention the storage areas under the boardwalk!), burnt all my fingerprints off making waffle cones, and came home completely covered in sticky pink sugar from making cotton candy. Which my horse just loved… she’d follow me around… slurp… slurp… slurp…
My first job, besides babysitting, was when I was 17 and I worked at a local drive up restaruant called “Mr. Weenies!” Yes, Mr. Weenies was its real name! The boys worked the grill and deep fryer and the girls worked the soda fountain and worked as car hops. We were also known as a “Weenie Woman.” And to get you a better picture of this wonderful establishment, the sign for was a GIANT hot dog in the sky. My husband and I were friends in high school and so he know of this and lovingly calls me “Weenie Woman” to bring back the memories. But my worst (back then, now I can laugh about it) memory was when a car of full of some of the popular guys came in and I had to take their order. I went to the driver first and took his order and asked “To stay or to go” and he answered “Stay”, then I went around to the passenger side and proceeded to take the order of the passengers. Once finished, I just out of habit, asked “Is that to stay or go!” Of course the whole car of guys broke out in laughter and and said that they wanted theirs to go! So then for the next several weeks whenever I would see any of them, they would ask “Is that to stay or to go, Weenie Woman?” Oh, that made for an interesting for such an interesting Senior year! And yes, Mr. Weenie is still in operation and everytime we go back, I still feel sorry for these poor kiddos knowing that they will NEVER live down the ridicule of working there!
Oh wow! My first job was as the Saturday morning helper in my dentist’s office. I did it all; I answered phones, greeted patients, and helped set up between patients too. I was done by noon, so it was great! It also seemed to cure me of any hang-ups at the dentist’s, which was a nice bonus. I was 14, I think…
It’s difficult to think back that far. My mother got me my first job at an answering service. I was 15. We handled all kinds of calls for Drs. afterhours, all kinds of companys for lunch and afterhours, funeral homes, dentists, you name it we answered it. I ended up working there for 10 years.
My first job was a Saturday job when I was in 6th form (age 16-18) working in a pet and garden shop. My task was to muck out the rabbits and guinea pigs and rodents, and work on the till, and I got paid the princely sum of 14.40 UK pounds a week. I did it till I left town for college.
Best part was the orange rabbit we christened Houdini. We needed to put a padlock on her cage to keep her in, she would open the catch, pull off the wire tie, and be heading for the street in a flash. I ended up chasing her down many times.
Man, my first job….I stood for 8 hours a day copying really large and messy loan files for the RTC during the Savings & Loan fiasco. Saw all kinds of *really* interesting things that I can’t talk about, lost several inches off of my thighs from all that standing and went through gallons of lotion and cartons of band-aids from all that paper 🙂
My first real job was at a drugstore during high school. I’d been babysitting for a while, but this was for a real weekly paycheck! It was terribly boring but I stayed with it for three years, between drivers ed and musical rehearsal and marching band, and gave up many a Saturday for it. I suppose it wasn’t awful, but I didn’t learn much besides how to show up on time and smile at the customers. And I made more than minimum wage, which at that time was $4.25/hour.
ps. Noricum sent me.
My first job was also as a kennel assistant in a local small animal veterinary clinic. Hours upon hours of cleaning up dog poop, giving dirty dogs baths, walking dogs in the Georgia summer sun + humidity, and the whole while we were only allowed to listen to pop countrry music. The vet who ran the show was convinced that was all dogs could handle, and that was Soooo Unfair to us 16 ys. olds. Nothing could have been more horrible! Oh to be young again….
Apparently, there are a lot of ex-detasselers who knit now! LOL! I also detasseled (central IL). But after I found that I was allergic to the pollen (swollen lips and face) after a day’s work, I got to drive the machine thingie. That was still too close for the allergy. So I quit and got a job at a local discount store in the fabrics and sewing patterns section. Now THAT was fun!
my first job was at a family fun center. the golf dome, the arcade, the go karts, the putty golf, the bumper boats. because i was a girl, i got stuck in the kitchen making pizza all day and into the night. it was hot as hell because of the ovens. and i went home every night smelling like grease and pizza cheese.
it sucked.
but, it was fun as hell too, because i got to work with friends, and i got almost unlimited blue moon and superman ice cream.
My first “real” job was working at a video store! I loved every minute of it and even went back there when I needed a part time job! I got to talk to customer about teir choices. See movies before they hit the shelf. I’d put movies back, check them out, check them in, rebox them. It was so much fun and i’m still a movie addict 🙂
first summer job? I worked at a hamburger place on the beach in Westport, CT, called Chubby Lane’s. The worst thing was that we had to wear loafers, navy-blue knee socks, navy blue bermudas with a brown belt and an oxford blue button-down shirt. This was in the early 1970’s and I felt like I had landed smack-dab in the middle of nerdville! PLUS, they had really good burgers and fries and such and so EVERYONE would come in. While no one said anything, I just know they were thinking, “nice outfit, NOT” And chubby always hired all the athletic guys, too. The football team all worked there, the baseball team, the wrestlers, the basketball team. Basically any guy who was super popular and super cute worked there. AND I HAD TO WEAR THE KNEE SOCKS AND LOAFERS AND BERMUDAS, ETC. (well, so did they, but except for the knee socks they didn’t really care.)
I did work there for several summers, gradually working my way up from busing tables to making fries. The guys were the only ones allowed to flip burgers at this place. Women’s lib definitely had not hit Chubby Lane’s.
My first job wasn’t nearly as bad as yours, but it wasn’t much fun either. Thankfully it only lasted 2 weeks, and I never did it again! I was a “waitress” at a food stand at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, NY. I got to serve hotdogs, burgers, sausages, and fries in the hot sun all day for 2 weeks. It was $250 for the whole 2 weeks, and I was thrilled to do it! I worked with the regulars, who followed this particular family run stand around the circuit. One of which was a guy who was engaged, and broke off his engagement while I was working there. Then he hit on me non-stop for the rest of the week. Wow- I had forgotten (repressed) that part! Yikes.
Although it wasn’t my first job, I too, briefly detasseled corn just north of Indianapolis. I lasted one day instead of one hour. BUT nobody told us to wear long sleeves and long pants. So, being the city girl from Indianapolis, I went to my orientation at Ball State with corn rash ALL OVER my body. My first job was at the Indianapolis Zoo – concessions, train tickets, souvenir shops, etc. That job,on the other hand, at $2.62 per hour, was an absolute blast. I have gone on to other interesting jobs (such is the life of a military spouse), Most notably, working for the USO in Europe as a center director and tour guide – it’s most awesome to get paid for travelling in Europe; and after returning to the US, I managed the gift shop in the summit house on top of Pikes Peak. Interesting jobs makes it easier to be away so far away from home!
My first job was similar to yours. I grew up in Connecticut where the only job 15 year-olds can do is pick tobacco. So a friend’s dad got us all jobs for the harvest season.
Connecticut tobacco is called shade tobacco. The leaves are used for the wrappers on the world’s best cigars. But, because of this, the tobacco is grown under white tents to protect it from the sun and increase humidity. Super hot and humid with no fresh air and lots of bugs. Horrid job! But the farm also had a farm stand that sold vegetables and some lucky kids were selected to work there.
On the advice of my best friend’s sister, we showed up the first day- hadn’t had anything to drink for 24 hours, no breakfast and wore long sleeves and pants. We both suffered for about 2 hours of picking, a really bad two hours. Then she passed out and I started puking. We were put on farmstand duty for the rest of the month!
DUH – I forgot that the same time I was working at the restaurant (NOT flipping burgers because that was the boys’ job), I also worked at a marina. Mostly washing boats and scraping hulls, but the time was broken up by jumping off the railroad bridge into the Saugatuck River and taking the boats out in Long Island Sound. ALSO, I got to work on Paul Newman’s boston whaler, he’s a really nice guy and tips really well.
Dude. My first job was totally illegal. Well, age wise. I was only 14. Can we say SWEAT SHOP? We lived in SC at the time and I got hired at the local McDonald’s as a party girl. I set up and did the parties for all the little kids. I am moritfied thinking of that now because I’m a total hippiy-dippy…my kid has never even been to a McDonald’s and the thought of what they put in their food makes me ill….but that was the job. I remember I got my first paycheck and had my mom make a photocopy of it. It was $5.39 after they took out all the money from my uniforms and stuff. I was so damn proud of that $5. LOL!
My first full-time job was as a nanny……everyday 8am-6 or7pm and then on Friday’s I stayed overnight, stayed all day Saturday and got out in the late afternoon to go hang out with friends. The hours were killer, but I got paid GREAT and saved up enough to go to Spain my senior year of high school!
I need an address!:)
My first job was working for my parents. They had a heating oil delivery company, and my job was to check the math on every one of the delivery tickets that the trucks had left. Can you say BORING?! However, it taught me a good work ethic, for which I have always been grateful. I started that job at 11 years old and have worked ever since (summers and a part-time job while in school and then ever since). I took a brief hiatus while my children (one of them is my College Guy) were little, but after that my husband and I started a business. I am often amazed by the lack of a work ethic in the kids we sometimes hire….and am glad that I seem to have passed mine down. Have a great vacation!
I don’t know if it really counts, but my first job was working at my public library, and I still work for the Library (just a different branch). So my first job is my only job with one sidebar of working at a movie theatre for three years in order to supplement my income from the Library.
My first job was not nearly as rough as yours, Sheri, or as many of the others. I worked in the school library when I was 15. The job was pretty cushy until the end of the year when all the books had to come back to the library and be reshelved. That doesn’t sound too bad, except that even though there wasn’t nearly enough room on the shelves for all those books we had to get them on anyway. My arms were aching and my fingers bleeding after a week of pushing and wedging the books into nonexistent spaces. Still, there were no bugs, and I did make $2 an hour….
Aside from babysitting, my first job was cleaning my dad’s office when I was in high school. He ran a regional office for a small engineering firm that worked with waste water treatment. It wasn’t that hard. The part that took the longest was sweeping the floor in the giant wherehouse/workshop area. But, the part I hated the most was vacuuming the large office where most of the engineers sat. I always felt like I was disturbing them and was afraid they would need to use the phone while I was roaring around the room. I’m sure they understood, but I was a little shy at the time.
I’m glad to hear The Troublemaker is alright. The worst troublemaker I ever met was a friend’s golden retriever who, over his accomplished career, managed to swallow an entire bra (the clasp got caught in his intestine and he wound up in the hospital for emergency surgery) and a faberge egg!
My first job was cleaning rooms at a Motel 6. I actually did it for almost a year. It wasn’t too bad, except for the time that I found drug paraphenalia (sp?) in a room and was interviewed by an undercover policeman about it. It was exciting, but kind of scary. There was also a time that some male “entertainers” were staying in some rooms and the head housekeeper wouldn’t let me clean them on my own. Maybe she thought I would see something that could scar me for life (this was before the drug room).
My first job was as a children’s bookseller. Nothing quite like picking up after children and their parents (believe it or not the parents where the worst—and the teachers, never forget the teachers who pulled out 10 books and bought none.) My favorite portion for work had to be finding the parents for our ‘strays’. Nothing like asking a 3 year-old if they know mommy or daddy’s name and then finding the parent across the store. On the bright side I got a handy book discount (33% was not too bad).
My first job was in high school – I worked as an intern at a engineering firm. I helped design telecommunication towers for two years. It was such a great experience – and fairly different from most first jobs!
My first “real” job, i.e. one that paid by check, was at sixteen, working as a lifeguard at the local community lake. Sounds good, but for the whole summer I only had Tuesdays off, and the job included raking/sifting geese droppings off the beach and cleaning the bathrooms. Otherwise it was great 🙂
My first job was working at a recycling center. It was kind of fun because I worked with my best friend. Basically we got to help people figure out where to put their recycling, stack the newspapers neatly, and sort through the mixed paper bin and pull out things that weren’t paper. 🙂
I worked in a pizza restaurant, making pizzas, at age 14. I was paid in cash, under the table, with no taxes taken out and no paperwork. I especially detested picking the gritty anchovies out of their lard to put on the pizzas. That stuff got under my nails and made them stink like nothing else. Not to mention being sexually harassed (at 14 years old, mind you) by the owner and his brother. Ugh.
Taking inventory. In a supermarket. At four o’clock in the morning. By hand.
Ever fall asleep standing up while you’re counting containers of vitamins???