Hi Everyone,
Have you ever had a particularly unusual or interesting job; a really fun job or a job you just hated? What was your very first job?
My first job was clerking in the old Kresge Five and Dime in the early sixties.
In the very early eighties my husband and I along with our two kids then aged ten and thirteen started a small business in our spare bedroom custom building computers. Our customers included NASA, NOAA, and most major universities and hospitals, and major motion picture companies even though we never grew larger than a small store front and hired three college aged kids to help. Then came the big box stores selling IBMs, Gateways, MACs.....
Retirement's great
Pat
My first job was working in a bank, hated it. So I moved on the working in a fuel station where I met my hubby. Fell in love with both lol and we ended up a few years later with our own station.
Also worked processing onions for a few years and have done the last two national census collections. I'm not old enough to retire. :(
Tess, processing onions sounds interesting -and tearful? I met my hubby in kindergarten. His mom said he came home from school and told her he was going to marry me.
Pat
My first job was an "office boy" which was mainly janitorial emptying waste baskets at a local company after school and during the summer. Also washed windows there too. It paid money.
My next summer job I really loved and that was working at a boat livery on Lake Erie. They rented fishing boats. I put a boat on a large dolly, added an outboard motor, cushions, and life jackets. Then got to ride the dolly along with the boat and the people going fishing into the water. Also retrieved the boats on an empty dolly which can get interesting with waves on the lake. On hot summer days it was a swim suit and tennis shoe job. Otherwise I wore hipboots. In my younger years we vacationed near the same boat livery. Then when I was 10 we moved to the area. I really thought the guys doing this job were real cool. I did this for three years in high school and freshman year in college before moving on to a different summer job.
I agree with Pat that retirement is great.
Johnboy
My first job, if I remember it right, was selling men's underwear at Montgomery Ward. Really, really boring!
my first job was taking big rocks away from the boat landing and running a baitshop, I was 12!
not only was I paid cash but I got all the free fudge bars I could eat! :up:
I worked as a waitress one summer during college in Ocean City, MD.
Like Tess my first job was a bank, I was only 15 at the time and the job was terribly boring.
A little over a year I left The Netherlands and went to Germany working at a US Airforce base as an au pair.
Job turned out to be more a cleaning job than looking after a child. No time off and very little pay but I did meet my present husband there so it was fun after all!
Hannie
Let's see so far we have:
Onions and fuel stations with future hubby,
A real cool guy swim suit and tennis shoe job at a boat livery
Bait shop with unlimited free fudge bars –stomach aches too?
Men's underwear
College summer in Ocean City waiting tables
Au pair meets future husband
What fun it is to learn the variety of early jobs you all have had. And if any of you have an old photo of yourself or pertaining to that time in your life that you'd like to share we'd love to see it also.
Pat
My first job (not working for family) was working after school in a small print shop. Although they were using offset presses they occasionally still cast lead type. I was called in to help collate book signatures by hand when they had extra large orders. The manager's kids also worked there after school and had been since they were little. So the 5-year-old could collate faster than I could! I discovered you can become faster and more skillful if you're willing to apply yourself. I learned some great life lessons there!
Tori
Alrighty den. I'll go first. This is me and a roommate's rear end in our garage apt. in Ocean City.
(http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm81/kiskaopr/oceancity.jpg)
Great photo Kiska, thanks! Looks like the rest of you may need some prompting so...
Johnboy surely you can dredge up a real cool photo of your boat livery days?
Tess are there no photos of that fuel station where you and hubby met or just one of you and hubby before he was hubby?
Lurch not sure we need photos of boxers or briefs ;D but I bet there's a special photo of yourself or of that time period in your life?
Jesterjeni got a photo of that bait shop you used to run or maybe one of yourself at twelve?
Hannie you must have a photo taken during your time in Germany when you and hubby met?
Tori surely you have an old photo circa your print shop days?
My first job was as a waitress at Colonial Fountain & Grill while going to college. It wasn't the worst job, but it gave me a glimpse of how obnoxious some people are to servers. I remember one fellow who seemed to enjoy being a pain and I returned the favor by giving him a chocolate malt with a straw that had bits of nuts added. >:D
Pat, sorry to be so slow, but didn't realize that having a new puppy means less sleep.
Margie
Lol Kiska, looks like your roomie drew the short straw for cleaning the bathroom. :D
Ok here we are, weren't we young looking! The price of the fuel gives its age away, just on 50c per litre and now we have nearly $1.50!
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/tassie_devil/DSCF3411small.jpg)
Tess, what an adorable looking couple you are in that photo!! Young love :loveit:
Margie, what do the kitties think of their new sibling? Got to be some good photo op's there!
Believe it or not my first job was a newspaper delivery boy for the Miami News. The bad part of the job was that it seemed to rain a lot when I was delivering my newspapers on a bicycle after school. :)
Hi David, my hubby's first job was delivering newspapers on his bicycle also. I lived on his paper route so that was extra nice :loveit: We lived out in the country where the roads were dirt and the homes spaced long distances apart so when it rained or snowed his mom would sometimes drive him around his route in their car as he was too young to drive.
Pat
Tess what a great photo! Kiska, that is such a lovely photo of you!
I had to look really hard to find this silly photo. It was made in Wiesbaden, Germany. We were both 16 at the time....
Margie, the straw trick was very evil of you, I wonder if he ever figured ou what you did. :)
Hannie
(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/Wiesbaden2.jpg)
Hannie what a cute photo. You look :halo: like you haven't got a devilish bone in your body :)
Hannie, do I want to know what the hat is for????
Hannie, I think he figured it out after he choked and later had to be on a respirator. Whoops, me bad! OK, I'm kidding nothing happened and not sure he figured it out since they were small nuts--the kind you put on sundaes.
Neat photos, but Hannie, you and the boyfriend's hat has me puzzled too? (some kind of Dutch dating game?)
Margie
The hat actually was an empty French fries bag... can you believe the size of it? And no, we were not pinheads. (peabrains, yes)
Pat, you are right, I was a very friendly girl but I sure made up for it as I'm getting older! >:D
Hannie
Pat, do you have any photos from the time you had your "bedroom" custom computer building company? It sounds really interesting, you probably know a lot about computers.
Hannie
PS
What about all the other OPR-sters lurking in the backbround?
Pat,
Now we know who to ask when we have computer problems.
Love the pictures of Tess, Kiska, and Hannie--really neat to see you at a younger age.
Hannie, do you mean these OPR-sters lurking in the background today: jesterjeni, GK, AlanP, halygd. and TerryB, and schen? Maybe they're mystery shoppers, first job was criminal mischief, or they never had a job. If it's the #2 and #3, we will understand your reluctance. ;)
Margie
Hannie I truly wish we had the foresight to document our "custom computer /bedroom factory" with photos but like the old saying goes hindsight is twenty-twenty. Anyway here I am taking a break at the end of the day and by the looks of it contemplating the wisdom of undertaking such a venture. :-\
(http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc406/PatsPhotos1/Takingabreak-1.jpg)
Pat
I'm not lurking...my first job was the bait shop, unfortunately my mom died when I was 12 (she got sick when I was 9) she was 36 and had cancer. my dad remarried that same year and she died too. she was 33 and had a cerebral hemorrhage.. my mom died march 3rd and the other woman on December 27Th ...same year....my dad drank allot and there was no pictures of me or the bait shop during those years infact I have very few pictures that showed I was ever a child...
I love to read what others did, I mean no mischief....!!!
Jeni how heartbreaking! I am so so sorry you had to go through that. Of course we love having you join us to whatever extent you are able or feel comfortable.
Pat
Jennifer, I too am sorry for what you went through. I'm also sorry if you failed to see my post as teasing those members who sign in, but don't post. I like to tease people and you would see a glimpse of that when on this post I said one of my customers choked on the nuts and had to be put on a resperator----pure nonsense! There are times when I may be out of sorts, but I enjoy the banter and humor on this forum as well as the restoring part. I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable by posting.
Pat, that is a lovely photo of you. I think we all have been in situations like that and its easier to bounce back when you are young.
Margie
P.S. You had posted earlier, so you should not have been on the list.
Sorry to hear of your troubles Jennifer.
Pat that is a gorgeous photo of you. The perfect title would be 'contemplation'.
It looks like you are either thinking 'what am I doing here?' or 'gee I'm tired and my feet hurt.'
Come on Glenna, Max, Athol and everyone else. we'd love to hear your stories.
Pat, that is a great photo! It reminds me of Rodin's The Thinker....
(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/pat-1.jpg)
Hannie
Hannie, do you mean these OPR-sters lurking in the background today: jesterjeni, GK, AlanP, halygd. and TerryB, and schen? Maybe they're mystery shoppers, first job was criminal mischief, or they never had a job. If it's the #2 and #3, we will understand your reluctance. ;)
Margie
Guilty of lurking Margie, as charged. My first job (6th grade) was as a newspaper route helper, one route for a morning paper and another route for an evening paper. Did that for two years until I got my own evening paper route which I kept for another two years.
Always tried to get home in time to watch the Mickey Mouse Club on TV and proud to say I still remember the words to the theme song.
TerryB
M I C K E Y.........
M I C K E Y.........
Thanks kiska for getting that tune started in my feeble brain.
Now I can't get rid of it.
http://www.televisiontunes.com/MICKEY_Mouse_Club.html (http://www.televisiontunes.com/MICKEY_Mouse_Club.html)
YOU started it. 8)
Forever let us hold our banner. High! High! High! High!
I'm never going to sleep now with that going in my head lol.
TerryB, talk about a nostalgia trip - wow! I remember Mickey Mouse Club, and what about Howdy Doody? I remember that song also. :up2:
Pat
Quote from: Pat on April 24, 2011, 09:32:08 AM
TerryB, talk about a nostalgia trip - wow! I remember Mickey Mouse Club, and what about Howdy Doody? I remember that song also. :up2:
Pat
OK y'all, now you've really done it.
I have Mickey Mouse Club theme song rattling around in my head and Howdy Doody theme song rattling around in my evil twin's head.
Maybe I'm schizo but at least I have each other :D
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Howdy_Doody_Show_-_Its_Howdy_Doody_Time_(The).html (http://www.televisiontunes.com/Howdy_Doody_Show_-_Its_Howdy_Doody_Time_(The).html)
All kiska's fault ;D
Quote from: Tassie D on April 24, 2011, 01:47:43 AM
Come on Glenna, Max, Athol and everyone else. we'd love to hear your stories.
Tess, I'm thinking that the reason some have yet to respond (I'm not naming any names you understand >:D) is because they are still on their first jobs and are afraid that we'll find out their assignment is us (http://bestsmileys.com/aliens/10.gif)
Pat
perhaps a television critic doesnt count ;D !!
Back on line after disk drive problems, remind me never to rely on backup software that doesn't show a warning that the backup drive has died. Then my main drive started playing up :-\
What a varied lot we are
Though I did sell lollies at the local show one year, I wanted to by an EDBee motor for the model plane I was building my first real job after finishing school was as a trainee telephone technician with the Post Master General's Department. Had to leave home and move into a boarding house with 3 other trainees, we didn't get up to any mischief of course.
Selected the best looking photo I could find of me on the handlebars of dad's bike. The bike became mine eventually and one of my sons used it as well. My Scottish ancestry shows.
Here the Vegemite song and Skippy are burned into everyone's brain
Athol
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s145/atholg/0502.jpg)
Athol,
What a cute picture, but you don't look like this was fun. :funny:
It's great to see you back on the forum.
Margie
P.S. I was waiting to see something about knitting needles.
Quote from: jesterjeni on April 25, 2011, 09:54:35 PM
perhaps a television critic doesnt count ;D !!
I like that Jeni! We need to add radio critic. My family didn't get our first TV until I was around seven years old. The year before that our nearest neighbor got the first one I'd ever seen. Prior to that time I remember hunkering down in front of the radio for the Lone Ranger and Let's Pretend shows. My mom was wild about the Ma Perkins show but at my tender age I didn't put much stock in that one.
Pat
I took a trip to the little village I grew up in, the bait shop building is still standing, no signs however that it once was a verry active little bait shop.......as requested here it is :
URL=http://img716.imageshack.us/i/cid41.jpg/](http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9027/cid41.jpg)[/URL]
The reason I have not posted was because I am still searching for the pictures. My first job was a summer job at a vaccine lab during my college sophomore year. The main product we made was Newcastle disease vaccine. My tasks include punching holes on the shell of the chicken embryos, inject them with Newcastle virus, hatching the embryos, and extracting virus from them to make vaccine. Occasionally, I got to groom the horses we used to extract antiserum. The most exciting event was when Newcastle disease hit the area, we were drafted to help inoculate a whole chicken farm. I think I injected more than a thousand two week old chicks in an afternoon intravenously.
Where do bait shops get all that creepy crawly bait anyway?
(http://bestsmileys.com/fishing/1.gif)
(http://bestsmileys.com/insects/1.gif)(http://bestsmileys.com/insects/3.gif)
Schen you must have been planning to obtain a degree in medicine or medical research?
Pat
Pat,
I am a little slow. You asked about a photo of me at the boat livery. There were no photos taken while I worked there. However, I found one of me in earlier training. That is me in the sailor dixie cup. That is my dad bent over holding on the the motor. I think the boy with the arm in the sling worked there. The carrier could be handled with one arm. Once it got going it was a matter of pointing at the water. Coming back up you could wrap one leg around the end of the bar and guide it up with your legs. Did that many times.
The other boat livery in the background was the competition.
(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4302/meintraining.jpg)
Johnboy
Johnboy what a wonderful photo. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Pat
Johnboy, great photo! Sounds like a fun job to start out.
Margie
Cute photo Johnboy!
Hannie
Good grief, I didn't realize I've been missing in action for so long. I'm not recovering from losing Aaron Neville very quickly. I guess when you've had a little furry shadow for 14 years that was a non-stop "talking" lap cat and he all of a sudden disappears, getting over the loss doesn't come right away.
I've enjoyed reading through this thread to find out what you've all done in your past.
I started working my senior year in high school. I was a typesetter for three county newspapers in a small town in Maryland. I got so burned out that I even set type in my sleep. When I got out of school, I stayed with one of the newspapers and became a "production" person: setting type, headlines, pasting up pages - whatever needed doing. It was so long ago that the machine I used for setting type had a roll of hole-punched paper that came from the unit into which I typed and was fed into another to actually justify and print the copy. I was doing that when JFK was assassinated. 500 years ago. I found an old shot of a co worker, former classmate and Facebook friend (who won't talk to me now because she doesn't like my outspoken politics), in my scan folder and will post that. I think I'd have been about 18 at the time.
I loved the people for whom I worked, but it was a tough job with very long hours. I did become friends with an older man who was the editor of one of the papers. He was so intelligent and articulate that his editorials were sometimes reprinted in Time Magazine. He was also a complete drunk, and nearly got us both killed when he ran a stop light on the main highway right in front of a huge truck. Thank heavens for guardian angels.
So now I'm a somewhat recalcitrant (hopefully not for long) photo restorer and have been doing a lot of retouching for the international singing group on FB. I still love doing both!
Marcia and me (in striped shirt) working our tushes off in around 1964
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/MarciaG.jpg)
Lovelyn, one of the Wild Blossoms - from the Philippines via Nigeria - in a retouched photo I posted about a month ago. I masked her out of a nondescript background and placed her on a new one. Ditto Sagarika. The 4 singers are all drop-dead gorgeous.
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/Lovelyn3_Adjusted.jpg)
Sagarika, another WB - from India.
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/Sag3.jpg)
Anyway, trying to get my head on straight and get back to work. And adjusting to ONLY having 4 cats. What an empty house!
Hugs to all of you. Love the photos and knowing more about my wonderful OPR pals.
GK
Glenna how wonderful to see your post. You've certainly been missed around the forum!
What an interesting read. Your really jumped into the workforce at full speed. No wonder you were setting type in your sleep! Did you even notice your senior year go by?
GK, great to see you back. you have been missed! What a neat photo and a very interesting job! I'm sorry about your loosing so many of your furry shadows and 14 years for Aaron Neville would be hard.
Margie
Thanks, my friends, for the welcome back. I hope I can keep it together now. If my last 4 cats will hang in there, I should be okay.
I told Iron Man this morning that we've gone from the breakfast begging song being the "mormon tabby-nackle choir" to a sad little barbershop quartet. Quite a difference from having 11 a little over a year ago. And my babies just turned 11, so they're all elderly, like us. Margie, I know you appreciate what a treasure Aaron Neville was to me. I loved all of them greatly, but he was my constant companion. Sometimes I walk around in circles looking for him.
Pat, working all those hours made my senior year go by really quickly, and because I was slacking a bit on my studies, I almost lost my honor society pin. That would have broken my heart. So I scrambled to study more (physics, trig, advanced English - all pre-college courses), and almost made salutatorian. That was most definitely a very, very busy and interesting year!
Hugs
GK
Hi Glenna,
It is great to see you posting again, we missed you!
Lovely photo of you at 18, the machine looks interesting, sounds like you had a great job even though it was tiring.
Give the fur balls a great big cuddle for me and I hope we'll see more of you!
:-*
Hannie
Glad to see you back Glenna,
We all know when we take on a pet that we are likely to have to cope with its loss. The pluses always more than compensate for the eventual loss but unfortunately there is no medicine, other than time to help us recover.
We had to have put down a 14 year old Cocker on Xmas eve a few years ago and the feeling was that we would never have another. We lasted 3 months.
Maybe you should get a dog, think of all the excitement and distraction that would create ::)
Athol
GK, good advice from Athol and anyone that has lost a beloved pet knows the feeling of loss. I was fine until I got to the last sentence: "Maybe you should get a dog, think of all the excitement and distraction that would create." Athol, you are a devil!
The last 3 weeks of having a new puppy with two cats is sort of like being in a war zone. Things have settled down, but the cats are not happy with my choice of a distraction. Right now I'm hoping they will get used to each other and become friends, but that seems way off in the future when they are all either older or sedated.
One piece of advice: Never have two cats in your lap with a puppy beside you in a crate, because puppy seeing that one of the cats on the arm of the chair is gazing down at her with an evil eye will decide to bark and jump at the instigator. That causes both cats to panic and springboard off my lap. That resulted in a trip to the medicine cabinet for Band Aids and cleaning off the blood. Yes, excitement and distractions!
Athol, sorry for your loss! Did you get a pup and is it a cocker?
Margie
Margie,
I would appreciate it if you stopped the character assassination, my dog thinks I am wonderful.
Yes she is an English Cocker and we got her as a pup. So far we have had a poodle, two corgies and four cockers over I am not sure how many years.
I was spoiled for cats when young. We had the best cat you could imagine, a smokey grey persian that always played with her claws sheathed and the few I have looked at since never measured up.
Sounds like you are having lots of fun and may survive the war. What about a weekly report, ie the number of band-aids, bites, scratches etc
Athol
Athol,
I will try to rein in my comments about your character so that your dog can continue in ignorant bliss. A cat would have been wise to you by now.
Yes, it has been great fun <cough> and I will consider a weekly report if I'm functional. I neglected to mention that it took me a little while to recognize that the strange sounds in the house were not mechanical, but rather the cat in the kitchen growling so loud that I could hear it in the living room. The other cat (avatar) has a low growl that doesn't at first register as coming from a cat. Plus, either my hearing is faulty or the cats are ventriloquist and manage to throw their voices. Not to go overboard here, but did I mention that I am also a blood donor---to the ticks outside? They are so bad that I am considering putting the pup in Depends.
Hope your Cocker is as much fun.
Margie
Sounds like a great script for reality TV ::)
Athol
Yes, but I want actors to take over!
(http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx48/MBphoto09/me/n1530841072_30229751_1173706.jpg)(http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx48/MBphoto09/me/n1530841072_30240460_5090749.jpg) This was not my first job, but it was interesting & I was young. I worked for 4 years in the with the Kemp's ridleys sea turtle. We protected them from extinction & it has worked so far...In the first picture i am collecting eggs from a nest.
What a wonderful and interesting opportunity you had there MB! Fantastic photos also.
Pat
MB, what a great photo of you and what an interesting job. That's looks so rewarding and how great to be able to work outdoors!
Margie
I'm wondering MB what affect the BP oil spill has had on the turtles?
Pat
Who knows what he oil spill will do to them. The only turtles that get counted are the females when they come out to lay eggs. They dont lay eggs until they are about 25 years old, so we wont know the effect of the oil spill right away.
Nice photo MB, what a wonderful job you had!
So, it may be another 24 years till we know the full extend of damage to the turtles due to the oil spill...
Hannie
Yes, 25+ years may take before we know how many of the hatchlings (immature) turtles died. They will get a count on the females that come in to lay eggs this year. The males never come in....so that number we wont ever know. It took over 25-35 years to see the conservation success.
If the turtles don't lay eggs until they are around 25 years old they must normally have quite a long life span MB?
The following is information I found on Wikipedia. I'm sure it's information you are already familiar with MB but for others who might be interested....
Some Kemp's ridleys were airlifted from Mexico after the 1979 blowout of the Ixtoc 1 rig, which spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill menaces a wide variety of marine life, from dolphins to blue crabs. Since April 30, 2010, 10 days after the accident on the Deepwater Horizon, they have recorded 156 sea turtle deaths; most of the turtles were Kemp's ridleys. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expanded a fishing ban in the Gulf of Mexico because of the spreading oil. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists and enforcement agents have rescued Kemp's ridleys in Grand Isle.
Of the endangered marine species that frequent Gulf waters, only the Kemp's ridley relies on the region as its sole breeding ground.
As part of the effort to save the species from some of the devastating effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists have begun taking eggs from their nests and incubating them elsewhere. Sixty-seven eggs were collected from a nest along the Florida Panhandle on June 26, 2010, and brought to a temperature-controlled warehouse at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, but only 56 hatched. State and federal officials plan to bring thousands more eggs for incubation in the coming months.
The overall plan is to pluck some 70,000 eggs from sea turtle nests on beaches across Alabama and Florida before they hatch and swim out into the oil from the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion off Louisiana. NASA currently has about 1,100 eggs at the space center site incubating.
Attention all of you newer members! With the exception of one or two we've not heard from you here :(. Have none of you had a first job experience you'd like to share?? Maybe you've had a particularly interesting job? Have you had a really unusual or fun job? Or a job that was just horrible and you hated it? We would really enjoy getting to know you better.
We'd also like to invite you to join us in the "What is your hobby?" topic or just check into the "New Volunteer Welcome Center" and meet your fellow volunteers.
Pat
My first job was in commercial marketing department. I was a Junior Secretary/Administration. I stayed with that company for five years became Assistant Commercial Manager in charge of all Marketing Job, Tele Sales, Translator, Marketing for Import and Export.
Todate My main career is Office Manager an all rounder, Accounting. My new hobby career is Web Designer, Digital Artist. My hobbies for the last 4 years has been photo retouching photo restoration and vintage photo colourizing.
At this stage of my years I am debating whether to take my new hobby as main career.
helen
Hi Helen,
What an interesting career you've had. Wouldn't it be great to have your hobby become your new career! You will certainly fit right in around here. If you are free to post any of those old vintage photos you've colorized we'd love to see couple of them here. Or if you have an example of some of your digital artwork please feel free to post it here also; we'd love to see it.
Do you know how to post an image here in the forum?
You can use Photobucket, Flickr or Imageshack for posting images in the forum. The following link has directions for all three. http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,2002.msg19920.html#msg19920
Pat