I've been wondering about this as I've been reading the saga of the paperboys. I wondered if it was their first job? If not, what was? However, this is not just for them, but for all of us. And the definition of a job is something that somebody outside your family paid you to do - chores don't count.
I'll go first.
I wanted a job, but what could a girl who was 11 do? I saw an ad in a magazine placed byt eh Wallace Stevens Company. They were looking for sales reps for their stationery products. Writing papaer, Christmas cards, note cards, etc. I wrote to them and they sent me a sample case, most of which I still have). So I walked around E. 14th St, E. 15th St. from Mill to down by the frat houses, and in the area just across the tracks between Mill and College. I met a lot of people that way, and I actually made some money, maybe about $40 per year.
My 2nd job started when I was 14 and lasted until just before ASU started. I was the weekend babysitter for the woman who owned the Ricardo's restauarnts in Phoenix. I made .75 an hour and worked about 18 hours a weekend.
An early job - My brother Ray and I got into a Maricopa County summer work program, I think roughly around my freshman year. A bus would pick us up at various points beginning in Mesa, Tempe, and then into South Phoenix and central Phoenix picking up more guys till the bus was full, and then we headed north on I-17 to the (now) site of the Ben Avery Shooting facility near Lake Pleasant. At that time it was just desert.
Our job was to clear the desert of boulders, brush, cactus, etc. to prepare for the building of the shooting range. June and July, so the heat required that we wear hat, kerchief, long-shirt and pants, sturdy boots, gloves, so as not to die of heat stroke. Very strict rules on getting water at least every 45 minutes or so. We used shovels, rakes, wheel barrows, etc. Still recall the sore muscles, blisters, sand in the eyes, etc. For five hours work a day (not including transportation time), we earned $4.38 per day (a number obviously seared into my memory).
On the last day of the program, we all got to swim at a public pool in Phoenix. The supervisors called a few of us aside and asked if the next year we'd be interested in being 'straw bosses' to help supervise the next summer's workers. Uh-huh, I said. Mmm-hmmm, I thought.
Babysitting was my first job. I started when I was 10 years old. At that time, I would just babysit for famiies on our block (W. 17th Place), or nearby, so that if I needed help, my mom or one of my older sisters could come help me out. I don't remember ever calling for them. My rates were 50 cents an hour. Sometimes the families I babysat would offer me extra money for extra work, i.e. cleaning the kitchen, doing the laundry, ironing, cleaning bathrooms. It was usually paid at 50 cents per chore. I can remember one night having nine children from 3 different families to care for. The oldest was 9 and the youngest was 6 weeks old. I think I was about 12.
As I've posted memorabilia on this website, I've discovered something very interesting. During our Freshman and Sophomore years, I have many programs from football games, basketball games, wrestling matches and tournaments, plays, musicals, and concerts. For our Junior and Senior years, I have almost nothing. The reason??? I was discovered as a babysitter!! Instead of going to the games, I was babysitting the coaches' kids. In addition, some of my parents' friends were moving through the line of Bender girls as babysitters. I regularly babysat for Coaches Widmer, Cosner,and Campbell, as well as Mr. Walker (band director), Bob and Ann Patterson(parents' friends), and neighborhood families, especially the Browers. Between them all, it was pretty normal for me to babysit Thursday night, Friday night, all day Saturday, Saturday night, Sunday night, and Monday night. During our Senior year, I babysat for the Walkers after school 3 or 4 days a week, so Mrs. Walker could give piano lessons from her home. The families were always wonderful to me, leaving me snacks and soda pop, and often times tipping me!! I always had lots of money that I saved in a cigar box.
There were strict rules for babysitting, taught to me by my sisters: Number 1- never use the phone except to let my parents know when I'd be home; 2- make sure all doors were locked; 3-make sure all toys were picked up; 4- don't go to sleep!!
I know my daughter now pays her babysitter $10.00-$12.00 an hour(Los Angeles rates) to care for her baby. I just think how very rich I could've been!!
My first job was lawnwork. I started at age 11 doing an occaisional yard for neighbors and family friends when they went on vacation. I would take care of the watering schedule (this was before lawn spinler systems were popular or automatic) and mow the lawn. When we were in Jr. Hi. Don Peterson and I partnered up and found 3 or 4 regular customers that helped support our go-cart venture. We mowed and trimmed in the spring and summer and raked leaves and cut branches in the fall and winter. I made about $2.00 per lawn on average. I was very glad to move onto to a paper route! I still dislike yardwork to this day!!
Also remember 'being discovered' (as JudyBender puts it) as a window washer. Used newspaper and windex. Ape-length arms helped me get the corners. Word got around, and seems as if someone was always calling for windows.
My first job like many, was babysitting. My pay was anywhere from $.35-$.50/hr and usually did not get paid extra for doing dishes, folding laundry, etc. I think I was around 10 yrs. old when I started babysitting. I was pretty good at it because I had 4 younger brothers that I helped out with. I liked getting the jobs because if I needed money for anything, I was expected to pay for it out of my babysitting money. I can remember needing money to go roller skating with my church youth group and praying like mad for a job so I could go! lol!
My first real job started two days after we graduated from HS. At age 17, I became Secretary/Office Mgr./Payroll Clerk for a company named, 'Universal-Rundle Corp'. I think my monthly take home was around $280.00 and I was expected to pay rent, my car payment, insurance, clothes, etc. out of that. I rarely had any extra money to do anything else. I remember thinking, 'is this all there is?'........
Carol
I started working at the Shell Station on Priest and Broadway when I was 16. As I Graduated from THS and there was no more dress code to follow. I started growing my hair long for the first time. I used ''Style Jel to glue my hair'' to my head. So I could keep my job at the Shell Station. That Shell Station changed owners about 4 times. Ken Vivian owned it when I left for the Army. When I came home on Leave. Ted Maish was working for Ken. At first I was Jealous of Ted. But ended up having even more laughs with Ted. Jealous of my 2 dollar an hour Job, LOL.
This is a great topic, Phyllis. Got me thinking about the several jobs I had many years ago.
- I ironed for the THE Monti family, at their house (maybe it was Leonard Monti) in the summer
- I cleaned a couple of houses in the neighborhood
- on Saturdays I had 2 or 3 ladies who's hair I fixed. Remember the magnetic rollers? I go and 'set' them in the mornings, then back later in the afternoon, after they dried and tease and spray so it would last the week. This was before hot rollers came into being
- I babysat Stan Runnels younger brother and sister, as well as a couple of other families. I also cleaned (washed dishes & folded laundry) while I was there. I didn't have the business sense you did, Judy, to ask for more money but I remember being tipped well
I think it's interesting that I have no idea how much money I made, or what I did with it! Once my social life kicked in, babysitting took a back seat, but my sister, Donna, took over. I remember once, having a boyfriend stop by after the kids went to bed. The parents came home early, and he took off running, leaving his shoes behind. Needless to say, I wasn't asked back.
After I graduated from THS I worked as a waitress at the Beef House, caddycorner from THS, and at CoCo's/Bradley's on Rural. I do remember I made minimum wage, which I think was just over $3.00 per hour. I made a killing in tips, and spend that all on clothes for college. Those were the days.
I did a bit of babysitting for 50 cents per hour. One family had only on baby girl and the other family had 5 kids.
My sophomore summer I worked for a veterninarian, cleaning cages and washing dogs. I do not remember how much I was paid.
My senior year, I only had school the first three periods of the day. In the afternoons, I worked the lunch/soda counter at Campus Drugs on the corner of 8th and University. I was paid $1.10 per hour and a good day was $3.00 in tips. Those dang cheap college kids.
During college I worked in a men's clothing store near campus.
Besides my chosen and college prepared career in nursing, I have had many other jobs such as:
Clipping and grooming horses on a Arabian ranch with over 100 horses. I also prepared meals for the families on the ranch.
I had a job milking and medicating the hospital string of brown swiss cows for some friends dairy and I fed their calves.
I had my own massage therapy business and I also worked for a 5 star resort spa.
I lived on and tended a 13 acre quarter horse ranch. Besides caring for the horses, I mowed and irrigated the pastures. That was my favorite one.
After high school, my first real job, where I got a paycheck and paid taxes was working at a gas station at 40th street and East Washington in Phoenix. Nothing too memorable about it. I do remember gas as cheap as 19.9 a gallon during a price war. And we gave out nice glass tumbler drinking glasses with a 10 gallon fill up,.
Later on I got a job at the dog race track. I started out as a “runner”, making change for the sellers and cashiers. From there I moved up to the Money Room where we counted all the cash for every race. That was kinda cool, being around and handling around 250,000 dollars in cold cash every night. A couple of times we came up short several thousand bucks. We all had to take a lie detector test. Both times they did catch someone stealing. I also worked the Horse track at Turf Paradise too. Met quite a few shady type characters at all the dog and horse tracks in and around the Valley. It was probably the most enjoyable job as far as being fun that I ever had. They even gave us free beer after work every night in the employees lounge. I ended up getting fired because I refused to get my hair cut. Oh well, their loss.
During high school, my first real job was wrapping Christmas packages for a Western Store in downtown Scottsdale. While in college I worked for four years in the Marketing Department in the College of Business at ASU as a student assistant to all the great professors. I never had to work nights or weekends like all my friends.
After college, my first job was teaching Business classes at Tempe High School. It was an honor to be hired by Dr. Sinclair only four years after I graduated from THS. The value of my first contract was $7,100 for nine months. Gee, I thought I was making great money! But then, things were much cheaper then - weren't they?
My first job was at Grand Ave Garage in down town Phoenix. Grand ma used to take me down there when I was about 6 or 7, to clean tools and mop the floors.
Now. I own the business Grandpa started in 1935, and I've never worked else ware.
If my math is right, I've been there 50 years! Holy Sh*t!
Tommy
If I know anything about you, it's that your math is correct! Let me know if you need any help, however, as my math aptitude has kicked in too, thanks to you and the help you offered me at THS 40yrs. ago.
I was conscripted by my Mom to iron my brother's shirts for 10 cents each when I was about 10. I didn't like it and neither did my brothers so that didn't last long. Then came babysitting. I really had no attraction to kids but loved making any money. My first job when I was 16 was working for NIck's Cafe on 8th street. I waitressed. I remember serving some friends of Nick's and he made a special Italian salad for them. They didn't eat all of it so he scooped the left- overs onto a clean plate and had me serve it to some unsuspecting customers :(. I also worked at Brad's Coffee shop and got fired for eating a roll while hiding in the serving island cause I had just come from cheer practice and was hungry!!! It was quite embarrassing to have to call my stepdad, Bob Curry to some and get me. Next came Dunkin Donuts. I thought I had died and landed in donut heaven. I got a free donut every day. Then I began to hate the smell of donuts because that was what I always smelled like when I came home from work. The final straw came when I ate a giant cinnamon roll on break and turned it over to find a moth with one wing chewed off!!! Ahhhh the memories.
It wasn't a first job, but was one of the ways kids in Tempe could make money when we were growing up -- doing concessions at ASU during football games. Seems like you had to be at least 13 because I remember starting in 8th grade. I usually sold Pepsi, Team, and Sprite, though you could also sell popcorn and peanuts. We'd get there early, taking warm clothes (later in the fall), $5.10, and an old sock. The money was for buying your first rack of drinks, which you'd carry up and down the stands yelling 'Pepsi! Team! Sprite!', one or some of them invariably sloshing out of the lid and getting you sticky. They were heavy, too! If you sold them all, you then had $6.00. Put 90 cents in the sock, tie it around your belt, then go back up to the top and buy another rack. On and on. Sometimes there'd be a whole group of people wanting drinks (to add shots of other liquids to). One person in the group wound up organizing, so you'd start handing out drinks, and just hope that they collected what you were owed. And sometimes they tipped.
After a night of this, we'd be tired and hoarse, the sock heavy with coins, maybe sixteen, seventeen bucks, and we'd be hungy. So we'd head over to Pete's Fish 'n Chips for a huge 15 cent plate of fries (Damn the complexion!). Then home on our bikes. It still amazes me that we had so much freedom to ride around on our bikes -- eighth graders roaming around town at 9:30 at night. It was a smaller, safer time. It was a great time!
Yes - the ASU football concessions - another benefit of this gig was finishing the night completely soaked and sticky with the soda that didn't all make it into the cups and beneath the lids. Was never sure where the sweat left off and the spilling, streaming pop began....
I'd completely forgotten this, but Phyllis' opening, mentioning 'saga' is appropriate. When I was a sophomore, my older brother and I worked after school for Saga Food Services at the ASU Student Union -- we called it 'Soggy Foods'. We usually worked from 3:00 until about 9:30 setting up tables, serving food, clearing, then washing dishes for various banquets. There must've been about 15 of us, many from THS, and we got to eat all we wanted and drink as much milk as we wanted. I think it paid 90 cents an hour. One night as I was clearing those little bowls that held butter pads on ice, I poured a lady a glass of water with my right hand, forgotting that I had a bowl with melted ice in my left. It went down her back . . . much to her surprise.
Yep, you're up there in posts, Phyllis. Â Some of us extravert ourselves in print, I guess, though I was 'chastised' by Marco about it. Â Wish he were going to attend.
Some of the others from Tempe who worked at Saga were Jim Roye and Jack Killingsworth (both '68). Â We used to have food fights as we were loading the dishwashing machine. Â Back then, I wasn't too picky about food, though institutional string beans have always been rubbery. Â Mashed potatoes and Salisbury steak, not so bad.
Love this security question: Â How do you spell 'cat'? Â Do they do this because we're over 55?
The security questions are working, asked me what color was an orange...I said blue ,just to be sneaky... didnt work, so big brother(or sister) is watching!
I worked for Saga too! So did Todd Knowles and I believe Stan Runnels and Bob Johnson did also. This was during our junior year. I worked at Manzanita doing dishes mostly, but occaisionally worked in the kitchen. I learned to break 4 eggs at a time! They would roll out a cart with with about 12 racks of 12 doz. eggs each and I would break all of them into a big vat to be mixed up for scrambled eggs for Sunday Breakfast.
Gary, interesting to hear that others in the class worked at Saga. What's funny is that the days we worked were usually Tuesdays and Thursdays, yet I never missed turning in homework . . . because I hardly ever had any. Our two kids have had homework all the way through school, starting in something like second grade. Thing've changed.
I had a stint at Saga - the main cafeteria, I think. Besides hating the work and the supervision, I remember that we were told that the first returned tray would arrive exactly 17 minutes after the first student was served. And sure enough, it happened every day like clockwork. Don't tell my wife that I know how to do dishes....
But 17 minutes to eat? And like clockwork! The human animal likes routine, but taking the same amount of time to eat every day is carrying the idea of routine pretty far.
  My first job was at Grand Ave Garage in down town Phoenix. Grand ma used to take me down there when I was about 6 or 7, to clean tools and mop the floors.
Now. I own the business Grandpa started in 1935, and I've never worked else ware.
If my math is right, I've been there 50 years! Holy Sh*t!
                                               Tommy
I remember when you used to plow the south field with the little caterpillar. I always thought that was fun. All I can remember was a skinny 4 foot red headed kid bumping and hopping on the seat of that cat plowing, and also the pre dayn milking and end of day feeding of the milk cows. I thought that was a pretty good couple of pre jobs that you got to do. 50 years, time flys, at least now you don't milk the cows, only the job. Hah!
Bob
I remember, when I was in grade school, my Dad would turn me loose on an International Super C (almost the smallest tractor they made) with a 10 ft tandem disc on the 20 acre home place in Kyrene. All day at school I couldnt wait to get home, change my clothes, and start turnin dirt. Ah the simple days, I love em, and glad I was able to raise my kids on the farm too. ;o)
Jerry
