First Jobs
On last night’s KTK, JekyllnHyde mentioned the movie The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, and Sara R mentioned that it was good. I found it on Amazon Prime and we watched it; it was very good indeed. It certainly looks like the boilerplate image above is by Wain. I recommend the movie.
As a teen my first real job was mowing lawns. I used the family power mower (and gas) and made $1 per lawn. Needing a steadier income, there were two choices. Paper route, or pin setter in a bowling alley. Our local alleys were as sleazy as one could imagine, and some of my sleazier friends had those jobs. So I got a paper route.
The morning paper was The Milwaukee Sentinel; the evening paper was The Milwaukee Journal. They are now combined into the journal Sentinel. I chose a morning route. For several years I woke very early, cut the cord on my stack of papers, folded most of them such that they could be thrown onto people’s porches, with some left flat to insert behind certain subscriber’s doors, and set off on my bicycle with the papers in a canvas bag on my shoulders.
This was Wisconsin, so it was rain or shine, hot or freezing, icy and snowy, on a bicycle! Every Friday late afternoon I would set out on my route and collect. It was 30 cents a week for daily and 20 cents for Sunday. Often folks either weren’t home or pretended not to be, so I’d have to postpone for another week….or more. One plus was that I was paid in 100% silver coins, and sometimes older folks would dig through drawers and give me old coins, even a century old. I had a nice collection. In total I made about $30 a month.
I haven’t thought of this for decades, but I perfectly accepted that I had this job, even though it was intrusive, and most kids didn’t have to do such. I saved money for a goal, an aqualung (what people today call Scuba gear). It was all good.
This might have reminded y’all of your first job. What did you do, and was it a burden? Did an early job lead to future employment? Did it build character? Were you paid appropriately? Did you get a job on your own, or have help from parents? Did you have a lot of choices, and did your gender determine those choices? I hope folks share, but, in any case, it’s an open thread.