What was your first job?

Subway

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Staff member
Dec 31, 2008
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:roflmao:
Things I know little or nothing.

Real estate.
Sailing and boats. (never sailed or owned one)
Playing music. (would like to learn piano, never did.)
Beer. (never had one)
Drugs. (never tried them)
Sewing. (tried it once. button fell off again. said fook it.)
Cricket. (how dafuq you play this game?)
Fair enough. I’ve drank and done more drugs than most, and so far anyway lived to tell the tales. I‘m a good small boat sailor, and make a good grinder on The big ones. I can strum a guitar, used to be more capable as a youngster. I want to learn the cello when I’m done with work. I’m no real estate expert but I knew to snap up a deal on Our home in Long Beach about 18 months after sandy, it’s worth about 60% more now. Bought a fire sale half acre Lot in 2020 in Hacienda Iguana that I could probably flip tomorrow for a 50-100% gain. So, mostly luck but I do know a little about real estate

I can neither sew nor understand a thing about cricket despite multiple Bajan attempts to teach me. So I guess we call a draw :jamon: :roflmao:
 
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Subway

Administrator
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To be fair, I was always loaded on mount gay “extra old” whenever a Bajan tried to teach me the game, so the rules and Regs never had much of a chance in penetrating the rum fog
 

One-Off

Tom Curren status
Jul 28, 2005
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33.8N - 118.4W
Fair enough. I’ve drank and done more drugs than most, and so far anyway lived to tell the tales. I‘m a good small boat sailor, and make a good grinder on The big ones. I can strum a guitar, used to be more capable as a youngster. I want to learn the cello when I’m done with work. I’m no real estate expert but I knew to snap up a deal on Our home in Long Beach about 18 months after sandy, it’s worth about 60% more now. Bought a fire sale half acre Lot in 2020 in Hacienda Iguana that I could probably flip tomorrow for a 50-100% gain. So, mostly luck but I do know a little about real estate

I can neither sew nor understand a thing about cricket despite multiple Bajan attempts to teach me. So I guess we call a draw :jamon: :roflmao:
Yeah,...but can you deadlift?
 

_____

Phil Edwards status
Sep 17, 2012
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Paper route in grade school. We got an "invoice" and at the end of the month and had to pay for the # of subscribers, and they always gave me about 3 extra, so $ came out of pocket every month regardless of how many times I told them. So my exit - for about 2 months I only delivered to the customers who would complain (handful of over 60 subscribers). It took about 20 minutes a day instead of a few hours. Then I collected from everyone and quit. That job sucked.
Then a banquet serving job at 14. Min wage was 4.75 and I was making $8/hr or about $200 each weekend, free meals with good food. That was a great job.
 

One-Off

Tom Curren status
Jul 28, 2005
14,240
10,439
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33.8N - 118.4W
Paper route in grade school. We got an "invoice" and at the end of the month and had to pay for the # of subscribers, and they always gave me about 3 extra, so $ came out of pocket every month regardless of how many times I told them. So my exit - for about 2 months I only delivered to the customers who would complain (handful of over 60 subscribers). It took about 20 minutes a day instead of a few hours. Then I collected from everyone and quit. That job sucked.
Then a banquet serving job at 14. Min wage was 4.75 and I was making $8/hr or about $200 each weekend, free meals with good food. That was a great job.
Interesting how many had a paper route as their first job. Today's kids won't even know what that is.
 

vanrysss

Billy Hamilton status
Mar 25, 2019
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from Oregon, now SD
Yard work, house painting, and general manual labor around my neighborhood and for family friends as a teenager. On the weekends would help my dad with random small logging jobs, clearing dead trees, stacking logs, splitting firewood. Made $10/hr and ended up pretty strong for a kid that didn't play sports or lift weights which helped out at my next gig. Joined the Army at 17 which worked out alright considering I still have all of my fingers and toes and don't have an ex-wife or oxy addiction.
 

LogHauler

Legend (inyourownmind)
Dec 29, 2010
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South Bay locals will appreciate this: I think it was about 1971, so I was 11. I delivered the Easy Reader. Kevin Cody, (now the owner of ER, I believe), was in charge of us delivery urchins. Anyway, in those days they were supposed to be delivered to every home in Hermosa Beach. We rolled them up in the back room of either the Green Store or the Riviera, (now the Bottle Inn), and then delivered them to our route. Once a month we'd go around to "collect." The only problem was that the paper was free. The idea was to beg for tips. Most people told us to scram. A few people tipped. However, many of the tippers did so on the promise that you stop delivering "that hippie trash" to them. I had around 100 houses on my route. After my first round of "collecting" only about $10 for a month of deliveries, (once a week?), I ended up throwing my last batch of rolled up papers into the sewer in front of the Green Store.
 

kool-aid

Michael Peterson status
Aug 28, 2003
3,027
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San Francisco
First job (not working for my folks) was in the wetsuit department at Wise surfboards.

Never did make it downstairs. Sold a lot of wetsuits in 2005/6.

Pretty chill job except for when you'd have to turn sweaty wetsuits right side out.
 

Mr Doof

Duke status
Jan 23, 2002
24,941
7,860
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San Francisco, CA
I had a paper-route in 4th grade that I inherited from my older sisters that I did for the afternoon paper (they went out of business in the 80s and merged with The Oregonian).

In retrospect, it is interesting to consider me collecting $3 from everyone once a month and carried all that cash home....never lost any of it.

Later jobs in approximate order of employment:

A. Babysitting - for many years
B. Seasonal fruit picking and neighborhood yard work - for many years
C. Busboy/dishwasher at Barney Bagel & Suzie Creamcheese - one season
D. Warehouse worker/mail stuffer - high school summers
E. fry cook at Taco Bell - we made everything fresh back then, just got packaged spices and sauces - a summer
F. night clerk at convenience store - Plaid Pantry, fun to tell the high school jerks to f*ckoff when they wanted to buy beer
G. worked in Reser's Fine Foods in the sausage making factory
H. worked in Beaverton Foods in the mustard packaging section (horseradish day was a nightmare, wear your mask!)
I. worked in packaging section for Oregon Cutting Systems (saw chain packing, wear your Kevlar gloves)
J. office furniture mover
K. dishwasher at university foodhall
L. fancy cafe job

Oh, and once, was a child "model" for a photoshoot for chainsaw parts (the company bar and chain where I later got to work in the chain packaging section). Got to stand next to my father (also in the shoot) and gesture at a mock-up of a chainsaw needing to be sharpened or have the bar/chain replaced. Because of the family connections, neither of us were paid for the roll.

Many years later, when a friend retired early at 57, part of his reasoning, when asked why he wanted to retire early, was "I've been working since I got out of college. I am tired of it." When I asked him if her worked as a kid, like a summer job or pushing a lawn mower, he said his folks wouldn't let him and wanted him to concentrate on his studies.....more proof my parents didn't love me ;)

First job (not working for my folks) was in the wetsuit department at Wise surfboards.

Never did make it downstairs. Sold a lot of wetsuits in 2005/6.

Pretty chill job except for when you'd have to turn sweaty wetsuits right side out.
So you didn't work at the Vicente location and never got to know Glenn?
 
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Random Guy

Duke status
Jan 16, 2002
32,160
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Interesting how many had a paper route as their first job. Today's kids won't even know what that is.
Paper route was my second job, but, yeah, it’s not a kids job anymore

i also hated collecting, and always thought I’d remember way more than I did
when someone owed me for a bunch of weeks, i’d be guessing how many weeks, and hoping they didn’t call me out on it. Sometimes they did
I probably did 4 years of paper routes and saved nothing
spent it all at the deli on Pepsi and yodels and ring dings
 
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