You want fries with that?

[frnash]

"The old man had us cutting firewood …
"picking up milk for an Amish community near us yes,10 gallon cans,throwing em in a 2 ton truck and taking to the creamery. …

I can relate to that!
Workin' on da grandparents' dairy farm: Yes, that was my earliest experience, too; for room & board, not for pay: — Fetching the ≈30 cows into the barn from the back 40 each morning. Feeding them a ration of grain (oats) before milking. Milking — yes, with a three legged stool and a bucket in the early years, then with a Surge milking machine in later years. Cleaning the barn gutters with a shovel, broom and wheelbarrow; some years later running that heavy, fully loaded wheelbarrow out the back door and up a along a wet, slippery, rickety 2-by-eight ramp to dump the load on the "tunkio" (Finnish: dung heap) behind the barn (that was a bit terrifying — I was sure I'd slip and fall off that ramp to a very nasty death in that dung heap!). Hauling those 10-gallon milk cans out of the milk room and loading 'em in granddad's pick-em-up truck to take them to the Settlers' Cooperative Creamery in "beautiful downtown BC". Haymaking: In the early years distributing loose hay in the hay wagon, atop the rickety teetery heap o' hay (I was too small to sling forkfulls of hay up there from the ground!). Later years, stacking rectangular bales in the hay wagon as they were served up by the baler. Splitting firewood for the kitchen wood stove and the living room heater stove. — Between high school graduation and enrolling at Michigan Tech my first paying job was crunching numbers with a desk calculator in a General Motors auditing shop. — At MTU I fortunately stumbled into a "broom closet" that I discovered was their digital computer laboratory. I felt I was making a complete pest of myself only to be offered a job as a lab assistant for $2.50/hour and thus began a 50+ year career in digital computers.— Between graduation from MTU and US Army AG Officer Basic Training at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, IN, I worked as an IBEW apprentice electrician, thanks to the influence of an electrician uncle. Sorry, union members, the main thing I gained from that experience was a firm distaste for the union featherbedding that I was exposed to. "God forbid you touch a tool or do any work during lunch hour!" for example, and more that I won't go into here. (Hey, my dad was a lifelong UAW toolmaker at Chrysler in Highland Park, MI so my personal experience with IBEW certainly was an unexpected shock to me!)

 

[gary_in_neenah]

Well, thus far I think John Dee wins the "booby prize". While the rest of us were toiling away in coal mines and beet fields John was floating around a lake with a bunch of topless college grads. I think I may have read that story years ago in Penthouse. Anyway, it's interesting to hear these stories of where we came from and what we've accomplished over the years. There's a writer that I follow and he has a phrase that he uses from time to time. Memories make us Rich and I think that fits with the subject matter at hand. Keep those stories coming!

 

[bayfly]

We lived on the second floor over a general store opened by my grandfather in 1919, and handed down to my father.  So my early years were spent stocking shelves, carrying groceries, pumping gas, and whatever else my folks wanted.  My first paying job was working for a small commercial fisherman on the bay of Green Bay.  We fished alewives, scooping them from nets by hand, picking out perch which we were not licensed to keep, and shoveled the alewives into a conveyor which loaded them on a dump truck. I was paid by the ton, and one day made $100 in 1978 because we scooped about 15,000 pounds of fish that day.  Some days we got out on the water at 5:00 a.m. only to realize it was too rough to lift nets.  When you get paid to scoop fish, that is just a boat ride.  The guy I worked for was a duck hunting guide in the fall who at one time guided folks like some businessmen from Milwaukee by the names of Harley & Davidson, as well as GB Packers like Don Hutson.  Interesting fellow who I was blessed to know all my life.  I bartender summers in college, washed dishes at UW Oshkosh, became a CPA, and plan to retire next spring after 35 years.  Sure wish I could go back to scooping fish on the Bay again!

 

[snomoman]

When I was a youngster there was so many different ways I made money I don’t think I can tell all of them, the ones that I remember the most was when my dad worked for AT&T and they went on strike he got a job at the local movie theater cleaning up and when he went back to work he asked if I could take his place, I was 11 years old at the time, I would ride my bike there and this old lady would let me in and then we would proceed to clean up the movie theater, on my hands and knees with a box crawling through the rows of seats, picking up all the empty popcorn boxes and whatever else, found my first pack of cigarettes then and all sorts of other interesting things, another thing I did was sell garbage bags door to door, my neighbor across the street worked as a salesman for Dupont, he taught me and my brother how to sell them and what to charge, this was in the early 70s when they first came out with garbage bags, I would sell them by the roll, either 25, 50 or 100 to the roll, door to door, no one never saw them before and they sold pretty well, whatever I made when I lived at home my parents made me put half of it in the bank for my college fund, this put me in the mindset of having to make twice as much if I wanted to buy something..haha, I would also sell Christmas cards, mow lawns and also deliver the local paper which was a seven day ordeal, it was an afternoon paper so it was much better than my neighbor who delivered the Tribune early in the morning, I also had to collect for that newspaper so that’s how I made my money, if someone didn’t pay you it came out of your pocket so you had to get every last nickel from the customers. it taught you quite a bit of respect and responsibility for the dollar, something unheard of these days

 

[coach]

I second the others Gary. Great idea for a thread!<br><br>My folks would not let me have a job while I was still in High School. No handouts either, so I was about a broke you can get! I was allowed to cut two neighbors grasses, which put a little spending jingle in my pocket.<br><br>First on the clock job was working at a marina after my freshman year in college. Glorious at times and nasty at others. Quite a few babes in bikinis would be in the boats that came by to fuel up, lots of humor watching folks launch their boats! Second and third years there I was a driver for the ski boats. Took 2 members of Motley Crew and their body men out skiing and did not even know it was them (was not a fan of theirs at the time). Took the president of Mc Donald's and his family out skiing. The best was a crew of drunk female graduates from the Northwestern University Dental School. Most of them thought it would be better to go topless. I did not try and stop them. <br><br>On the low side, we would clean the bottoms of the boats with toilet bowl scrubbers dipped in hyper concentrated muriatic acid. In shorts and deck shoes, no protective wear at all. Made sure to have the water hose in the other hand so that the burns did not go too deep. Slogging seaweed around and setting dock/shore stations in freezing water and sometimes freezing/rainy weather were the low points.*<br><br>Next job was bartending at a hugely popular bar with folks my age. Many, many shift drinks per shift. Great guys to work with, got paid to hang out with my friends and get drunk and for some silly reason, all the chicks thought the bartenders were the hottest thing going. Say no more!* * * It has been all downhill since!

Was it Gordy's Marine in Fontana, Wisconsin? Two sons worked their pier for several summers. Youngest son married the manager of the "then" Mc Who's restaurant. Best summer job for both of them!

 

[Admin]

Was it Gordy's Marine in Fontana, Wisconsin? Two sons worked their pier for several summers. Youngest son married the manager of the "then" Mc Who's restaurant. Best summer job for both of them!

<br><br>Small world. Not Gordy's, but the marina at Lake Lawn Lodge. I did bartend at Chuck's for 3 years though. That's the one mentioned in the last paragraph! This was all in the second half of the 80's to 1990.<br><br>-John<br>
<br>

 

[IMHO49953]

Great thread! My 1st was a "ride operator" at a Kidde Park at seventy cents an hour. Lots of fun to see the little kids ringing bells on the boats that went around in circles going nowhere... I guess they grew up to be politicians? Worked my way up to driving the kidde park train with 2 wisconsin V4 engines pulling half a dozen open passenger cars getting two dollars an hour. That was the most prestigious job in the park. Of course my most important and challenging first real job was trying to be the best parent I could be...

 

[Midwest Player]

First job besides a Sunday paper route was picking strawberries for 6 cents a quart. The goal was to pick a 100 quarts in a day which usually ran from around 7:00 am to 2:00 pm. At 6:00 am in the morning the farmer would come with his pick up truck and about 6 or 7 of us would jump in the back and ride to the strawberry farms about 12 miles away. No seat belts or anything in the back of the truck.

At season peak I could pick a 100 or more quarts in a day. As the season wore on it was difficult to even pick 50 quarts in a day. The farmer would offer 7 cents a quart as the season wore down. I did this for about 3 summers starting in 6th grade, and all my friends did the same. Eventually switched farmers to one that had a bus.

Now the best part was spending the money. I made enough money from this to pay my way to summer camp for 2 weeks at Camp Plagens on Moon Lake near Land O'Lakes WI. It cost $40 to attend the camp and it was at Camp Plagens where I learned to swim. I couldn't really swim at all before this and I eventually became a pretty good swimmer passing senior life saving and water safety aid. I still remember the instructor teaching the side stroke as we lay on the beach saying pick an apple bring it down and put it in your other hand and then the put it in the basket.

You can see Camp Plagens in ruins from US-45 just north of the turn off to Land O' Lakes. They sold the site to the LVD Indians. It would make a great site for a casino on Moon Lake.

 

[brad460]

Dishwasher at Skelly’s truck stop in Richfield,WI..Used to ride my 1983 CR80 to work.

*Skelly’s was recently tore down and turned into a Kwik trip (of course).

 

[Snirtdawg]

Growing up in McHenry Il, started 5/6 years old living next to a golf course selling lemonade and golf balls in egg cartons to the golfers, then caddying from 8-11 years old. Made enough to buy a 10 speed schwinn bike well before my buddies got one. First job at 13, was as a dishwasher at a 24 hours restaurant. I'd work early mornings on the weekends and after the late night drunk crowd was gone the place would look like a bomb went off! The owners then opened a nice Italian restaurant when I was 16, and they made me head busboy and let me hire all my friends as busboys. That was their first mistake, as we made it our playground of stupidity! Such memories!

 

[Hoosier]

Paper boy, lawn maintenance (about 30-40 yards myself during the summer), pizza delivery, McD's for very short time, furniture warehouse, furniture delivery, gutting houses, really anything I could find to do, particularly if it's outside. Now I'm chained to a desk doing accounting work. Where did I go wrong?

Wonder how kids these days are going to learn any skills. My 13 year old is convinced he's going to make big money posting youtube videos. At least he took over the mowing for me this year and wants to ump little league games in the spring.

 

[hemi_newman]

Paper boy, lawn maintenance (about 30-40 yards myself during the summer), pizza delivery, McD's for very short time, furniture warehouse, furniture delivery, gutting houses, really anything I could find to do, particularly if it's outside. Now I'm chained to a desk doing accounting work. Where did I go wrong?

Wonder how kids these days are going to learn any skills. My 13 year old is convinced he's going to make big money posting youtube videos. At least he took over the mowing for me this year and wants to ump little league games in the spring.

Not to bust your balls, but it starts at home to lead them on the right track.

 

[Hoosier]

Not to bust your balls, but it starts at home to lead them on the right track.

Yeah we are working on it...just mentioning the ideas that he must pick up from the other kids at school. Hopefully we'll have him mowing some other yards in the neighborhood next summer. He wants to do some dog walking too.

 

[wiviperman]

<br><br>Small world. Not Gordy's, but the marina at Lake Lawn Lodge. I did bartend at Chuck's for 3 years though. That's the one mentioned in the last paragraph! This was all in the second half of the 80's to 1990.<br><br>-John<br>
<br>

Small world indeed John!!! I grew up in Delavan and many of my friends worked at Lake Lawn Lodge when we were in High School. I'm still local to that area (moved to Beloit 12 years ago) my employer has 2 locations with one being in Delavan where I work on Tuesdays each week and the other 4 days are at our Walworth location.

 

[wiviperman]

My 1st paying job was in 1985, I spent the summer Corn De-tasseling. We would get picked up at the High School and bussed out to the corn fields where we walked up & down the fields removing the tassels from the corn stalks. Those were some long, wet(dew in the morning) & hot days. That job taught me about hard, honest work and made me appreciate the value of work and money.
I did this the next summer also, saved all of my money and with a little bit of help from Dad I was fortunate enough to buy my first ATV, a 1984 Honda 200s 3-wheeler. The machine was used but nice & I kept it nice because I worked so hard for it!

 

[sweeperguy]

My 1st paying job was in 1985, I spent the summer Corn De-tasseling. We would get picked up at the High School and bussed out to the corn fields where we walked up & down the fields removing the tassels from the corn stalks. Those were some long, wet(dew in the morning) & hot days. That job taught me about hard, honest work and made me appreciate the value of work and money.
I did this the next summer also, saved all of my money and with a little bit of help from Dad I was fortunate enough to buy my first ATV, a 1984 Honda 200s 3-wheeler. The machine was used but nice & I kept it nice because I worked so hard for it!

.
Never heard of this. Why do you remove tassles from corn?

 

[gary_in_neenah]

Why do you remove tassles from corn?

To keep the kids busy during the summer months!

Seriously, I did it once or twice, it's an itchy, sweaty, tedious job. Detasseling is a form of pollination control. The purpose of detasseling is to cross-breed or hybridize two different varieties of field corn. Farmers get their seed from companies that cross pollinate corn to create hybrids with beneficial traits like drought tolerant and disease resistant.

 

[snomoman]

To keep the kids busy during the summer months!

Seriously, I did it once or twice, it's an itchy, sweaty, tedious job. Detasseling is a form of pollination control. The purpose of detasseling is to cross-breed or hybridize two different varieties of field corn. Farmers get their seed from companies that cross pollinate corn to create hybrids with beneficial traits like drought tolerant and disease resistant.

Geez, I forgot all about describing detasseling corn in my previous post, I remember it back when I was a young teenager probably 13 or 14, it definitely was a grueling job, you met at a school and a whole bunch of us kids (no girls. all boys) loaded into a school bus and drove out in the middle of nowhere, you had to bring everything with you, including your lunch, I remember when we took our lunch someone had a radio, I remember listening to the Bee Gees “how do you mend a broken heart”, Paul McCartney, “Uncle Albert” When I hear these songs today it reminds me of back in the field detasseling corn, when I finally got paid I remember going out to a resale shop and buying a Sears two piece Silvertone amplifier, I wish I had that today, it would probably be worth a lot of money

 

[frnash]

My 1st paying job was in 1985, I spent the summer Corn De-tasseling. …

1. My first thought on seeing "de-tasseling" was that it was some kind of Silver Street entertainment activity in Hurley, WI! (Insert lecherous grin here.) — 2. As a one-time farm hand, I have to ask: Is that still done (with the corn, that is)? Manually? — With all of the mechanical farm equipment that's been developed over the years, there's still no mechanical device that can do this?

 

[choc_lab]

Washing dishes at Wally's Spot in green bay $1.71 per hr