If you drive through our nearby town you see Help Wanted signs all over. Main Street businesses have signs in their windows, Burger King, Wallyworld and the motels are all looking for help. My cousin owns one of the local golf courses she didn’t get any applications for the four positions she was hoping to fill.
During the summer time when I was growing up my first job was peeling cedar fence posts with a draw knife. I think my Dad paid 5 cents a post. My brother and I also picked up pop bottles out of the ditch…they were worth a penny or two at the grocery store.
Later years I was part of a Christmas Tree Trimming Crew. I went up and down the rows with a clipper shaping the trees into their Christmas Tree form…and lopping off the central leader. It was a buggy hot job…at the end of a row…some rows were a half mile long you got a drink of water. On really hot days they handed out salt tablets. We sat in the shade of the truck to eat our lunch. We usually worked from 8 to 2 or 7 to 1 if it was going to be a really warm day. There was a crew boss who had a machete and he would come along and whack what you missed…if the trees were quite tall he would do the central leader for you. I can still hear that machete whirring through the air…oh and the blisters you would get on your hands! Eventually the blisters would turn to callouses but until then they were painful. Gloves were not much help…other than to get brown fuzz in your blisters after they popped.
I did some babysitting, my younger brothers and sister prepared me well for those occasional jobs.
For a few weeks I was the cook and waitress at a local restaurant…talk about scary I was not much of a cook…and my waitress skills were lacking. It was a nightmare job. I cannot quite remember what happened…I think they found a better cook.
The summer before I was a Senior in High School I went to work for Far Guys Parents…more about that exciting time in my life later.
Noah likes his summer job. He says he likes to wear scrubs because they are comfortable.
By the way his mother tells me that he is 6’1” and still growing.
You and I grew up when things were quite different. I had a paper route, mowed lawns, did odd jubs and bissed tables. Today I own a nursery and the only reason that I'm still in business is because of my Mexican employees who have been with me for years. Tom The Backroads Traveller
ReplyDeleteMy summer job on the farm included mowing and spraying weeds, going to town for parts and supplies, occasionally driving tractors in the field, usually cultivating and sometimes baling. I cleaned the dairy barn in the morning after milking, fed calves and sometimes the dairy herd, too. I walked the fence line and fixed fence. I don't remember ever getting an actual pay check.
ReplyDeleteMy first job was shelving books in the library. I guess that's one reason I got into editing, I was in love with books from the beginning. :-)
ReplyDeleteAmazing that your area has summer jobs going unfilled. I've read that since the economy dipped, teens have been unable to find summer work since there are so many adults working two jobs.
ReplyDeleteWho knew that a Christmas tree farm could be such a salt mine? Around here the really gritty job is picking tobacco. I didn't know till I married a Massachusetts boy that Connecticut is such a big producer of tobacco.
And by the by, my 6'5" son didn't get his full growth till his 20s.
I always had a summer job. If I didn't find one my Mother would find one for me.
ReplyDeleteI volunteered as a Candy Striper one summer, and for many years I worked at a sporting goods store. I rarely took home a pay check as I could buy things for 25% off - so my horse had every brush, I had a nice ski sweater and I was able to get great Christmas presents.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there is a lack of young people - not too surprising considering the high abortion rate, and that many families only have one or two children, if that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment about the test --- Bennie refused to have the test---- but they found something
ReplyDeletewrong with the parathyroid , Had to go to hospital and have test done.-- It has been a bad few weeks.
Wow, Noah is tall and I am very happy he is liking his job this summer. I have watched him grow up thru your blog!
ReplyDeleteI think there are several reasons why jobs are going unfilled. You liked trimming trees. You made good money. many of the jobs going vacant can't compete with other work. I worked on the railway section crew for ten weeks at a buck an hour.
ReplyDeleteThere are many here that can't find work. I wish there were more jobs.
ReplyDeleteAndrew is working at the school again this summer.
Handsome scrub model.
Summer jobs seem to be a thing of the past around here. There are low wage jobs, but they go to people who work full time.
ReplyDeleteDown here there are no jobs.....few and far between What's he wearing scrubs for? He's not playing doctor is he?
ReplyDeleteThey've caught a few of those in the hospitals. LOL!
He took the Certified Nursing Assistants Class and got a job in a Nursing Facility:)
DeleteI lived out in the country and had no way of getting to summer jobs, so my only spending money came from babysitting -- where the parents of the kids picked you up and brought you home. I was always thrilled to get a babysitting job.
ReplyDeleteI noticed some of those same "help wanted" signs today when I went to town.... and I also noticed several people just walking along the sidewalk (I hope it is there day off) and not that they should be looking for a job. Hope Noah enjoys his summer job.
ReplyDeleteMy summer jobs growing up included library helper and grocery sacker, I like sacking groceries but we only earned tips, no wages. My last job before getting married was at a burger joint and that was the worst one.
ReplyDeleteI hope Noah enjoys his job- I would love scrubs too- they are very comfortable.
My mom got me my first job working with her in a bindery where they made TV Guides for the upper midwest. Didn't take long and I got my own job at a local pet shop where I cleaned up all kinds of poop from puppies to raccoons, skunks, and a monkey. (Obviously before they changed the laws about selling wild animals in Minneapolis.) Loved it!! :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting post and I loved reading all the comments. I babysat for $.50/ hour, taught swimming, delivered papers, worked 12 hr shifts7 days a week in a canning factory for $1.35/hour, by seventh grade was the church organist, life-guarded all the way through college. It was good to work. Glad Noah likes his job!
ReplyDeleteYAY! Noah! Good for you! And a little more money in the pocket never hurts!
ReplyDeleteLinda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
https://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/sherlock-boomer
I think more and more of our youth don't bother getting summer jobs and more and more parents let that happen. Just wrong! I at least did babysitting in the summer until I turned 15 and could work a "real" job!
ReplyDeleteI hope your cousin finds the workers she/he needs for the golf course .For summer jobs I worked a little as a baby sitter and one summer in a library. I went on to become a librarian. Sometimes summer jobs inspire us.
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