1. Welcome to VegasMessageBoard
    It appears you are visiting our community as a guest.
    In order to view full-size images, participate in discussions, vote in polls, etc, you will need to Log in or Register.

What Jobs Did You Have As A Kid

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by BlacklabberMike, Sep 30, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. brownies95

    brownies95 Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Jan 17, 2010
    Messages:
    463
    Location:
    Western New York
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    7
    Delivered the local newspaper.
    Pruned Xmas trees at a tree farm during my summer breaks from school. It was hot hot hot! If we weren't getting sunburned we were getting stung by bees and hornets!!:eek::eek:
     
    • Like Like x 4
    • Wow! Wow! x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
  2. NYNYGirl

    NYNYGirl VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2007
    Messages:
    2,293
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    4
    We delivered newspapers as a family. My mother would drive us 3 kids ages 10, 12 and 14...Then I moved onto babysitting...
     
    • Like Like x 3
  3. flyguyfl

    flyguyfl MIA

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2014
    Messages:
    3,801
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    75
    Mowed lawns until age 15 when I started in a grocery as a bag boy. Worked up to cashier and even got 75cents an hour!! Kept that job plus running the produce department when that guy was on vacation until college. Worked my way through first two years of college as a Co-Op student doing drafting work for the feds.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  4. RedRiverRose

    RedRiverRose VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2011
    Messages:
    1,405
    Location:
    Louisiana
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    16
    At age 11 I started cleaning an office (with hardwood floors that required buffing and the buffer was bigger than me). I then started ironing for some folks. To this day I will not have an iron in my house. Either the dryer or the dry cleaners, no ironing for me ever again. That was back breaking work for a kid and they wanted everything starched. I also did some baby sitting. At about 14 I started sitting with a very nice lady who had memory issues and had to have someone with her 24 hours. I did this every day 365 days a year (including weekends and holidays) for years from 3 PM to 9 PM until I finished high school and moved away.

    I've never been afraid of hard work.
     
    • Love Love x 4
    • Like Like x 2
  5. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2012
    Messages:
    10,689
    Location:
    USA
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    180
    Paperboy for many years.
    Mowed lawns in the summer.
    During winter on the way home from school I would knock on peoples doors and ask if they needed their sidewalk/driveway shoveled.
    Busboy.

    ***When I was about 7 years old one day i went around the neighborhood and tried to sell rocks to our neighbors and told them that my Dad puts ketchup on his eggs.***

    :peace: :beer:
     
    Annual CCA (Casino Collectibles Association) Show at South Point
    Long Overdue Stay At The Golden Nugget
    • Funny Funny x 6
  6. Geogran

    Geogran VIP Whale

    Joined:
    May 1, 2014
    Messages:
    6,271
    Location:
    TX
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    56
    Lots of baby sitting from 11-14
    Picked potatoes and apples on my grandparents farm one season (oh my aching back)
    At 15 got a work permit to work after school sewing in a garment factory 3 nights a week and on Saturdays interned at our local library shelving books and cataloguing.
    At 16 interned for the president of the BPOE (Elks) after school as an assistant secretary handling mailings and correspondence.
    At 17 started college and worked summers sewing in a garment factory.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  7. snoopydogj

    snoopydogj High-Roller

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 2010
    Messages:
    629
    Location:
    indiana
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    55
    Paperboy
    Cut grass
    Worked in a greenhouse
    Worked with my Dad doing constriction.
    Hod carrier for a brick mason.
    Worked in a cafeteria.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  8. IanP22

    IanP22 Tourist

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2014
    Messages:
    67
    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    8
    Wendy's flipping burgers for a year before it closed down to move to a new location
    Tim Hortons for the last couple years of high school and during university breaks before starting a co-op work program after 2 years of university in accounting
     
    • Like Like x 1
  9. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Sep 11, 2009
    Messages:
    16,023
    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    175
    Busboy
    Dish washer at a buffet
    Short order cook
    Line cook
    Stocked shelves at a grocery store every night until midnight, then up for college classes the next morning.
    Working at the college, sat there for 4 hours a day and placed old college records on microfilm.

    Lots of weekends helping the 3 older brothers with their homeowner projects-for free!!

    Finally graduated, got a real job and worked at the place for 35 years. Happily retired now for almost 10 years.

    I must say learning to cook at a restaurant has served me well. When I was single and bought my 1st house, except for pizza and dates, I always cooked at home.
     
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2017
    • Like Like x 4
    • Love Love x 2
  10. NotFromConcentrate

    NotFromConcentrate It’s a Cassowary :)

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2015
    Messages:
    9,324
    Location:
    Digital Nomad from Southern Ontario
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    28
    I was a baseball umpire from the ages of 12-13. It was definitely an interesting experience, especially seeing how much parents cared about the game compared to their kids. Lots of early lessons on how you can't please everybody, and you have to have confidence in your professional opinion.

    At 14, I had a pretty good hustle of buying and reselling electronics. Then when I was 15, I set myself up with someone who sold Blackberry smartphones in bulk. I'd buy them from him in large lots, and sell them off individually with accessories that I bought on eBay, doubling my money every two or so weeks. At one point, I even had two retail storefronts doing the transactions for me. I'd give them inventory, they'd handle the sales, and I'd come collect my money. One of them had a crooked manager who got fired, and made off with my money in the process. That taught me a lot about who you can trust (no one).

    Then when I was 16, I dropped out of high school (wasn't interested in it, and couldn't handle learning science/literature/etc.). A few months later, I started studying for my real estate license, and took some telemarketing jobs in the meantime. Learned lots about sales, and before turning 18 I did over 100,000 calls (my lifetime count is about 250,000).

    Definitely not the kind of work that most kids my age were doing. But that's how it unfolded, and I'm quite pleased with most of it.
     
    [TENTATIVE Late Jul/Early Aug] Vegas by way of Chicago/Elko/Reno!
    • Like Like x 4
    • Informative Informative x 1
  11. NotFromConcentrate

    NotFromConcentrate It’s a Cassowary :)

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2015
    Messages:
    9,324
    Location:
    Digital Nomad from Southern Ontario
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    28
    This is perhaps the most valuable skill of life. Knowing how to cook makes eating healthy much easier, gives you full control over what you eat, and saves a ton of money compared to buying prepared food. If I'm thankful for any skill that I've learned, this one is it.
     
    [TENTATIVE Late Jul/Early Aug] Vegas by way of Chicago/Elko/Reno!
    • Like Like x 2
  12. chitownjohn

    chitownjohn High-Roller

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2010
    Messages:
    760
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    1
    Newspaper delivery & collection.
    Golf Caddy.
    Janitor job cleaning schools during the summer months.
    Laborer for a cast iron molding company. Collected scrap metal in a wheel barrel and dumped in a blast furnace.
    Misc jobs - mowing lawns/shoveling snow for Grandma and neighbors.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  13. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2010
    Messages:
    6,477
    Location:
    Chicago South Suburbs
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    25
    I worked a few weekends at a flea market selling Bears merchandise but that didn't last long. My first W-2 job was working at a tux shop after school and weekends.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  14. Joe Strummer

    Joe Strummer VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2006
    Messages:
    5,109
    Paperboy --- I had the largest route in town + hilly w/ No apt. complexes.
    Worked snack bar at pool to help bro + sis college fund
    First paying gig as drummer / musician = $30 at Catskill Mtn resort = in a polka band !!!!
    I was drumming in 4/4 time = couldn't figure it out
    I was 14 yrs old + had NO IDEA how to play a polka !!! I was embarassed as hell on stage = bad
    If you asked me to play a Ginger Baker ( Cream ) drum solo ?.......I would have hit it perfect for 5 mins !
     
    • Funny Funny x 2
  15. deansrobinson

    deansrobinson VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2016
    Messages:
    4,257
    Location:
    Tampa
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    10
    I started out as a bagboy at Gamble's Supermarket in beautiful downtown Monroe, NC. Not old enough to drive so relied on parental shuttle. But certainly old enough to direct my friends to the cashiers who were more 'casual' about checking ID for beer purchases. Plus, got to talk to Mr. Gamble's hot daughter who went to that snooty-patootie private school on the other side of town. And every night after work, me, Wayne and Ronnie would sit on the curb sippin' a cold one (soda from the machine outside) before our rides showed up. Bonus: I had my own cash.

    Next summer job was in the "Garden State Yarn" warehouse...age sixteen...driving a fork lift, pallet jacks, load and unload trucks. Place was run by two ex-green beret guys and a handful of black vets who drove up from Pageland, South Carolina. It was there that I first smoked weed and drank liquor. An invaluable experience and insight into the world of blue collar employment. Friday afternoons were reserved for water pistol fire-and-maneuver fights throughout the facility. Armored support? Yeah, use the forklift and fire extinguishers. Bonus: I had my own cash.

    After school up to graduation senior year: Family Dollar Warehouse, Matthews, North Carolina. Same deal. A handful on our crew, all high school guys, running fork lifts loading and unloading trucks. We had an overhead conveyer belt that fed into the trash compactor. We taped up one kid, put him on there and started moving him towards the opening-and-closing trash compactor (just like in the movies where the victim is headed towards the buzz saw). Ever so often a case of oil would be inadvertently spilled and we would run the fork lifts through and slide. Why? 'Cause we were kids. Bonus: I had my own cash.

    As engaging as these little ventures were, we were not relieved of farm duty. We were the labor force for the farm. So, in all honesty, these 'payin' jobs' were a bit of a respite from the "tote that barge, lift that bale" of the rural route. In retrospect, the amount of energy we had back then was phenomenal. But it's good to be young. And if you had your money to spend, you were on a different rung of the high school social structure. You were a workin' man.
     
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2017
    • Like Like x 3
    • Love Love x 1
  16. pebbles

    pebbles Micro Roller.

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2004
    Messages:
    4,848
    Location:
    Cumbria, UK and Alicante region, Spain
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    34
    Wow! I started my apprenticeship in Sept 1976. £16.50/40 hour week. Not sure of the dollar equivalent at that time. We apprentices weren't allowed to join the Union until we were 18. We did get an annual increase on our birthday. Being a July baby I wasn't happy that 90% of my colleagues got a raise before I did.

    First job was cab dispatch for our local cab company. I was 12.

    Next was a Saturday job at the local newspaper collating the football scores on the ticker tape thingy and typing them in for the final score edition. I was 14, didn't follow football and I think that was the most difficult I've ever done to begin with. Did it for two years and learned a lot in that time.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2017
    • Like Like x 3
  17. in4mation808

    in4mation808 VMB VIP Expert Picture Taker

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2015
    Messages:
    637
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    8
    I didn't really have a job as a "kid."
    First "real" job was a cashier at CVS........................learned that I hated that. And also learned that I don't like old-fashioned cash registers.
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  18. Sprocket

    Sprocket Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2016
    Messages:
    402
    Location:
    Vancouver
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    50
    Started working at a golf course sweeping the parking lot at 11. Worked there until I was 21. Didn't want to dig ditched in the winter , so I became a shop helper (sweeper) In a manufacturing plant. Now I run the machining department!
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
  19. Richard Alpert

    Richard Alpert LOST

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2015
    Messages:
    11,275
    Location:
    The Island
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    14
    That was a damn big parking lot! :D

    Sorry, couldn't resist...Thanks for sharing!

    RICHARD
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  20. Gino

    Gino "The King of Inappropriate."

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2009
    Messages:
    1,807
    Location:
    Tampa, FL.
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    23
    The first job I had was at my grandfathers truck lot when I was 8 years old. I was in the clean up/ detail department. I worked 2 hours a day M-F (during the school year) for 3 bucks an hour!! $30 bucks a week for an 8 year old in the early 1980's was a fortune. During the summers I worked MWF 9-5. What great life lessons I learned in those 3 years.. I learned how to drive ,I learned the value of a dollar, work ethic, as well as how to properly detail a car.

    My "Pop" got sick in late 1984, so we sold the lot, and I became an "independent businessman." My brother and I both started our own businesses actually.. He started a car detail business (he worked at the truck lot as well) , and I started a yard service business. Mow, edge, and weedeater all for $15. Between my savings (mandated by mom and dad - for which I'm so grateful) from the years at the truck lot, and the 14 yards a week I had, by the time I was 12 I was in pretty good financial shape.

    By 1989/90 I was entering high school, so I sold the yard business to a local guy for $1000.00 who's son now runs it, and believe it or not has 6 of the 14 yards I sold his dad almost 30 years ago.Pretty cool I think.

    I had bought a slightly used 1988 Bronco II in the summer of 1990 with the money I had been saving since 1981. I was the only sophomore at Chamberlain High School to have his own set of wheels.

    In 1991, I got a job at a waterpark here in Tampa called "Adventure Island." Started off in food service, then became an area host (picking up trash all day, but still got to wear a bathing suit and a tank, or no top at all if we wanted) then I became a ride operator, then I went for my lifeguard certification at the YMCA, and was a lifeguard for 2 seasons. Best jobs of my life, seriously. However, due to my antics at an end of the year employee only party (after hours at the park) I was not asked back for a 3rd season, and was told I would never be eligible to be hired by an Anheuser Busch park anywhere in the country...:evillaugh:

    So from 1994 until present - with the exception of several lousy years in the bar and restaurant business, I've been in the family business; construction/drywall contractor.
     
    • Love Love x 1
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.