[–] flat_hedgehog ago
I was a papergirl for a while. I worked as a part-time launderette attendant for a few years before university too.
[–] PM_me_your_mitts ago
Paperboy... same as you apparently. I was 13 and at the time it wasn't legal for me to have a route so my parents put it in my brother's name.
My parents got me started on doing chores for cash when I was a kid. I had to save my cash to buy any toys and video games I wanted outside of those given as holiday/birthday gifts or random gifts. It was a good lesson to learn.
My first paycheck-paying job was when I worked at Toys R Us. I loved Toys R Us. It was summer. It was retail. I left once school resumed in the fall.
[–] EricHunting ago
My first, and last, job was for the now defunct Hercules explosives plant in northern NJ. I was hired part-time as a teenager to sort old medical files for destruction in a decrepit unheated building called the 'bag house' because it stored files in big moldy canvas bags dumped on the building floor. Left there alone into the night with a kerosene heater and a single light I had to sort these dumped piles of files by date, each of which included a photo. And as I began sorting these I quickly noticed something. These were all records of workers--all men--who had died of the same set of related ailments associated with graphite exposure, mostly black lung or lung cancers. File after file, black lung, black lung, cancer, cancer, face after face. Thousands of men dying in this filthy old factory making explosives to kill other people somewhere else in the world, all for someone else's profit. I realized what a horrible meat grinder this all was. It was a bit much for a teenager to handle and I only lasted about a month. I swore I would never work for a corporation again if there was some way to avoid it, ultimately starting a business of my own. (not much choice, really, New Jersey's pollution ultimately wrecked my own health so self-employment was my only option)
One of the bizarre ironies about the explosives business I learned there was that the Saudi government was very particular about the 'purity' of the nitrocellulose they would buy from the company. To meet their standards--for killing people properly--it had to be Kosher certified...
[–] Gigglestick ago
A greenhouse/nursery. I would take very small plants/roots and put them in pots fill them with dirt and put them in rows of three so we could fertilize them. I would also do small trees (apples, pears, cherries) and remove evergreens from gigantic fields behind their house. I would also work in sales and the like. Perennials, annuals. It was a blast.
[–] Dantalian ago (edited ago)
I was 18 and I worked at a university. The university was running a summer program for kids, and I got to sort the little toys that were given to the kids as prizes, order random things for the office and watch guns n roses videos all day while mentally masturbating to Izzy Stradlin.