OT: Where Was Your First Paycheck Job and How Much An Hour Did You Rake In?
- Thread starter RutgersRaRa
- Start date
1981- $2.35/hour plus tips at the Old Towne Car Wash. Until starting my own firm, it was the longest I stayed at a job.
Makes me think of my Dad after the war. Stationed in Alaska. He started working for his buddy as a pin steer for 5 cents a game. About 1946. Soon after his buddy left, Dad figured it all out and took over at 3 alleys and all the guys worked for him. Found out his buddy had been getting 8 cents a game, pocketing 3 for himself without doing a dame thing. Dad ended up with about 15 guys working in total and once he had all his guys in place at all 3 alleys, he raised his price to 10. Still gave the guys 5 cents but now he took 5 too.
He was raking it back then.
One thing he regretted till the day he left us. As he was getting out of the Army, there was a homestead act going on or something like that. Claim as much land as you wanted but you have to stay in Alaska for something like 5 years. He was so homesick that he did not take advantage of it. He had a couple of buddies that claimed land, stayed and made a fortune later selling off to the city of Juno.
15yo, grocery bagger/stock for Acme summer 94. $5.25/hr which was $0.20 over min. due to union dues... needed to get some cash after i depleted my savings buying a new mt.bike
I worked in a coat factory one summer where my Mother worked. It was in the mid 60's and I made something around 35 to 50 cents an hour.
Around 1964 after HS I got my first full time job at Dupont in Sayreville and made approx. $1.10 or $1.25 an hour.
In 1967 I was hired as a Computer Programmer Trainee at Prudential in Newark for $90 a week. Two years later on 9/27/69 I got married and
the following week started a new job in Edison NJ as Computer Programmer at $115 a week. In the next 11 years we rented 2 apartments and
then purchased 4 different houses by age 34.
Around 1964 after HS I got my first full time job at Dupont in Sayreville and made approx. $1.10 or $1.25 an hour.
In 1967 I was hired as a Computer Programmer Trainee at Prudential in Newark for $90 a week. Two years later on 9/27/69 I got married and
the following week started a new job in Edison NJ as Computer Programmer at $115 a week. In the next 11 years we rented 2 apartments and
then purchased 4 different houses by age 34.
Lol. My second paycheck job was at a Shell station in Chatham. Sometimes a few cans of oil cash never made it to the register, but somehow ended up at the pizzaria up the street.
Most of you are all youngsters. In 1957 at twelve I delivered newspapers, 120 of them of 20 different papers for Sunnyside News in Linden and received $ 3.75 a week. In 1963 I worked for the record & audio department at National Family Store on route 22 in Union which became a Rickles. I received $1,10 an hour or $ 44 a week. In 1967 I started as a teacher in Edison Township at $ 5,850 a year and received an extra $ 300 for coaching the track team. 36 years later I was doing pretty well. Edison was the highest paying district in the state when I retired. They treated me well and I loved teaching and coaching.
Knights1212 my good friend (Marty M. ) started teaching at Edison HS in the late 80's and also coached track there for a bit ... He is retiring the end of this month always spoke very highly of his colleagues at Edison
Worked as a stock-boy/cashier at the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (aka A&P) in high school. Later I worked at the Lehn and Fink factory in Hillsborough over the holiday and summer breaks in college. I distinctly remember coming home each day smelling of Lysol with my hands burning from paper cuts being exposed to toilet cleaning chemicals manufactured on site.
GU as my second job in HS. Turned 18 and got to spend a summer loading the GU warehouse meat trucks at night. Got paid 7.50 hr but it was not much fun pushing sides of beef on rails into dark, manky trucks with some crazed Teamsters doing Rocky impressions on the beef ("You're gonna break the ribs!" lol). One guy was a bit "simple" between the ears, and the guys would terrorize him with lamb's heads with cigarettes hanging from their mouths. I went off to college very grateful to escape
I delivered the Wayne Today and the Herald News when I was, maybe, 11 to 13, but the pay was very irregular, so I won't count that.
Technically, my first hourly wage job was at Bradlees on Rt. 23 in Wayne. I think I made $3.35 an hour, which was minimum wage. I only lasted a day when they realized I was not yet 16 years old. They had asked me, "You're over 15, right?" I actually was 15, but the ambiguous way they asked that question made me interpret it as "You're at least 15, right?" So they called me as I was getting ready for my second day and told me the news. I still got paid, which was only fair.
The thing was, that day, I didn't want to even go in because for one, the job sucked (as did Bradlees), but more so because I was riveted by the news on TV that Len Bias had died just two days after being drafted by the Celtics. I was fascinated.
The next summer, I went legit, still for $3.35 an hour, down the road a bit at Strawberry Blossom Garden Center. That job was great, and I worked there on and off and seasonally until I was probably 23 - the last couple years just to sell Christmas trees, where the tips were pretty good. I also worked as their Santa Claus for two Christmases, and that was a primo job: $10 an hour to wave at people and give candy canes to little kids.
Technically, my first hourly wage job was at Bradlees on Rt. 23 in Wayne. I think I made $3.35 an hour, which was minimum wage. I only lasted a day when they realized I was not yet 16 years old. They had asked me, "You're over 15, right?" I actually was 15, but the ambiguous way they asked that question made me interpret it as "You're at least 15, right?" So they called me as I was getting ready for my second day and told me the news. I still got paid, which was only fair.
The thing was, that day, I didn't want to even go in because for one, the job sucked (as did Bradlees), but more so because I was riveted by the news on TV that Len Bias had died just two days after being drafted by the Celtics. I was fascinated.
The next summer, I went legit, still for $3.35 an hour, down the road a bit at Strawberry Blossom Garden Center. That job was great, and I worked there on and off and seasonally until I was probably 23 - the last couple years just to sell Christmas trees, where the tips were pretty good. I also worked as their Santa Claus for two Christmases, and that was a primo job: $10 an hour to wave at people and give candy canes to little kids.
I used to live right around the corner in Darien. My brother attended Hinsdale South.
Sadly Strawberry Blossom closed a few years back, and there's now a QuickChek there.
My first paycheck job was at a Friendly's restaurant for about three months. I can't recall how much the hourly pay was. But it wasn't enough.
I wound up quitting because every pay period, I'd wind up owing them money due to all the food I'd eat. Oops.
I wound up quitting because every pay period, I'd wind up owing them money due to all the food I'd eat. Oops.
Just for your reference, I interviewed a 19 year-old girl today for a babysitting job. To watch my one son. She won’t work for less than $20 an hour. Damn times have changed.
My dad died when I was 14. My brother was a scumbag and my mom was sick so I went off the books at Cohen's Knishes in Highland Park. Summer 1968 Maybe 2 bucks an hour?On my first day I burned an oven full of Knishes and served a hot tea to go without s teabag. The job was short lived. But knishes live on.
Haha cool story. My Dad was a butcher at GU for years...
Working at the store in Poughkeepsie, store manager was an ass but everyone else cool. Had a lot of fun with a couple of the girls. Really had the hots for the hot chick though but thought I didn’t have a shot so just played the friend roll. 20 years later, found out she had really liked me and she wondered what was wrong with her when I was banging the other girls but never made a move on her.
Had an asst manager that was crazy as hell but he got fired one day because as he walked past some mid teen girl in frozen food, he started making hard nipple twirls on his chest and licking his lips to make us all laugh, not knowing the girl’s mom was following behind and saw everything.
They never caught on that a case or two of beer always went out under the loading dock each weekend.
They charged for food? That's nuts. I worked in a more upscale restaurant in HS, probably around the same time (late 70s - Cavanaugh's Country House and Tavern in Gloucester Co.), as a dishwasher, making about $2.50 an hour, iirc, but since we (a few of my friends worked there also) supplied the chefs with all their dope (at a fair price), they usually let us eat for free. And a few times, I cut them price breaks and was given a box of frozen lobsters - we ate well that weekend, lol. Moved up to salad guy and food prep after a year as dishwasher, which is definitely at the bottom of the restaurant caste system, and got a bump to about $3.00 an hour. Not a bad HS job. Better than the Chinese restaurant I worked at for 2 days before there, where they just kept screaming at me in Chinese, until I threatened to beat the shit out of the head chef and head screamer, threw my apron at him and walked out.
But my first job was delivering the Philadelphia Inquirer on my book on mornings before school or anything else. Hated the 7-day a week part. Made more money in tips than pay, although I don't recall the pay rate.
First real job depends if you count being a grad school researcher or not. Got free tuition and made a stipend of $12K, which was just enough to live off of in the mid/late 80s (including 3-4 rounds of $4 golf per week and 3-4 nights a week at the Melody Bar). Started at Merck in 1989 for a lot more than that, fortunately. Still here...
My warehouse was in Mt Kisco - maybe I loaded a truck or two for pops.
I never worked in the stores, but the toxic stresses between Teamster loaders and warehouse managers was palpable daily. Only place worse than GU (that I experienced) was at the Post Office (another summer job) - but it was close lol
Captain Good Times- indoor amusement park in Turnersville, NJ $4.75 an hour
First under the table- Washington Township Seafood, dressed up as a 5’5 fish and waived at traffic for $5 an hour
First under the table- Washington Township Seafood, dressed up as a 5’5 fish and waived at traffic for $5 an hour
Osterman Nursery. .60 cents and hour. I was filling holes with the small shovel.
You told them you were eating the food? I worked at Friendly's on Stelton Road, and as with all restaurants at which I worked, the world was my oyster. My. Unpaid. Oyster.
WTHS class of 80 here. Grew up in Whitman Square. Assuming Captain Good Times was after I left home - when/where did you grow up? My posts above were about jobs I had in Twp. Pretty sure Cavanaugh's closed by about 1990, so it may predate you.
Had a very large, profitable paper route from 12 to 17, so I didn't "need" a job until after high school. First paycheck job was a summer job at the PSE&G power plant in Sewaren. $6.65 or something an hour in the summer of 1984. I think they started the program to scare their employees' kids into staying in college.
First job I got on my own was between colleges in the fall of 1985 at the Krauszer's on Route 130 in North Brunswick at Adams Lane. Last I was in town it was still there, although smaller. They had to give away multiple ice cream coupons to appease a couple of old bats who enjoyed picking fights with me over nonsensical crap. That was $3.35 an hour.
First job I got on my own was between colleges in the fall of 1985 at the Krauszer's on Route 130 in North Brunswick at Adams Lane. Last I was in town it was still there, although smaller. They had to give away multiple ice cream coupons to appease a couple of old bats who enjoyed picking fights with me over nonsensical crap. That was $3.35 an hour.
I ate way too much to hide. Also, I am way too honest for my own good. Or so I’ve been told. [winking]
Seaside Heights in the 70s.. I think $2.50/hr
That was as a under-aged ride operator.. hehe. 15.. worked 2 weeks before some state inspector came by and asked me my age. I did not lie
Next job next summer was a short order cook (cheesesteaks, burgers, etc) on the pier. Worked a month before someone's nephew got out of college and took that job and I got sent to maintenance for $0.25 less an hour. Two weeks later the college buy slit his hand open.
I did about every job that is done in seaside.. change boy, games operator, food, maintenance. Some fun times. Danger moments in maintenance.. told to take down some wooden hut.. I banged out supporting walls and the heavy roof twisted down in a crash.. I barely made it out from under it as it happened. And once I was told to go down under the pier and tack up and hanging wires. Holy sheeet was that a dangerous job. Ladders in sand, live wires next to useless old wires.. metal wire staples.. got knocked on my butt into the sand from 12 feet or more... found a new job the next year.
That was as a under-aged ride operator.. hehe. 15.. worked 2 weeks before some state inspector came by and asked me my age. I did not lie
Next job next summer was a short order cook (cheesesteaks, burgers, etc) on the pier. Worked a month before someone's nephew got out of college and took that job and I got sent to maintenance for $0.25 less an hour. Two weeks later the college buy slit his hand open.
I did about every job that is done in seaside.. change boy, games operator, food, maintenance. Some fun times. Danger moments in maintenance.. told to take down some wooden hut.. I banged out supporting walls and the heavy roof twisted down in a crash.. I barely made it out from under it as it happened. And once I was told to go down under the pier and tack up and hanging wires. Holy sheeet was that a dangerous job. Ladders in sand, live wires next to useless old wires.. metal wire staples.. got knocked on my butt into the sand from 12 feet or more... found a new job the next year.
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1st part time job at 12 during summers helping a local farmer bail hay as I stacked it on trailer, then into barn.(Completely sucked). Pay can't remember, probably got screwed though. 1st full time summer job at 15 laborer for Mason.(That job sucked too) But made $65 bucks a day cash in the late 80"s so good payola.
Cut to today, after college and a few years of life, I now own a Masonry company and Hobby farm. And yes they still suck, not sure what I thought would change. However, in my defense, some dogs don't pass doggy training either.
Cut to today, after college and a few years of life, I now own a Masonry company and Hobby farm. And yes they still suck, not sure what I thought would change. However, in my defense, some dogs don't pass doggy training either.
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