Annie the hostess of Time Travel Tuesday asks us this week:Time to share your first job experience... What was your first job experience? Do you remember the first paycheck, starting salary? Do you remember your first boss, coworkers? What was your favorite task/least favorite task? How did that job end?
My first job was a fun one! My mom was working as an activity director at a privately owned senior citizen rehab center--(with accommodations for varying levels of needed care by the elderly) and she used her influence to get me a job in the kitchen! It was 1978 and my starting wage was a bit over minimum wage at the time which was $2.65 and hour. I helped prepare the meals, set the tables (we served the bulk of our residents, restaurant style) and then served them their meals. At one time I was able to carry out 4 plates on one arm/hand and then two more in the other hand!
My first boss was Annie--a short chubby older lady who was tough as nails, but she liked me so everything was ok! She was the head cook and nutritionist and then there was an evening cook named Nellie who was always very nervous. I only remember one other co-worker my age. His name was Tim and he was usually the dishwasher. He was a hoot, always joking around and flirted shamelessly with me!! The thing I disliked the most was mopping the floor each night and wearing a hairnet.
The think I liked the most was serving those older people their meals--I really got to know them, and they me.I loved payday! I can remember begging my dad on the weekends to drop me off at the mall so I could do some shopping. I could come out of there with a whole new outfit, top to bottom for under $40--wool skirt, top, and shoes! I quit that job when I left for college in the fall of 1980. I had worked there throughout my junior and senior years of high school and by the time I quit, I was making $7 something an hour! They REALLY liked me. :) (By then minimum wage was ALL the way up to $3.10 an hour)
It was a great job for a high school girl-great hours that worked out well with my school and extracurricular activities.
6 comments:
A whole outfit down to the shoes did you say, wouldn't that be nice!!!!!!! You can barly get a pair of shoes. Well maybe 1 1/2 pairs of shoes.
$7.00 was alot of money then! Wow you must have impressed them!
Wow, you must have really been a good worker to get $7!! I'm impressed. I also imagine you had some really interesting experiences, I just love older people, the stories they tell, the lessons they have already learned. I wish our country was more respectful to the elderly, we seem to forget we will all be there one day soon (if we're lucky)...
Hope you have a great Tuesday
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(¸.·´ (¸.·’ * Annie *
wow girl. that was quite a wage back then! You must have been really a wonderful young lady! :)
What nice first-job memories! You must have been well-liked and a hard worker!!
That's great they appreciated you rather than took advantage of you.
Yep...good old $2.65 per hour in 1978...that's where I was! What a wonderful job you had, and a great story to read! I am such a klutz, I NEVER could have carried all those plates without a major catastrophe, haha! :D
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