First job

[Viennacock]

My kids are in middle school and high school working normal first jobs (lifeguarding, restaurants etc.).

What was your first job in middle school and high school?

My kids think this is crazy but I trapped muskrats in middle school and high school in the Midwest. Pretty good gig. Around $18 per pelt in the early 80's. I usually bagged 8-10 per week. Also worked at tennis courts and golf course maintenance in the summer. Back then, you watered the golf course at night by manually inserting sprinkler heads. Fun job.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Dishwasher/busboy

 

[Lurker123]

Lawn mowing. I mowed a LOT of the neighborhood yards.

 

[Bubba Fett]

Mowing. Lots of mowing. Then a clerk in a sporting goods store.

 

[1vagamecock]

I was born in the 60's so it was different. Back then I grew up working with my Dad in his business. I wasn't paid (most kids weren't). When I turned 16 I got a job at a local grocery store in Greenville after school and helped my Dad on Saturday.
Gave me a good work ethic.

 

[Viennacock]

I was born in the 60's so it was different. Back then I grew up working with my Dad in his business. I wasn't paid (most kids weren't). When I turned 16 I got a job at a local grocery store in Greenville after school and helped my Dad on Saturday.
Gave me a good work ethic.

I was a late 60's child. I was expected to work. $3 per hour was my starting wage although minimum wage was $3.35. I received raises of .25 every 6 months to a yesr.

 

[Bubba Fett]

I was born in the 60's so it was different. Back then I grew up working with my Dad in his business. I wasn't paid (most kids weren't). When I turned 16 I got a job at a local grocery store in Greenville after school and helped my Dad on Saturday.
Gave me a good work ethic.

60s too... Because of the work my dad did I got to do some interesting stuff when I was 20/21. I handled explosives one summer and got to operate heavy equipment.

 

[Forkcock]

Lawn mowing. I mowed a LOT of the neighborhood yards.

Me too. $2.50 per yard.

Do kids still do this? I've lived in the same house since 1999 and have not had one kid ask me about cutting my yard.

 

[rockingamecock]

Between the 8th and 9th grade I worked at the Dairy Queen on Rosewood for $1.00/hr......delivered newspapers the year before that. In the 8th grade I helped our janitors clean the classrooms after school.

 

[FootballLVR]

10-12 newspaper sales/delivery (10 cents a copy), 12-13 Sales/stock at a men's and boys clothing store ($2.00-2.10 per hour), 14-17 laborer on a moving truck ($5 per hour), College was cleaning swimming pools and playing music in local bars.

 

[The Reel Ess]

Bagging groceries and stocking shelves. Hard to believe, but the independent grocery store owner paid us $2.85/hr, less than min. wage to start. There was some loophole to get around it. You had to prove yourself to get that bump to min. wage after a month or two. Left there for $5/hr at WalMart. I guess, technically, I was my dad's helper when he moonlighted as an electrician and I mowed a couple neighbors' yards for cash.

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

My very first paychecks were for coaching a youth football team as a high school kid.
Not much money but it was a great gig.
Too bad I didn't follow that path to getting a lifetime payoff as a fired college football coach with a huge buyout.

 

[Viennacock]

Me too. $2.50 per yard.

Do kids still do this? I've lived in the same house since 1999 and have not had one kid ask me about cutting my yard.

My son mows in the summer with several of his friends.

 

[Cluster Cock]

I was the son of a tobacco farmer in Williamsburg County. While in college I worked on the farm in the summer. Didn't have a non-farm related job till I graduated from USC.

 

[Lurker123]

Me too. $2.50 per yard.

Do kids still do this? I've lived in the same house since 1999 and have not had one kid ask me about cutting my yard.

My son passed out an advertisement for mowing in our neighborhood. Not a single taker.

Everyone either hures a service, or does it themselves. I found it odd that there was no middle ground.

 

[Piscis]

General laborer on a residential construction crew after 9th grade, $2.50 an hour and thought I was rich. I hated pretty much every second of the job but I learned a lot about building houses and learned I needed to take school more seriously so I wouldn't have to do that kind of work as an adult. Once I got my drivers license, I worked for a man who had a farm with cattle and also owned a couple apartment complexes. I took care of the farm and was the maintenance man/groundskeeper for the apartments. He paid me $3.50 an hour and I was sure no one in town my age had more money than I did.

 

[redfromsc]

Worked as a bagboy at Bi-Lo in Greenville, loved that job alot of fun made decent money and all my friends were working there, when I got to Carolina I worked at WW Grainger in the late 80s early 90s, at that time it was beside the zoo, They paid me almost $8 an hour, I thought i was rich making that back then!

 

[Gamecock Jacque]

My first non-mowing job was a cook in an Italian restaurant. Minimum wage was like $1.75 an hour. Then became a Red Cross certified life guard and water safety instructor working at our country club. I enjoyed the lifeguard part but hated giving swimming lessons at 6 in the morning. That water was cold in the mornings.

 

[HI Cock1]

Worked at Weed Hill Driving Range in Irmo, 1984. Walked the woods on Saturday with about 3-4 other kids and hit the wayward balls back into the range. Then we picked the balls and top-dressed the areas that had been used during the week. Took care of the chipping area, too. All that for free range balls during the week. Learned how to drive a tractor and a stick shift. Then went to work at Coldstream on the maintenance crew. $3.35/hour. Just enough to buy gas and eat at McDonalds a couple times a week.

 

[Uscg1984]

Worked as a bagboy at Bi-Lo in Greenville, loved that job alot of fun made decent money and all my friends were working there, when I got to Carolina I worked at WW Grainger in the late 80s early 90s, at that time it was beside the zoo, They paid me almost $8 an hour, I thought i was rich making that back then!

I bagged groceries at the Ingles in Powdersville for three summers in college in the early 90s. We were one of the last grocery stores that defaulted to bag boys taking the groceries out to customers' cars (we had no cart corrals in the parking lot, so the store actually discouraged customers from taking carts out of the store). The store paid us just above minimum wage (which was about $4.25 back then), but with the tips, I always averaged over $10 an hour. I really enjoyed that job and learned a lot while interacting with the all-walks-of-life customers.

 

[Cybercock]

Waffle House cook before the WH was cool. $2.15 per hour plus all you could eat.
For a 15 year old the all you can eat part was huge.

 

[Lurker123]

My first non-mowing job was a cook in an Italian restaurant. Minimum wage was like $1.75 an hour. Then became a Red Cross certified life guard and water safety instructor working at our country club. I enjoyed the lifeguard part but hated giving swimming lessons at 6 in the morning. That water was cold in the mornings.

After mowing, I was a lifeguard for many years. Became an instructor as well.

Small world.

 

[Hank Williams]

1st summer job was grading peaches in a peach shed making $1.15/hr. I was 13 years old.

 

[1vagamecock]

Worked as a bagboy at Bi-Lo in Greenville, loved that job alot of fun made decent money and all my friends were working there, when I got to Carolina I worked at WW Grainger in the late 80s early 90s, at that time it was beside the zoo, They paid me almost $8 an hour, I thought i was rich making that back then!

What Bi-Lo did you work at?

 

[Forkcock]

What Bi-Lo did you work at?

I also worked at Bi-Lo during HS. Around 1979-1980, I worked at Bi-Lo #9 on 291 across from Bob Jones University.

 

[gamecox4982]

I was a Busboy at “The Kitchen” restaurant in Ocean Drive by day and worked at the Amusement Park on Main Street at night.

 

[USCALUMNI]

Bag Boy/Stocker - Winn-Dixie in Aiken SC

USCALUMNI

 

[Fowlmoodin99]

Worked at Putt Putt on Knox Abbott Drive in Cayce for 1.00 an hour and some free "golf."

Duties were power blowing the greens and waxing the balls.

 

[Gamecock Jacque]

After mowing, I was a lifeguard for many years. Became an instructor as well.

Small world.

I was not a lifeguard for many years.

 

[Tidalcock]

My kids are in middle school and high school working normal first jobs (lifeguarding, restaurants etc.).

What was your first job in middle school and high school?

My kids think this is crazy but I trapped muskrats in middle school and high school in the Midwest. Pretty good gig. Around $18 per pelt in the early 80's. I usually bagged 8-10 per week. Also worked at tennis courts and golf course maintenance in the summer. Back then, you watered the golf course at night by manually inserting sprinkler heads. Fun job.

Delivering local newspaper in my neighborhood.

 

[Cockburn]

mid 80s. food prep / kitchen cleaning at the Little BBQ Hut in the old Rosewood shopping center. 16 yrs. old.

after a shift or two, I quickly learned that the working in the food service industry was not for me.

 

[rockingamecock]

mid 80s. food prep / kitchen cleaning at the Little BBQ Hut in the old Rosewood shopping center. 16 yrs. old.

after a shift or two, I quickly learned that the working in the food service industry was not for me.

As a kid, we used to ride our bikes up there to get a round dog . . . remember those?

 

[rockingamecock]

Delivering local newspaper in my neighborhood.

That was my 2nd job.

 

[Cybercock]

I was a Busboy at “The Kitchen” restaurant in Ocean Drive by day and worked at the Amusement Park on Main Street at night.

Not a bad gig

 

[redfromsc]

What Bi-Lo did you work at?

I was at the one on Pelham and 85 in front of the Hungry Fisherman

 

[will110]

My dad does residential construction/remodeling, so that was my first job. First job outside the family was with a surveyor.

 

[JPUSC]

I was a cashier or rather a go get the carts guy at Bi-Lo.

 

[sclawman77]

Harris Teeter in Irmo off St Andrews Rd the summer after I graduated from Dutch Fork 30 years ago. Very forgettable job but working with my two buddies for a couple months before we started college was worth it.

 

[Gamecock72]

Other than helping my dad out on service calls on water wells, my first job was helping my cousin out hanging sheetrock. But that was all cash under the table work. My first job where they took out taxes was as a bus boy at Paklane Seafood on Leasburg Road back in the late 80's.

 

[KingWard]

Another guy and I cut grass with push mowers in and around Georgetown, SC.