How old were you when you got your first (paying) job? Did you work during the school year? What stipulations, if any, did your parents put on spending, saving, etc.? What types of jobs did you have before you were, oh, 21 or 22? Did you go to college or a technical/trade school? If so, did you work while you were pursuing your post-high school education? What were your favorite -- and least favorite, if you wish to share! -- jobs? What did you learn from those early jobs?
I'd love to tell you that my first job was something cool, like a child actress at Walt Disneyworld or as an intern at NASA, or as a tester for Godiva chocolate. I'd love to say that I spent my first year after high school giving tour guides on the Mediterranean or cycling in Paris, France. The title "travel journalist" unfortunately has never graced my resume.
I flipped burgers for McDonalds.
Life can be so cruel.
Shortly after I got the job, I acquired a
second summer job working for The Go Round in the mall. It was a high fashion store in the late 80's that all the hip people shopped at. It capitalized on short-lived fashion fads, which is a stroke of genius being that fads come and go almost monthly.
Especially in the 80's.
For me, it was a way to acquire a
cool gnarley-dude-radical wardrobe and work with my best-ies.
Probably the most interesting thing about that job was the MC Hammer pants I used to wear to work. Most people would get fired for wearing stuff like this to their job:
But, believe it or not, we sold them.
The best part of the McD's job was the free lunches. For a poor high school student, you can't beat a free lunch.
That's what I did the summer before my senior year. After graduation, I went to college in San Antonio and worked on campus at the cafe by the dorms. That was a fun job. I got to know a lot of people who lived on campus that way, and I didn't have to drive to work...which made it a lot easier to be on time every day.
Especially in those up-all-night college years where one tries to sleep until exactly three and half minutes before one must be at work. Eh hem.
Anywho, the guy that ran the cafe had a catering business on the side, and he would pull from his staff at the cafe to serve at the weddings/parties he catered. That was a lot of fun, and it was the closest I ever got to waitressing.
I worked as a telemarketer for a while after that.
I don't really want to talk about it.
Shortly afterwards, I moved back home and went to work for the USO. Yeah, as in Bob Hope. Only I didn't ship out to all the servicemen in all the world wearing little more than a half a coat dress.
But I did get to work at the Naval Air Station and serve coffee, freshly baked cookies, and cable TV to those on our base. Really, I worked in the office most often, but it was fun non-the-less.
And no, I never dated a fly-boy.
So anyway, I think I'll stop there. I could go on to the other jobs I had after this one, but they were mostly office jobs that, although I enjoyed most of them, they are not much to write about. Plus, at some point, these memories must eventually become non-flashbacks.
Hop on over to Mocha with Linda and check out some other peoples' answers for
Flashback Friday!
