Remembering my first job
Who doesn’t remember their first job? How can you forget that feeling of excitement after receiving your first “pay cheque” (or in most cases, a few dollars) after an honest day’s work? Here, the Over60 community reminisce about their first jobs as youngster.
“I started work as a 14-year-old on a farm in the house. I had to get up at 5am and I finished at 9pm. I did get a few hours break after lunch. I had to get hot water going for the milker. then clean out at the henhouse then make breakfast for 8am, and so it went. I received $30 dollars a month, plus cost and lodging.” – Aase Irene Sullivan
“My first job was burr cutting. I finished Year 12 at 16 and hit the hoe. I did other seasonal stuff, picking fruit and working in the packing shed and working on the tomato harvesters. I went from that to the city and factory work. I had my family and then went back to study in university. BA in Literature under my belt and now working part time on a piggery and doing a writing course. At 62, I am looking forward to retirement so I can write full time.” – Leonie Miller
“My first job was cutting excess cotton off manufactured shorts in a factory… in 40 degree heat in a tin shed. I couldn't get into the city of Sydney quick enough to get an air-conditioned office job.” – Julie Thompson
“A week after I turned 15, I started in the Bank of NSW. It was 1959. My least favourite job was on the switchboard with all the plugs and lines. I was put to work on an enormous machine entering debits and credits on customer’s statements. No printed names or account numbers in those days. We had to memorise customer’s signatures to enter transactions correctly. Probably why I've always made sure my signature is easy to read.” – Susan Stanley
“Selling mandarins at the local caravan park, I had regular orders and used to make enough money to go to the Cairns show at least three or four times. That was in the late 60s.” – Ray Bowers
“My first job was a junior secretary for a linen company and the old shorthand came into play! I still remember a little bit of shorthand! The typewriters in those days were the old manual ones and I remember when we got an electric one in the office, it was just so amazing and the best thing ever. No such thing as computers in those days that corrected the spelling mistakes! I made about $14 per week which was great pay then!” – Lesley Wethers
“Replenishing the haberdashery aisle and packing groceries into paper bags at the checkout at Woolworths as a Christmas casual 1970. Every afternoon before closing we had to ‘face up’ the items in our aisle, that is, pull them to the front of the displays to make it look like they were all full.” – Angela Connelly Smith
“Peeling potatoes with the help of a tumbler in the months after I left school, at a country hospital. I started work at 5am. It was freezing cold in the winter in the early/mid 60s. Thank goodness I only did that for couple months.” – Sue Barrett
“I started working weekends in a milk bar at 14. In those days we made our own ice blocks in great big trays, some were made with milk and some with water, lots of different kinds. There was a big wide freezer down under the counter.” – Brenda Jackson
“I was a ‘check out chick’ in a supermarket in a small country town. No computerised check out machines then – all done manually, each item amount typed into cash register. That was around 50 years ago.” – Maria Michailidis
“I had a three-wheeler bike with a big box on the front and went from store to store in Hobart picking up shoes which needed repairing. I would take them to the repair shop O'Connor's (I think it was called that) and when they were repaired I would take them back to the store where I picked them up from, where the customer would pay for and claim their shoes. I actually got the sack because I side swiped too many cars. But it was a good service and got people to go back to the same store all the time.” – Ken Bacon
“I collected beer bottles in a billy cart and took them to the Bottle-O for packet money. I’d also do the shopping for older people in the neighbourhood in 1950's. Then first full time job at Coles at 14.” – Ann Noble
What was your first job? Share in the comments below.
Related links:
20 crucial pieces of advice from you, the Over60 Community
Old-fashioned games to play with grandkids
A rare glimpse into the Depression-era