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Contest - $50.00 gift card to the winner!

A most gentlemanly development fellows...

KeenDogg has decided to pay it forward - him winning the free sample pack. So random.org has had another spin of the wheel so-to-speak and the winner of one free sample pack of his choosing is....

timj219

Congrats to the winner and a tip of the hat to a classy move on the part of a longtime member in good standing, KeenDogg.
Thank you @KeenDogg. And thank you Captain!
 
Thanks Captain, and congrats to the winners! This has brought back some fun memories...and also reminded me that I need to replenish my supply of my favorite Nor'easter aftershave.
 

JWCowboy

Probably not Al Bundy
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Tell us about that first job you had where you got a real paycheck. What did you do? How old were you? What did you learn? What surprised you about the job? Feel free to share whatever you like. What was your boss like? How much did you make per hour?

We will let this run a bit and then random.org will select the winner. This is CONUS only please.

Exactly what this picture depicts, and I mean exactly. Bagging groceries in my local corner grocery store at age 16 for $3.35 an hour. Brown bags only, this was the days before plastic. Had to wear a red smock and a tie. Boss was a man named Mack, and he was old school.

I learned I didn't want to bag groceries all my life.
 
Not in.

My first ‘real’ job with a paycheck was working the family farm. 300 acres of growing decorative greens (ferns) for flower arrangements... picking the fern and packing and shipping it to trucking terminals in the nearby towns. Shipped it all over the US and to Europe. I was 15 and legally allowed to draw a paycheck, making the $5.15 minimum wage at the time.

...I’d actually started when I was maybe 11 or 12, working with my dad and other members of my family every summer from them until I enlisted. My first summer I worked, 8 hours a day... 5 days a week with the occasional break to do some summer fun thing, I earned a pocket knife. Just some inconsequential pocket knife he had in his top drawer that was new he’d never used and gave to me. I still have it and always will. When I was a kid on summer break, you either stayed at home w/mom or grandma because you were... well, a kid and had to be looked after or you went and worked w/the family and helped pitch in to provide for what we all shared... our home and food on the table.

That $10 pocket knife represents a couple hundred hours of growing up a whole lot.
 
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Well gents, the packages are on the way to the winners. We didn't ship Priority or First Class - this time it was SR-71, oh yea!
 
SR-71...
That ought to get the TBI helicopter guys' attention. They need some excitement up here in the mountains anyway😆
 
Check it out! My prize arrived already. A beautiful copper bowl, seriously even better looking and feeling in person, as well as a Captain's Choice mug, a lovely note, and a few samples were tossed in as well. Big props to the Captain and Co. for this generous PIF!
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Beautiful products from Captain! I know I've been enjoying the CC Mug for a while and that thing is built like a tank! Great mug to start the day with a fresh cup of joe.
 
Check it out! My prize arrived already. A beautiful copper bowl, seriously even better looking and feeling in person, as well as a Captain's Choice mug, a lovely note, and a few samples were tossed in as well. Big props to the Captain and Co. for this generous PIF!
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I've been eyeballing that lather bowl.
 
My first job with a real paycheck was writing for my college newspaper, the UCLA Daily Bruin. I was 19 and it was heady stuff, seeing my name in print and all. The first day there I was amazed because there were three Davids in the newsroom. My first story was a piece about a UCLA band trip. I learned to try to observe people, take notes, and get things right. I loved it, and ultimately worked 25 years in newspapers and magazines.
 
My first real job was working for Dell Tech support. I worked there for a year before Dell sent the whole workforce off shore. We were on teams and mine was phenomenal. I made some lifelong friends, some who are no longer with us. I learned how to be more responsible and independent. I also officially learned how to repair different type of electronic hardware. It was a great experience that I will always look back on with happy feels.
 
I got my first job at McDonald’s at the age of 14 with a student work permit. I was only allowed to work a few hours a week because of my age. I made 6.75 an hour. It wasn’t a terrible job. I was a cashier and I loved the discount 😂. I learned a lot at that job believe it or not. I’m in much different field now, accounting.
 
First job? Of consequence? Well, the first did not last long...one month (June of 76, summer before Sr Year in HS)...worked at a French restaurant that was run by the WWII Tiger Plt Cmdr/chef. Loads of stories, but fell while skateboarding, and hurt wrist. Fast forward to late September. On a whim, I applied at Bona Pizza, in the Crossroads Shopping Center. Owned by the Bonano family, whose kids attended the same HS. My pal in HS, Russ, well his family owned Mr Pizza, a mile away with the HS between...and they also went to the same school! Led to various bidding wars, over who would supply pizzas after games, and other school functions. :)
But, drama aside, it was a great job. I started out washing dishes (...does not everyone start that way in the food business!?!), but quickly worked up the grease stained ladder. Making salads, subs, and pies. Running the meat slicer. That was intimidating at first, but, soon, I was cranking out meats, cheeses, and grinding down heads of lettuce for garnishes. Usually after school, into the evening, but then weekends, and eventually closings.
Around the Christmas season, the shop was purchased, by one Ben Chase, whose name just came to me. He was a tanker as well, but Korean war era, in light tanks (Stuarts and Chaffees), with a shock of salt and pepper hair and goatee...well, Jalapeno pepper, as he was a redhead! We would chat in the evenings, when it was slow, or leave me in charge on Saturdays, when he was off to Freidellas, to get sauage and sundry other meats or cheeses. I had been driving since the summer of 75, a red Ford Falcon Futura, and now I could pay my way for fuel. A whopping .60 cents a gallon! Being a teen, I had NO idea of anything else required for driving, like paying for insurance...until my dad brought it up :eek: More as a teaching point, though, as I had enlisted in the Army in Nov of 76, and a world of new uncertainties lurked about the periphery of daily teen male concerns...girls, backseat with girls, parties out on causeway inlands with girls, fogged up windows because of girls...well, the guy things! The uncertainties, like jumping out of planes, getting to blow stuff up, living on my own, making it through training, were vague, and not really pondered. The stuff of tomorrow's concerns.
My father supported me working. I made decent grades, and was a good kid, and did not drink too much, and usually did not drive when drinking. Well, those were the days before Designated Drivers, but never during the week, or work nights! The insight offered by Ben, relating to the job, was seen in the responsibilities he gave me. Closing, bringing the day's take home, and to the bank the next day. The thing is, I thought nothing of it. That lack of worry, concern, when presented with "grown up" choices, served me well in the Army, from BCT through SF.
That I got a paycheck was cool. I even got to take a load of dough and toppings to school, for Bachelor's Survival class (Home Ec for guys), where my group made pizzas! Of course, Russ was in that class, and they made pizzas!!
I worked up through Mid June, when I left the job to go on family trips, chase girls, and other mundane things that were so important then. Mr Pizza out lived Bona Pizza. The GC Murphy's, Ace Hardware, Bona, and several small shops became the gravel upon which Home Depot, Kohl's and Bennigans were built. The AMC Theater that anchored the other end soon housed Toys R Us...until it went under recently. Matter of fact, sometimes, over the decades, when my parents call, I will answer "Bona Pizza!", and always draw a chuckle, especially from Mom. I still think about that job, the fun I had, and the tasks given, that helped me see things a bit clearer.
Except where girls went.....
 
Washing dishes in a nursing home. Place always had a feces smell, as you can imagine. Work requires endurance for a variety of reasons, until either you've had enough or you get booted. I experienced both at the same time.
 
First job was at my dad's Texaco service station in the mid seventies before self-service was a thing. I learned how to do everything from washing/waxing and underhood maintenance to light mechanical repair. I carry that knowledge to this day and still derive joy from cleaning and maintaining my "fleet". THE most valuable thing I learned was there is no substitute for customer service. During the 5-10 minutes it took to fill their tank (hey, cars were huge back then) they were the most important person, driving the nicest car in town. Our customers loved us and still ask about my dad and he's been closed since 1995.
 
It was my uncle toy store. I was 10, and i loved this job. Can you imagine, you're 10 and you work in "child dream place", where you can get all the toys and play a little bit with them. I earned not so much, something around 5$ per hour, or maybe less. But it's doesn't matter. I had whole toys world, and it was best work in my life. And yep, my boss was better boss, i've ever met😂
 
First job dishwasher

I was like fifteen or sixteen years old , minumum wage was $7.00 went up to $7.25 shortly after , My grandpa lived at a country club and introduced me to the chef ...whom says can you do this raising his arm up in the air.... Was very confused , can I raise my arm up in the air ????? , I lied and said uuhhh yes I can , he says perfect your hired.

I later find out ( can you do this arm up salute ) was raising my hand to grab dishwasher handle...

The job was very very hot and worked very very late kitchen to myself ... Involved lots of maryJ and alcohol , I got to drink free , free driving range key , and roll around on the gator all day

Pretty awesome , lots of fun
 
A new Gulf stationed opened in my home town in the summer of 1969. Two weeks later I went there asking if they needed help. The owner asked if I ever pumped gas before and I said yes--I pumped my own gas. I worked Sundays only for $2/hour from 8am till 8pm. Eventually if someone went on vacation I'd get more hours. One week I worked from 8am till 11pm and never asked for time and a half. FYI we pumped the gas back then not the customer and HAD to wipe the windows. I worked there on and off till I went in the Air Force in 1972.
 
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