Jobs

In the last post I talked about summer school as something to do before we were old enough to work. But as soon as possible many of us found some way to make some extra cash. My work history was sort of typical..... always looking for something. Before I was 16 I had three jobs. First as a Democrat & Chronicle newspaper-boy. I delivered about 50 Sundays and 35-40 weekday papers which meant some pretty cold early morning outings during my last two years of elementary school. The paper then was 60 cents per week and I felt grateful when I got a 10 cent tip. All the work netted about $5-$10 a week. Next came caddying at Brooklea CC. We'd get over there very early to get in line (first come first out) but often we'd wait for hours and never get a job. When we did, we would lug a bag around for 3-4 hours and get $3-$5.
My final under-16 job was during the spring semester of 10th grade. I'd just turned 15 so I was able to work on a limited schedule so I got a job as a shoe salesboy at Endicott & Johnson at Westgate Plaza. All I can say about that was that I feel sorry for the new Mom's who trusted their infants to my care. Of course the best part was when we waited on pretty girls who wanted go-go boots, except that only happened in our backroom fantasies.

During 11th grade I turned 16 and got a job during the 2nd semester at a notions store on Clinton Ave S right near Main St.. I forgot the name of the store but it was run by two brothers who had this incredibly stuffed box of a place which was packed with notions (sewing supplies mostly) which I delivered to the main department stores (Sibley's , McCurdy's, Edwards) after school. It was not fun wheeling my handcart full of notions around Main and Clinton when all my classmates were walking around having fun before catching the #8 Chili Center bus back home.

That summer of 1967 I got a job working for Sky Chef at the airport. I was on the breakfast and lunch food prep crew which started at 6:00 am in order to get the breakfast ready for the first flights out around 8:00. Two interesting things about that job were:first, we prepared a full hot or cold meal for every passenger (breakfast: eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, coffee, dessert) (lunch: sandwich, dessert, fruit, drink) and then added to every tray a 4-pack of Winston cigarettes so everybody could light up after they enjoyed their meal. Of course everyone at SkyChef was hooked on free Winstons and smoked a pack at each break. I resisted for a long time but must admit that by the end of that summer not only was I joining in on the cigarette breaks at work, but I had, on the console of my Buick Invicta, an old cigar box full of free cigs for all my friends to enjoy while riding in the car. Yeah, free samples can get you hooked.

After graduating from high school in 1968, I went back to SkyChef for a little while but then got a job working as a gopher for a construction crew working on building the new Kodak plant on Elmgrove road. The pay was a lot better (thank-you unions) and all I did was make morning coffee and donut and afternoon soft drink runs for the crew and any other odd job the foreman came up with on a given day. I enjoyed the dough, saving for college, but boy oh boy was I out of my element around those guys. On the final day of work that summer they all bet on a race between me and some guy who was about 35...most betting on the "kid" to win. Well, I lost the race, most lost their money, and I was very happy to exit that job.

Each summer during college I would come home and have to look for a job. The first summer was the worst. I worked for a week at a construction site where 490 was being built downtown. I had applied and they had promised a job where I could use my skills (how idealistic we were) - only to find out that the only skill they needed was pushing wheelbarrows. I quit in protest of their broken promise. The only problem I had for standing up for myself was that I had to look for another job. I ended up washing dishes at Brooklea for most of the summer, making hardly any money for the upcoming year at school. (Luckily, I had won a scholarship which paid most of my tuition for that year.) The 2nd summer I got a job working for Kodak at the new Elmgrove plant. I worked on an assembly line putting a camera, flash cube, strap and instructions in a box for the Kodak instamatic camera. The weird thing about that job was that it was so easy to meet the quota for the day we could do it in way less than 8 hours and that made the permanent workers furious....so we slowed our pace. I got a job at Kodak again the next summer working in the stock room. (I'll have to include a story about my Kodak experience in a later chapter). One thing interesting about those two summers at Kodak was that most days I rode a bike to work. It was pretty far and the shifts started pretty early so thinking back on it it seems kind of hard. But I still remember some beautiful rides down Westside Dr to Trabold Rd(?? was that the one with the swim club?) and on to Elmgrove. It must have been about 5 miles at least.

Working was just part of life. If you weren't in school, or even if you were, if you wanted $5 bucks for nonessentials (pool, the Grange, cigarettes, gas, records, etc) you better have a job.

Summer School

Now that the 4th of July weekend is over, I am reminded of Gates-Chili summer school which was a mini-industry of the summers during high school. Kids went there for driver's education, to make up classes they didn't pass the previous year or to take new classes. The latter were in the minority but in the days before you could get a work permit (at age 16) this gave you something to do and it included a social aspect.

Summer school at G-C was another world for the Catholic School crowd. A chance to see what it was like to go to school in "regular" clothes and not have the ever present reminders of the church around school - kind of refreshing if you ask me. Oh, and the most exciting thing....to go to school with girls!!! On the other hand, I do remember how boring it was studying old regents exams in preparation for the Geometry exam at the end of the summer. My coolest class was a French II class which, after the first-half make-up portion, had a second class in which there were only two students and the teacher. Seems like a pretty amazing educational opportunity in retrospect....and that class vastly improved my French grades for the rest of high school.

The strangest thing about summer school was the library/librarian. I had a study hall between my two french classes and I spent it in the library, usually trying to do crossword puzzles. The librarian seemed just plain weird. He would tell me about parties he went to in NYC where people did "daisy chains" (whatever they were) and he would persistently ask me to come to his house for a massage. Now I was only 15 and very naive, but it all seemed strange at the time.  What is interesting to me now is that in those days when you met "strange characters" they were just that and it was up to you to watch out for them. The same thing supposedly happened in the men's room at the Rundell Library downtown.....you just learned how to take care of yourself. In any case, such characters do leave impressions.

Another thing about G-C summer school is that we often walked home. The walk was about 3 miles and on some hot summer days this could seem long. I remember one such walk where we all (we were a group of maybe 5 or 6) tried to make ourselves faint while walking down the Pixley Road. Someone had shared the technique of taking several deep breaths and then squeezing oneself to go faint...yeah, it works.

I suppose summer school was less fun for those with the pressure of making up a failed course, but as I remember it, it was sort of a fun social diversion during those carefree days of early teenhood.