What Was Your First Job?

[Mark Flanagan]

The good news: A job fair is being broadcast 1-4 p.m. today (Tuesday, April 8) on North Attleboro cable access TV and other local channels.
The bad news: The reason for this fair is that jobs for teens are increasingly scarce, says Christine LaChance, executive director of the School to Career Partnership that serves Attleboro, Foxboro, Norton and North Attleboro.
“The last couple of years, it’s gotten more difficult,” said LaChance, in the March 14 Sun Chronicle. who is spearheading the Hire A Teen, Brighten the Future Youth Job campaign that seeks to round up commitments from employers to hire youths for summer and after-school work.
Here are the questions? What was your first job? Have the experience and skills from that job been valuable to you in your adult life? Do employers do enough to make jobs available for teens? Should the city, state and/or federal government do more to make first jobs and summer jobs available? Use the "Add a Comment" function below to... well... add your comments.
And just to let you know where your bartender/counterman is coming from on this one: My first "jobs" were running errands and doing small chores for the businesses along Park Street, Attleboro, between Pleasant and Morey Streets. Harry London would toss me a quarter for getting rid of old cardboard boxes and the like; "Jimmy" at Kids Town would do the same;
Bill Fox at Fox's Sporting Goods would pay me a dollar for cleaning up a boat he was selling (imagine that; there were at least two businesses selling boats in downtown Attleboro circa 1960, Fox's and Klebe's) or a similar chore. First work with a guaranteed wage: Setting up the milk bottles at a game booth at the Elks Carnival when it was held in June at the current site of the Attleboro Police Station and City Hall parking lot. I think the pay was 65 cents an hour; Tom McAvoy, who peeled the spuds at the carny's French fries booth may have a clearer memory of the pay. First government assisted job: Picking strawberries at Ulmer's in Norton for 8 cents a box; the Division of Employment Security provided transportation in the form of a ride to the farm in the back of Fred Reynolds' pickup truck. First job where I was actually on a payroll: I was the "porter" at Mister Donut (now Vista Donuts), which, among other things, involved cleaning the toilets. In some respects, that helped prepare me for my current line of work.
Today, Steve Masterson at New Life Upholstery in Foxboro is the only businessman I know who goes out of his way to find work for kids who show up at his place with a willingness to work. I'd like to hear about others if you know of any. We are quick to challenge the absence of a work ethic among the young, but move with less speed when it comes to encouraging said work ethic. IMHO, that is. What's your HO?

[Bob Scott]

I had one of the most desired jobs in my neighborhood for an early job beyond helping at Anderson’s dairy farm. You see I was a gravedigger at the Newell Burial Ground In South Attleboro. As it was an ancient location, mechanical digging wasn't utilized, besides I worked cheaper ahh I mean less expensive. John Machalek was a tough taskmaster. It wasn't just a hole for remains but a work of precision to him. You learned not to call a spade a shovel and level meant level.
When not busy with the honored task of preparing a final resting place, I cut many of the same plots with a push mower and trimmed the area around the headstones with hand trimmers. I read many of a epitaph I remember two in particular though the names escapes me one was for a young boy who lost his life when a wagon load of hay fell upon him. Another stated, " As you stand now so once stood I, as I am now so shall you be." Kind of made you hurry along as to not get mistaken.
Not a bad job had a great tan on my back and got a little stronger.

[Bill Gouveia]

My first jobs were cutting grass for old Mr. Bruce, who was the last station manager at the old East Main Street train station in Norton, then selling vegetables on the roadside for an old Portuguese farmer friend of the family. My first job they took taxes from was working during the summer as a custodian in the Norton schools, followed by bagging groceries at Fernandes Super Market in town. Oh, and also coming in and manning the phones for Peter Gobis, taking box scores and results, and writing stories - for the princely sum of $10 per night.

[Mike Gelbwasser]

Telegram & Gazette Sunday newscarrier. Shared a route with my sister. Although, many a time the parents would do the route.

Worst early job: McDonald's fry guy. The backs of my hands were red for months, I dumped so many hot fries on 'em.

Best early job: supermarket bagger. I was fast enough to bag multiple orders at once.

[Jessica Kosowski]

My first job was at Honey Dew Donuts at Baker's Corner in Seekonk. Ironically, it was almost as a customer service representative here at The Sun Chronicle. The state decided that because there was a printing press in the building, it was much too dangerous for me to work here in the front offices. I guess it was fine for me to burn myself with hot coffee and on the commercial-sized toaster, though (still have some of the scars). Working at Honey Dew, however, taught me customer service and how to deal with people. Also, I can clean a black raspberry jelly pump with skill and frost a donut like a champ.

[Rick Foster]

My first job was working as an auto body helper for a nice guy by the name of Norm Chicoine in Seekonk. He and his wife, who also worked there, constantly teased one another referred to each other as "the old man" and "the old lady."

We worked hard that summer but had fun, too. I got to drive a tiny Fiat 850, which is how I knew I would one day be a sportscar owner.

I managed to get through the whole summer without putting a scratch on cars I drove from the body shop into the paint booth which was in another building. Negotiating the many angles made it a task roughly equivalent to parallel parking a school bus in a supermarket aisle.

[Hope Fertitta]

I was a pizza girl. My mom hired me to work at the pizza shop she managed and to this day I can smell onions a mile away.

[Rebecca Keister]

My first real job - besides babysitting and a paper route -- was as the dressing room girl at Kline's Department Store, downtown Norwood.....it went out of business a few months later.... i still call it a coincidence

[Colin Blaney]

My first job was as a lifeguard...
I remember my first day on the job was the worst accident I witnessed during my two years working there. A small boy went top-speed into the edge of the pool and his nose basically looked like it had exploded. The noobie that I was, I was a bit flustered but luckily the other lifeguard who was there called the EMT's and I administered first aid to the boy until they arrived.

My first impression was a bit overwhelming but the next two years I worked there were pretty mellow, other than jumping in the pool after another child about a year after I started things were pretty uneventful.

As for whether or not being a lifeguard had prepared me for my professional adult life... I suppose it has. It was the first time I had had a boss, and where slacking off a little meant more than just a different letter on my report card.

[Mark Farinella]

Writing sports for the Mansfield News ... also calling the Attleboro Sun with scores and doing quick updates on the air at WARA.

[Amy DeMelia]

I'll start you off Mark!

My first job was at Plainville Crossing Dry Cleaners. I worked there my junior and senior years in high school. Not really a great foundation for a journalism career but it definitely was good training for customer service. There were several high school kids who worked there and the rule always was that we could chitchat, etc. while sorting or bagging the clothes but the second a customer came it was all talking was to cease so we could help them. It drives me crazy when I go places and cashiers are too busy gabbing to ring you up... though it always makes me think fondly about my Plainville Crossing days.