Summer Jobs as a teenager

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Dave V

Dave V

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
Joined
Dec 22, 2020
Messages
303
Location
Florida
Summer Jobs
The last time I worked on a farm, I was as a teen doing tobacco (never again!)
Two pairs of Converse tennis shoes could never be worn again, and I had what seemed like a permanent body funk along with hand and body staining.
My back always hurt, but I aways slept hard!
I also worked one season at a Christmas tree farm, mowing between trees, trimming, and then harvesting on weekends in November and December.
Later I lifeguarded (what a breeze in comparison) and then somehow, I ended up volunteering to teach a bunch of Red Cross First Aid and CPR etc.
I also spent every weekend year-round cutting lawns, hedges, raking leaves, shoveling snow and anything else the old ladies in my neighborhood needed doing. I also had a morning paper route one year which got me up every morning at 4.
Also competing for my high school summers were athletic team coaches who thought we should of course spend our summers working out and getting ready for Fall sports. Finally, there was ROTC, but that doesn't count as "work" either.
Where'd you work in the summer in high school?
Edit: I obviously had a privileged city kid's high school experience compared to many.
 
Last edited:
Babysitter, worked at a tax office stuffing envelopes and sending out flyers in the off season. At 14, I started at A and W Rootbeer as a carhop. Rollerskates. Didn't like that job very much. Finished school at 16, so went to work full time during the day and a few jr college classes during the week at night. That first full time job was handling incoming bills at the phone company.
 
I had a ton of jobs as a teen. Loaded trucks, unloaded trucks, did local deliveries, mowed lawns, shoveled driveways, worked at a shooting range, worked at a convenience store, did some custodial work, did some painting, etc., etc. I was always on the look out for a way to put some money into my pocket. Mostly legal but sometimes not so legal.
 
Today I live on the farm where I was born. As a kid I had too many jobs to name, didn’t get paid for any of them. We had beef cattle and crops, corn or cotton. Before age 12 we had milk cows, hogs and chickens too, had big gardens, a smoke house. Most of my extended family and neighbors were farmers. So even if we were caught up someone else always needed extra hands.

I remember castrating hogs(shoats) for my neighbor. We’d cut 50 or so in a night, catch and hold them. Didn’t matter how many baths I took, still went to school smelling like pig crap for a couple days. I remember feeling bad for the kids who had big chicken houses. They always smelled like chicken carp. I only cut shoats 3 or 4 times a year. Needless to say, we weren’t the popular kids. :rolleyes:

After age 12 I got a few paying jobs. In spring my grandmother would meet the school bus (did my homework on the bus). She’d had a plate fixed and I’d eat on the way to the field. I’d run a jd 4020, plowing for spring planting. An uncle would relieve me at 10:30pm and plow the rest of the night. The tractor I ran had a radio, at 10:10pm old reruns of the ‘Lum and Abner’ show came on. I knew my evening was almost over.

My summer job was running a chainsaw for a cousin (logger). I worked the loading ground because I was a kid. Trimming and topping with an axe as often as a saw, unhooking choker cables when trees were dragged up. I was the crew gopher! Ran a saw several winters during christmas vacation too. In the fall I worked nights at a cotton gin. I didn’t mind going to school with cotton lint in my hair, beat smelling like pig crap. Hey, it was cash money, had no other way to get it.

Funny, now wish I could do it all over again. At the time I couldn’t wait to leave the farm. Didn’t realize how good I had it…
 
Actually, I was assembling boat trailers as early as 9 or 10 years old. From the factory, we would get the frame, tongue, tires and a huge box of all the parts. Normally, 20 trailers at a time. My dad and I would assemble them in our home garage. By the time I was 11 or 12, I was doing it myself.

One time, my dad and I went to the factory to pick up a load of trailers (parts) to bring back for assembly. We met the company owner who gave us a tour of their assembly facility (since that's what we did) and he bragged that they could assemble a trailer in 2-3 hours. I was young (like 10 years old) and laughed. Caught the owner off-guard and so the owner asked my dad what was so funny. My dad told him that the 2 of us do that same trailer in under 30 minutes.

The owner was flabbergasted. He then made an appointment to come to our garage (a couple states away). We proved our efficiency. He took our techniques back to the factory.
 
Worked for my aunt helping with the feeding and tending dogs, grooming dogs (customers), every summer.
If they went away, once I was a little older, I’d stay and care for the dogs (20-30 dogs).
Babysitting a little but I didn’t like children then. 🤣
Took care of other people’s dogs and cats when they’d go on vacation.
 
Babysitting, working for my aunt and uncle with 6 children helping with housework, cooking and taking care of their kids.
I was out of h.s. when I worked on my bachelor uncle's ranch in the summer as a farm hand, cleaning his house and shop, cooking, combining, plowing, planting, haying, helping with fencing, cattle, cleaning out grain bins.
 
I worked for our church doing maintenance and janitorial work. When I was 16 I started working at a Baskin Robbins franchise. I did some other odd jobs. Worked some for a moving company.

When I was 18 I started working for a local bottling company loading and unloading trucks. That was really where I cut my teeth working an adult job.
 
I worked for a nurseryman from eight years old to twenty-one years.
I did work at a garage, the summer I was Fifteen.
I did farm work without any pay including, chopping wood, dressing chickens & hogs. Feeding animals & weeding garden, milking cows.
 
Last edited:
joel said:
I worked for a nurseryman from eight years old to twenty-one years.
I did work at a garage, the summer I was Fifteen.
I did farm work without any pay including, chopping wood, dressing chickens & hogs. Feeding animals & weeding garden, milking cows.
Click to expand...
I am getting old, after school when I was sixteen I worked as a buck presser, that Is a steam presser to iron children clothes before they were shipped to store. This was at Skyline company in Camden S.C.
When I was 18, I also worked nights on the weekend cleaning oil off Lathes,mills & other small equipment, in a local machine shop, this was something to keep us busy, and to make us knowledgeable about the company. After the three month of "training" we were offered a job, I did Black oxide, sand blasting & heat treat. That same year I Joined SCNG & went to basic Training. At 21 I got laid off from Machine shop, when Detroit fell by 15%, went to work at a Food plant.
 
Last edited:
Started mowing yards at 9yo. Started plowing and disking gardens at 9 or 10. Worked for uncles and grand pa's doin various jobs including working gardens, making hay from mowing to picking up bales, tending livestock. First public job was a delivery driver for a pharmacy. Dietary department at a hospital. Installing dump truck beds and bucket truck gear. Mechanic. Building boats, building houses. Warehouse worker. Packing house. Decided to try electronics school and that led to industrial maintenance career. Now work as a supervisor over Environmental maintenance group and a radio group. Also took other role of RF spectrum manager for our lab. October 1st I'll change to supervisor for the radio and security groups.
 
Last edited:
What a interesting thread..brings back memories..
I started at 13 on a pony ranch..my payment was I could go ride whatever pony I wanted after working n helping out for a few hours on the weekends. So I'd work half a day, usually cleaning the barn and then go ride bareback off on a few hundred acres for a few hours.
I liked riding up this creek n finding the big patches of blackberries. The pony liked them too, we had a fig and kiwi tree on the property we rode on. Sun warmed fresh ripe figs n kiwis are divine...untill the next day.
That graduated to occasional house/ranch sitting that I did get paid for. Horse ranches mainly..but one ranch had cows n calves too. And a occasional bull that chased me up a tree one day..lol..
I was always helping my friends do their ranch chores ..supper was my payment usually and beer at one friend's house when we were teens.
I also worked at a vet office, video store n pizza place n pets mart here n there going through high school n Jr. College along with the ranches I would sit.
My mom was actually opposed to me working . She said once I'm an adult I will have to work , so enjoy not having to. She would always give me money and whatever. She was very giving in that department to both myself n my brother. But I wanted to earn my money too. She would say your going to burn out by the time your 50..she was right.
I long for retirement n the day I can enjoy my days as I will ..
Sigh..someday.. :)
 
My summer job as a young teenager turned into an occupation, thru HS. Started with working on a farm potting trees and plants for retail sales at the in town location. Then retail sales, and then landscaping.

At about 14 years old... my mom told me "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". I was incredibly shy and quiet... That kinda changed when I turned 16, got my drivers license, took an auto body paint and repair class, bought a '71 Camaro with a 350, cruised the strip on weekends, went to parties where the cops were called.

Being shy and quiet in school.... at my 40 year class reunion, last year, I was still recognized. The 'girls' took selfies with me, the principle remembered me well. Good times growing up.... I wouldn't change a thing.
 
In the summer, as a teen, I worked as a commercial fisherman on a seiner. It was a five day per week fishing season in which we put in around 100 hours. On the weekend we would fuel up, mend nets, repair the boat and skiff, then party the rest of the weekend. Then we would go out fishing to rest up from the weekend.
 
Caribou said:
In the summer, as a teen, I worked as a commercial fisherman on a seiner. It was a five day per week fishing season in which we put in around 100 hours. On the weekend we would fuel up, mend nets, repair the boat and skiff, then party the rest of the weekend. Then we would go out fishing to rest up from the weekend.
Click to expand...
That is the ultimate crazy hard work!!
 
Aerindel said:
I used to harvest and peel garlic, $3 an hour.

Not the individual cloves, but peeling the other layers off whole plants that would then be hung in bunches, partially dried, and braided.
Click to expand...
How'd you deal with the smell? I once drove through Gilroy ca during a garlic harvest. I finally understood Dracula. 🤣
 
Peanut said:
How'd you deal with the smell? I once drove through Gilroy ca during a garlic harvest. I finally understood Dracula. 🤣
Click to expand...
I stopped in Gilroy and bought a braid of garlic. I put it in the trunk on a hot summer day and headed north. About three hours later I pulled over and tossed my roasted garlic away. Thank goodness it was a rental car.
 
I worked in a stables from 13, weekends and holidays, then picked stones (for the track) which I think was the hardest thing I've ever done- backbreaking work and I got sizzled because back then we had summers. Also picked strawberries, bought in hay and later worked in a shop when I got to 16. Harder to get summer work now - farmers etc don't hire unless you have a tractor licence because of insurance, and there's no picking fruit/ potato jobs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top