.

SWM, Would you care to elaborate on that statement, please…LOL.

The first summer job I got on my own was at a restaurant like many of you. The rest areas along the turn pike with Burger Kings, Taco Bells, Pizza Huts, Sparros and Bob's Big Boys? Yeah, that's where I started out at $4.50 an hour. I was trained in the Taco Bell, and for years wouldn't eat the "beef". I think it probably is indeed beef, but they heat it by boiling it from frozen in plastic bags for a 1/2 hour. At least the chicken you could tell was meat. Refried beans? Even though they were dehydrated I'd eat them. Somehow I ended up being able to do everything in that place except run the front register/hostess stand. Got in trouble for making a $32 oz milkshake once. That was pretty normal fare for me, a steak, cheese steak or salsbury steak, big !profanity! plate of fries and a 32 oz milkshake. The "manager"(lite) was a mean old hag. She's like "that's $5 right there, what do you think you're doing?" I don't remember what my response was. Glad that wasn't a day when I asked for shrimp.
I also squited a "customer", who turned out to be a fellow employee and future ex-girlfriend's brother with sour cream cause he was being a dick on my first day. Don't ask me why I did that either. I would really have chewed me out if I had been a manager then.
Then I left to work at the Sunoco right next store for $6 an hour. Left that for tech school and a job working with hazmat for $10.38 an hour.
Boy did I learn stuff at those places. Sunoco was probably the easiest job most of the time, start work at 10 p.m. work till about midnight, read the paper until 4, then sweep and vacuum to be done by the time the boss came in at 5:30. While I was there I must have really over-done myself on lack of sleep, I fell asleep sitting on the inventory totes. I woke up, there were customers waiting to be checked out.

My first car was a 1982 Jeep Wagoneer Ltd. with a 1978 8-track deck! I think my mom paid way too much for it at $3,500. I paid insurance and gas, which I'm glad I'm not driving it now 13 mpg. No memories in the back seat on that one. Would have been perfect though, the back seat folded flat to form a 6' bed, 8' with the tailgate down. From there I moved to a subaru GL, wrecked it, another subaru GL which my brother wrecked. Then a CRX which got 44 mpg, I miss that car. Fast too, 70 in second, buried the needle at 120 in third gear.!

What did I do with the huge amount of money I made? For the most part, I don't know. I still have a Pulsar watch that I bought for $150 (a weeks pay!) and I know I spent about $500 on prom. Other than that, beer, gas and oil. I was doing pretty good at saving it for a while, should have bought a car or something big while I was at it. I really could have afforded it while I didn't have any real expenses.

Youth is wasted on the young.

LOL ann, no way!! Some of the ladies would tell me how they would wrap toilet paper around their head at bedtime to protect the hairdo. Can you imagine?

LOL Protecting the hairdo with toilet paper…what a hoot. I wonder if that didn’t put a damper on the sex life.

Usher at the King theater,.50 an hour.paper route on S.Ann,Dauphin,Green and Juniata Sts,never made a dime on this one,that was a real treat Weavers meats at Southern market,caddy at Media and LCC.My favorite was on a trash truck in the east end of town.It was a family owned business and I was a friend of the family.Worked for them from the time I was 12 til I was in my 20`s,mostly part-time.The owners son was my best bud and we had a blast.When he turned 16 the old man gave us our own truck.You would never think trash could be so much fun!

Jim.....