I guess my real first job other than farm work was working as a stable boy at a thoroughbred horse ranch. Pay was $125 a week in 1971. I loved that job. Hard work and cleaning the stalls sucked but I got to groom the horses and exercise them. They had trotters too. Cool horses.
Music washes away the dust of everyday life Some people wait a lifetime to meet their favorite hunting and shooting buddy. Mine calls me dad
$288 per month as an E1 Private Marine in 1972. Was making $1.25 per hour in a filling station six months prior to my enlistment, after flunking our of college my first semester. $1041 per month as an O1E 2ndLt Marine in 1980 after graduating from college.
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee
Started my 5-year Electrical Apprenticeship in the IBEW in June 1995. Made $6.35/Hr which was 35% of Journeyman scale. That was quite a pay cut from the $16/Hr I was making. But I saw it as a short term sacrifice.
I worked for a neighbor who was a plumber while in high school during the summers and on weekends. He offered to get me in the Union once I graduated and enrolled me in the apprenticeship through my Union. I started plumbing full time the day after I graduated high school. It was the 1st of June in 1995. Been doing it ever since! I think my starting wage was around $11 an hour plus my benefits. Apprenticeship through the Union was a 5yr program with raises every 6 months until I topped out @ Journeyman scale. In the 24yrs I’ve been doing it I’ve only worked for 3 contractors. 1st one eventually retired then I had a short 2 or 3yr period I worked for one and then went to my current employer where I’ve been for the past 10yrs. It’s been a good trade. Plenty of work! Never have missed any time over those years. It’s put a roof over my head and provided me with great benefits and hopefully a decent retirement that I can enjoy life a little after I’m done.
More kids need to take this route! Well done
I hope the local you are in, is better than Local 68
Local 360 Plumbers & Gasfitters
I don’t really have any complaints. Of course, I’ve always worked steady with contractors so I really haven’t had a lot of dealings with them. I leave them alone ... they leave me alone type of relationship. Lol. Once I finished my apprenticeship & schooling I really haven’t been involved much with it. Not necessarily the right attitude but life is busy and I always had other priorities.
First real job was driving 18 wheeler.... making minimum wage, and I think it was $1.65/hr. If I put in 100 hrs/wk, I could bring home a little over $200.
Quit that job to work lead tongs on drilling rig. Working 7 8's and making around $4.50/hr, bringing home over $600 every 2 weeks. Working 56 hrs/wk instead of 100 was like a vacation every day. Had money to spend and time to spend it.
Old Turd- Deplorable- Unrepentant Murderer- Domestic Violent Extremist
Prior to that I worked 2 winters bucking logs in the loading yard with my 2 uncles up in Maine. Even made it up to the "exhaulted" postion of grappel skidder operator. LOL!!! Weekends and school breaks $75 bucks a day. Skip a day of school if got a decent notice. (Usually a drunk hungover crew member call in) Pretty good money for partying with in high school and some gun buys.
Retired from unca suga in 08. Retired from civilian world jobs in 15 Last job was roustabout/slinger for 3 years GOM and The Black Sea Last year on the Black Sea I made 129k. 28 on 28 off 12 hr shifts Paid off alot of bills on that job and tucked away alot to set myself up to say Im done. My checking account grows each unca suga payday. Wife is a big wig at a daycare ( empty nest syndrome) She dont have to work, she just like being around kids.
I'm waiting on some of that Social Security fun and gun money when I turn 62 Want that schitt sooner than later. Get hit by a fugging asteriod at 63 65 67 or whatever the fugg the max age is and never collect a cent. Fugg that. .....
Fresh out of high school in 1968 went to work for a mason contractor. Two bucks an hour IIRC. We got paid with a personalized check that had a picture of a mason putting up a block wall on the front of the check. After a few of those bounced we had trouble cashing them in local businesses that did check cashing. After awhile all they had to see was that picture on the check and they wouldn't touch it. Or else the boss would sometimes vanish on Friday afternoon ( payday ) and his wife would tell us he had the check book with him. That lasted from June to September when I got a job at a local Chevy dealer. Don't recall the starting pay there but it was great getting paid every Friday and being able to cash the check easily.
First ( legal real job). Sears.I Realize I'm a little younger than some and older than a few too, but for me, that first one I'll never forget. When I went through the interview and all that jazz the secretary was filling out my hire papers and I watched her write $4. 80 starting hourly pay. I had a side hustle at 16 but still. Watching what a complete stranger write down what they thought I was worth at 16 is something I'll never forget. Busted my ass worse than anything my dad and uncles made me do(my dad and uncles would stop once and a while) growing up. I'm thankful. Stacking washers, dryers, and refrigerators solo at 5 am. Good [bleep].
First real job in 1961 was $260 a month doing sales in an Industrial Hardware sales. In high school it was $1.25 per hour unloading box car loads of sheet rock and bricks off of a flatbed train car. Remember all by hand and brick tongs, no forklifts. I also did demo work with a jack hammer in the basement of old military quarters at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Fn spoiled rotten azz kids. I've had a about 3 kids stop in the past year in front of my house with a busted bicycle problem. I've fixed them and showed them how to, but all the while thinking where the hell is dad or a diy mom? I do my tiny part in the world .
$150/wk as a field engineer for a construction company in Charleston, SC. Then a little raise in the Army for four years. Came out and was making $16,000/yr in 1977. Hit the jackpot and went to Iran with Fluor on an oil refinery at about $48K a year. Just before the Ayatollah came back. Everyone scooted then.