Today is the thirtieth anniversary of getting my first job. I remember that it was on St. Patrick's Day in 1979. My friend Warren and I were bemoaning our lack of money and dreaming about all of the cool musical equipment we wanted to buy. Our solution was to get a job. But what kind of job? Who would hire two sixteen year old kids with no experience? We decided our best bet was to be dishwashers. I spent the night at Warren's house and we got up the next day and hit a bunch of restaurants and applied as dishwashers. Now that it is part of my job to hire people, I realize that going out together to hunt for a job, was not the best way, but it didn't really matter because The Tavern Restaurant in downtown La Jolla hired us and we started shortly there after.
Being a dishwasher is hard work and I would come home with a bad stench. Because I did not have a driver's license yet, my parents picked me up when I worked late. I noticed that Dad always drove Mom's station wagon when he picked me up instead of his car. This was a little unusual and eventually I realized he did not want to have the residual funk of sweaty teen aged dishwasher lingering in his car. I can't say I blame him. I'm not sure Mom wanted it either, but that's the way it was.
I earned enough money washing dishes to purchase an Ampeg SVT and a Kramer 450B bass. Both were very cool.
1 comment:
My first job was at the Dairy Queen in Tucker, Ga. when I was 16.
Nothing like making frozen treats for little league teams coming in after Saturday's big game!
(Actually it was a fun job... and I made a whopping $2.55 an hour.... I believe that's what minimum wage was way back then...)
Post a Comment