Archives > McKinney Courier-Gazette > News
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
RSS
Share
What was your first summer job?
By J.B. Blocker, Viewpoint
First in a series of interviews with successful people around Collin County.
What was your first summer job? What did you want the money for? What was your pay? What did you learn?
I passed the questions about first jobs to several friends who are elected officials just to see if they would reply. The responses have been numerous, various, and often humorous.
The object of this summer project is many faceted. These stories are of growing independence, of responsibility, of commitment, accountability, and maturity at a young age. Where are they now?
Those young teens that went out, found a job, stuck with it in heat and dirt. Those jobs might seem humiliating and even impossible now. But if you think back. …. These stories are nostalgia.
They show the early determination and responsibility of successful people. They are insightful if not inspirational.
Thanks to my friends at City Hall for some great stuff. I include a little insight on Mayor Brian Loughmiller and City Councilman David Brooks! Thanks guys! Sorry David!
McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller
One of my first summer jobs was detassling corn in Mount Pulaski, Illinois, for BoJac Seed Company when I was 12 years old.
We would get picked up in the morning at 5 a.m. on a bus or a truck and be taken to the corn fields where we would walk fields all day cutting rogue stalks from the field and detassling corn.
It would always be cold in the morning even in August because the corn would be wet.
By mid morning as everything dried out you would bake in the sun and by the afternoon you were in an oven (over 100-degree days.) It was hard work but I remember how proud I was when I took the money I earned and bought my first 10-speed bicycle.
I remember riding it the 15 miles to BoJac’s office from my home to show them what I bought with my paychecks. I still have a letter today that was written to me in 1972 congratulating me on a successful summer and offering me a 20-cent raise to 1.20 per hour if I would come back to work the following summer.
Councilman
David Brooks
My first summer job was as the yards and grounds “man” at the hospital on Rhein Main Air Force Base in Frankfurt, Germany.
After my sophomore year in high school, I had this opportunity for the whopping rate of $1.55 per hour. But I worked 40 hours per week, and it was a pretty good check for a 16 year old.
I worked for Sgt. Johnson, who was in charge of all grounds, maintenance, etc. for the hospital. I spent a lot of time doing the routine mowing and edging, but also got my first experience at harvesting sod in the German forest behind the hospital and replanting it in bare patches around the hospital.
This venture met with only moderate success, but I kept trying until I figured out the proper depth of the sod, watering requirements, and so on. Like many good opportunities in life, I didn’t fully appreciate this job until some time later when I had “less pleasant” summer opportunities.
I try keep this type of experience a secret from my wife, who might find a lot of yard work for me to do. I generally profess to know nothing about yard work, house maintenance, and so on as a self-defense mechanism!
David Brooks is also now Chairman and CEO Independent Bank.
Deputy City Manager
Jim Parrish
I turned 16 and wanted to purchase a dual exhaust system and mag wheels for my 1964 Mercury Comet. I answered an ad in newspaper at Bruce and Son Moving and Storage in Amarillo. Mrs. Bruce had to be 80 years old and she asked “Can you lift a pool table?” I said does everyone else lift pool tables? It was in the dead heat of summer and the first day we worked 12 hours moving a family out of one house and into another. For $2.10 per hour we loaded and unloaded stuff all summer. By the end of the summer I decided to go to college because I was not made to lift furniture for a living. I did enjoy the cool wheels and sound of that dual exhaust.
Sheriff
Terry G. Box
My first job that I actually got pay some money for was working for my dad at his upholstery shop. Box’s Upholstery Shop I was raised up in the shop but about the age of 6 or 7 I wanted to buy me a new bicycle, and I knew just the one I wanted to buy, it was a shinny new Red and Chrome Schwinn that was located about three doors down from the Upholstery Shop. Larson’s cycle shop it was a regular hang out for me and others to stop by each day to see what was coming into inventory.
The bicycle I was drooling over cost $54, and I was on my way to dream up someway to buy my dream bike. I approached my banker, (my dad) and ask him if he would buy it, and of course he said “money doesn’t grow on trees.”
Onto plan B, I asked my dad if I worked real hard would he pay me $5.00 a week and I would pay that on the bike if I could talk Mr. Carlson who ran the Bicycle Shop into letting me pay it out. After some more talking, mainly one- sided from my dad and me promising him the moon, he said yes. I immediately was in route to the Bicycle Shop and asked to talk to Mr. Carlson and after promising him everything I owned at that time he said “YES.” So it was back to the Upholstery shop and taking out car seats and cutting the old seat covers off and sweeping floors.
You know that was one of the best lessons my parents taught me if you want something that bad you have to work for it and pay for it. I can remember each Saturday walking into the bicycle shop and handing Mr. Carlson my $5.00 and him opening the hugh ledger book and marking my balance down by five more dollars. You know, I sure miss that old bike but I truly and dearly miss Mom and Dad.
Our jobs series
Our kids should read this series all summer. They will be inspired by what successful people and public officials did as teenagers.
I’ve a great group coming up! Girls who would be Judges! With any luck, you’ll get to see a bit of the kid in the people who get your votes.
Rogueing Maize
Mrs. Vasquez would roll up to the Junior High in her beat up ole pickup at 5 a.m. Often, dozens of teens who wanted some summer work would show up hoping to be picked for a crew. A truckload of teenagers would load up in the bed amid hoes, machetes, and two giant thermoses filled with ice cold water.
Usually there were two or three other pickups there to gather teenage workers, but Joe Vasquez was a classmate, so I would always go with their family crew.
We would drive over to a farm where grain crops would occasionally wave to the rare hot summer breezes. Signs like DeKalb Z-950 indicated that these fields were growing “seed crops.”
Seed crop farmers are paid good money to grow the corn, wheat, milo (maize, and other produce that would be the next season’s seeds for farmers all over the country.
Only the best farmers are contracted to grow ‘seed crops’ because seed companies have to be assured of consistency. The crops have to be watered, fertilized, and harvested in a timely manner. Some farmers aren’t as good at managing their equipment and time as others.
The farms also have to be irrigated to assure the crops make. A dry land or unirrigated field relies on timely rain. They are easier to manage, but not suitable for those important seeds.
When you see those fields, they are usually long straight rows of green all at the same height. If there are any plants that have grown taller than the rest of the field, they must me chopped down before they pollinate and potentially ruin the consistency of the crop. They are called “rogues.” The weeds need to go, too! Sometimes, there are lots of weeds!
Our job was to walk up and down rows that were up to a mile long with a hoe or machete and chop down the Rogues and weeds.
The job only last about two months. The crop has to be tall enough for the Rogues to show. The roguing stops after the fields have gone to seed.
This is a job that can only be done by hand. It’s a perfect job for youngsters who are willing to work till 3 or 4 in the blazing sun.
Well, not perfect. There’s the snakes and scorpions, the occasional coyote casing rabbits and field mice, the ants, spiders, and bees, and the 100-plus temperatures.
None of those are as bad as working in a wet field where your shoes pack with mud as you trudge to the end of a row you can’t see the end of.
Some of us would carry canteens, but they get cumbersome very quickly. Back in the late 1960s, we didn’t understand hydration like we do now. Heck, coaches would hold out water until after football practices to toughen us up. They would be sued now!
So, what did teenagers get paid for this job?
Different crew leaders paid different rates. Mrs. Vasquez paid $1.80 per hour! Minus 10 cents for using her hoes and machetes and 20 cents for the ride to and from work.
Total, $1.50 per hour for about nine hours each day before the heat was too much.
Mom’s birthday
My first payday was almost $80 for a week of long, hot, mindless labor. Just in time for my mother’s birthday!
At least I had my best friend Coy with me! It’s easier to share suffering.
I remember how proud I was to go with my grandmother to the Woolworths in Dumas, Texas, to buy the battery operated sewing sheers I had seen my mother admire. I was swollen with pride when she opened the gift. Wow! What a great memory!
I bought some things for myself, but the memory of earning the money and buying my mother what I considered the first nice present I had ever bought her on my own made that week worth it. It was the driving force for me to finish that first week.
It is a wonderful feeling of fulfillment to earn your way. A step toward maturity.
I finished the season working every week I could. It paid for my summer church camp and let me buy some of my own choices of school clothes from the JC Penny’s catalogue. It also made me want to do better in school! When I paid for my own haircut, I could tell them how I wanted it!
What was your first job?
J.B. Blocker is a media consultant based in Historic Downtown McKinney.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
You must register with a valid email to post comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here:
Become a Registered User
- Return to: News «
- Home «
- Top of Page ^
