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12-02-2020 02:21 PM
@aroc3435 wrote:@amyb Sounds like the Oakdale in Wallingford, CT. Have happy memories of attending shows there oveerr a few decades.
aroc3435
Washington, DC
Wow...exactly right @aroc3435 ! Good call. I have such happy memories of summers spent working there too...and of course seeing shows always there then and for many years after. . Did you live up here then? That was a great guess, as there were other theaters like this back then...there was one in Cape Cod I remember..
Anyway...I actually started there when Oakdale was still a tented theater...the Cape Cod one stayed a tent...not sure it's still there...
12-02-2020 02:24 PM
teenager.......babysitting
teenager.......my mom used to hate to iron my dads scrubs and he hated them if they were wrinkled, so i got $1 for each piece to launder and iron and fold.
12-02-2020 02:30 PM
@patbz wrote:My first job, at 16, was sales clerk at Hecht Co. I loved that summer job!
it was a great store @patbz . we used to get a lot of our back to school clothing there once we were older. i miss some of the old department stores.......
12-02-2020 02:32 PM
@Flatbush LOL all my jobs were legal, starting in high school.
That doesn't include all the babysitting for money I did from the age of 13 through about 16.
12-02-2020 02:43 PM
We had the largest fine shoe store in town. My dad had just remarried as I became 14 and, as I became 15 1/2, he became aware of a Friday evening and Saturday position at Butler's Shoes around the corner as cashier. I realized I wasn't a homebody, and I wasn't particularly fond of my step mother, so it was perfect.
Later, I could see how he set it up for me to learn skills and get experience.
That eventually lead me into being a teller with summer jobs when home from college and until we started our family.
12-02-2020 02:54 PM
We lived on Quantico Marine Corps base and for my junior & senior summers I worked for the federal govt at the Officer Candidate School (OCS - the ROTC guys would come for OCS during the summer for either a 6 week or 12 week training) messhall, they started using civilians as the Marines that normally did those duties were out in the field training.
My first summer I worked in the salad room (helping to prepare different side items that would be put out for the evening meal - tossed salad, macaroni salad, potatoe salad, jello, and pudding), also worked on the line serving food when they were short handed; second summer I worked as a Cook, each day we were assigned a different duty - main course, side item or you worked on getting breakfast things ready for the morning shift (cracking several dozen eggs into a big plastic bin; plating bacon or canadian ham on big 24" x 36" sheet trays).
I also worked as a cook again the summer after I finished up two-year technical school as a I was still looking for a full-time job.
12-02-2020 03:13 PM
@amyb Yes, we moved from New Jersey to Connecticut when I was 11. Went away for college and lived in RI for about 11 years and then been back to CT and worked for 35 years and now retired to DC.
My family and I saw Sammy Davis, Jr., and many other shows (Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) there when it still had the canvas cover. After it was closed in the Moody Blues was the last show I attended in I think the late 90s.
My mother, her best girlfriend (and like a second Mom to me) and I vacationed in Hyannis, MA a couple of times and saw shows at the Melody Tent on Cape Cod--also wonderful experiences there, too. Just checked their Facebook page and they still are in operation.
You were lucky to work at such a great place. My first legal job was working as a maid in St. Mary's Rectory in Newport, RI, just after graduating college and getting married to a native Newporter.
Thank you for bringing back happy thoughts and times to me.
Still sometimes so miss CT--can't get really good pizza here, or Italian pastries!
aroc3435
Washington, DC
12-02-2020 03:19 PM
I did many odd jobs throughout high school.
2 nights a week and Saturday mornings, I was a shampoo girl at a local salon for a one man shop. I washed clients hair, rinsed out perms and color and removed rollers from dry hair while clients were still seated in the dryer chairs. I did this for three years.
I also worked as an usher at a local theatre.
From age 16, I would be one of the girls who would stand by a car in a bikini with high heels at a car show in January with pasty white winter skin. The building had many garage doors and they would be opened often to let cars in and out of the show. It was freezing in there. This job only lasted for a few days each year. My father would have had a fit if he knew. I left the house in jeans and a sweatshirt and returned dressed the same way.
I also worked at my parents resturant/bar cooking, washing dishes and cleaning.
I was always looking for a way to make some money.
My first full time job was being a hair stylist at age 18.
12-02-2020 03:22 PM - edited 12-02-2020 03:23 PM
@aroc3435 wrote:@amyb Yes, we moved from New Jersey to Connecticut when I was 11. Went away for college and lived in RI for about 11 years and then been back to CT and worked for 35 years and now retired to DC.
My family and I saw Sammy Davis, Jr., and many other shows (Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) there when it still had the canvas cover. After it was closed in the Moody Blues was the last show I attended in I think the late 90s.
My mother, her best girlfriend (and like a second Mom to me) and I vacationed in Hyannis, MA a couple of times and saw shows at the Melody Tent on Cape Cod--also wonderful experiences there, too. Just checked their Facebook page and they still are in operation.
You were lucky to work at such a great place. My first legal job was working as a maid in St. Mary's Rectory in Newport, RI, just after graduating college and getting married to a native Newporter.
Thank you for bringing back happy thoughts and times to me.
Still sometimes so miss CT--can't get really good pizza here, or Italian pastries!
aroc3435
Washington, DC
So fun swapping these memories with you~the proverbial "small world" at work.
Yes, I just checked Melody Tent too....was amazed and impressed they remained a tent. I wish Oakdale had remained "the Dome" (post tent)...those were the hey days. And it's never been the same since, (while still a good venue, good sound system etc etc)...it just changed it forever into something else. After seeing Melody still the same...wish they'd preserved it here too. And the shows now...ugh...started out ok, with a variety of shows, but it's gone through so many different "corporate sponsers"...last I checked it was all weird stuff.
And girl...YES..we STILL have the BEST pizza and those same Italian bakeries in New Haven, like Libby's, with the BEST italian pasteries. lol. Worth a visit back.
12-02-2020 03:26 PM
My first job was at 12 - picking tomatoes for 25 cents a lug box. Did that for a few tomato seasons, then when I was 15 the farmer got a tomato harvester, so worked on the harvester for two summers; standing for 10 hours a day sorting tomatoes. I was one of the lucky ones, never had a snake or rodent make it far enough down the line to get to me!
When I turned 16 and had a driver's license, I was able to get a job in town at the Dairy Delite, where I worked after school and weekends. My favorite part of that job was unlimited access to hot fudge sauce.
When I was 18, had a job driving truck during rice harvest season. That job financed my move from the West Coast to the East Coast and an office job!
Also started babysitting when I was 13. I also remember when I was about 16 I started getting social security checks because my father was on SS and had a minor child. Not a job, but was surprised to get a check for 2 years.
I don't remember ever having a work permit.
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