All through my preteen and teen years, I did farm work. In addition to all the stuff we had going on, I had several farmers who would call me to bale hay. From around the first of June until I went back to school, I was busy 5-7 days/week and was paid in cash.
I was a little kid (strong enough, but short), so during haying season I drove the tractor that pulled the wagon that the bales got loaded on, or I was the stacker. The worst was in the barn; I was the stacker there too. Hot as fuck and no moving air at all. The bigger, stronger, older guys on the crew (many were football players) didn't cut me much slack. I had to catch them and set them quick before the next bale hit me in the head.
I pulled hay wagons starting at around 10yo. when I was 12 or 13, I was big enough to throw bales over my head, so I would do everything I could to get out on the wagon, stacking behind the baler. Working up in the hay mow, stacking bales as they came off the elevator, sucked, so I made sure I stacked every wagon tight as a bus load of nuns. If they would lean it could pull a bunch of bales off, and that was a ticket straight up to the mow.
Very few farmers use the small square bales anymore.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Sophomore year I sold molly to all the older girls who were back home from freshman year at Ball State. Not sure if it built character, but I did make some good money and got some great memories.
We're you the shortest drug dealer in your town?
Ever traffic fentanyl...?
@bradstevens I worked on a grounds crew at a country club the summer after my senior year of high school and the summer between freshman and senior year. I won’t say it was hard work, but seeing some of the people who had been there multiple years certainly made me think I didn’t want to do that forever.
It was also sort of humbling. My family and I weren’t members, but I had friends who were. There were somewhat strict rules about what you can and can’t do around members that kind of made you feel like a second class citizen, even if they were common sense.
Still, it was nice working outside every day. I was tired at the end of most days.
@ohio-guy i coached soccer camps. first job. all through college. it was the only job i ever had until real jobs. all things considered it wsa kind of miserable. most of the kids didn't really want to be there. it was babysitting with a ball tshirts and cones
@bar-down I did summer camps for the County Rec Department one summer. That wasn't horrible, but I remember a lot of the kids' interest in being there ebbed and flowed as well. It was basically me and three other people my age running the day-to-day stuff. It was mostly outside, which was cool, but I do remember feeling like I had to be on alert herding all these kids into the general area where we were that day.
One day this boy comes up to me and asks if we can talk. He tells me he's sad because his friend died. My heart sunk. I told him I was sorry to hear it and wasn't really sure what I should be saying to comfort this young kid. He ends up telling me it's OK that he died, because he died for him and me and all of us. And he came back for all our sins. He then asked if I had accepted Jesus.
He was also homeschooled and would regularly tell me about other notable people who were homeschooled as well. He'd name presidents, athletes, actors - some of whom I'm almost certain probably weren't homeschooled. He did say Jesus was homeschooled and I told him I didn't know if that was true or not. That totally rocked his world. He came back the next day saying that his mom and dad told him that Jesus definitely was homeschooled. OK, whatever kid.
@ohio-guy that is hilarious! camps aren't for the faint of heart! we started substituting our "counselor's water" with gin and tonics in the afternoon adn that helped immensely
Forcing 16-year-old son to work this summer. Been researching best summer jobs for high school kids. I'd like him to keep doing it part-time during the school year, but we'll see.
There are a lot of considerations: what pays the best, what's easiest, what's hardest (build character), what will make him understand that he needs to excel in school, what looks best on a college application for an elite school, what will be the most "fun," what will teach him humility and/or hard work ethic, what makes him feel like he's contributing to society or community, what skills might he pick up that will serve him the rest of his life (working on cars, knowing what a check engine light means, etc.).
What was your best summer/part-time job in high school and what did you learn or how did it serve you? Or what did your kids do that you thought was good for them?
state highway mowing crew
decent pay, low stress and a good tan
Occasional body.Forcing 16-year-old son to work this summer. Been researching best summer jobs for high school kids. I'd like him to keep doing it part-time during the school year, but we'll see.
There are a lot of considerations: what pays the best, what's easiest, what's hardest (build character), what will make him understand that he needs to excel in school, what looks best on a college application for an elite school, what will be the most "fun," what will teach him humility and/or hard work ethic, what makes him feel like he's contributing to society or community, what skills might he pick up that will serve him the rest of his life (working on cars, knowing what a check engine light means, etc.).
What was your best summer/part-time job in high school and what did you learn or how did it serve you? Or what did your kids do that you thought was good for them?
state highway mowing crew
decent pay, low stress and a good tan
state highway mowing crew
decent pay, low stress and a good tan
One of my really good friends from HS worked for the county highway dept one summer and his job was to go collect roadkill. Basically, drive around looking for buzzards that would signal something dead in the road, and answer the dispatcher when someone called one in. All he did was burn gas and and shovel something into the truck a couple of times/day.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
@ohio-guy i coached soccer camps. first job. all through college. it was the only job i ever had until real jobs. all things considered it wsa kind of miserable. most of the kids didn't really want to be there. it was babysitting with a ball tshirts and cones
The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I worked at a summer camp in Maine. Most of the counselors were midwest college guys who saw ads in their student newspapers, with a few Europeans thrown in to coach soccer, and all the campers were rich Jewish kids from New York, Boston, and Philly.
Went up a few weeks before the start date to set up the campgrounds (was actually one of the first 5 there), and it was cold AF in Maine in early June.
.
I knew a guy that worked for the landscaping outfit i was in but then quit to...and i shit you not....drive around and repaint fire hydrants. Technically they were supposed to wirebrush the old paint off. Sure, Jan. I couldn't stand that fvcking guy.state highway mowing crew
decent pay, low stress and a good tan
One of my really good friends from HS worked for the county highway dept one summer and his job was to go collect roadkill. Basically, drive around looking for buzzards that would signal something dead in the road, and answer the dispatcher when someone called one in. All he did was burn gas and and shovel something into the truck a couple of times/day.
I want more stories about this kid! Sounds like he might be head guy of a PI outfit, with a Jet, by now.@bar-down I did summer camps for the County Rec Department one summer. That wasn't horrible, but I remember a lot of the kids' interest in being there ebbed and flowed as well. It was basically me and three other people my age running the day-to-day stuff. It was mostly outside, which was cool, but I do remember feeling like I had to be on alert herding all these kids into the general area where we were that day.
One day this boy comes up to me and asks if we can talk. He tells me he's sad because his friend died. My heart sunk. I told him I was sorry to hear it and wasn't really sure what I should be saying to comfort this young kid. He ends up telling me it's OK that he died, because he died for him and me and all of us. And he came back for all our sins. He then asked if I had accepted Jesus.
He was also homeschooled and would regularly tell me about other notable people who were homeschooled as well. He'd name presidents, athletes, actors - some of whom I'm almost certain probably weren't homeschooled. He did say Jesus was homeschooled and I told him I didn't know if that was true or not. That totally rocked his world. He came back the next day saying that his mom and dad told him that Jesus definitely was homeschooled. OK, whatever kid.