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Your first job after school

Started by Dave, February 17, 2017, 08:00:07 AM

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Dave

1959, aged 15, signed up to join the RAF but 7 months to kill before my induction date, I started work in a used car lot run by two guys. If you wanted to pick two characters for a tragicomedy of the goings on in such a place these rwo were perfect. Call them Fred and Bert.

Fred was over weight, blonde, wore "country check" shirts, a mustard yellow knitted tie, tan cavalry twill slacks, brown brogues and either a hacking jacket or a sheepskin coat, smoked cigars and drank brandy from a hip flask - quite the "country gentleman". Also seemed very laid back and affable to the public.

Bert was tall and skinny, jet black hair slicked back from a high, balding forehead, very narrow faced with a beak of a nose and a chin you could spear pickles with. He wore white shirts, black ties, a sharply cut pinstriped black suit and "winkle picker", very sharply pointed, shoes. He chain smoked and always seemed on the edge of a nervous breakdown. His favourite tipple was gin, just gin.The epitome of a petty East End of London criminal.

The contrast was incredible.

The "old bangers" they sold? Wish I had some now! At one point there was a full set of just pre-war Super Swift (later Jaguar) open tourers, same body, three engine sizes. Most of those cars would have a 5 figure price tag now. They sold for less than £200 then.

My job was washing the cars, changing tires and tidying the lot up. I did pick up a couple of other skills that came in useful when I had old bangers of my own to fix rust holes and fill minor dents in, respray and try to keep them on the road as they slowly fell apart.

Fred and Bert were also into the betting/fixing ring in the local boxing circuit. One day they had a visit from a couple of heavies. The old wooden shack that was the office rattled a bit during the visit. Fred and Bert looked, er, less than happy after their visitors left and, sort of, walked funny. Someone higher up the gutter felt he had been cheated evidently.

Once or twice a week a couple of the local "ladies" would also visit. The office blinds would be drawn and I was told to "keep any customers occupied for ten minutes". They sometimes walked funny after those visits as well.

Ah, happy days . . .
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Arturo

I worked at Little Caesar's

I got the feeling my co-workers and managers did not enjoy my presence. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

Recusant

I began working well before I left school, bucking hay in the summer. After school came tree planting with a hoedad. The atmosphere in a tree planting camp was similar to a logging camp, but loggers were mostly rednecks, while there was a slightly higher percentage of hippies amongst the rednecks in a tree planting camp.

"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


xSilverPhinx

Hmm...I've been in and out of school during my twenties and I'm still in school now with plans to continue. I've made a profession out of being a student! :lol:

After I finished high school I mostly helped out (helped out, not worked, as I wasn't paid) my mother in her café. Cashier, waitress, employee supervisor when my mother wasn't around, all of it. I would also spend countless hours on shopping errands for the coffee shop, but I loved it. I had just gotten my licence and was looking for reasons to drive my car. 

Fast forward a few years after the café closed and we moved south I mostly did freelance stuff here and there before starting school again.

Not exactly an exciting work history, but that's what life's dealt me. 
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


hermes2015

Quote from: Gloucester on February 17, 2017, 08:00:07 AM
... tan Calvary twill slacks ...

I believe Jesus also wore a pair of those once.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

Dragonia

Quote from: Gloucester on February 17, 2017, 08:00:07 AM
1959, aged 15, signed up to join the RAF but 7 months to kill before my induction date, I started work in a used car lot run by two guys. If you wanted to pick two characters for a tragicomedy of the goings on in such a place these rwo were perfect. Call them Fred and Bert.

Fred was over weight, blonde, wore "country check" shirts, a mustard yellow knitted tie, tan Calvary twill slacks, brown brogues and either a hacking jacket or a sheepskin coat, smoked cigars and drank brandy from a hip flask - quite the "country gentleman". Also seemed very laid back and affable to the public.

Bert was tall and skinny, jet black hair slicked back from a high, balding forehead, very narrow faced with a beak of a nose and a chin you could spear pickles with. He wore white shirts, black ties, a sharply cut pinstriped black suit and "winkle picker", very sharply pointed, shoes. He chain smoked and always seemed on the edge of a nervous breakdown. His favourite tipple was gin, just gin.The epitome of a petty East End of London criminal.

The contrast was incredible.
LOVE your description of these two characters!  ;D

My first job was at a printing shop, aptly named The Printin' Place. But all I did was count Business reply cards and enter info into the computer of names and addresses of people who wanted tourist materials. A slightly tedious job, but the bus ride from school to this seedy part of town was awesome. There was a boy who was SO cute, and so bold in our conversation  :o . I learned things on those bus rides......
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~ Plato (?)

Pasta Chick

My actial after school job was in a record store. Kind of. This was right around 2000 so tapes were dying out but still in demand mostly from seniors and kids who couldn't afford a cd set up in their car. CDs were super popular but technology was advancing fast enough that anyone with the slightest foresight knew they were a sinking ship. So the corporation decided they needed to consolidate, eliminating entire stores, renaming those staying, and shifting focus to concert sales and merchandise.

Thus we went from Record Town and Tape World to one really big FYE and one shitty little FYE on the same floor of the same mall. A good old fashioned, all indoor mall. Right down the highway from the Groton Navy Base.

My job was literally to be jail bait to draw squids in to the shitty small store. Which worked, but it was so bad... At one point they hired an ex-Officer as manager just to offer us some protection. In the meantime we were exposed to a plethora of awful and offensive pick up lines we were not allowed to retaliate to, although all of us were restrained from punching someone at least once.

Tank

Draughtsman before Autocad. Real ink pens!
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Dave

Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2017, 05:02:52 PM
Draughtsman before Autocad. Real ink pens!
Yeah, remember them, and draugfting tape, tracing paper . . . Cleaning the pens was a bind though,

Then we got a board with a "draughting machine" - wowee!

Enjoyed Autocad though
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Tank

Quote from: Gloucester on February 17, 2017, 05:15:27 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2017, 05:02:52 PM
Draughtsman before Autocad. Real ink pens!
Yeah, remember them, and draugfting tape, tracing paper . . . Cleaning the pens was a bind though,

Then we got a board with a "draughting machine" - wowee!

Enjoyed Autocad though
In the end I moved on and never used Autocad. I did a day release course in electronics and became a lab tech and support engineer on the early Intel microprocessors from the 8086/8088 onwards.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Dave

Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2017, 05:20:21 PM
Quote from: Gloucester on February 17, 2017, 05:15:27 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2017, 05:02:52 PM
Draughtsman before Autocad. Real ink pens!
Yeah, remember them, and draugfting tape, tracing paper . . . Cleaning the pens was a bind though,

Then we got a board with a "draughting machine" - wowee!

Enjoyed Autocad though
In the end I moved on and never used Autocad. I did a day release course in electronics and became a lab tech and support engineer on the early Intel microprocessors from the 8086/8088 onwards.
I had to do my own draughting when designing tools and test rigs as a lab tech., just another one of those trades I ended up be a "Jack" of.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Arturo

Quote from: Pasta Chick on February 17, 2017, 04:58:17 PM
My actial after school job was in a record store. Kind of. This was right around 2000 so tapes were dying out but still in demand mostly from seniors and kids who couldn't afford a cd set up in their car. CDs were super popular but technology was advancing fast enough that anyone with the slightest foresight knew they were a sinking ship. So the corporation decided they needed to consolidate, eliminating entire stores, renaming those staying, and shifting focus to concert sales and merchandise.

Thus we went from Record Town and Tape World to one really big FYE and one shitty little FYE on the same floor of the same mall. A good old fashioned, all indoor mall. Right down the highway from the Groton Navy Base.

My job was literally to be jail bait to draw squids in to the shitty small store. Which worked, but it was so bad... At one point they hired an ex-Officer as manager just to offer us some protection. In the meantime we were exposed to a plethora of awful and offensive pick up lines we were not allowed to retaliate to, although all of us were restrained from punching someone at least once.

That sounds like a shitty job, I'm sorry you had to go through that.
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

Tank

Quote from: Gloucester on February 17, 2017, 05:40:33 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2017, 05:20:21 PM
Quote from: Gloucester on February 17, 2017, 05:15:27 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2017, 05:02:52 PM
Draughtsman before Autocad. Real ink pens!
Yeah, remember them, and draugfting tape, tracing paper . . . Cleaning the pens was a bind though,

Then we got a board with a "draughting machine" - wowee!

Enjoyed Autocad though
In the end I moved on and never used Autocad. I did a day release course in electronics and became a lab tech and support engineer on the early Intel microprocessors from the 8086/8088 onwards.
I had to do my own draughting when designing tools and test rigs as a lab tech., just another one of those trades I ended up be a "Jack" of.
I ended up modifying NATO spec drawings for transistor pads. Yes it really was that exciting!
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Dragonia

Quote from: Pasta Chick on February 17, 2017, 04:58:17 PM
My job was literally to be jail bait to draw squids in to the shitty small store. Which worked, but it was so bad... At one point they hired an ex-Officer as manager just to offer us some protection. In the meantime we were exposed to a plethora of awful and offensive pick up lines we were not allowed to retaliate to, although all of us were restrained from punching someone at least once.
This sounds horrendous. I want to do bad, uncomfortable things to guys like this.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~ Plato (?)

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: Pasta Chick on February 17, 2017, 04:58:17 PM
My job was literally to be jail bait to draw squids in to the shitty small store. Which worked, but it was so bad... At one point they hired an ex-Officer as manager just to offer us some protection. In the meantime we were exposed to a plethora of awful and offensive pick up lines we were not allowed to retaliate to, although all of us were restrained from punching someone at least once.

Nobody should be subjected to that kind of crap, especially if not payed very well. 
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey