Your first job

Dayton Memories > Your first job

Your first job

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maxed out 194 posts Nov 06, 2010 11:22 AM	I remember baling hay for $1.25 on the farms around Xenia..What a nasty job that was..Then I finally got a job mowing grass at John Bryan State Park for a whopping $1.59 an hour..This was in 1966.I was a rich guy then.
samstone 104 posts Nov 06, 2010 12:37 PM	Dishwasher at Parkmoore in Vandalia 1963. Ontario foods about 1964 or 65.
Keugene48 123 posts Nov 06, 2010 3:32 PM	My first job (besides babysitting) was when I started my junior year at Patterson Co-op in 1965. I worked for a dentist for $1.00 an hour. The dentist had me and my co-worker suctioning patients, mixing fillings and otherwise assisting him for 8 hours a day. At the end of my first week it was by mutual agreement that I not return for a second week. After that I was a trained attendant (nurses aide) at Miami Valley hospital for 2 years. Last Edited by on Nov 06, 2010 3:34 PM
roge 89 posts Nov 06, 2010 4:25 PM	I was washing dishes at the Frisches on Woodman Dr. in Kettering for 75 cents an hour in 66, got busted in the walk in freezer killing a half gallon jug of their cider without paying for it....shame on me
maxed out 195 posts Nov 07, 2010 2:58 AM	Welcome back hunt69, Hope all worked out well for you. Hunt, remember those gas pumps way back that had the little balls that would roll around in a glass bubble when you pumped gas? I remember I would always roll the window down in the car when they pumped gas into Dad's car. Gas smelled so good then.
RCINKY 22 posts Nov 07, 2010 4:27 AM	ROBO Car Wash on Linden and Acorn Press on S. Dixie. Both long gone.
AllenN71 106 posts Nov 07, 2010 11:37 AM	Half a buck an hour in a day and age when gasoline was two dimes a gallon? Lessee.... gasoline here in the DC area is (cheapest) $2.69 right now so I'm guessing Dayton area $2.40. So you kids were making today's equivalent of six bucks an hour, more or less. In candy terms a bottle of corner-store Coke and a candy bar back then you could have treated yourself and nine friends to a nickel coke and a nickel candy bar, with a nickel left over. To do the same thing today you'd need ten bucks. What kind of tips were considered "generous" back then? Nickels? dimes? quarters? I think I may have had a few customers who live in the past!
fishers1951 23 posts Nov 07, 2010 4:30 PM	Me and my girlfriend - two innocent 16 year old girls - both got jobs at the Parkmoor on Salem Ave - we started on the same night. Dont remember if it was the manager or just a male employee who called us into the storage room and proceeded to show us his dirty pictures he had in his wallet!!! We both walked out !! I decided I didnt really need another job for a while... just concentrated on high school and being a teenager!!
AllenN71 109 posts Nov 08, 2010 5:12 PM	Yikes. A hundred twenty-five 1955 dollars in one shift? Huber seeems to be doing fairly well these days, but Wright-Pat is its salvation, I think. Laast I was in town, I was amazed at how well the northeastern suburbs were getting on. Huber, Butler, Vandalia... I wonder why Downtown Dayton is limping while the 'burbs seem to be (comparatively) doing so well. But yes, does seem like the mid-50s and early 60s were another universe. Our generation - quite frankly - has not produced enough kids. We need a second "baby boom" to inject vitality (and a reliable source of cheap labor) into the mix. a c-note and 25 bucks, huh? Some days I barely manage to clear that in 2001 dollars. I may die of nostalgia.
Riverdale Ghost 133 posts Nov 08, 2010 6:18 PM	Allen71 Three of my high school classmates had a total of approximately thirty children. Those are the ones I know about. If the people you know did not produce enough children, you just didn't know the right people. ---------- Honest Communications Is The Foundation of Civilizations.
delcodude 74 posts Nov 14, 2010 7:22 AM	The Buckeye Boiler Co. on E. 1st St. "The Buckeye". I started as a 'waterdog' for $4/hr. I worked there from '79-'85. I worked with some great guys down there. Most notably, Homer Witt, Harvey Taylor, Horace "Hoss" Ward, Butch and Bruce Locke, Steve 'DJ' Roselle, Bill Dillon, Jerry Sanders, Kenny Sipple, Mike Sherman, Walt Shade, Mike Manfreda, the Roberts'(Greg, Joel), the Lowery's(Ron,Tom,Barney).....great times.. Anybody know any of these guys? I know at least two are deceased.
JN 19 posts Nov 14, 2010 10:39 AM	I also worked there, along with Walter North. Bill Dillon worked also at the last place I worked at, which was CVC. Both are gone now.
Lylen 1 post Nov 19, 2010 10:38 AM	H&H Tool & Die in Moraine in 68 then Gold Circle in Centerville off and on from its opening in late 1969 up to 1972.
phil pixley 26 posts Nov 19, 2010 1:48 PM	Shoveling snow around the neigborhood,bag boy at my uncle Bobs store in trotwood,later at Dell&Dottie Owens Market on Cornell.
Relayerr 8 posts Dec 10, 2010 5:29 PM	worked at walahan lumber in the late 70s and beavercreek sunoco in 1980
DebCB 37 posts Dec 13, 2010 11:45 AM	My first job was in 1970 at Arrow Dry Cleaners on Broad St. in Fairborn.
nancy121 16 posts Dec 13, 2010 5:34 PM	I worked at Guild & Landis started in 1962
Dia 2 posts Dec 14, 2010 5:08 AM	Summer of 1966- Talbot Terrace Cafeteria in the basement of the Talbot Towers building downtown - where I showed up weekday morning around 8am to take coffee break and lunch orders phoned in from ppl in the offices on the floors above. I then had to prepare the orders and deliver them on a wheeled cart. I once got a penny tip - I guess I was pretty slow!
supersix 36 posts Dec 14, 2010 6:32 AM	1964 at Gary's Shell Service, Rt. 35 west at Snider Road then co-op my senior year at Trotwood-Madison working at BNT Printing on Siebenthaler.
jakspot@sprynet.com 16 posts Dec 15, 2010 7:58 AM	My first job was in the summer of 1956 when I worked for the County Auditor's office. We all sat at tables facing the wall in the basement hallway of the courthouse and drew diagrams of property for tax purposes. I often wondered how accurate we were. All of us worked just for the summer. ---------- Perlina
Curt Dalton 414 posts Dec 15, 2010 8:26 PM	My first job was at the age of 16. I worked stripping furniture for an antique dealer in New Lebanon. I quit when it got to be winter because I had to strip the furniture in the attic of the shop. No ventilation and the smell pretty much knocked me for a loop. I still wonder if the couple of weeks I did that inside there killed a few of my brain cells. (That's the excuse I use now, of course. It CAN'T be age... ---------- Curt
thomas6 24 posts Dec 15, 2010 10:20 PM	i worked at Everybody's book store on 5th,delivering office prducts like envelopes, receipt pads,pens,pencils everything for the office all over downtown
medvet84 6 posts Dec 16, 2010 1:05 PM	That was me 'Dia', I thought it was a dime, sorry. ekm
BubbaLuv 3 posts Dec 30, 2010 10:22 PM	Not counting delievering the Dayton Daily News as a kid my 1st real job was while going to Stivers-Patterson Co-op in the late 70's, I worked at Sun Crest Pop in Moraine then The Finke Co. and most of my working years was at McCook Bowl.
Keugene48 132 posts Dec 31, 2010 2:35 PM	BubbaLuv, Not by far my first job but I worked at the Finke Co from 1992 until 2000. Jim Finke is still the boss.
AllenN71 139 posts Dec 31, 2010 9:01 PM	I've had quite a few bosses who were "Finke"s.
BubbaLuv 6 posts Feb 23, 2011 12:19 PM	I dont remember the "Jim" Finke but when I was there there was alot of Finkes around lol My supervisor was Paty Weng and the (if I remember right) manager of the warehouse was Bob meeker!? Had a good friend that also worked there from Patterson named Bob who worked on the pharospot side
rodat6 123 posts Feb 23, 2011 4:03 PM	Curt you may have lost some brain cells stripping furniture in an unventilated attic but as per mother nature, she replaces them all using the building block that we ingest in the form of food. I forget what it is but something like when we have traveled 5 orbits around the sun, we have replaced all of our cells in our body. Also growing up parents used to like to say that such and such would kill brain cells and that they were not renewable. This has been proven to not be true, we grow new brain cells on a continuum. Age is something else just ask Jack LaLanne. He was amazing.
SeeDavid 352 posts Feb 23, 2011 11:15 PM	My first job was when I was 14 at Smedley's Chevrolet in Vandalia. My Dad lied on my work permit 6 months before my 15th birthday. I would walk there after school and work from about 3:30 until 10pm Mon - Fri and from Noon til 5 on Saturdays. My Dad would pick me up. I was the receptionist and also bookkeeper and figured out labor hours on the work orders and took money and deposits for new cars and used ones. I loved bookkeeping. I just felt like everyone had jobs after school. I don't think I actually slept until I was about 22. ~ Cindi (HI GUYS!!)
carlatm75 61 posts Feb 24, 2011 4:56 AM	My first job was working in the greenhouse of my family's business, Nelson Bros. Florist in Trotwood. But my first legitimate paying job was when I co-oped in high school. I worked in the Classified Ads Dept. at the Dayton Daily News at 4th and Ludlow 1973 - 1976. There was so much to do downtown then and lots of colorful characters.
JBlair 27 posts Feb 26, 2011 2:18 PM	Other than lots of babysitting for many years, my first job was a summer gig already very much up my proverbial alley. I worked for a market research firm when I was 16 (1962), standing near the entrance to the downtown arcade on the Ludlow Street side where there was a grocery store. I held an automatic counter and entered only the people who came on into the arcade and didn't just shop at the grocery and walk back out. It grew terribly boring even though I've always loved to people-watch. So I read, holding a book at such an angle that I could see anyone coming into view. My first permanent job was as a waitress at the Frisch's on Woodman Dr., in 1963. I made $.65 per hour and averaged $5.00 a day in tips. I worked not all of that summer but learned a boatload, for many reasons. I've sinced felt--because of the experiences of others which are similar to mine--that everyone should work food service for a while, most of all while we're young. There's nothing like waiting on demanding customers--while working for a manager with no education to do anything else--to welcome a self-involved teenager to a world not of their own making. Last Edited by on Feb 26, 2011 2:26 PM
fairmontchick 16 posts Feb 26, 2011 7:05 PM	I worked at Jung's Donut Shop on Dorothy Lane in Kettering. I was only 15 and didn't make too much, but it was a job, and i got free donuts!
F16 1UB 5 posts Feb 28, 2011 12:28 PM	I was 11 and delivered the Dayton Daily News to customers on Terrylyn & Finland in Huber South. Had 42 dailys and 45 Sunday customers. 7 day delivery was a whopping 62 cents. I thought it was great when they'd give me $.75 and then news boys day.... a dollar. Woo Hoo
BubbaLuv 23 posts Mar 01, 2011 9:02 AM	Yup F16 I delivered the paper also and yes I loved paper boys day my problem was I delivered the UD Ghetto back before it was called that lol although they didnt tip well I did learn alot of things prob some things I shouldnt have back then hehehehe
jfox68 9 posts Mar 01, 2011 9:47 AM	I had a Crossroads Chronicle paper route in Vandalia when I was in the 7th grade. I hated it in the winter time. My 1st real job was as a gas station attendant at Estill's Sohio on the south east corner of I-75 and 40. That was back when we still washed windshields and checked oil. That was a fun job because there were always people stopping in the talk. The city also contracted with us so I knew all the policemen. That came in handy a few times during my teen age years.
delcodude 101 posts Mar 01, 2011 10:32 PM	I delivered the Journal. I had 45-50 customers on Hedges, Harbine, and Third Sts. in the east end, '72-'75. A kid sees alot of things at 3:30am over a period of years....but nothing like today. I remember catching two guys breaking in a house on Sperling once, then getting about two blocks away and yelling back at them to 'get outta there', only to have them get in their car, chase me down, and beat me up...oops
AllenN71 164 posts Mar 02, 2011 3:47 PM	Jfox, we used to call the Crossroads Chronicle the "Crosseyed Critical" since it gave Huber Heights such short shrift. And what is it about the title "Crossroads of America" that so many cities and towns in the Midwest claim it? Vandalia has done so, Dayton has done so. Both would get a lot of argument from Indianapolis and St. Louis. On their website, the City of Huber Heights claims the current title since they are (according to them) the last stop for gas before Indianapolis. Well. After 58 years of living on this planet, it is my condidered opinion that the Greater Dayton Area (including Vandalia and Huber) is and has been the "Crossroads of America" since the turn of the last century. In my opinion, Indy and St.Louis were places the Conestogas passed through, stopping there for supplies. Supplies made in and shipped from here. The Miami Valley is the true "crossroads of America" and that includes all parts of the Dayton Metropolitan region. Without Dayton, the rest of the United States would never have been settled. If I had known all this when I was 16, I'd have been a better bag-boy at the Huber Goldman's (just to get things back on topic) :)
cilla46 34 posts Mar 05, 2011 7:34 PM	In 1964 I got my first real job working at Rike's department store downtown.Seventh floor,marking department.I spent eight hours a day standing in front of a pin machine.Back then all those little paper price tags with the straight pins holding them to the merchandise were done one at a time.It was tedious and boring.I made a whopping $1.25 an hour! I did enjoy the discounted food in the employee dining room at lunch!We got to buy anything from the "real" dining room at half price.
KB1967 11 posts Jan 14, 2013 9:39 PM	My first job in Dayton was at Greene & Ladd located in the Third National Bank Bldg. It was quite an experience working for a brokerage house in the mid 60's. Lived at the Loretto and loved every minute of this fast paced job. Many great memories of very special people in my life.
Lionpainter2013 1 post Feb 11, 2013 7:25 PM	Babysitting, then entertainment biz. Last Edited by Lionpainter2013 on Feb 12, 2013 5:36 AM
dhoertt 17 posts Feb 12, 2013 1:31 PM	Stockstill's Pharmacy...Wyoming and Illinois...Pharmacist was old man Harley Hamilton Stockstill....every two hours he toddled over to Carl's Tavern for a dime beer and a shot of Kessler's...paid me 40 cents an hour to straighten the magazine rack and tend to the soda fountain...made nectar phosphates...finally got a raise to 45 cents per hour...this was 1959.
blue J 71 posts Feb 12, 2013 1:56 PM	My first job was as a dishwasher at the Oakwood Club, summer of 1989. I worked from about 5:00 or 5:30 PM until after the bar closed (which, of course, was after the kitchen closed, too). Typically I was there until about 2:30-3:00 AM. This was only in the summer, as I was 16 years old. I had long hair that I had to keep tied up in the back, and it was about 120 degrees in the kitchen- the dishwasher water was 170 degrees, and we didn't use any gloves- I still remember how much that heat stung! Minimum wage was $3.25 at the time, and I was making $3.75, and under the table at that. I also got to eat their food on my break every night, for free. I felt like a king! I'd go home, stay up until dawn, sleep until 2:00 PM, and go back the next night and do it all over again.
Hops06GT 1 post Feb 12, 2013 2:54 PM	Delivered DDN in Old N.Dayton,real job came with International Tool Co.on Smithville rd.
JJCofMAINE 15 posts Feb 18, 2013 1:06 PM	In 1959, age 16, started working at Dunhill's Mens Clothing Store, 4th and Ludlow. Pay was $1/hr, + 2% commission. Worked on the 1st floor for about a year, selling dress shirts, ties, and other "furnishings". Then, moved to second floor, sportswear - sport coats, pants, sweaters, etc. There were larger sales-per-transaction, due to the prices of merchandise. I loved working there, but needed to move on to something more stable. I actually worked there after I graduated from Chaminade (1961), continuing to work part-time after I got a job in the "data processing" dept (I.T., or M.I.S. in today's terms) across the street from Dunhill's, at E.M. MacDonald. At EFM, I jumped up to starting pay of $1.65/hr for 40-hr shift. Last Edited by JJCofMAINE on Feb 18, 2013 1:10 PM
miiames 15 posts Feb 18, 2013 4:55 PM	Started with delivery The Journal Herald in the very early morning hours. At Patterson Co-op, in 1965 while in my Junior year got a job as Mechanic helper at Rubicon Cadillac when it was on Oakwoood Ave also known as Brown St. Last Edited by miiames on Feb 18, 2013 7:34 PM
tlturbo 474 posts Feb 18, 2013 5:34 PM	JJCofMAINE - When were you in the IT Dept of EF McDonald? I was a programmer there from July 68 to July 71. If I remember right, Dunhills was on the same side of the street as EFM but closer to 4th st. I remember buying a nice fur lined long winter coat there. ---------- 87 Buick GN
JJCofMAINE 17 posts Feb 19, 2013 6:25 AM	TlTurbo. I was at EFM from May of '62 until Oct., '65. Originally, Dunhill's was on the opposit side of the street from EFM (that would have put them at the SE corner of 4th and Ludlow), in what used to be the Keith Theater Building. It was torn down mid-to-late 60's, and Dunhill's then moved across the street (SW corner). I never worked at the newer site, but did shop there occasionally. I seem to remember chatting with you on this site some months back, specifically about our EFM-pasts. Nice to hear form you again.
Rucky#1 3 posts Feb 20, 2013 9:38 AM	First job,Delivered Jornal Herald,Wayne/Wyoming area While a 3rd grade student at Patterson Elem.On Wyoming St.
Cross 17 posts Mar 29, 2013 3:44 PM	My first job was a DDN paperboy. My route which I built to over 230 customers, 2nd largest route of DNN was at Cornell Woods Apts. For several months one of my customers was Ronald McDonald and his wife. I don't remember which Ronald it was and their were several different people who played the part. He was very young man then. My first hourly job was Anticolli's Restaurant on Salem Ave as a dishwasher at age 15. To wash the pots we used lye soap that was home made in those old days. Hard work, red hands and a little cash was the reward.
Tadman1 2 posts Apr 01, 2013 11:14 AM	First job was at Kesson's Grocery Store corner of Wyoming and Phillips. Made $.85 an hour. Carried groceries , stocked shelves, and on Saturday afternoon, cleaned the meat area, including saws, meathooks and walkin cooler. Salted and wire brushed butcher block, and final of the day was putting canvas tarps over the fresh vegetables, because we cooled the vegetables with ice blocks. Began in 56 or 57. Worked 3 to 7 on Friday evening, and 8 hours on Saturday.

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