I got my first job when I was 14 years old. That summer and then after school for a while, I worked at Bud Reichenbach's truck farm about a mile down the road from my house. The Reihenbach family was large (as were most farm families back then) and I think they had 12 kids. All of them, boys and girls, worked picking vegetables every day. I think my brother Joe and one of his friends worked there, too, along with some Mexican field hands who lived in New Haven.
Any of the work was physically hard, with no shade and the hot afternoon sun in July and August, but as I recall, picking mustard greens was the worst. The oil from the mustard greens would get on your arms and burn like fire!
I became friends with one of the younger Mexicans, Armando, who taught me the ins and outs of knife fighting. He was a nice guy, but I heard that later he was arrested and convicted of murder after a fight over a girl.
I believe I got paid 85 cents an hour (it's hard to remember all the details from something that happened 45 years ago). But, I do remember what I did with my pay. It sounds silly now, but I always thought that anybody who had more than one pair of shoes must be rich so, as soon as I had enough money saved, I bought two pairs of shoes on the same day. One regular pair dress shoes for school (no tennis shoes allowed back then) and one pair of Beatle boots.
I was a pretty naive kid...
Must be a family thing. When I got my first real job (about the same age but I was paid a bit more) as a shipping and receiving clerk of a hotel restaurant I bought two new suits. Seemed like every suit I had when I was a kid used to be somebody else's and I wanted one that was mine.
ReplyDeleteWhat are Beatle boots?
Beatle boots were popularized by (who else) the Beatles. They were black leather, had a pointy toes, high heels and came tight over your ankles. You had a side zipper to get them on
ReplyDeleteI desperately wanted to be cool, you see!
Good story, Dad. I remember hearing about the shoes but did not know how what you did to pay for them.
ReplyDeleteI cannot recall what I spent my first few paychecks on. I never wanted for much as a kid (had suites and shoes, you know.) Come to think of it, I still don’t want many things. I doubtless spent my money going places and taking girls out.
I always thought that anyone who had two girls must be rich, so...