Bringing Home Your First Paycheck

Do you remember your first paycheck?

When I was a kid I’d earn a quarter here and there from Mrs. McCann, our next door neighbor in Chicago. She was a widow in her 80s, and my dad used to send me over to shovel her walk or water her garden. Sometimes she’d come outside and give me a quarter, which in those days could buy you two packs of baseball cards and five Pixie Stix at White’s Five and Dime.

When I was 13 I got a job at a dog kennel. They boarded up to 400 dogs, and my job wasn’t on the feeding end. I was cleanup. And for that, I got $1.30/hour. I remember that first paycheck, which was so cool. Large format check. Green. My name written in there in script. A real amount. I opened a “passbook savings” account with that money. Saved enough to go to France. (For those of you who never saw a passbook savings book, it looked like a passport, and they used to stamp the date and the amount of money you had in your account. I’m old enough where they used to write in it. Eventually they automated it so that you could get it stamped with the new amount.)

Now my boys have their first real jobs. Sure, Dan’s been working at the ice making place for a couple of years. But the younger guys, Matt and Steve, have started. Matt’s working at the Acme down the street. He’s putting in some long hours, and on the days when he’s not bagging, it’s hot out there collecting carts. But he’s doing it. You should have seen the smile on his face when he got his first paycheck. Serious dough. Steve’s a karate instructor for Master Samane’s Karate Institute, where he’s a second degree black belt at age 14 (he’s that good). Pretty cool. Hist first paycheck last night was north of $175, so he’s doing pretty well.

There’s something really great about kids going out and getting jobs. Sure, we can afford to provide allowances, but when you earn your own money it’s different. You have stature. Dignity. A sense of accomplishment. I love that feeling.

Posted on August 8, 2007
Filed Under Frank's World | Comments

Comments

  • Merci
    I absolutely loved it!
  • Merci, now that's a fun way to spend the summer, even at slave wages. LOL abot the camp shirts and ice cream sandwiches. I just listened to an episode about camp on This American Life a few weeks ago...there was something very cool about it in a way.
  • Merci
    I worked at summer camp during my high school years. They paid slave wages (something like $50 per week). Room and board was included. Room was an open-air cabin with 8 - 10 campers, lots of Daddy Long Legs spiders and the occasional mouse in one room, with no electricity or running water. Board was camp food. 'Nuf said.

    We could sometimes do cool things on our (very limited) time off, like sailing or archery. Pay day was still great, even with the limited wages. Saving was pretty easy, since you could only buy so many camp shirts and ice cream sandwiches.
  • I remember those old passbooks. How I miss them in some ways. I used to spend my pay on records and comic books.
  • Dee, I had to work for a while to get $1.80. ;-) So you remember those passbook savings books? They were too cool at the time.

    Howard, isn't that funny how it changes? I can imagine huge strawberry fields....forever. Good rate...pretty scary that I started working when I'm not 100% certain they had minimum wage. Yikes.
  • Dee
    My first job was at Burger King in Feasterville for $1.80/hr. (minimum wage at the time).

    My pass book savings was at the Bank of Old York Road in Willow Grove. I'm not even sure that bank exists anymore.
  • chris5395
    hi im chris and its pretty funny i was looking at a bk page and i noticed u worked in a bk in feasterville i think that was my brother dan he worked there a while ago lol now i work there now
  • My first savings account was also a passbook account. They even wrote in it by hand when I was a kid. I think they still have those for minors, though I don't know if it's gone all high-tech or not yet.

    My first paying gig was working the Pick-Your-Own strawberry fields for Styer Orchards. It was a pretty expansive set of fields back in those days (late 80s). I think I was making about 3.35 an hour (minimum wage at the time, if I'm not mistaken).

    The fields have since been turned into a few hundred bungalows for the upscale 55+ crowd.
  • Pax, I was a paperboy, too. Do they even have those anymore?

    Jessica, I am happy for them that they're working. I'm prud of them alright! It's great when our guys get working.

    Albert, funny how that worked. Inflation man, that's what 20 some years will do.
  • working for my own spending money was incredibly gratifying. unfortunately, my parents wouldn't let me spend *my* money how i wanted to - to buy more nintendo (8-bit) games. arg. and then there was my older brother who'd dip into my not-so-well-hidden "bank" double arg.

    i think a pack of Topps was $0.25 when i was growing up. oh those $0.75 Upper Deck cards. speaking of... i used to have a bunch of Bonds rookie cards. oh well.
  • Aw, proud papa and paychecks. Sounds like you had some tough first ones.
    My guy just got his first job this year, too. He asks for spending money ever so slightly less. I miss him while he's a work, but I guess he has to grow up a little.
  • Frank, if I had kids, I'd send them out to work also !

    Kidding, good for the boys.

    My first job was as a paperboy for Evening Bulletin (and if that does not date me...)
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