It’s Summer Get a Job
by Tyler Woods on Jun. 09, 2011, under Life
scriptshadow.blogspot.com
I was driving to my midtown office the other day and there they were kids. Some were riding bikes, many looked to be texting each other from their phone while standing right next to one another, some were listening to music, while others were just standing around staring as you walked by them. I started to break a sweat, and I remembered I am sweating because it is hot, and I am hot because it is summer and that means, kids are out of school and it got me thinking…
Why are so many 17 and 18 year old kids out of school just standing around and staring at adults doing life? Shouldn’t these kids have a summer job? I mean yeah they can stand 5 feet from one another and text to each other back and forth because I am sure their lips or voice box is broken but their fingers and legs work just fine.
When I was a kid, I worked. That is what we did in the early 70s when summer came. We all found jobs in the summer. We had no need to text our friends standing right next to us, well we didn’t have the capability. But we used our brains because we wanted to explore the possibilities of doing something with our lives. Our parents taught us well. They taught us that if we wanted something, we had to work for it. We had to actually get up and move and find a job. Which meant we were allowed to have responsibility. Groovy!
I was thirteen when I got my first job. I was a babysitter Mon-Fri from 8:00am-4:00pm. I worked all summer long. I did not hang out and watch TV or listen to music or zone out. I worked so I could buy my own clothing, and records, or whatever else I wanted. I worked and I was proud.
I cannot say I loved work, but I did indeed like the money it gave me, and I liked the responsibility it taught me. I once worked Jack in the Box and a place called El Taco. I worked both of them. I think the pay was like 2.35, maybe less, I can’t recall but what I knew is that I had two jobs. I did not have to, but my parents taught us kids the ethics of work and want. They supplied us with the basic needs, and if we wanted more, we had to work for it.
I recall as a kid, I wanted to get a job at the big super slide that was located on Alvernoon, There was a fellow that worked there, I believe his name was Larry, and I kept telling him I wanted a job there, and he kept saying I had to be a little older. I think he admired that I wanted to work because he always gave me a hard push down the super slide so I could go faster.
I think that many of us in our 50s and 60s have something that is very precious, we were taught that working was a good thing. That it gave us the skills we need to be adults and make it in the world. I love my memories of my summer jobs. They are memories I hold near and dear to me. I like it when someone asks me what I did for my summer as a kid and I could tell them that in some way shape or form, I always had a job. You just don’t hear it as much these days.
So what did you do in the summer as a kid?
