Funny/Weird "part time jobs" as a young adult or while in school

[BringBackFergy]

Was just reminded of these various jobs I had as a youngster...some funny, some weird:

 

1) I turned 16 yrs old and looked in the Pennysaver.  The Springbrook Hotel was in need of a bartender. Yes, I was 16, but they didn't care. It was kind of a dive bar at the time (earlier years it had decent fish fry). I started out and worked with the older bartender...then I was on my own one night.  Most guys would order 12 ounce Genny Cream drafts or simple drinks like that.  One night the tenant who lived upstairs was so drunk I had to help him upstairs. I'm pretty sure the other guys at the bar helped themselves to draft beers and shots while I was away from the bar.

 

2) In graduate school I had THREE weird jobs:

   

a) Ice Cream Truck driver - through one of the worst sections of the city where I was in school...I lasted three days.

b) Ballroom Dancing Studio - Telemarketing - I had to call people at night and offer them free dance lessons.  I felt worthless.  I think I converted maybe 1 or 2 households (scheduled them for free lessons) over two months.

c) Last job was at a private country club.  The guy I worked for was Lebanese.  He was miserable to me.  I was table prep and bussed tables.  I also had to assist the host with the table side Caesar salad (prep the cart with all the ingredients) so I learned how to make a real Caesar salad from that experience.  The members were complete asshats.

 

Anyone have any funny or interesting part time jobs you remember? 

 

[SDS]

Strawberry picker. $.25 a quart.

[Joe Ferguson forever]

Ice cream maker at my uncles dairy.   Cut lawns for them too. Anybody ever go to Lombardi's before it closed?

In college, I exchanged peoples linens for the linen service.  YUCK!!

Dishwasher at Holiday Inn in NF.  Damn hard work.  Made some money betting with my aunt every week on Bills games.  She took whoever I didn't want.

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by redtail hawk

[Guffalo]

Summers in high school in college I worked at the local graveyard, mostly cutting lawns and gardening, but early season we would also have to dig foundations for gravestones, 2 foot by 3-5 foot per footing, 3 feet deep. I also had to dig graves for infants and kids since it was too small for the backhoe. 

[Joe Ferguson forever]

19 minutes ago, BringBackFergy said:

Was just reminded of these various jobs I had as a youngster...some funny, some weird:

 

1) I turned 16 yrs old and looked in the Pennysaver.  The Springbrook Hotel was in need of a bartender. Yes, I was 16, but they didn't care. It was kind of a dive bar at the time (earlier years it had decent fish fry). I started out and worked with the older bartender...then I was on my own one night.  Most guys would order 12 ounce Genny Cream drafts or simple drinks like that.  One night the tenant who lived upstairs was so drunk I had to help him upstairs. I'm pretty sure the other guys at the bar helped themselves to draft beers and shots while I was away from the bar.

 

2) In graduate school I had THREE weird jobs:

   

a) Ice Cream Truck driver - through one of the worst sections of the city where I was in school...I lasted three days.

b) Ballroom Dancing Studio - Telemarketing - I had to call people at night and offer them free dance lessons.  I felt worthless.  I think I converted maybe 1 or 2 households (scheduled them for free lessons) over two months.

c) Last job was at a private country club.  The guy I worked for was Lebanese.  He was miserable to me.  I was table prep and bussed tables.  I also had to assist the host with the table side Caesar salad (prep the cart with all the ingredients) so I learned how to make a real Caesar salad from that experience.  The members were complete asshats.

 

Anyone have any funny or interesting part time jobs you remember? 

 

too bad you didn't sell more people on dancing.  When my nephews were in high school, I pleaded with them to learn to dance.  I learned too late that there are always way more females than males at almost any dance and they're just waiting to be asked.  They didn't listen.  Dummies.

[teef]

let's see...

 

i worked as a gas station attendant, i detailed cars for enterprise, i ran a heat press one summer, i oversaw a operation where the employees stuffed envelopes for credit card adds, and i worked at oak hill cc cleaning golf clubs and doing B word work for the members.  

 

edit: @redtail hawk helped me remember, i was also the summer manager and made ice cream/donuts at a shop some family members owned, (it was buckmans ice cream in greece for anyone from the area).

Edited September 28, 2022 by teef

[BringBackFergy]

34 minutes ago, SDS said:

Strawberry picker. $.25 a quart.

Similar - in my 13-14 yr old range, I worked at a lettuce farm and used a little triangle tool to thin out lettuce plants every 7”. Pretty sure it was $1.50/hr. I was let go when I complained about the bad pay. 

[Nextmanup]

I enjoyed the Springbrook Hotel bartender story, especially as you were a 16 year old.

 

BBF:  What did you study at graduate school?  Just curious.

 

 

 

[Joe Ferguson forever]

Forgot sandblasting and painting big chemical tanks with "lunch" on the docks of the upper Niagara with the crew.  Superfund clean up in Oswego living in rented trailers.  Both were actually really fun and great memories.

[Johnny Hammersticks]

In middle school I had a paper route.  Interestingly, my first day was during that huge snow storm in 1993.

 

When I turned 14 I got a job washing dishes at a local restaurant.  Fell in love with the restaurant biz…learned how to cook on the line, wait tables, and bartend.  Worked at the same restaurant throughout HS (Balloons Rest in Auburn, NY) and during summers in college.

 

A couple consecutive summers I got a job at the West Chop Club in Martha’s Vineyard.  My friend was the executive chef there, so he got me a job as the “beach guard.”  The club owned a section of beach and only members were allowed.  I sat there all day and when a car pulled in I just had to check that they had the club sticker on their vehicle.  I think maybe 10-15 cars came each summer.  I just sat on the beach, fished, swam, and smoked weed.  It was great.  In the evening I would bartend or wait tables in the restaurant.  I have some very interesting celebrity stories.

Edited September 30, 2022 by Johnny Hammersticks

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

I was driving Coca Cola trucks at 16

in Rochester at Anderson Beverage w/o having driven before.  
 

 

The boss said go bring in a truck 

🛻

I was about to say I don’t have a.. 

 

BRING IN A  TRUCK NOW!!!

Edited September 30, 2022 by SlimShady'sSpaceForce

[WhoTom]

My career path:

 

Farm hand

Snow shoveler (paid)

Penny Saver carrier

Loading dock worker

Dishwasher

McDonald's crew person and then shift manager

Quality control inspector

Assistant manager of a bar

Parks department foreman

Teaching assistant (as a grad student)

Design engineer (1st job out of college)

Professor

Textbook reviewer (side gig)

Freelance technical writer/editor (current gig)

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by WhoTom

[WhoTom]

11 minutes ago, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

I was driving Coca Cola trucks at 16 in Rochester at Anderson Beverage w/o haven driven before.  The boss said go bring in a truck 

🛻

I was about to say I don’t have a.. 

 

BRING IN A  TRUCK NOW!!!

 

Man, those Coke distributors are tough to work for.

 

"You know the pay was pathetic.

It's a shame those boys couldn't be more copacetic."

 

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by WhoTom

[DrW]

Department store clerk

Between high school and army I had 6 weeks time. 4 of these weeks I worked in the largest department store in Hanover (Germany) as "Verkaeuferin" which is the word for female sales clerk (I am male; this was in the mid-1970s where they still were allowed to pay women less than men). I was put into the photography department.

As I did not have any sales experience, they did not let me sell cameras, but I was part of the team responsible for making photocopies and selling the low-end stuff. Among other things, we were selling picture frames. I vividly remember how sometimes people came with very wrinkled photographs and were disappointed that the wrinkles did not disappear just by putting the pic in a frame. Another item we sold were sunglasses which were a favorite target for thieves. The best time for sunglass theft (seen from the point of view of the thief) was the last half hour before closing time. Most sales staff would tend to look away when they spotted a thief during that time, to avoid the lengthy procedure to formally deal with the theft; they just wanted to get home.

 

[Augie]

1 hour ago, redtail hawk said:

Forgot sandblasting and painting big chemical tanks with "lunch" on the docks of the upper Niagara with the crew.  Superfund clean up in Oswego living in rented trailers.  Both were actually really fun and great memories.

 

One of my friend’s first job out of college was working Public Relations for the Love Canal. Hey, good luck with that! 

 

When I was 14 I got my NY working papers, or whatever they called them. I’d work all summer at an apartment complex mostly doing landscaping…..except for garbage day.

 

All the trash stored up in the basements of the garden apartments had to come out to get picked up. We are talking week old garbage full of dirty diapers and week old fish that would gag a maggot. It would drip thru the bags and down your legs when you carried it out. 

 

I’ve had good jobs and bad, but if I’m having a bad day I just look back to garbage days. It makes me feel better about what seems like a problem in the moment. 

 

 

.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Augie

[US Egg]

Was sort of the main daytime building/maintenance man for a 12 apt. bldg. ages 19/20.

 

[Augie]

In college I worked as a sorter for UPS part time during the holidays. It was either 11PM to 3AM, or 3AM to 7AM. And it would change all the time. Somehow my young body survived all that. 

 

We also did polling over the phone for the “Cincinnati Voter Opinion Poll”, a/k/a the AFL/CIO wanted to know what you thought. The current me would shoot the former me. 

 

I was also recruited by friends to work at a mostly college bar checking ID’s at the door. This was before I learned the old “if you were born before this date” trick. It kinda happened on the fly, and I was just paid in drinks….to do math every time someone walked in the crowded bar past me at the door. I’m sure I got a few right, but it’s curious that I don’t remember ever turning anyone away.  🤷‍♂️

[Another Fan]

My 1st job I had when I finished college in my early 20s was as an office manager for an HVAC company.  It started out full-time in an office but it shifted to part-time at the owners home...  which was part of an animal farm.  This was around 2008ish when Wall Street collapsed and it effected the business and my boss could no longer afford the mortgage on the farm so he moved all the offices there.

 

 

In the meantime my boss just got married so he lived with his new wife at her place.  He rented out his house to his cousin and her son.   Her son was a juvenile delinquent.  

 

So yeah in the meantime, I had these new tasks assigned to me:

 

Take care of and feed his dog

Feed the cat...  who one day just disappeared 

Feed his fish

Take care of his sheep if need be.  Which leads to a story of chasing after a few of the them one day when his fence broke and some were threatening to escape

 

All the while sharing the "office/house" with a juvenile delinquent.  The first time we got introduced he showed me a warrant for his arrest.  Lots of his colorful friends came through 'the office".  As did some interesting chicks he chased to say the least.  But we got along.  We even shot games of pool in my lunch hour and when the owner wasn't looking lol.  Sometimes for money.

 

 

 

I'd add his "office/home" didn't have heat in the winter.  It was on a hill too and more than once I fell walking to the mailbox.  I got stuck driving my car on his driveway more than once as it was a sheet of ice.

 

 

All in all it was actually a fun job though.  But it became a part time so I couldn't sustain myself on it 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Another Fan

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

2 hours ago, WhoTom said:

 

Man, those Coke distributors are tough to work for.

 

"You know the pay was pathetic.

It's a shame those boys couldn't be more copacetic."

 

 

lets say that I wasn’t kind on the clutches and there may or may not have been scratched paint and dents on other cars and trucks 

 

Tow Motors on coke slick pavement was also fun.  
 

crashing into a 15 foot stack of empty bottles made a huge mess.  

[Johnnycage46]

Not my weird job, but my father's current retirement job, in addition to mowing the cemetery lawn for the local church, is basically preparing gravesites and doing burials at said cemetery.  He has some summer help (18 year old kids) and he still works circles around them at 75.

 

I guess it has to get done but we always tease him that it's a little bit of a weird job.

[billsfanmiamioh]

4 hours ago, Guffalo said:

Summers in high school in college I worked at the local graveyard, mostly cutting lawns and gardening, but early season we would also have to dig foundations for gravestones, 2 foot by 3-5 foot per footing, 3 feet deep. I also had to dig graves for infants and kids since it was too small for the backhoe. 

 

16 minutes ago, Johnnycage46 said:

Not my weird job, but my father's current retirement job, in addition to mowing the cemetery lawn for the local church, is basically preparing gravesites and doing burials at said cemetery.  He has some summer help (18 year old kids) and he still works circles around them at 75.

 

I guess it has to get done but we always tease him that it's a little bit of a weird job.

I did the same for a couple summers 

[EmotionallyUnstable]

I’ve had a ton of random jobs, along with steady work while a late teen. By far my weirdest or most unusual was Drive-in Movie parking lot attendant. 
 

I was the guy who handed out the ropes and asks the SUVS to tie down their hatch so the people behind them can see. 

 

I liked it, because it was really only a few hours of work before the movie, and then mostly monitoring the parking areas and such throughout the night. Plus I got to see a lot of cool movies (in part) and would get comped some snacks on occasion. 

[Just Jack]

High school (14-15 years old) I worked for an engineering company that would design how the stop lights and timing would be done at intersections.  At first, I was just office cleaning, but during the summer they would have me help out doing other things like getting orders together and putting together parts.  I was even given a few old stoplights that had been replaced with newer ones.  Wish I still had them.  

 

A couple summers during college, I worked for a seed company, Northrup King, where I would go around to the retail locations (grocery, department, hardware) that sold the product, make a final inventory of the remaining seed packets, then box them and the display up to be sent back to the company.  I was given a rental cargo van, weekly per diem, etc.  This was before cell phones were prevalent, so each day you would find a pay phone- and call-in what stores you did, their final counts, and if you had a shipment going back, what trucking company you used. We got to keep what little per diem we did not use, so I'd keep a cooler in my van and just buy food for my meals, instead of going to restaurants.  Sleeping in rest areas along the highway, or sometimes sneak into campgrounds late at night, grab a quick shower in the morning, then leave. 

 

 

[Just Jack]

Another summer in college, I worked in a papermill.  Started out in Maintenace as a painter, but they needed help on one of the machines called a rewinder.  Working there was shift work with more pay, so I took it. A rewinder is just what it sounds like.  We'd take the large rolls of paper, put them on the machine and look for defects to be cut out, then splice the roll back together.  I was a helper, not the operator, so my job was going to pick the rolls from the warehouse to be done, once they went through the machine, take the roll over to the wrapping station, then put it on a pallet and back to the warehouse.  Plus, the rewinder I was on, was the only one in an air-conditioned part of the building (other than offices) because we were doing specialty paper.  It's also the job where I got certified for forklift, scissors lift, and boom lift.  I managed to get the forklift up on two wheels going around a corner my first day.  While the operator was checking a roll, he told me to go get one of the junk rolls and just practice driving around with it.  Well, as I kept practicing, I started going faster and faster.  Eventually I was going around a corner, and once the forklift straightened back out, I felt the wheels on one side hit the concrete.  Luckily it was 3rd shift (overnights) so there wasn't anyone around that saw it.  

[Joe Ferguson forever]

Hate the some here were treated badly at country clubs.  Only in later life was I ever a member.  Lots of our work force here are retired folks who are also members.  Give them sh!t and your requested tee time will always be full.  be decent humans and they'll do anything for you.

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by redtail hawk

[BringBackFergy]

18 minutes ago, Just Jack said:

Another summer in college, I worked in a papermill.  Started out in Maintenace as a painter, but they needed help on one of the machines called a rewinder.  Working there was shift work with more pay, so I took it. A rewinder is just what it sounds like.  We'd take the large rolls of paper, put them on the machine and look for defects to be cut out, then splice the roll back together.  I was a helper, not the operator, so my job was going to pick the rolls from the warehouse to be done, once they went through the machine, take the roll over to the wrapping station, then put it on a pallet and back to the warehouse.  Plus, the rewinder I was on, was the only one in an air-conditioned part of the building (other than offices) because we were doing specialty paper.  It's also the job where I got certified for forklift, scissors lift, and boom lift.  I managed to get the forklift up on two wheels going around a corner my first day.  While the operator was checking a roll, he told me to go get one of the junk rolls and just practice driving around with it.  Well, as I kept practicing, I started going faster and faster.  Eventually I was going around a corner, and once the forklift straightened back out, I felt the wheels on one side hit the concrete.  Luckily it was 3rd shift (overnights) so there wasn't anyone around that saw it.  

 

[Just Jack]

19 minutes ago, BringBackFergy said:

 

 

Thankfully I never did that, but I did have a pallet of toilets break when I was putting it away.  Working at a store similar to Home Depot called Builders Square, KMarts attempt to get into that sector of retail.  Going to put a pallet of toilets up on the rack (the lift I was using did look like the one in the video) as the forks got up past my eye level, I saw the pallet did not look very safe, so I started lowering it back down.  Once it got about 2-3 feet off the ground, the boards broke, dropping all these toilets on the concrete floor.  Had to open every box and inspect them to see which might have survived the short fall.  

[LeviF]

Worked at the local golf club starting at 14. Started out fetching member's bags, cleaning out carts, flirting with the girls who worked at the restaurant, morning prep for big tournaments, etc. Eventually did pretty much everything with a new title "Assistant to the Pro" including re-gripping golf clubs, giving kids lessons, closing the shop for the day, tournament administration. I was a steal at $8 an hour plus tips.

 

Counted furniture pieces hourly in the college union. No, I'm not kidding.

 

Tended bar at a place where I was told by the owner "if the drink has more than two ingredients tell them to order something else." Real dive, that place.

 

Steam cleaned carpets. Think Stanley Steemer style but a local outfit. 

 

Not really funny or weird but I also worked part time at Macy's selling cookware and other kitchen stuff and basically just worked a register and flirted with middle aged women. Hide yo wife!

[Gugny]

I was giving this some thought and realized that I have never had a part-time job.  But this is definitely my most unique summer job.  At 15, I got a job working in/on Lake George helping the owner operate his "Wonder Wheels," water activity.

 

He had seven of these water wheels (similar picture below; same thing, just different colors) that we would inflate every morning right next to the lake, smack dab in the middle of the village.

 

Then I would take one out onto the lake to try to get people's attention/rent one.  I think we rented them out for 20-30 minutes at a time.  I would have the customer sign a waiver, give some quick instructions and send them on their way.

 

We had to patch them up when they had leaks, as well.

 

I made $5/hour, under the table.  This was a one-summer gig.

 

[Draconator]

Delivered roses for a guy who ran a shop out of his home garage only around Valentines Day. Was actually quite busy. 

Try to sell pay phones for a high school friend who started his own business.

The old Lancaster Nursery, where the weird part about this was the owner gave 3 minutes for lunch over an 8 hour shift. If you were late, he would scream his head off an alter my time cards to the temp agency docking me for the late arrival. I told the temp agency who then told the NYS Labor Board. He retired soon after. 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Draconator

[BillsPride12]

 

[Just Jack]

11 hours ago, LeviF said:

Counted furniture pieces hourly in the college union. No, I'm not kidding.

 

I want to hear more about this, why they needed someone to count furniture every hour.  Were students stealing it? 

[PastaJoe]

Home from college for the summer I worked as a Pinkerton security guard. Had to wear the whole uniform including a badge and hat. But they didn’t have pants long enough so mine were 2 inches too short. My mom let out the cuffs but they still looked bad. Assignments included crowd control at outdoor concerts to sitting in my dad’s car guarding an abandoned building all night so it wasn’t vandalized.

 

Another summer I was a security guard at Magnavox covering 3 buildings from 10pm to 8am four times a week. I had to carry a clock with me, and at various stations throughout the buildings there were keys I’d turn in the clock to record that I was there to prove I was patrolling. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

42 minutes ago, PastaJoe said:

Another summer I was a security guard at Magnavox covering 3 buildings from 10pm to 8am four times a week. I had to carry a clock with me, and at various stations throughout the buildings there were keys I’d turn in the clock to record that I was there to prove I was patrolling. 

One of my former employers had this system; the contracted security firm's guards were tasked with this, as well as letting workers into the stockroom on 'off shift' periods.  Words of advice:  NEVER give this responsibility to an OCD pensioner. 😁

[LeviF]

12 hours ago, Just Jack said:

 

I want to hear more about this, why they needed someone to count furniture every hour.  Were students stealing it? 

Yeah essentially that was the reason. I also counted people but that was to see which rooms were being used when 

[ExiledInIllinois]

On 9/28/2022 at 10:18 PM, BringBackFergy said:

 

We'll get somebody to clean that up... We're the ones that gotta clean that up!

 

Anyway... I'd say lock & dam operator... It's so weird and part time that I am doing it right now. 😏 

[Bob Lamb]

Too many jobs to remember - but the first

 

High school book store - selling pencils etc.

 

After school - 12 Corners Plaza in Brighton - washing all the windows - end to end - and then again - a never ending job but a lot of perks!  85 cents/hour

[Marv's Neighbor]

Not especially weird but, Worked as a Toll Collector at the Peace Bridge, 2 summers.  Toll was 25 cents.  Had to separate US from Canadian quarters, and roll them too.

 

That was back when the Hunt Bros. were "trying to corner" the silver market.  Some US quarters were still silver, but the Canadian coins were mostly all still silver.  Some of the "old" guys used to take the silver quarters out of the rolls and replace them with the composite coins.  I was young & poor, going to college and couldn't afford to do that but I often wondered if they made anything, in doing that?

 

There used to be quite a rush when people were trying to make it to Ft Erie race track, for the start of the races.

[Punching Bag]

 

A friend of mine used to bring to dishes to work from his family's restaurant to share and it was wonderful.

One day he brought some in and I asked if they got a new cook and he said no it was the holy month and his uncle's cooking declines because he cannot test when cooking since he is fasting (what a terrible job - cooking while required to fast).

I told him that is okay for at end of month he will know he needs to add more garlic with this dish.

He said he had a great idea and could I go to his family's restaurant after work.

I said sure. I'd like to thank your uncle for the great food you bring to work.

He introduced me to his uncle and told his uncle he had an idea on helping him with his cooking.

He told him I am very familiar with what dishes normally taste like so he will taste them for you before you send to restaurant.

He said he'd try because he was tired of complaints for he was using same recipes but not adjusting it by taste each time.

He would give me a sample of a dish and I would tell him what I think based on what it tasted like before and I would give comments "More salt. More garlic. Cook a little longer." etc.

His customers were happy again and so for the rest of the holy month I did testing for him.

He would offer me a takeout dinner each night but from all of the sampling I never ate it to next day.

 

So I had a "job" as food taster for a few weeks.

[BuffaloBud]

Cleaned machining centers (sweeping up chips / wiping off machines) at local machine shop

Handyman assistant - installed aluminum siding, took down and installed new shingles, pointed brickwork

"Engineering assistant" - installed strain gages on machine, wrote CNC programs, made changes on drawings (actual drawings,not CAD), ran durability tests on equipment