Skip to main content

Let's go back in time...1973

Bella posted today about her first job, which was in the fast food industry. This has inspired me to post about mine.

I was 17 years old and a junior in high school. I was somewhat active in school activities and had just played the lead role in our junior class play, "Life With Father." But I was tired of not having money and decided to look for a job.

Unlike Bella, my mother didn't coerce me into getting one. In fact she discouraged it.

After looking for quite some time, I finally landed a job. I was going to be the lot boy at the 42 Drive In, located in Brunswick, Ohio. My job was to try to catch people trying to sneak into the theatre and to help clean the lot two days a week.

The pay was a whopping $1.25 an hour. But then again, I got to see some good movies. I also got to see some action going on in the cars-if you know what I mean. Problem was on cold nights, turn signals would be turned on by mistake. You knew what was happening if the windows were fogged up. I could go on but I am still trying to maintain a family friendly blog.

There were some lulls in the action so I would sit in my car and watch the movie. A couple of times I fell asleep.

Cleaning the lot the next day was some disgusting work. Reread two paragraphs above to get some of the gist of one of the items that needed to be removed. Other items were food wrappers, pop cans, beer bottles, half eaten food, and other pieces of refuse. Sometimes we found money there.

The manager of the place was a real piece of work. I was convinced he was someone's funny uncle. He always brought his poodle to work. His poodle's name was "Mouse." He also had a very animated voice. But the thing that endeared me to him the least was his liberal use of the F verb. I almost quit after my first week, but he talked me out of it, telling me that I would hear worse words than the F verb. 35 years later, I still haven't heard one worse.

Anyway, I lasted there for about three months before I decided that enough was enough. I told the boss off, he paid me in full and I went home. My mom told me that I could not use the money I put in savings and I had to find another job.

Side note:I will try to find the yearbook from my junior year and scan the picture from the class play.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Great story! Takes me back when I worked at Marc's. The stories Icould tell.
Stylin said…
This is really neat!I loved reading this post
Bella said…
Good job Cliff! I enjoyed reading this...haha.

At least you got to see some free movies. :)

We have a new drive in here. It was built about 2 years ago and is AWESOME. The kids love it.

I only get to go with the kids though.

:(
Cliff said…
Bella: New drive in, huh? Most of the drive in theatres up here have been closed to make way for other development, such as retail establishments. The 42 Drive in was, the las time I checked an 84 Lumber store.

Well at least the number doubled...
Anonymous said…
WIXY...I had my first job at Wendy's in Massillon. $3.35 an hour! Wooo-hooo! But the take home food that I cooked up was good!

Regarding drive-ins, the one near me on Memphis Avenue closed a year ago. My wife and I loved it. On Saturday and Sunday morning, they had flea markets. Great memories. It's too bad kids today don't experience this kind of Americana.
Pat Jenkins said…
boy i didn't think they had even invented electricity when you were 17... huh...i kid.... my first job involved cleaning trash as well. but in my case that seems to be all i am good at. got to do what you got to do....

Popular posts from this blog

Post 800: Time to chat

Hi Guys, It's hard to believe that this is post number 800 for this blog. I started this blog out of my desire to communicate. Since radio and television is becoming more and more automated and less and less personal, I'm glad I made the decision to go in this direction as it has given me many blessings. When I first decided to write my musings, a friend from the radio and television boards who goes by the name of newsnomore, told me not to be discouraged if I didn't get any readers. The fact that I did in the early going made me surprised and grateful that anyone was enjoying what I wrote. I've had people tell me that maybe it wasn't meant for me to ever be in radio, that maybe my calling was blogging. Nowadays I think blogging makes for better two way conversation than terrestrial radio, especially the way I do it, non confrontational. The closest I come from any confrontation is the innocent digs that Pat and I shoot at each other. On an average day I get betwee...

Why?

What I'm posting now is with the blessing of Chelle. Chelle is the cousin of Suzanne's husband, Richard. I had gotten the impression from both of them that they were about as close as sisters. Suzanne had been a friend of mine since I had discovered one of her blogs in July, 2006. We would make reference to each other on our blogs and would have dialogue via email quite a bit. It was no surprise to me that she was friends to many other bloggers as well. I felt it was quite an honor to be held in as high esteem as I was. We even talked to each other on the phone on occasion. I felt as we had known each other for a long time. I also knew that Suzanne was having some personal problems, much of which had to do with a very troubled marriage. I would let her bounce things off me, and I would send her some encouragement. While she was going through some of her marital problems, she made herself available to give me a lift when I needed it. My son was having some problems of his own a...

Bananas and Sleep Apnea

First thing I want to do is welcome all the good folks from Australia who are checking me out as a result of Google searches. I recently wrote a post on sleep apnea , discussing my history with it and my new CPAP machine. Because of this and the name of my blog, this is the top site google lists when somebody types "bananas sleep apnea" into the search line on Google. All of the sites I have seen, that were not the usual sites that come here, ended in "dot au" which I know as Australia. Normally the only hit from down under is by my good friend David McMahon. The reason for the search is that a research team in Australia has found. as a result of a study, that drinking a banana smoothie may assist in easing conditions that cause sleep apnea. Phospholipids, or fatty acids, in bananas stay active in the mouth for six hours and may keep the throat open, therefore reducing the risk of choking. Further studies will expand to those, like myself, who need a breathing machi...