My First Real Job: a Practice Try at Life
Posted: Friday, November 25, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
When I was fourteen I got a job at the new automatic car wash up town on the highway. I’d hang around the end of the tunnel, where the vehicles went through the spray and brush machines. When they came out, a bunch of other young guys and I would wipe them dry with the special rags they gave us. I got $0.85 and hour plus tips. All I really had to do was show up. I had no responsibility. I was just a member of an immature labor gang, with a sixteen year old ‘foreman.’ He was ‘foreman’ only because he had his driver’s license, and he liked to bully us. I only worked a couple of days a week for maybe half a year. My parents made me quit when I got mid-term warnings in French and Algebra even though it was a girl, not the job that was affecting my school work.
Our Boy Scout Troop was large. There were about twenty young kids and a dozen of us who were fourteen or fifteen. We were getting sort of bored with the knot tying, first aid and cooking classes, so the leaders decided to start an Explorer Post service group to try to keep us interested. Explorer meetings and activities were run by parliamentary procedures, as opposed to the pretty much totalitarian rule of a scoutmaster. I was surprised when, at the first organizational meeting, the guys nominated me for president. I was sure I had no chance of winning; but I did.
When the election results were tallied, I was stunned. So was the guy who had been our junior leader for over a year; as was his group of buddies. He got a cry-face then turned red. He threw down his gavel and said, “You’re the president now. Take over the meeting, then,” and left the podium and sat down. The Post Adviser (not Master), made him continue in his position until a transition could be effected.
At first I was self conscious and timid in my position. I knew I had a division in the group. I didn’t like the fact that people were mad at me for something that was out of my control. I got an idea for a project that we could focus on. There was a National Boy Scout Jamboree in Idaho in July of 1969, eighteen months from them. “Let’s go,” I suggested. It became our unifying goal and drove us to achieve things none of us could imagine. It forced us to learn things and to ‘grow up’ in ways that made us all better men.
We learned about money. We needed to earn about $250 a month for a year and a half to pay for the three week trip. We formed fund raising committees and took on a half a dozen projects. The organization of the Explores was such that the adults stepped back and let the boys (the young men), figure things out for themselves. Leaders interjected recommendations and pointed out things that we were over looking and ideas that were unfeasible, illegal or idiotic (of which there were more than a few. After all, we were only kids).
We learned about deadlines and hard work. On the Friday night of an important high school basketball game we had to make the 1,160 hoagies we’d taken orders for. We talked to Carmen at the Italian restaurant; got him to get us the supplies at a discount price and let us use the basement of his building to make the sandwiches. Sixteen year old boys skipped the ball game, skipped the follow-up dates with their girlfriends and stayed up all night to be sure all the hoagies were made and delivered on time.
We learned about democracy. No activities or decisions were made without discussions and votes. In the process, we learned how to effectively present points of view and debate with our peers. We learned how to compromise and we learned how to accept majority rule even when it made us mad when we didn’t get our way. During those debates, we learned a lot about how people different than ourselves thought and behaved and gained an appreciation for new ideas.
We learned about business. We found a vacant hall turned into a discotheque where we held dances every Friday evening. We had to hire bands, run a concession stand and manage the finances. We averaged 200 kids a week for almost two years. We had several incidents with ‘motorcycle’ gangs, fist fights, and intoxicated gate crashers. We had neighbors, polices support and a landlord to deal with. Complicated business meetings were something new to all of us. Again, the adults ‘advised,’ but the responsibility was ours.
Along with all the activities focused on our Jamboree trip, we also were required to fulfill with Boy Scout activities. We had obligations to the local Council for finances and personal development. Each boy is expected to progress through the ‘ranks’ and learn the information in the Handbook. We acted as support staff at Scout events. We participated in group activities like canoe races and summer camp. In the mean time we were progressing with life; getting driver’s licenses, participating in high school sports and extracurricular activities and becoming more and more interested in girls.
When it was time to go to the Jamboree in Idaho, I was beginning my third term as president. I was a different young man. We all looked and acted older, because of course we were, but there was something seen in the eyes of each of us that exuded strength and maturity. There was not one boy there who had not learned something important about himself and life in general. There was not one who was not better for the experience.
That first real job I ever had did not put one penny in my pocket but it added incalculable richness to the rest of my life. It was like a 'practice' try at life under 'controlled' circumstances. Innumerable times I’ve thought back to that ‘job,’ relived the experiences and realized just how much I learned that the majority of the ‘kids’ I grew up with had to learn elsewhere; in the “school of hard knocks.”
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)This was very moving, Jack. It's the kind of job that every young person should have the opportunity of getting. Learning about life and people first, rather than just about money.thanks for reading and commenting
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