“Making Money”

Since we were never given an allowance as kids today are given, we had to find a job if we wanted to have any money just to spend on ourselves.  Jobs were still scarce even for adults so kids had to make money or work at jobs no one else wanted and that didn’t pay much.

The only money I remember earning as a child was by picking blackberries but as we got older we were allowed to go to a strawberry farm and pick strawberries.  That was hot backbreaking work and it only lasted about three weeks in the summer.  I only remember one summer when we finished the full three weeks.  We only got a few cents a flat for picking so we really didn’t make much--- hardly worth all the aches and pains we had to suffer in the process.

Raspberries were easier to pick but we didn’t live near any raspberry fields so we only picked there one summer.  Viola and I stayed in a little cabin with Don’s mother.  We didn’t make much money there either which probably explains why we didn’t go back.

When I was in high school I was given a chance to work in the school cafeteria during the three lunch periods.  I was doing fine and I liked my job until one day a girl by the name of Betty started filling the carts too full of dishes.  She said we could get finished a lot faster that way.  Our supervisor warned us not to do this because she said the dishes could fall and get broken.  Betty was sure she could do it without breaking any so after everyone else was out of sight she started to stack them real high.  Then because the cart was also heavier to push, she asked me to help her.  I didn’t want to but she insisted, so against my better judgment, I helped her.  Now we could push the cart much faster but we forgot to slow down when we went around a corner.  The next thing we knew the cart tipped and the dishes went crashing onto the cement floor and naturally a lot of them broke.  Betty left and told our supervisor that I was the one who stacked the dishes too high and I was the one pushing them, so although I protested, I was the one who had to pay for all those broken dishes.  I worked there until I had enough to pay for them and then I quit my job.  Betty was never a friend of mine after that.

I had a regular babysitting job after that which I kept until I got married.

I also had a housecleaning job that I liked very much.  That was the extend of my working career.