For many Americans, these "mindless" jobs are all they can find, and they are trying to keep a roof over their heads and raise children on those dismal jobs. Let those who ponder "class privilege" meditate on that a while.
56
When I was a professor, I routinely asked my students why they were taking my course, and why they were in college. A young man whom I would not have differentiated from the others in the university where I taught mostly first generation college students from working class families gave a great reply. He told me that he was rather aimless as he neared high school graduation. His father owned shrimp boats that operated in the Gulf of Mexico. When he finally graduated, still with no plans, his father gave him a job as a "swamper" on a boat crew. That guy does grunt labor and also pinches the heads off of shrimp before they go into the freezer. A boat may stay in the gulf for weeks, until it fills its freezer. The crew is usually only 3 or 4 people, and they are not always nice people.
So, he said, "I enrolled in college."
So, he said, "I enrolled in college."
27
My three summers as a clerk at American Express provided me with stories that I told young people whom I trained over forty years in my future profession. When they complained about break times I told them about scheduled bathroom breaks based on seniority. By the way, I got that job by answering an ad in the New Yory Times
10
I spent three years as an unemployed and under-employed Ph.D., patching together a living with a combination of adjunct positions and part-time jobs in both the clerical and industrial fields. It was as educational as anything I did in graduate school.
But my awareness went beyond being glad I had an education.
I came out of an Ivy League graduate school having subconsciously absorbed the notion that America is a meritocracy, that those who are worthy will rise to the top and those who are unworthy will sink to the bottom.
There is nothing to disabuse one of that notion better than having a new stupid, mean, and incompetent boss every week and listening to the lunchtime conversations of employees who are adversely affected by company policies.
I was lucky. If a work situation was intolerable (and about five of them were), I could phone the temp agency and say that I didn't want to work there anymore. But I knew that my fellow workers were stuck there, especially during the Reagan recession, when the official unemployment rate in Minneapolis was 11%.
This awareness made me wonder about all sorts of things, including economic opportunity and the way our whole system is set up. Why doesn't everyone, college-educated or not, deserve the income and conditions necessary for a dignified life?
But my awareness went beyond being glad I had an education.
I came out of an Ivy League graduate school having subconsciously absorbed the notion that America is a meritocracy, that those who are worthy will rise to the top and those who are unworthy will sink to the bottom.
There is nothing to disabuse one of that notion better than having a new stupid, mean, and incompetent boss every week and listening to the lunchtime conversations of employees who are adversely affected by company policies.
I was lucky. If a work situation was intolerable (and about five of them were), I could phone the temp agency and say that I didn't want to work there anymore. But I knew that my fellow workers were stuck there, especially during the Reagan recession, when the official unemployment rate in Minneapolis was 11%.
This awareness made me wonder about all sorts of things, including economic opportunity and the way our whole system is set up. Why doesn't everyone, college-educated or not, deserve the income and conditions necessary for a dignified life?
81
I worked one summer during college in the same bearing factory as my father did. I never saw him, we worked different shifts in different departments. But I learned more about him that summer than I ever had known.
53
During my ug, grad and even professional academic life I too had a variety of jobs ranging from line and grade on a survey crew (pre total station), furniture mover, mail sorter and envelop stuffer, orderly at a detox at which I worked night shift, gardener at a bank building, accounts receivable at an NPR station, payroll clerk, etc etc.
These experiences not only were helpful, they were crucial for me in my professional life as an academic advisor/academic counselor for students in academic difficulty. I had worked the night shift and gone to school; I had gone to school while working and being a primary caregiver to my wife and son; and I had taught cross culturally in a high school in South America. I faced the same time and emotional issues my students faced at the small, regional four-year university where I worked as they crossed cultures (h.s to college) carrying the same baggage.
The point: these seemingly meaningless jobs forced me to walk in others' shoes...helping me to experience and understand the world (on a non-intellectual level) from various class and educational points of view. ESSENTIAL now that we all live in a much more fragmented world.
These experiences not only were helpful, they were crucial for me in my professional life as an academic advisor/academic counselor for students in academic difficulty. I had worked the night shift and gone to school; I had gone to school while working and being a primary caregiver to my wife and son; and I had taught cross culturally in a high school in South America. I faced the same time and emotional issues my students faced at the small, regional four-year university where I worked as they crossed cultures (h.s to college) carrying the same baggage.
The point: these seemingly meaningless jobs forced me to walk in others' shoes...helping me to experience and understand the world (on a non-intellectual level) from various class and educational points of view. ESSENTIAL now that we all live in a much more fragmented world.
54
My mindless summer jobs made me determined to work for a world where mindless jobs became fewer and fewer or were things we did and enjoyed together. Our society has gone another direction. Anarres had it more right than than we do.
11
I delivered newspapers from fifth to seventh grade, all year long. This was back in the late 60's, early 70's. I was responsible for getting the papers to customers on time, on foot or by bike, through snow and rain; collect money, pay the newspaper and take my cut. My kids can barely believe I had a job like that at such a young age. Nowadays, employers won't even hire kids younger than 16 or 18, so those jobs for younger kids are gone forever.
37
We should all appreciate the luxury of deciding whether or not our children should work.
27
No offense, but the concept that 'mindless' work is a good way to spend your time is crazy. I grew up on a farm. I can tell you menial labor is not edifying, enlightening or anything else. It's mind numbing boredom that stretches into an eternity. I did stoop labor (your 'jobs' were all urban) 1 time and immediately knew I would never do it again when I left home.
I did spend one summer running the riding program at a summer camp. It involved management, so I guess it wasn't menial. It was one of the best summers in my life. Then, again, a day spent with kids and horses is better than most days doing other things.
I did spend one summer running the riding program at a summer camp. It involved management, so I guess it wasn't menial. It was one of the best summers in my life. Then, again, a day spent with kids and horses is better than most days doing other things.
36
Ms Finney Boylan's poetic remarks about getting there in time if she just kept walking long enough, remarks made after watching the sun rise over the ocean, are definitely based on her character and not on the fact that she worked at Lenny's.
My point is simply that the value of WORK, beyond the dollar is what one makes of it ... with one's mind!
My point is simply that the value of WORK, beyond the dollar is what one makes of it ... with one's mind!
3
I you want a sumer job you tart looking in the spring.. if you want a good summer job you need contacts. If you want a good summer job and have it be relevant then your parents are lawyers and or stockbrokers. Or you are persistent. Which is what is good about Summer jobs.. to even have the worst summer job you have to stiick with it. Each application must be revisited until you have success.. call backs .. stop bus.. especially if it is a job you want. And that could be life guard or waiter or hot dog peddler.. it's about the green. And most kids unless offspringof the1% aren't getting that many hand outs all summer. So if you take nothing away from your summer job realize you had one. So many more didn't .. take it from an ex dock hand,house painter,short order cook,caddie,baby sitter,boat washer,house framer,DJ, Clothing reseller, and a few more trades that paid the rent, ( oved out of house at 17) gassed the car,
and put food on the table.
and put food on the table.
5
I, a child of working immigrants, grandchild of farmers and a single mother, was brought up to get a job as soon as possible. My first job was at 15, though my parents would have willingly let me continue to devour stacks of library books in the summer. I was fortunate that my first "real" job was a paid internship at an engineering firm, and it helped me decide that I did not want to go into electrical engineering and that my soul withered within a cubicle. I went on to another engineering field, but those "lame" jobs working in retail, as a radiation safety technician, and as a bartender all throughout college did build character that the author highlighted. I learned how to talk to people, to figure out what people wanted, and read people. It built the confidence that my working parents, frankly, did not have the time to focus on. Now as a physician, I feel a connection with my patients, that I know few of my peers do. Privilege of the 99%.
With dating, I also find that I was attracted to men who knew what a hard day of work entailed. I dated a man who was brought up privileged, never worked a job till 30, and though smart, there was a degree of lacking knowledge about the functioning of the real world that held him back professionally and within our relationship. My current partner, worked as a farm hand at the age of 9, and although it might seem like child labor, he is one of the smartest, most efficient, and beloved scientists at Stanford.
With dating, I also find that I was attracted to men who knew what a hard day of work entailed. I dated a man who was brought up privileged, never worked a job till 30, and though smart, there was a degree of lacking knowledge about the functioning of the real world that held him back professionally and within our relationship. My current partner, worked as a farm hand at the age of 9, and although it might seem like child labor, he is one of the smartest, most efficient, and beloved scientists at Stanford.
16
I was expecting this piece to be about how kids don't have summer jobs anymore. None of my teen nieces and nephews have ever worked a summer job. The excuse: sports camp, family trips, church retreats, etc. They are fortunate not to have to earn extra money, but I can't help but think by scooping ice cream or camp counseling or grocery store stocking, instead of playing, they would be growing confidence, empathy, character, and a work ethic. And the last three, at least from my perspective, are sadly lacking in many young people today.
24
Since our corporate oligarchy continues to both export jobs and import cheaper high tech labor, kids might well need to get used to "mindless" jobs during their entire working life.
8
One summer taught me about city government: I was a meter maid, walking miles a day issuing $1 parking tickets to small town scofflaws (one of which was my sister!) Another taught me to value our wilderness: I was kitchen help in Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness. The third taught me to avoid debt: I was office help in a small debt collection company and I learned I never wanted to be on the receiving end of one of those phone calls. Yes, good lessons learned.
10
I too grew up in the era of summer and school year jobs of waitressing, doing kitchen work, and answering phones. I am glad for those experiences of life, but note two reservations for the current day. One is that jobs during the school year do divert young people's attention from their studies and are inconsistent with the amount of homework that is now typical in schools. I would have been able to take better advantage of my college years in particular had I been able to work less at such jobs.
Second, today kids in such jobs may be taking them away from someone who is trying to support a family through that work.
I agree with those who remind us that a summer in such work may have a much more idyllic character than a career in, or a life in and out of, such work.
Second, today kids in such jobs may be taking them away from someone who is trying to support a family through that work.
I agree with those who remind us that a summer in such work may have a much more idyllic character than a career in, or a life in and out of, such work.
8
I agree that so-called mindless jobs are a great education for otherwise privileged kids. But it's a problem that jobs like these are so poorly paid that they can be doled out to students looking for summer pocket-money. As Boylan discovered when the bank teller bristled, the vast majority of such jobs pay for rent, meals, education, and other essentials. Most people working these jobs need a living wage and real benefits -- jobs so solid and attractive to workers that students and other casual workers would not be able to compete for them.
15
In the summer of 1973 I got a summer job funded by the State of California strictly for college students. It was in a State mental hospital and my job was to paint pipes in the generator building. The guys who worked there gave me this job because there wasn't any real work to do. So it was mindless in the sense that the job required no intellectual investment but it left me a lot of time to think as I daubed on the paint. Now and then I would go on an errand for the guys outside the building and see people who would spend their lives in confinement, people with visible symptoms of mental illness, people who stood bouncing a ball, people simply staring into space. Since some of the patients were my age they were naturally interested in me, since they knew I could go home at the end of the day. Not much came of our nods and looks. Some of them are probably still there. There's no moral to this recollection that I can think of.
9
I've worked in the media, in academia, and I've waited tables. And let me tell you, waiting tables is not a mindless job. It's a job in which you have to be constantly "on," both mentally and physically. In my current job, at a college, there are moments when I'm allowed to space out, or to text my husband to make dinner plans for the night—things there would have been no time for when I was juggling five tables of people who all had different needs that I had time right and coordinate with the kitchen staff. Because of the time I've spent waiting tables and doing other work that society doesn't value much, I would never refer to such work as mindless or stupid.
71
summer jobs where you are a "fish out of water" are extremely valuable. from 16-20 I worked in the "bursting room" of a downtown financial company. we were basically "office boys" that "bursted" and "decollated" multiple part carbon financial reports for the "big shots" to read and analyze. This required use of noisy and dirty machines, while wearing little grey office "smocks." My co-workers were all inner-city young men of color. At age 19 + 2 months, they'd get drafted and sent to Viet Nam. Other, older guys, were just coming back from war, and the tales they told were incredible. I was the (CUNY) college kid, the favored one, and it took time to win acceptance. But it was a crash course in a reality far from my own. I was from working poor and yet I realized I was blessed.
19
I worked at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Venice, Ca. in my early twenties just after college. It was hard work, but probably one of the more rewarding jobs I've ever had. The people I worked with were hilarious, the regulars ran the gambit and they loved hanging out, the music always made the day better. After closing we'd all go to Rick's Tavern next door and play the juke and hang out till closing--even if you had to open at 5 am the next mourning. I learned that work is best when you build solid relationships, respect the work, and try to make the customers truly happy with their experience.
21
i've always told my 4 children that every summer job you have, someone must do to support a family. Take pride and do your job well. Most people are not as fortuanate as you are, because you will being going back to school, and those workers you leave behind must go to work. They never seemed to complain about their summer jobs after telling them the cold facts of becoming an adult.
40
Unpaid or slightly paid internships by definition are only practical for kids of wealthier parents, another of gazillion reasons the US rich have taken over. Also in the lengthy immigration debates too infrequently are mentioned the employers, who naturally favor 24/7/365 illegal or quasi legal migrants who are easily controllable vs. young college kids with both an education about what is legal employer behavior and more limited schedules. I too was a rather poor hotel and restaurant worker during my 1970s college breaks. An invaluable life experience. Beats fetching coffee for moguls for free anyday.
15
I love reading all of these comments about past summer jobs. It really instills in me gratitude for the opportunities I've had with my summer jobs. I'm still in college now, part-time interning and part-time mindless working, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks to everyone for sharing.
13
I grew up in a privileged environment and never 'needed' to get a job while in high school. While on a quick trip to the local supermarket with my mother one day after (private) school, I noticed a posting near the entrance to the store that they were looking for a part-time deli clerk. I applied but was subsequently rejected because I was not 18 and one needs to be 18 in order to operate a meat slicer. They did, however, offer me a part time job in the produce department. I took this 'mindless' (though I wouldn't really call it as such - I think that it is demeaning to call any job mindless because that is how some people make their living and you wouldn't call them mindless to their face - would you?) job and loved every minute of it. The job helped me to experience what real people were like (and what they experienced in their lives) that were not in my private school bubble. This 'mindless' job gave me some 'people' skills and what I hope is a more empathetic and kind attitude towards people in general. My professional life post-college (which is, again, a rarefied bubble in Manhattan) has never presented me with the opportunity to experience the non-1% and I suspect that my future plans of starting at an Ivy League business school in August will also not present me with such opportunities. It was that so-called 'mindless' job that gave me the opportunity to experience real people and for that, I will be forever grateful.
44
I always say that everyone should be required to work at least once in a restaurant or retail. In the workplace, you can always tell the young people who have had that experience versus those who have been bankrolled 100 pct by their parents their whole lives.
15
Just a block from my house was a Gulf gas station, and I landed a job there between my freshman and soph years at the U of Arizona--this was a while ago, when self-service did not exist. "Fill 'er up!" was an honest-to-God directive that I heard infrequently, as transactions tended to be in cash--credit cards were just beginning their advent into common commerce, and none of us liked them--some of you might remember the many-sheeted carbon-copy affairs that had to be placed on a small contraption with a pull-press that displayed the imprint of the card--then the owner had to sign it and for his trouble received his own copy from three sheets down--all of this smudged from my dirt-and-oil stained hands.
"Check the tires?" I learned to fix flats, using the noisy (and potentially dangerous) machine that hissed and groaned and separated the tire from the rim. I kept a tire gauge in my front shirt pocket. If the pressure was low, I corrected that.
"Check the oil? One car in every five asked for this service.
It was a given that I spray-wash every windshield that pulled into the gas lane.
All this was free to the driver, ostensibly figured into the cost of the gas, which was in the 25 cents-a-gallon range that summer. I received $1.25 an hour. The year was 1968. Each day I trudged the block home in oil-stained filthy jeans and had a beer on my shaded front porch. I loved the job, another marker that separated my new life from my previous one. It really helped me to grow up.
"Check the tires?" I learned to fix flats, using the noisy (and potentially dangerous) machine that hissed and groaned and separated the tire from the rim. I kept a tire gauge in my front shirt pocket. If the pressure was low, I corrected that.
"Check the oil? One car in every five asked for this service.
It was a given that I spray-wash every windshield that pulled into the gas lane.
All this was free to the driver, ostensibly figured into the cost of the gas, which was in the 25 cents-a-gallon range that summer. I received $1.25 an hour. The year was 1968. Each day I trudged the block home in oil-stained filthy jeans and had a beer on my shaded front porch. I loved the job, another marker that separated my new life from my previous one. It really helped me to grow up.
5
Have you written a novel, memoir, or ? yet? I want to read it. Your writing is above and beyond. I can smell the summer adventures, and remembered a few of mine as well. Thank you.
1
I think the word "mindless" in the headline is misleading, and not reflective of the actual content of this piece. Clearly Ms Boylan recalls and relishes many of the experiences she had while doing 'menial' work. Further, as one who has done a lot of jobs prior to my induction into corporate life, I say that, since we are obviously carrying our minds around with us at all times that there is nothing necessarily mindless about pushing shopping carts, mowing lawns, retail clerking, ripping shingles off a roof, making deli sandwiches, mopping and waxing supermarket floors, all things I've done, all the while often surrounded by co-workers who also practiced creative methods to get through the day. Nope, it was only when I got into some of the largest corporations that ever existed that I witnessed the absolute mindlessness of management.
It's the folks running the show who are often the mindless ones.
And after all, somebody has to make the sandwiches and mop the floors and change the adult diapers.
Guaranteed minimum income for ALL !!
It's the folks running the show who are often the mindless ones.
And after all, somebody has to make the sandwiches and mop the floors and change the adult diapers.
Guaranteed minimum income for ALL !!
11
Good article, worked in a hospital laundry 3-11 shift my first summer of college, would load and start the washers in the evening, make two rounds of fresh linens to the nursing stations and empty all the chutes for the morning shift after sweeping down the place. Was quiet and had huge windows that faced towards the evening sunset. Saw lots of life and death drama in the ER and joy near the OB station. Learned more there than in some classes I took.
The Chief
The Chief
5
For two of my college summers, I drove a Good Humor truck. A grueling 14 hour a day 6 days a week job, it had many benefits long term and short. The money was great; straight commission. The more one sold, the more one earned. And the long hours afforded me little time to spend the money. The savings really helped defray my college expenses. My off day was spent dozing on the beach at the Jersey shore (Bradley Beach). I also was required to join the union, Milk and Dairy Drivers (Teamsters). This began a life long association with unions, something that might never have happened otherwise. My father was a small business owner who voted Republican.
I don't know how much Good Humor and other jobs built my character but it allowed me to meet some very interesting people. Like the person who would send a dog down to stop my truck. The dog had an envelope on his collar. In the envelope was money and a note. "Give the dog a Dixie cup and open it for him.". This would occur every few days. I think that dog was my favorite customer.
One other benefit, sort of, that I remember from one of my summer jobs. Some friends wanted to attend this huge rock concert but I felt obligated to work. And so, that was how I missed the rain and mud (and the brown acid) of Woodstock. I loved the album.
I don't know how much Good Humor and other jobs built my character but it allowed me to meet some very interesting people. Like the person who would send a dog down to stop my truck. The dog had an envelope on his collar. In the envelope was money and a note. "Give the dog a Dixie cup and open it for him.". This would occur every few days. I think that dog was my favorite customer.
One other benefit, sort of, that I remember from one of my summer jobs. Some friends wanted to attend this huge rock concert but I felt obligated to work. And so, that was how I missed the rain and mud (and the brown acid) of Woodstock. I loved the album.
11
I sold Good Humor ice cream and my route included what was later Tony Soprano's neighborhood (not much business there). Or, depending on the day, a park in Newark where the Good Humor boss warned me to leave by sundown.
Then there was the merchant marines, in the engine room of a transatlantic bulk carrier. Long days in 100-110 degree heat but it was good money and there was nowhere to spend it as long as you didn't patronize the red light district in Antwerp.
Ah, the 70s ...
Then there was the merchant marines, in the engine room of a transatlantic bulk carrier. Long days in 100-110 degree heat but it was good money and there was nowhere to spend it as long as you didn't patronize the red light district in Antwerp.
Ah, the 70s ...
2
Will menial jobs really help the children of the most privileged develop a sense of empathy? More likely, they'll just think, "I had a minimum-wage job, it was actually kind of fun, and I worked my way out of it to something better." They don't need career-relevant jobs to make contacts because they already have all the connections they need through their families. Meanwhile, middle-class kids will be derided as helicopter-parented sheep if they resist this foolishness.
1
Yes, this does remind me of nights long past - making that just-before-close pizza delivery to an all-night party, getting invited in, meeting lots of girls, waking up in a strange house in a strange neighborhood, and being late for class. Again and again.
These jobs never did generate much cash, contribute to the resume, or build much character. But I did meet a lot of girls.
These jobs never did generate much cash, contribute to the resume, or build much character. But I did meet a lot of girls.
5
In the 1960s, Columbia College tuition was about $1500/ semester, I had an 84-hour per week (not a typo) job and paid a chunk of that; we were from a school teacher, and office clerical, family with two kids in college (one was free school, Cooper Union)
one could earn a fraction of that $1500, as a summer intro-wage worker - now if you are working down your tuition you are wasting your time, and The Long Game is to skip the chump change; AND if you are unpaid intern, (resume builder credentials), you still have to get to work on time, follow instructions, do service, meet goals, liaise with peers and all the rest of character building -
The author has made it a game, and why not, I worked b/c we were of limited means, and if I could why should I burden the family if i did not have to
many years later, while finishing a PhD, I borrowed ten thou from mom, dad was gone, to work on PhD full -time since part-time work and part- time school wasted time - ie delayed entry to higher value employment, and paid it back in PhD earnings
Now kids ruin themselves (and families) (and soon taxpayers) with debt for garbage degrees
white privilege? NOT - I worked in the Post Office, careerists there, all colors, you had to take a test, color blind, they were lifers, all colors.
Now tests discriminate if they have uneven outcomes, our test was reading and memory
Thing is, vocational slumming (I wasn't) CAN take a job from someone who MIGHT more need it, thus resentment
one could earn a fraction of that $1500, as a summer intro-wage worker - now if you are working down your tuition you are wasting your time, and The Long Game is to skip the chump change; AND if you are unpaid intern, (resume builder credentials), you still have to get to work on time, follow instructions, do service, meet goals, liaise with peers and all the rest of character building -
The author has made it a game, and why not, I worked b/c we were of limited means, and if I could why should I burden the family if i did not have to
many years later, while finishing a PhD, I borrowed ten thou from mom, dad was gone, to work on PhD full -time since part-time work and part- time school wasted time - ie delayed entry to higher value employment, and paid it back in PhD earnings
Now kids ruin themselves (and families) (and soon taxpayers) with debt for garbage degrees
white privilege? NOT - I worked in the Post Office, careerists there, all colors, you had to take a test, color blind, they were lifers, all colors.
Now tests discriminate if they have uneven outcomes, our test was reading and memory
Thing is, vocational slumming (I wasn't) CAN take a job from someone who MIGHT more need it, thus resentment
2
"Mindlessness" can be a state of mind. We learn both from negative and positive situations, but not everyone can escape the negative ones. Students get the privileged "mindful" jobs as summer interns in think tanks usually through connections from parents or kind mentor-professors.
2
Selling puppets (yes, actual puppets), gas stations, kitchens, even a junk yard - all summer jobs. The puppet shop even sold artwork by the owner that was reminiscent of the John Wayne Gacy clown art - even i, at 21, knew it was pretty terrible and a bit scary. The best job i had though was working for myself, painting houses. Hot dirty work but at the end, you got the benefit of your own hard work - saved 6k in a summer - and that was 1977- still self employed and would have it no other way (not house painting by the way)
3
working minimum wages alone at night cleaning a cold warehouse 2 hours by bus from my home did not build my character, but caused me to fail school.
11
I really enjoyed Professor Boylan's column, which I'm sure the students in her English classes would recognize as graceful salute to Ray Bradbury's nostalgic stories of golden summers. Long, long ago I boxed/bagged groceries (in Beverly Hills, customers gave you tips if you carried their food out to their cars), ran "blueprints" (remember those?) between various departments at a Hughes Aircraft, and also worked as a bank teller. When I was "over" or "under," the experienced tellers could sometimes look at the figure and say, "Oh, you probably did this.....or that." My first job after graduating from a very fancy New England college was as a car-parking valet. I once ran a brand new Aston Martin off a curb, and the very prestigious Hollywood producer who was driving his own car, admonished me, "Be more careful next time," as he handed me a nice tip. So, Boylan is right. All those mindless summer jobs really do teach you what's important.
3
Dan River Mills in Danville, Va. Cutting a quarter mile of grass on a hillside, cleaning out fish from dams, shoveling out boxcars of salt, character building each hot, humid day.
I learned more about me, five days a week, for 8-9 weeks, than I have done elsewhere.
I learned more about me, five days a week, for 8-9 weeks, than I have done elsewhere.
4
After my sophomore year, I got fired from a job in an ice plant, bagging and dragging, because I complained that the owner's nephew got all the riding jobs. So I got a job--don't recall how--selling tip sheets at a local race track. It was called The Little Doctor. I didn't make up the favorites, just sold the sheets. One evening Tony Bennett came by and bought one, then went in and sang the National Anthem before the races.
1
A summer job is a chance to become exposed to how to "work one's way up' , see how people without educations survive and contribute to charitable groups. My summers were varied. One summer I worked in a "sweat shop" factory; another summer, I worked at a guide dog training facility.
So many of those "Summer Jobs" are now gone. So called "internships" for the wealthy and not much of anything for the rest. In days past, a student picked up much more than a small paycheck from their "Summer Job". Unpaid internships with other privileged interns do not offer the broadening experience that so many well off Americans so desperately need.
4
My first job was at a cider mill where I served hot cider, coffee and tea to the throngs that showed up for the fresh made donuts. The secret to never spilling a hot beverage when maneuvering quickly was revealed to me (don't look at the beverage), very useful life lesson.
But, I also had a summer internship during college that taught me a more profound reality. I spent a summer helping people fill out the forms to get a restraining order with the RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence. I was surprised by how many men sought restraining orders. Definitely dispelled any assumption that domestic violence is entirely male on female abuse.
But, I also had a summer internship during college that taught me a more profound reality. I spent a summer helping people fill out the forms to get a restraining order with the RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence. I was surprised by how many men sought restraining orders. Definitely dispelled any assumption that domestic violence is entirely male on female abuse.
5
Summer jobs in 1964-1971 (in between college, the service and just fooling around) - Turning dresses inside out and back again as sewers did their jobs , spreading rolls of piece goods (cloth) back and forth and sometimes spreading on nails to line up strips or patterns, mowing the lawn, driving a truck, moving machines, endlessly tying bundles and writing tickets for cut-work for the factory sewers, loading boxes with finished dresses and then load up the trucks head for New York. Carrying cut work up and down the stairs on my shoulders, painting the walls, taking down and setting up machines, pulling and running endless yards of sphighetti piping from a double needle machine, turning more dresses, loading more trucks, mowing more grass and cleaning the pool at home because I was the oldest...almost forgot, working at Food Fair as a bagger! Whew!
Today I'm retired, living in The Villages, just chilling and missing very much those wonderful summers working at my dad's dress factories. Those were wonderfully good days.
Today I'm retired, living in The Villages, just chilling and missing very much those wonderful summers working at my dad's dress factories. Those were wonderfully good days.
3
Did I miss something not having a summer job while in college? I started college on the Monday morning, after coming out of the army on Friday in October 1945. After 32 month overseas, I thought I had to make up for lost time and went straight through, 12 months a year to my MS degree. Then a year as a research assistant before heading back for a PhD.
In retrospect, the rush was a big mistake. I lost out on too many activities, experiences and making friends at strange places. Summer jobs, not matter what they are, give you time to reflect and think about your life and goals,meet more people and make friends.
In retrospect, the rush was a big mistake. I lost out on too many activities, experiences and making friends at strange places. Summer jobs, not matter what they are, give you time to reflect and think about your life and goals,meet more people and make friends.
8
I suspect your 32 months overseas provided much of the same value...even if covered up by the parts that you would prefer to have avoided.
Mindless jobs I have known:
busboy-dishwasher
truck washer-waxer
bagboy
stock clerk
paper boy
night watchman
taxi driver
Dishwashing was relatively ok because of the camaraderie in the kitchen. Bagboy and truck-waxer were regimented, boring clock-watching experiences that taught me the profound truth, "it's called work because they have to pay you to do it."
By far the best jobs were those that turned me loose--to walk through building basements all night, or best of all, to drive! Driving jobs seemed the least like "work" to me.
Gradually work became something I identified with, instead of simply something I just checked in and out of. Is that called "professional?"
When I stopped working it took quite a while to get over the jittery feeling that comes with empty space. Matter of fact, that's a daily experience!
busboy-dishwasher
truck washer-waxer
bagboy
stock clerk
paper boy
night watchman
taxi driver
Dishwashing was relatively ok because of the camaraderie in the kitchen. Bagboy and truck-waxer were regimented, boring clock-watching experiences that taught me the profound truth, "it's called work because they have to pay you to do it."
By far the best jobs were those that turned me loose--to walk through building basements all night, or best of all, to drive! Driving jobs seemed the least like "work" to me.
Gradually work became something I identified with, instead of simply something I just checked in and out of. Is that called "professional?"
When I stopped working it took quite a while to get over the jittery feeling that comes with empty space. Matter of fact, that's a daily experience!
17
My brother had a paper route; woke up at 4am every day to sort the papers, then deliver them by bicycle. Remember newspapers???
My favorite mindless job was as a short order cook in a diner. I loved the people I worked with, and I learned a thing or two about managing a busy grill line. Fond memories...
My favorite mindless job was as a short order cook in a diner. I loved the people I worked with, and I learned a thing or two about managing a busy grill line. Fond memories...
7
My summer jobs, which included delivering sheet rock and manhandling it up stairways in new apartment buildings, tearing off and replacing 100 year old flat tar roofs, washing dishes in a supper club in 90 degree temperatures, and removing blood and guts from salmon in a cold Alaskan salmon cannery, gave me a very practical reason to get a college degree. It also opened my eyes to the lives of many of my coworkers, who were not looking forward to a brighter future, but rather a lifetime of wage labor in unskilled and very demanding jobs.
23
As a child of modest privilege, I spent 2 college summers as a tennis instructor to other children of modest privilege. Then, through one of their fathers, I got a job in what was then called the back office of a brokerage house, working as a cash clerk (which did not involve handling cash), keeping track of which customers had paid for their purchases of securities. It brought me into contact with people I sat next to on subways but never met in my privileged social circle. (These days, that job is probably done by a nano-bit of a microchip, and the brokerage house no longer bears the name of its founder, but instead is a division of a too-big-to-fail financial conglomerate which so far has not failed.) The job helped relieve me of my snobbish tendencies and taught me the meaning of hard work. In fact, it taught me so well that the following summer, I got a job as head tennis instructor.
5
Mindless? Perhaps when you are smart enough to teach at Barnard College, everyday work can be looked at as being mindless, however, for some of us there is nothing mindless about routine work.
9
She's right. Resume building summers are bad for kids. But the "a mind is a terrible thing not to waste" is not a good idea. Kids need mind expanding exciting things to do over the summer. That's doesn't include either selling hot-dogs or interning in a law firm.
2
My eldest stocked shelves in the grocery section at Target one summer and it rammed home to him why I always harped on going to college. While useful work it is not something you want to do forever. My daughter is watching a constellation of small children and, again, while useful, it is also teaching her that children are hard work day after day and that you had better want them before you have them. I agree that sometimes just a job is better than something that pads the CV. The most valuable lessons learned are to be reliable, do your best even if you're bored to tears, get along with others and for once focus on some thing beyond yourself. When I look at Cvs of recent college grads, I always talk to the kids who did a bunch of stuff during the summers that wasn't related to their overall job ambitions, I want to know how they handled boredom, repetitiveness and what it taught them. These jobs are important since they tell you a lot about yourself and the wisest kids get a lot out of them.
24
Thank you so much for posting this, Bismarck. I think you nailed it. My son got himself a job (note, I say he got HIMSELF a job, because there were no connections involved -- he did it all on his own). It's at the local A&P, stocking shelves. I was having a hard time explaining to friends and family why I was so pleased that he had this job, but you explained exactly the life lessons I want him to learn. We live in an affluent area where "internships" for college kids -- even high school kids -- are all the rage. "Focus on something beyond yourself" -- yes, yes and YES!
1
Working for pay in high school or college can result in a significant hit to financial aid - I think not dollar-for-dollar, but basically a stiff tax on earnings. For the initial award, apparently, anything over about $6200 in student earnings reduces aid. 25 hours a week, year-round, at minimum wage gets you into that territory. Good luck trying to figure out how big the aid reduction will be. Moreover, how earnings while in college will affect later awards is one of those "known unknowns" - a tremendous disincentive to work for pay. Of course, this exacerbates the class divide - poorer students have to work anyhow and just take the hit - and they and their families may not have the luxury of taking time to learn how to game the system. Better-off students take the unpaid internship. It's my personal opinion that having done some cool (unpaid) internships has become a class signalling device for later employment - a student who had to really get their hands dirty enough so that the employer had to pay them for it are "not really going to be comfortable here."
15
I "worked" as a counselor at a summer camp in Maine. For eight weeks we were situated on this picturesque lake across from a green mountain that stretched forever. At the end of the camp season I was provided with a check for $750 and asked to come back for the next season. Today in adulthood I scramble to get time to go to the beach for one ridiculously short week. In a flash it is gone and one waits for the 3 day weekend that is Labor Day. In heaven we all have summer jobs.
13
Two years of community service (ala AmeriCorps or Teach for America) post-college wouldn't hurt either coupled with college Spring Breaks during college doing service projects. Our daughter did all of above. Of course, we are middle class (downwardly so) and all of our children worked all through high school, as well to earn their own money for their transportation, clothing and extras. Our youngest child, still in college, works full time in a retail job in an impoverished neighborhood just minutes from our middle class enclave. Not only is he interacting with struggling customers but also learning about the challenges faced by his fellow workers subsisting on minimum wage with no parental support. I know working with people who do not have reliable transportation, rely on government assistance despite working full-time and who often talk about running out of money to pay their utility bills is giving my son a glimpse of what people just a couple rungs below us on the economic food chain are experiencing. He will be forever changed by his experience. Their struggles are tangible in his eyes now, not mere statistics.
35
summer jobs provide exactly the things you have described. what a horrible shame that we allow our children to do summer internships instead.
16
Only people with money can let their kids do internships. None of my kids can. My daughter was an econ major, but when offered an unpaid internship had to turn it down. We could not afford it. She worked at Sonic instead. For us there will be no working relationships with better employers or networks to get into better jobs.
4
Learning the value of hard, honest work teaches you just how much each dollar means and what you have to do to get that dollar. I worked as a library page, mowed lawns, worked in a mail room, pumped gas and even tried caddying in high school. In college in the summers I worked as a stagehand. After college I worked as a carpenter building houses until I decided to go to graduate school, and then I'd go back to building in the summers. Any work where the dirt washes off at the end of the day is worth doing, and in doing so it teaches you an appreciation for a desk job, and for the people out there using their muscles to make a living, not walking into 6 figure jobs straight out of college.
4
This is a great piece. It brought back memories of my own summer mowing jobs, including spicing things up by mowing through the Burke's fallen apples. Then there was the summer when I had to catch the 7 AM boat from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven on 3 hours sleep after carrying on at Zack's until closing. Worked all day as a mason tender on mansions at the end of those dirt driveways in West Tisbury that no one else gets to see but the owners. Academics are no good withou
The lessons learned are priceless : Bus-boy (your tips are doled out by the wait staff, so be nice to them), apartment renovator (paint your kitchen in enamel!), liquor store deliveryman (there are some sad, lonely people out there), factory paint canner (when the shop steward says take a break, take a break), brush fire fighter (chiggers and fleas don't like fire, and love your legs), unloading truck trailers (put your head down, work, and the 40K pounds will get unloaded)---all these and more jobs to get through college in five years. All to get away from a dead-end existence, and succeeding.
I vowed to do better for my kids. But I look at them, emblematic of white privilege, and scratch my head (still feeling for fleas). A summer playing video games all night and sleeping all day. Waking up surly and monosyllabic, they eat at odd hours and wander in and out of the house, without telling where they're going, leaving behind a pile of clothes, uneaten food, and dishes. They look for part-time employment or internships in a desultory way. My slow burn ignites around July, and leaves them stunned. We look at each other across a great divide.
I vowed to do better for my kids. But I look at them, emblematic of white privilege, and scratch my head (still feeling for fleas). A summer playing video games all night and sleeping all day. Waking up surly and monosyllabic, they eat at odd hours and wander in and out of the house, without telling where they're going, leaving behind a pile of clothes, uneaten food, and dishes. They look for part-time employment or internships in a desultory way. My slow burn ignites around July, and leaves them stunned. We look at each other across a great divide.
35
A summer does not equate a summer job. It's just a summer, period. A college student is virtually "unemployable" as they are neither loyal nor reliable ("I need to take a summer class", "I'm going on vacation with my family", etc.). It's a period of self-employment teetering on bankruptcy, with no benefits, no job security, no assets, and no experience (we've never "owed" over 30 grand before). Privilege is one thing, but being neck deep in debt, while competing for even a mindless summer job is not a walk in the park. Imagine applying for employment, and having the privilege of not even being considered, all because you are pursuing higher education.
4
Fantastic piece. The value of working in the trenches of retail or food service, or wrangling children in any kind of summer camp program is something that can't be taught in schools. My life experiences as a waiter, shoe salesboy, camp counselor and liquor store grunt have helped my career just as much as any professional internship. Not only do jobs like these require you to interact with all kinds of people on a basic, face-to-face level, but also they are great motivators in working toward something bigger, higher paying and much more long term. In other words, I was happy to lift heavy boxes in a sweaty warehouse. I was even happy to hit the books so I wouldn't have to that for life.
4
As a student in Boston (with unimaginable debt), I both resent and appreciate that almost all relevant internships are unpaid. While I wish I could devote my whole summer to what I really want to do, for the past three years I have been working part time internships along with part time jobs at a cafe, staples, and even Chuck E. Cheese.
I too had the realization that what is a mindless summer job to me is my co-workers' future. For me, that concept makes me appreciate my own education even more, and gives me the drive to better myself so I can devote my life to work I love.
Although the internships are always the more fun experiences, I feel sorry for my more privileged friends and classmates who have never worked a day in their lives. It feels good to know the meaning of a dollar (or in my NH, my home state, the meaning of $7.25/hr). I feel working instills some decency in a person.
I too had the realization that what is a mindless summer job to me is my co-workers' future. For me, that concept makes me appreciate my own education even more, and gives me the drive to better myself so I can devote my life to work I love.
Although the internships are always the more fun experiences, I feel sorry for my more privileged friends and classmates who have never worked a day in their lives. It feels good to know the meaning of a dollar (or in my NH, my home state, the meaning of $7.25/hr). I feel working instills some decency in a person.
18
College students need to extricate themselves from the internship trap and take paying jobs that will reveal to them the world as it is in its great diversity and everyday vitality alongside drudgery. It is an experience that will ground them in reality more so than an internship based on the hope of making connections. Connect to work and the rewards are immediate and permanent. That's the summer lesson plan for success.
6
Not in this economy.
My college age kids came home from school and wanted to work this summer, doing anything that would give them pocket money. From interviewing for positions, to dealing with coworkers and the public, it is an important experience to have. I do not want to coddle them. I want them to understand that working for $10/hour will not begin to pay for the rent, food, insurance, gas, iphone and the dinners out that all their friends seem to think are entitlements at this early age. There is everything right with learning the value of hard work and not being insulated from the real world.
17
I was an assistant to an electrician, strung tennis rackets, cleaned the pressroom of a great metropolitan newspaper (this one actually), and was a night watchman at a factory that made chains. None of these skills actually helped me in my career as a physician, but taught me to respect people working hard to earn a living. I certainly was motivated to not blow off college work. Intellectual and goal-directed work does seem to be mandatory these days, but I agree with the other commenters who feel something is lost being such a specialist from the get go.
9
Midnight shift in a factory one summer......pushing buttons on a machine making widgets......closest co-worker was 100 yards away and could not even be seen. The boss would stop by every 3 hours, maybe. Loud and hot.
2
I've made burgers and eggs at a Waffle House style joint in Miami, worked in a tool and die shop, a sheet metal shop, family owned pizza joint. ( I worked the other jobs after a fight and I would quit.) I even made souvenirs for Sea World carefully putting seahorses and shells in a mold and pouring the resin to capture them forever.
I wasn't in college but in junior and high school schools. They were all jobs with responsibilities and deliberate thinking was a necessity. Making sure the eggs and bacon were ready for the next shift, making dough and 2 pots of sauce for the pizza and spaghetti, running the lathe at the right speed and not breaking those expensive carbide bits, drilling slow so the bits wouldn't melt. If the customer says over easy and don't break the yolk he means it.
I learned to plan, keep schedules, count money and fill out forms. All things I needed for real life when it really counted.
With so many poorly educated people taking all these no skills jobs where are teens learning responsibility today?
I wasn't in college but in junior and high school schools. They were all jobs with responsibilities and deliberate thinking was a necessity. Making sure the eggs and bacon were ready for the next shift, making dough and 2 pots of sauce for the pizza and spaghetti, running the lathe at the right speed and not breaking those expensive carbide bits, drilling slow so the bits wouldn't melt. If the customer says over easy and don't break the yolk he means it.
I learned to plan, keep schedules, count money and fill out forms. All things I needed for real life when it really counted.
With so many poorly educated people taking all these no skills jobs where are teens learning responsibility today?
4
The true value of summer jobs is to hopefully teach these young minds the true nature of the dog-eat-dog predatory Capitalist society we live in.
5
One of my first jobs was cleaning bathrooms at a summer camp. The grossness factor was quite high. It was good reinforcement that I better get a college degree so as not to end up doing this ever again. It also taught me compassion and respect for those who are doing the drudgery jobs of our day.
Cool internships like the author's children have are great ... but don't teach these life lessons. Colleges and employees should value both types of work.
Cool internships like the author's children have are great ... but don't teach these life lessons. Colleges and employees should value both types of work.
3
My 'best' mindless summer job happened the year I was 16 and still in high school. I worked 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for 50 cents an hour, in the warehouse of a wholesale fruit company, alongside a number of middle aged men, most of whom had never finished high school. At the end of the day I walked 2 mles to get home to supper and then fell, exhausted, into bed. At the end of the summer, I went back to school. My co-workers at the warehouse went on at their mindless, stupefying, physically demanding work at minimum wage.
No one ever again had to tell me about the value of education.
No one ever again had to tell me about the value of education.
5
I am left wondering what 'mindless' means to the author.
5
Grocery clerks at the supermarket are (or were in the late 80's) expected to stock 50 cases per hour. Bathroom breaks had to be recorded on your daily tally sheet. A pallet of 5-lb bags of sugar weighs more than one ton, and it's removed from the truck using a manual pallet jack. Frozen foods are the worst to stock; they dry out your hands. Nothing, it seems, is as heavy as a water-logged case of celery. As I write this, the stench of the trash compacter comes back to me.
Today, I sit at a desk before a widescreen iMac, 8 to 5, sipping diet coke, and I bet I earn four or five times what the members of the grocery crew earn, though this year I paid only 8% in federal income tax. Yes, I work hard, but it's a different kind of hard.
For a lot of Americans, work is back-breaking toil. I'm glad for what lousy jobs in my teens and 20s taught me. Be kind to clerks and servers. Support a higher minimum wage. Know that raising the Social Security age would be a huge burden for the grocery crew. Double the school budget. Raise taxes on "rich" guys like me. If you're raising a kid bound for an "easy" life, make him bus tables or stock yogurt.
Today, I sit at a desk before a widescreen iMac, 8 to 5, sipping diet coke, and I bet I earn four or five times what the members of the grocery crew earn, though this year I paid only 8% in federal income tax. Yes, I work hard, but it's a different kind of hard.
For a lot of Americans, work is back-breaking toil. I'm glad for what lousy jobs in my teens and 20s taught me. Be kind to clerks and servers. Support a higher minimum wage. Know that raising the Social Security age would be a huge burden for the grocery crew. Double the school budget. Raise taxes on "rich" guys like me. If you're raising a kid bound for an "easy" life, make him bus tables or stock yogurt.
30
My summer and after-school jobs certainly helped to shape the person I am today. From newspaper route in the sprawling complex that is Parkchester in the Bronx, to selling Italian ices at the Bronx Zoo, to selling papers on the Throggs Neck bridge at rush hour - all of these jobs prepared me to learn how to interact with people, to gain confidence in myself as a young adult and my ability to get the job done, and most importantly how to simply "show up" to play a role in the game of life. My teenage kids are a waitress and camp counselor respectively this summer and I couldn't be prouder because I know it will shape them for future greatness in whatever form that takes.
1
Good gosh Jennifer. No one expects you to pigeonhole yourself. But in case you didn't notice, your own NYT Editorial Board just called for an end to discrimination against transgender people serving in the military. The Air Force announced it will no longer discriminate against transgender airmen. And - oh yeah - some athlete or other just made the front cover of Vogue as a woman And you give us a column about... summer jobs. Practically the only high-profile transgender op-ed writer we have and you write about summer jobs. What a waste.
1
Could it be that Jennifer is prescient, and feels no need to write about transgender issues because she knows the sort of events you mentioned will soon no longer be newsworthy?
Everyone should work in service for a year. It is an eye opening experience to see how people treat wait staff..particularly wait staff who work for tips. Rich kids especially should do this. Where I worked we wait staff used to take turns on the customers or switch off what we could tell would be a problem customer..we bargained with each other. After awhile you learn to spot who is going to be a pain, who will send the food back, who is going to tip well and be easy..you learn a lot about people. You CAN judge a person by how sh/he treats a waiter.
11
Life is best learned "living it." Exactly what is missing today. "Happiness ain't just for high achievers."
4
Great column. In the 1970's I stocked shelves at a supermarket at the Jersey Shore. It was a unionized job that guaranteed 40 hours a week. I could live the rest of the college year off of what I earned. I now teach high school history and these are great experiences to teach life lessons from. It taught me similar lessons about priveledge. I developed a true appreciation for what Americans do to make a living. I learned how to show up on time and work hard. Unfortuantely those jobs, with that pay, are a thing of the past. I feel for this generation. The last 45 years have not been an improvement for the vast majority of Americans.
15
In the summer of 1967 I worked in the insurance office at The Boeing Company in Renton, WA.
It was the dawn of the computer era when data was entered not by keystrokes directly into the machine but indirectly via punch cards then fed into a card reader to transfer data into the guts of the machine.
At Boeing new hires entered their personal information on just such a card in a way to make it readily visible to a key puncher and simplify her work. But there was no way at that dawning age to collate information within the computer should a person be laid off and then hired again cyclically over time.
The multiplying numbers of cards were put in those shallow filing boxes and just stuck some place, until it occurred to the higher ups that these were the legal documents establishing the insurance history of company employees and as such needed to be collated in some way.
Enter the summer hires. Day in and day out we shuffled through box after box of cards, pulling them together and creating a historic file of the hiring history of Employee X and Y and Z. We'd staple like cards together using an electronic stapler. It went thump all day long.
What I learned: the employment history of even a unionized worker at a large manufacturer such as Boeing is up and down based on the vagaries of the market. Unionization kept workers in the loop, while market forces sent them home or brought them back. Tomorrow was never guaranteed.
An object lesson for a college kid like me.
It was the dawn of the computer era when data was entered not by keystrokes directly into the machine but indirectly via punch cards then fed into a card reader to transfer data into the guts of the machine.
At Boeing new hires entered their personal information on just such a card in a way to make it readily visible to a key puncher and simplify her work. But there was no way at that dawning age to collate information within the computer should a person be laid off and then hired again cyclically over time.
The multiplying numbers of cards were put in those shallow filing boxes and just stuck some place, until it occurred to the higher ups that these were the legal documents establishing the insurance history of company employees and as such needed to be collated in some way.
Enter the summer hires. Day in and day out we shuffled through box after box of cards, pulling them together and creating a historic file of the hiring history of Employee X and Y and Z. We'd staple like cards together using an electronic stapler. It went thump all day long.
What I learned: the employment history of even a unionized worker at a large manufacturer such as Boeing is up and down based on the vagaries of the market. Unionization kept workers in the loop, while market forces sent them home or brought them back. Tomorrow was never guaranteed.
An object lesson for a college kid like me.
8
My sister and I worked every vacation from when we were 16 till we graduated from college as temporary minimum wage clerks in an un-airconditioned office in downtown Philadelphia. We were paying our college tuition; the other temps were raising their families on that wage, and did this job year round. They taught us about the Real World (and urged us to stay in school). I've waitressed,delivered papers, answered phones, shelved books in the college library - and have insisted that our kids work in jobs that require that same education about what minimum wage feels like, what unpleasant customers feel like, all that Real World truth I learned from my colleagues on those jobs. So they've delivered papers, shoveled snow and raked lawns, waited table, clerked in mini-marts, and so on. It's an important part of learning to grow up and deal with basics, no matter what life dishes out.
10
Summer jobs & internships can be invaluable; the the experience carries with you the rest of your life.
1.Helps a college kid in the proverbial sophomore slump to stay in school to graduate, and in order to do that, must study & do well.
One daughter hated having "sticky fingers" ever since she was a small child. For 2 summers she worked for an ice cream store, where she had sticky fingers all day. She said when she was discouraged in college, she remembered those sticky fingers & crazy managers and went back to studying.
2. Learn how businesses & organizations functions--for better and worse.
Another daughter worked at Wegmans supermarket through high school & college. It the #1 supermarket (Con. Rep.). She is now running her own business.
3. Discovering your niche and what you want to do.
Daughter in #1 also worked with children in a local park program, and went on to earn Ph.D. in child development. A third daughter worked in an assisted living facility in high school & college; she earned her Ph.D. in gerontology, teaches & and does research on caregiving.
4. Realizing what you don't want to do, though you thought you did, and shifting gears to follow a new dream for a different career.
Daughter in #2 majored in English and art, got her dream internship in a large publishing house in the children's book section and couldn't stand the corporate culture, esp. the alpha men; she runs her own business.
Experience--good & bad--is the key to learning & growing
1.Helps a college kid in the proverbial sophomore slump to stay in school to graduate, and in order to do that, must study & do well.
One daughter hated having "sticky fingers" ever since she was a small child. For 2 summers she worked for an ice cream store, where she had sticky fingers all day. She said when she was discouraged in college, she remembered those sticky fingers & crazy managers and went back to studying.
2. Learn how businesses & organizations functions--for better and worse.
Another daughter worked at Wegmans supermarket through high school & college. It the #1 supermarket (Con. Rep.). She is now running her own business.
3. Discovering your niche and what you want to do.
Daughter in #1 also worked with children in a local park program, and went on to earn Ph.D. in child development. A third daughter worked in an assisted living facility in high school & college; she earned her Ph.D. in gerontology, teaches & and does research on caregiving.
4. Realizing what you don't want to do, though you thought you did, and shifting gears to follow a new dream for a different career.
Daughter in #2 majored in English and art, got her dream internship in a large publishing house in the children's book section and couldn't stand the corporate culture, esp. the alpha men; she runs her own business.
Experience--good & bad--is the key to learning & growing
14
The last mindless job I had was the summer between high school and my freshman year at college, working in my dad's laundromat. I did the whole gamut: I swept, mopped, folded people's laundry, helped repair machines, and perfected my long stand. But toward the end of my first year at college, I was hired as a guitar teacher at the local music store, and I worked there and played music through college and the first few years of grad school. I believe that I probably had at least as many valuable experiences in my mindful job as I would have had in mindless ones, leading me to conclude that late adolescence may be a critical period for learning valuable life lessons.
It is probably not a coincidence that this period is also near the peak of the celebrated “reminiscence bump”, several years at the threshold of adulthood which are remembered better than any other period of the lifespan. So, in the end, it may not matter what these kids do: whatever it is, they will extract meaningful memories from it, and those memories are likely to remain with them the rest of their days.
It is probably not a coincidence that this period is also near the peak of the celebrated “reminiscence bump”, several years at the threshold of adulthood which are remembered better than any other period of the lifespan. So, in the end, it may not matter what these kids do: whatever it is, they will extract meaningful memories from it, and those memories are likely to remain with them the rest of their days.
16
This may be the purest bit of nostalgia I have read from Jennifer Boylan--a columnist who specializes in brightening the aura of the recent past. Why? She describes a condition that no longer exists. The percentage of employed 16-19 year-olds hovers around 25%, nearly half of where it was just ten years ago, lower than the Great Depression. Minimum wage jobs in the "official economy"-- romanticized in classic American teen films such as 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' and 'Pretty in Pink'--are being done by a much older demographic, who have effectively been crushed by the deindustrialization of our country. Even those opportunities which prepare one for an entry level position by way of internship and assistantships are effectively being pushed on older and older demographics--those with postgraduates degrees and beyond.
The economy simply can't absorb our working-age populace, so we put them in a state of permanent deferral through these temporary and/or exploitative positions. The counterpoint column should be called: The Disaster of Mindless Economic Policy.
The economy simply can't absorb our working-age populace, so we put them in a state of permanent deferral through these temporary and/or exploitative positions. The counterpoint column should be called: The Disaster of Mindless Economic Policy.
7
I was recruited by a family friend in 1969, just after Woodstock, to help mow lawns in NH after his crew bailed. Never had done an outdoor chore before in my life. I was a drug-addled 20 y o who's only job experience had been a nanny & baby sitter where I learned I never wanted kids & that even respected doctors can be lecherous to a 13 y o. This landscaping job was the first time I had ever really spent much time outside, after an interior upbringing of TV [such as it was], games, books and precocious smoking & drinking to oblivious unconcerned parents. Slowly, I became observant to the natural world, first learning communities of chosen flowering plants, shrubs & trees, then their wilder cousins & then denizens of birds, butterflies & insects. I became a young naturalist & discovered a connection to the earth & my stewardship on the planet. That was good medicine for this suburban protegee of the superficial. A great educational bargain for minimum wage which thwarted my gravitational spiral into a ticket to a wonder world I strove to decode & revere. I became a gardener & tuned to landscape design, an awareness that had skewed my eye for a lifetime. I was so fortunate to have discovered birding back when the world was still so full of bird song in spring only now to mourn the quieter & diminished sitings. And looking at the world through binoculars was a better trip than LSD any day & I thank that lawn mowing job for pulling me out of my obtuseness to the natural world.
9
Hooray for Summer jobs like the ones Ms. Boylan described. Mine were as varied and sometimes mundane. Mostly waitressing and Office worker; one time I taught Tap dancing for the Rec Dept. in San Diego. Taught me oh so much of Life & People and Value.
Mindless summer job for you.
For others what they do for a living.
For others what they do for a living.
18
So glad to hear your trip down memory lane. A shame you didn't use this space to talk about the need for summer jobs for high school kids in both rural and urban areas. They are hard to come by, Much harder than you and I experience. It's great to write self indulgent pieces. Thanks for sharing this one. I enjoyed your self indulgence
5
From my experiences working on the "other" side of the counter, I learned (1) what a wide range of behaviors to expect from the public and (2) to ALWAYS treat those working behind the counter with respect, knowing what they often have to endure from the public.
13
Ah! Summer jobs on the Jersey Shore. I always enjoyed the days on the beach, then off to work (restaurant, hospital, factory, etc.), then catching up with friends back on the beach late at night to discuss the philosophy of life.
2
These mindless jobs teach us many great lessons in life. For some reason over time we have turned these mindless jobs into our careers. Good hard work for little money teaches the average. On the other hand, many have turned these jobs into something they were never meant to be. If you are satisfied with low wages and unskilled work, fine, just don't require the employer to have the same mindset. There was a time in my younger days when I lived in a car because that was all I owned. One of the best life lessons I ever experienced. It was so bad that I decided that I would never live in a car again no matter what I did, and I never did. Stop looking at low wage jobs as the end rather then a step along the way to a better job.
Shine, Cut, Lift, Shovel, Clean, Paint, etc., etc. It was all good experience. However my experience was a little different than yours evidently. I never had any illusions of class privilege, my family had aspirations to middle class. Also, while some of it was mindless, my mistakes gave me an appreciation for work that to many seems mundane, and a respect for those who perform such work with dignity and competency.
1
Landscaping crew, grocery store clerk, house painter...the graduation and a gig as as Marine Corps warrior in the mid 60's (Remember those years !) then to college, grad school, and the so called career. Now I putter about, play some golf, kayak and ponder what it all meant. Each and every job in those earlier years taught me something about responsibility, duty, and in some cases, inhumanity, but all of them contributed to my growth as a person and I am a better person, I hope, for all of those experiences. Nice little article....I've forwarded it on to my just graduated UVM son..he too has had his share of summer jobs.
1
My favorite summer job was a few miles south of Margate in Ocean City, NJ. Working at the Flanders hotel which was an old-fashioned establishment. As houseboy, my job mainly consisted of operating the service elevator, vacuuming the lobbies, cleaning toilets, and delivering fresh towels to guests (not precisely in that order).
We worked odd hours usually having the morning or afternoon off to go to the beach. One afternoon, late in August, with a hurricane passing by Bermuda, the surf kicked up huge, slow breaking waves. A couple of guys I worked with and I body surfed those salty waves until exhaustion. Then napped on towels over the sand.
I would give up a lot to live that summer one more time.
We worked odd hours usually having the morning or afternoon off to go to the beach. One afternoon, late in August, with a hurricane passing by Bermuda, the surf kicked up huge, slow breaking waves. A couple of guys I worked with and I body surfed those salty waves until exhaustion. Then napped on towels over the sand.
I would give up a lot to live that summer one more time.
5
if only...
memory holds many failed tries at asking faculty colleagues at several institutions (and by extention, congressmen, judges and all of the executive and chief operating class), to give one month a year (or equivalent hours) to such jobs, none of which could carry any authority - no dispatching, planning, scheduling, collateral use of influence or expertise, etc., just, as with mr russo, holding on to the jackhammer, driving the truck, hoeing the row, slinging the hash, and so on....professor boylan is too young to have known victor butterfield, once president of wesleyan, who we often saw taking a turn mowing the football/baseball fields.
memory holds many failed tries at asking faculty colleagues at several institutions (and by extention, congressmen, judges and all of the executive and chief operating class), to give one month a year (or equivalent hours) to such jobs, none of which could carry any authority - no dispatching, planning, scheduling, collateral use of influence or expertise, etc., just, as with mr russo, holding on to the jackhammer, driving the truck, hoeing the row, slinging the hash, and so on....professor boylan is too young to have known victor butterfield, once president of wesleyan, who we often saw taking a turn mowing the football/baseball fields.
1
I've been working since age 6 at character building jobs. As a child and teen jobs included picking cotton ($1.00 per hundred weight picked, which increased to $3.00 in high school), harvesting and preparing tobacco for sale (a fat $5.00 a day; never smoked-I know too much), gathering, washing, and packing eggs at a 25,000 farm of housed, free range chickens (they lay eggs all over the house, not just the nests; I still handle eggs in 3s and insist on small ends down).
I was thrilled to "graduate" to college where I worked in the library typing Dewey Decimal index cards, setting up key cabinets (where I learned to read blue prints), and purging files for the physical plant operations (learned how to set up file systems).
My brothers-in-law held great paying summer jobs as teens and had fabulous tans to boot, pouring concrete for a pool company. Another worked at a funeral home and 25 years later made sure his son in college stuck it out one summer plowing chicken parts into farms for fertilizer.
Every one of us finished college, worked full time, and are law abiding tax paying citizens. Some of us are in our early years of retirement and thinking about what fun jobs we can do now - because we have the option. America has given us far more opportunities than any of our ancestral countries would have in the 20th century.
I was thrilled to "graduate" to college where I worked in the library typing Dewey Decimal index cards, setting up key cabinets (where I learned to read blue prints), and purging files for the physical plant operations (learned how to set up file systems).
My brothers-in-law held great paying summer jobs as teens and had fabulous tans to boot, pouring concrete for a pool company. Another worked at a funeral home and 25 years later made sure his son in college stuck it out one summer plowing chicken parts into farms for fertilizer.
Every one of us finished college, worked full time, and are law abiding tax paying citizens. Some of us are in our early years of retirement and thinking about what fun jobs we can do now - because we have the option. America has given us far more opportunities than any of our ancestral countries would have in the 20th century.
2
My mother, whose mother ran a girls' school, worked as a waitress while she was in college in the late 1930's--she declared that everyone should have a service position at some point in their lives, because it made them understand what it was like to be in that position.
My son, the twenty-something lawyer, still has the soprano saxophone he bought with money he earned mowing lawns and baby-sitting when he was 14. The school where he got his law degree is world-reknowned: but those $35 monthly payments on the sax might be a more important achievement.
My son, the twenty-something lawyer, still has the soprano saxophone he bought with money he earned mowing lawns and baby-sitting when he was 14. The school where he got his law degree is world-reknowned: but those $35 monthly payments on the sax might be a more important achievement.
4
"These jobs made me aware of class privilege in a way that my hours in Econ 101 surely did not."
Very well said. My summers cutting lawns (I did a better job than the author did) and bagging groceries showed me why I was in college and needed to finish.
I worry about the kids I teach now. Most of them have never held a job other than "prepare 24/7 to get into the right college." Many do terribly on their first paid jobs. On the other hand, a college job for some spending money during my junior and senior years (imagine parents NOT giving you an allowance! Horrors!) corresponded with a higher GPA for me and better time-management.
Very well said. My summers cutting lawns (I did a better job than the author did) and bagging groceries showed me why I was in college and needed to finish.
I worry about the kids I teach now. Most of them have never held a job other than "prepare 24/7 to get into the right college." Many do terribly on their first paid jobs. On the other hand, a college job for some spending money during my junior and senior years (imagine parents NOT giving you an allowance! Horrors!) corresponded with a higher GPA for me and better time-management.
5
Wonderful column.
There is dignity in all work from selling t shirts to chasing down asteroids.
There is dignity in all work from selling t shirts to chasing down asteroids.
7
Apparently you haven't heard that the "unpaid internship" is now illegal. The powers that be have decided that it is corporate abuse to employ people in internships without paying them, even if the young person gets far more out of the trade than the employer. Oh well, I guess those powers know better than we do. That's why we ask them to represent us.
With the state of unemployment, as well as wealth hoarding by the owner classes, as well as worker rights it is completely unacceptable to not pay workers. The unpaid internship is an invitation to abuse as well as discrimination towards groups who simply cannot afford to work for free with the nebulous and oft unfulfilled promise of future employment. And no, there is not much of value to be learned making copies and coffee.
This is really a nice piece of writing. I had more than one mindless and boring job as well as heavy manual labor before and during my college days. They enabled me to commute to schools in my home state and incur no debt. And they gave me perspective on choices I had to make as well as financial responsibility (something I wish our legislators had). Life turned out pretty well for me and I am proud to have had those experiences.
1
Back in 1975, I spent the summer before attending Cornell making guacamole at Anita's Chili Parlor, a Mexican restaurant owned by my father's neighbor. I had to be at work at 6 AM to prepare for serving lunch. There was no air conditioning in the kitchen and my eyes would sting from chopping the 20 lbs of onions needed for the recipe. All the other employees were immigrants from El Salvador who barely spoke English. Many of them traveled over an hour to get to work. I couldn't wait for the summer to end so I could go off to college. But even then, I knew that my summer experience had given me insights no academic program could impart. As the movement for a $15 living wage gains ground, I often think of that summer. Until you've had a job like that, you can't really know how incredibly hard people work at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder for the little money they earn.
10
My summer jobs (factory labor, truck driver, retail sales) not only taught me valuable things about life; they provided a vocational "via negativa," confirming for me those types of jobs and industries i did not feel called to pursue for a career.
A valuable and fun look back on a mindless summer job! These jobs are what provides the valued memories, hopefully fun times that high school or college youngsters work. There is the basic responsibilities learned, working with others and otherwise getting out of one's comfort zone to take care of the tasks assigned. Sometimes the experiences are extreme or unwelcomed and that could be a positive to motivate youngster to work harder in their studies pursue areas that are more to their liking. These jobs build character and savings that help with their expenses and learn the value how hard it is to earn a living - but again hopefully having fun is a good part of this time of your life!
Most of the successful people I know had several menial summer jobs. They teach you the basics of work: showing up on time, getting along with coworkers, etc. But the most impotant lesson is that you don't want to be stuck in them forever and therefore you continue with higher education and pursuing a more meaningful career. That lightbulb went off in my head one summer sweeping floors in a dirty steelmill in Cleveland Ohio.
10
How about awarding SERIOUS $ credits for gov't service to students in college or trade schools ( hospitals, forestry, social work , even military reserves? My kids grew up in a beach community within walking distance to Salt Creek; I kept 'em working in the family business (yeah, grumbling, moaning etc) and thank goodness they acquitted themselves in their summer work (yacht maintenance ).They are both professionals:one is a Phd in chemistry , the other is an teacher. I am borders line uphoric. All work is noble.
These jobs are emphatically NOT MINDLESS, and the people who work them full time have minds just like those of us who are fortunate enough to have college educations. In my work washing pots, collecting garbage, pumping gas, selling fish, etc.etc., I encountered more interesting people than the majority of those I meet at philosophy conferences.
17
Delivering newspapers. Driving around a warehouse and "picking and packing" hardware store orders for distribution each afternoon. Stuffing cardboard and refuse into an incinerator for hours on end. Washing dishes with tatooed alcoholics. Counting money as a bank teller. Sorting mail to earn pre-sort postage discounts for the bank where I worked. Bagging groceries. Earning a "promotion" to key the purchase amounts into a cash register.
At a college visit day six years ago, the admissions director said that they see very few babysitters in current applications. More of our kids are in math prep or refining their lacrosse shot or interning in compliance departments, and you wonder whether all those years lost with no interaction with other social classes or menial tasks will be good for their ultimate employer.
Those mindless summers were idyllic. And it is a shame how far we go to help our kids avoid them.
Our son, unique in the family, has washed dishes and delivered meals to customers at a "casual dining" chain, hearing comments like "I 'defecate' more than that amount of macaroni...what a rip-off"...this in an affluent suburb. And next week he heads into the woods for eight weeks of fairly hard labor followed by evenings with a guitar at a summer camp. At this point, I think the experiences are serving him very well.
I graduated college with $10,000 in student loans thirty-five years ago. No so different from today's $30,000. Why do we coddle so much?
At a college visit day six years ago, the admissions director said that they see very few babysitters in current applications. More of our kids are in math prep or refining their lacrosse shot or interning in compliance departments, and you wonder whether all those years lost with no interaction with other social classes or menial tasks will be good for their ultimate employer.
Those mindless summers were idyllic. And it is a shame how far we go to help our kids avoid them.
Our son, unique in the family, has washed dishes and delivered meals to customers at a "casual dining" chain, hearing comments like "I 'defecate' more than that amount of macaroni...what a rip-off"...this in an affluent suburb. And next week he heads into the woods for eight weeks of fairly hard labor followed by evenings with a guitar at a summer camp. At this point, I think the experiences are serving him very well.
I graduated college with $10,000 in student loans thirty-five years ago. No so different from today's $30,000. Why do we coddle so much?
6
Loved this article. One summer, while in college, I worked as a janitor at a steel mill - quite an eye-opener for a 20 year-old woman in the 1970's. It was hot, dirty and hard work. I was the first female the mill had hired since the end of WWII - I was out to prove something to these old guys in my shop.
But it the end, I was the one who learned some important lessons from my co-workers - pride in my work no matter what the task, everyone has hopes and dreams, respect for all forms of honest work.
The comments I heard from almost all of them -1 - "I don't want my kids doing this job. I'm going to make sure they go to college and have a better life." and "Stay in school."
I look back on that job from 40 years ago with fond memories.
But it the end, I was the one who learned some important lessons from my co-workers - pride in my work no matter what the task, everyone has hopes and dreams, respect for all forms of honest work.
The comments I heard from almost all of them -1 - "I don't want my kids doing this job. I'm going to make sure they go to college and have a better life." and "Stay in school."
I look back on that job from 40 years ago with fond memories.
11
Sometimes (maybe often?) a summer job while in college that is totally unrelated to your field of interest (or actually any academic field) is actually helpful in another way. Three examples: One of my sorority roommates waited tables at a resort; the other picked strawberries and other fruits in NJ. Both of them saved up enough from that work to spend a month in Europe between the Jr and Sr year. (They were both in Occ. Therapy.) Granted - they both lived at home in the summers. OTOH, I worked as a camp counselor and swimming instructor at a YMCA camp-basically almost no pay, but all R&B, and no burden on my family. After a mentally exhausting academic year, this was just the ticket for coming back ready to go back to the grind of academic work, and the necessity to complete. I'm talking about the late '50's, when 'working your way through college' was still a reasonable option.
2
Great piece! There's a lot to be said for doing as many different types of work as possible when we are young.
By the time I was thirty I had been a lawn mower, a tennis pro, an English teacher in Spain, a house painter, a farmer (Peace Corps), an editor of a government newsletter, an office temp, a construction worker, an orange grove laborer, a speech writer, and, of course, an actor. I met all kinds of wonderful characters and came to understand a broad cross section of our society.
Looking back, I see how extraordinarily lucky I was to have been able to experience so much of the world at such a young age. I learned a tremendous amount about human nature and I have a lot of great memories that make for fun stories.
It's sad that young people today submit to the pressure of dialing in to a career even before they get to college. I can't help but think that they lose something that makes life wonderful.
I think we live in an age where taking time to explore the world and the self is a very smart thing. It gives a person the time to live fully and explore, to think about what it means to be alive, to be a human being. Something that we have drifted away from the past few decades and led to such narrow destructive short-term thinking.
So, go forth. Hit the road and stick out your thumb. Life can be an adventure and still serve a larger purpose.
By the time I was thirty I had been a lawn mower, a tennis pro, an English teacher in Spain, a house painter, a farmer (Peace Corps), an editor of a government newsletter, an office temp, a construction worker, an orange grove laborer, a speech writer, and, of course, an actor. I met all kinds of wonderful characters and came to understand a broad cross section of our society.
Looking back, I see how extraordinarily lucky I was to have been able to experience so much of the world at such a young age. I learned a tremendous amount about human nature and I have a lot of great memories that make for fun stories.
It's sad that young people today submit to the pressure of dialing in to a career even before they get to college. I can't help but think that they lose something that makes life wonderful.
I think we live in an age where taking time to explore the world and the self is a very smart thing. It gives a person the time to live fully and explore, to think about what it means to be alive, to be a human being. Something that we have drifted away from the past few decades and led to such narrow destructive short-term thinking.
So, go forth. Hit the road and stick out your thumb. Life can be an adventure and still serve a larger purpose.
2
"There I was," bucking bales of alfalfa in a barn loft at over 100F. The farmer, trying to maximize his harvest in case rain came, cranked down the baler late in the afternoon so those were the heaviest of the day while we were totally used up. We all left in utter exhaustion. The only thing I learned was an utmost respect for those who do hard manual labor every day to earn a living.
5
I like the grave-digger job. Always thought it should go to kids with strong backs, yet I’ve buried a lot of people and all I see are older guys with shovels who have been doing it for decades. But we learned from Dexter that the best place to hide a freshly-killed corpse was UNDERNEATH the lowered coffin at a funeral – just cover it with a little dirt, let the coffin be lowered and you have the perfect murder.
MANY of us had endless meaningless jobs when very young, and they didn’t noticeably ruin us. I’m not actually sure they provided us with an opportunity to build character, any more than, say, the jobs Jennifer’s sons are working this summer; but structured work at anything builds useful habits and, if they’re paid jobs, some element of independence.
As Anne Hathaway’s character Andy Sachs toasted in “The Devil Wears Prada” … “Here’s to the jobs that pay the rent”.
MANY of us had endless meaningless jobs when very young, and they didn’t noticeably ruin us. I’m not actually sure they provided us with an opportunity to build character, any more than, say, the jobs Jennifer’s sons are working this summer; but structured work at anything builds useful habits and, if they’re paid jobs, some element of independence.
As Anne Hathaway’s character Andy Sachs toasted in “The Devil Wears Prada” … “Here’s to the jobs that pay the rent”.
2
...and I have a young friend (age 10) who has a successful dog-walking business in Toronto. She loves animals, gets her business by word-of-mouth, lives hear a good walking park, and over many months amassed a fortune of $2,000. She was able to buy a TV for her teenage brother and herself, since her family didn't have (or want) one. They still regulate watching hours a bit, but she will forever be her big brother's hero. And she gave a speech at school about starting one's own business.
3
There are no summer jobs. They are all filled by adult immigrants or the ranks of the desperate unemployed. The kid who once would have spent the summer working at McDonald's is buying from the 54 year old Honduran national who is sending money back to his family so he can bring them over in a few years. That spot mowing the lawn is also filled by one of the many (usually Hispanic) men who line up bright and early outside of Home Depot, waiting to be snagged by the contractor of the day. Temp work, which was my standby, is now given to the many men and women with college degrees and no prospects of full time work.
Your writing is lovely. Your perspective is way off.
Your writing is lovely. Your perspective is way off.
19
College. 1969. I had to pay my dad back. He hired a lawyer for me and bailed me out of jail in Corvallis, Oregon for "possession of marijuana and frequenting a place where narcotic drugs are illegally kept and used". I called him from jail and breaking into tears said..."I'm in jail", To which he responded, " I thought you were in college?". I slaved away all summer at the American Canning Company on Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland CA where we were canning peaches.
My job was to keep the conveyor belts clear and shovel any "food" that fell off the belts into boxes and dump them in the garbage. It was a hard, wet, dirty and sticky job. I earned the 1800.00 I owed my dad, gave it to him, and quit. Lesson learned.
My job was to keep the conveyor belts clear and shovel any "food" that fell off the belts into boxes and dump them in the garbage. It was a hard, wet, dirty and sticky job. I earned the 1800.00 I owed my dad, gave it to him, and quit. Lesson learned.
5
Thank you for this fine article. It brought back memories of my youth when I took temporary Manpower jobs that were both back breaking and character-building.
1
Jennifer,
I really appreciated this observation. Like you, I did any number of "mindless," and thoroughly satisfying summer jobs (lawn mowing, life guarding, table bussing, car waxing, dock building) during my high school and college years, and like you, I feel that I learned plenty about life from these experiences. The waitresses told me I was the best dishwasher they'd ever had at Ballard's Inn on Block Island. But that was in 1971 and someone may have stolen my crown since then.
I really appreciated this observation. Like you, I did any number of "mindless," and thoroughly satisfying summer jobs (lawn mowing, life guarding, table bussing, car waxing, dock building) during my high school and college years, and like you, I feel that I learned plenty about life from these experiences. The waitresses told me I was the best dishwasher they'd ever had at Ballard's Inn on Block Island. But that was in 1971 and someone may have stolen my crown since then.
3
Working at mindless jobs turns out to be an excellent preparation for the world of professional work, where there is plenty to do that is neither glamorous, nor fun, but highly necessary. I've been a landscaper, dish washer, dairy farmer, and commercial fisherman and it's turned out to be an excellent preparation for the world of professional business work; no pile of onerous stupid paperwork can intimidate after you've faced down stacks of filthy dishes at midnight, or walked into a barn at 5 am to clean up after 150 heifers. The ability to work through tedium gives you another gear, somehow...you learn just to get going and get it done.
10
My summer jobs, and jobs at fast food restaurants also were a large force that helped to shape the work ethic that I carry to this day. My wife also had a similar experience. I will encourage my daughter and any other young person to get a part time job while they are in high school or going to college, the lessons that they teach are far more profound and will outlast anything that can be taught in a classroom.
6
The harder the work, the less the monetary compensation, the more the eventual reward will become. These first jobs are educational for mind, body, and soul and are an incalculable advantage for building and shaping one's character, intelligence, and most importantly, for honing one's positive outlook. For my one and only summer job I stained huge cowhides in a 6 by 4 foot non-ventilated room for 8 hours a day at the minimum wage of $1.25 per hour. After that summer I dedicated my life towards one over-arching goal which I happily achieved in a timely manner: Early retirement.
2
I got my first regular (part time) job as a high school senior from an uncle who recently passed away. At that time (1964), the minimum wage was $1.25 per hour. After graduating high school, I stayed with the firm full time, working through the summer. I asked for a quarter raise that fall, figuring that as a high school graduate, I was now worth a raise, but was turned down. I left the firm, getting another job which more than doubled my salary. Such are the pitfalls of working for tight-fisted relatives!
To paraphrase what Mike Ditka said of the late Chicago Bears owner George Halas, "he threw those quarters (nickels) around like they were manhole covers!"
To paraphrase what Mike Ditka said of the late Chicago Bears owner George Halas, "he threw those quarters (nickels) around like they were manhole covers!"
Everybody should have some jobs while growing up that result in their feet being tired or their shirt being sweaty at the end of the day. I think it results in a greater appreciation for the simple rewards of being a modern "office-based professional", and a stronger work ethic. I don't look too kindly on the resume of a newly minted college graduate who has never held an "unskilled job".
I'd also add that while it is unfortunate that college tuition these days is too high to fund entirely from working part-time, as was possible a generation ago, I like the idea of a kid making at least some contribution to funding his or her college education.
I'd also add that while it is unfortunate that college tuition these days is too high to fund entirely from working part-time, as was possible a generation ago, I like the idea of a kid making at least some contribution to funding his or her college education.
4
These jobs made me aware of class privilege in a way that my hours in Econ 101 surely did not. I remember getting back to Wesleyan after my summer at the bank and gushing to a teller, “I was a teller this summer, too!” only to realize, as she glowered at me, that what had been a summer lark for me was, for her, the continuing reality of her working life.
What would you have written if people like this teller had been your audience? What philosophical or theological "governing narrative" would suffice for your words to be heard as encouragement to such folk? Run through the options. Which ones are capable of revealing that such "reality of... working life" is really meaningful? I like the stone cutter's lot who knows that he's building a cathedral.
What would you have written if people like this teller had been your audience? What philosophical or theological "governing narrative" would suffice for your words to be heard as encouragement to such folk? Run through the options. Which ones are capable of revealing that such "reality of... working life" is really meaningful? I like the stone cutter's lot who knows that he's building a cathedral.
3
Good writing. Thanks.
My summer jobs were in a dairy -- getting milk products ready during the night for sale after dawn.
I learned a lot, including about myself. What was key was that I could handle an adult's job by applying myself. It paid off handsomely over the 60 years since.
My summer jobs were in a dairy -- getting milk products ready during the night for sale after dawn.
I learned a lot, including about myself. What was key was that I could handle an adult's job by applying myself. It paid off handsomely over the 60 years since.
What a wonderful article. I too had some interesting summer jobs such as dumping tomatoes in a water flume for 12 hours x six days a week. It not only helped me make money for college, but built an understanding of how to apply myself for an extended period of time doing work I did not love. This ability came in handy later in my work life when my co-workers might be "bored", and I just kept plodding away until the task was done. This should be required reading for all parents of teenagers and teenagers too.
1
First off, I find the term "mindless job" offensive. We can not all be Professors of English. As a young man, I had some uninteresting work like packing produce into plastic bags in a supermarket and working in a pocketbook factory until I got lucky and got a job as a swimming instructor at a baseball camp. However, the thing about these jobs that made it worthwhile to me was getting to know my adult co-workers. Many co-workers did these jobs full-time, were married with children, mortgages, and all the concerns of living with a low income. There's a certain elitism that evolves as one works his way through 12 grades of public school where only about 25% were college bound while getting tracked into college prep courses. One forgets that there are many very nice people who haven't the good fortune to be born with significantly above average IQ's. Working these jobs means becoming reacquainted with folks who in first grade were put in reading group 3 and disappeared while you were put in reading group 1. Our socialization included being trained to discriminate on the basis of academic achievement. My experiences in these less interesting jobs made me ever mindful to be respectful of all people particularly those who work those difficult, physically tiring, and perhaps uninteresting jobs. They work, they worry, they parent, and they pay taxes. And they are not mindless; they know who they are, what they do, and just want to be a little more financially secure.
33
M.I.Estner, you nailed it! Your reading group 1 and reading group 3 reference really brought it back to me, one of the last of America's draftees who, with a poor draft number, ended up as RA (Regular Army) in 1970 with the reading group 3 folks whom I hadn't really had much contact with since (about) 1st grade. All of my (smarter) draft-endangered college friends had gone National Guard. I just missed Vietnam, but it was an eye-opening couple years of "mindless" (military) jobs nonetheless... that served me well, looking back on it 45 years later.
To be honest, I find the tone of this piece--with its references to "mindless" and "stupid" jobs--a bit condescending. Selling hot dogs, working at a construction site, as an office temp, as a messenger, selling T-shirts, clearing brush, cleaning swimming pools, mowing lawns: obviously, none of these jobs requires a college degree. But the people who do these jobs have minds too, and their work is just as necessary as that of a college professor.
Although the author says these jobs made her aware of her class privilege, I do not get the feeling that they gave her any meaningful insight into the lives of those who do not enjoy such class privilege. They seem to have been a lark to her, especially the stint at the bank. Having a drawer that was constantly "over" or "under," giving customers their money in "clever" combinations of coins and bills, leaving $10,000 lying around in the lounge while going to get coffee creamer? A person who needs a job, who depends on the job to pay rent and the bills, would never behave that way or laugh about it retrospectively. I bet the other tellers breathed a sigh of relief when summer was finally over....
Although the author says these jobs made her aware of her class privilege, I do not get the feeling that they gave her any meaningful insight into the lives of those who do not enjoy such class privilege. They seem to have been a lark to her, especially the stint at the bank. Having a drawer that was constantly "over" or "under," giving customers their money in "clever" combinations of coins and bills, leaving $10,000 lying around in the lounge while going to get coffee creamer? A person who needs a job, who depends on the job to pay rent and the bills, would never behave that way or laugh about it retrospectively. I bet the other tellers breathed a sigh of relief when summer was finally over....
161
I wouldn't know. By the time I was in the 9th grade, I acquired a full time 40 hour a week job after school (not all at one place) and always had one through my undergraduate degree. It was graduate school when I got to stop working a full time job and going to school full time. After college, there were a couple of short term jobs (e.g. roofing, ditch digging, concrete construction) before getting hired in a job that matched my STEM degrees.
2
I have always hated work of any kind, although I've been successful in many careers.
Work demands responsibility, time and effort I'd much rather spend on myself and my own selfish needs.
Thus, I resisted work of any type when I was a kid, instead spending huge amounts of time at the beach, surfing. Sure, I never had any money, but I had a cranking good time.
Fortunately for me, Mom never bugged me much about it, after she discovered I was stuffing the Newsday papers from the paper route down the sewer so I could hurry up and get to the beach instead. Waves were breaking without me on them!
I wouldn't give that up for anything and I'm a big believer that there's plenty of time to work as you get older and get absorbed into the body of Landru and become yet another drone in the mindless crush of the Karmic wheel of capitalism.
So my advice to any parent and youth is to put off work as long as you can. Minimize the amount of work and maximize the amount of play, then when you go corporate, remember to "Minimize the amount of work while maximizing the amount of pay".
It's the mantra to remember in this age of disposable human labor, where the employer considers you a number, not a person.
You'll never regret the free time -- never -- as life enters the time warp acceleration mode after you turn 25 or so and "work" becomes your "life".
Work demands responsibility, time and effort I'd much rather spend on myself and my own selfish needs.
Thus, I resisted work of any type when I was a kid, instead spending huge amounts of time at the beach, surfing. Sure, I never had any money, but I had a cranking good time.
Fortunately for me, Mom never bugged me much about it, after she discovered I was stuffing the Newsday papers from the paper route down the sewer so I could hurry up and get to the beach instead. Waves were breaking without me on them!
I wouldn't give that up for anything and I'm a big believer that there's plenty of time to work as you get older and get absorbed into the body of Landru and become yet another drone in the mindless crush of the Karmic wheel of capitalism.
So my advice to any parent and youth is to put off work as long as you can. Minimize the amount of work and maximize the amount of play, then when you go corporate, remember to "Minimize the amount of work while maximizing the amount of pay".
It's the mantra to remember in this age of disposable human labor, where the employer considers you a number, not a person.
You'll never regret the free time -- never -- as life enters the time warp acceleration mode after you turn 25 or so and "work" becomes your "life".
10
Or you could do as my uncle told me, work hard when you are young (play as well) sock the dough away, then when you are older - say 40 ish, have fun.
Save 50K a year for 20 years, then take your million, rent a place on the beach, surf, eat and drink...... or go union -Become a cop, retire at 40 with full pension. same with many union jobs.
Time is not free. Got to have a car to get to the surf, got to feed the car, got to eat, got to travel, got to sleep in an enclosed space - those all cost money unless you walk everywhere, sleep under a bridge and dumpster dive. Girls love really dirty poor guys too........
Save 50K a year for 20 years, then take your million, rent a place on the beach, surf, eat and drink...... or go union -Become a cop, retire at 40 with full pension. same with many union jobs.
Time is not free. Got to have a car to get to the surf, got to feed the car, got to eat, got to travel, got to sleep in an enclosed space - those all cost money unless you walk everywhere, sleep under a bridge and dumpster dive. Girls love really dirty poor guys too........
1
You had me at "the great Disco Summer." I was 14 in '77, a few years away from my first summer jobs.
My summer jobs were in offices where the morale was pretty low. One should learn from such jobs and consider whether you can get a degree that doesn't require you to sit for 8 hours a day doing mindless work.
However, a degree guarantees nothing nowadays.
My summer jobs were in offices where the morale was pretty low. One should learn from such jobs and consider whether you can get a degree that doesn't require you to sit for 8 hours a day doing mindless work.
However, a degree guarantees nothing nowadays.
11
The only thing a degree from an American college guarantees you is a large student loan you will have to pay off regardless of whether or not you end up getting and keeping that "highly skilled job" the college degree was supposed to guarantee. About 250 highly skilled IT workers were fired and replaced by H-1B visa holders from India recently.
2
Two of my best summer jobs --
1. Police dispatcher in a small suburb outside of Cleveland. Taught me a lot about human nature, good and bad.
2. Maintenance guy in a machine shop. Taught me what it was like for my Dad (a machinist in a large factory) to go to work year in and year out in order to put my sister and me through college.
I wouldn't trade either experience for anything!
1. Police dispatcher in a small suburb outside of Cleveland. Taught me a lot about human nature, good and bad.
2. Maintenance guy in a machine shop. Taught me what it was like for my Dad (a machinist in a large factory) to go to work year in and year out in order to put my sister and me through college.
I wouldn't trade either experience for anything!
25
I never had a summer job. When I grew up in Italy, it was considered a very American thing to do. We knew of summer jobs from the movies, and that was it; almost nobody I knew had one. Summer work was considered shameful, that kids of families in financial distress would do. My best friend Enzo, who was determined to make money to buy himself a cool bicycle his parents had refused to buy, went to work one summer to pump gas at the local gas station unbeknown to his parents. His father, who was the local doctor, after being told by a patient that his son was working at the gas station, went there, and yanked him away from the job. According to the mentality at the time, no well respected citizen should have his child toiling for work. The same day his father bought him the bike.
Regardless, he worked throughout his college years, and I never worked, until my first job offer after graduation. In retrospect both my friend and I grew up developing a similar good character and work ethics, being industrious, and knowing the value of work. My daughter, who grew up partly in Italy and partly in the US, had summer jobs when and where she could, and she still developed good character, and work ethics.
Putting in perspective these different experiences, all I can say is that one eventually develops a character that reflects the people around him. The fact of having early experiences may help, but it is more of a cultural factor than the reason for becoming a person of good character.
Regardless, he worked throughout his college years, and I never worked, until my first job offer after graduation. In retrospect both my friend and I grew up developing a similar good character and work ethics, being industrious, and knowing the value of work. My daughter, who grew up partly in Italy and partly in the US, had summer jobs when and where she could, and she still developed good character, and work ethics.
Putting in perspective these different experiences, all I can say is that one eventually develops a character that reflects the people around him. The fact of having early experiences may help, but it is more of a cultural factor than the reason for becoming a person of good character.
32
I worked as the low man on the totem pole of a roofing crew 50 years ago after my freshman year in college. While the rest of the crew was so hung over on Mondays that we never really started work until 10 a.m., and the TX summer heat was insufferable, I did learn just how hard some people had to work in order to survive. They were basically good people, in great physical condition and who looked out for one another in a fairly dangerous job. Learned a lot about human beings that summer.
158
Great column! Mindless summer jobs can be life-altering. Two summers working in a hospital kitchen prompted me to drop my ambition to be a physician. They also made me appreciate NOT having to do dirty, strenuous work under the supervision of martinets. Finally, I learned that work is work, meaning that what I do to earn a living was not a definition of who I am as a person; it was simply a costume that I put on.
120
A mindless summer college job is nice when you are sure that there is a job or better yet a career waiting after graduation.
Economists at the Federal Reserve of New York have demonstrate that more than 50 percent of recent college graduates are underemployed (i.e. unemployed + part-time + a job that does not require a college degree), and most jobs today are low-income/little or no benefits.
Young people today have an urgency, and significant degree of anxiety, about having getting a job and creating a career. They may not feel they have the luxury to fake a British accent selling concert t-shirts.
For too many college students, the summer jobs on the resume today directly constitute the career.
Economists at the Federal Reserve of New York have demonstrate that more than 50 percent of recent college graduates are underemployed (i.e. unemployed + part-time + a job that does not require a college degree), and most jobs today are low-income/little or no benefits.
Young people today have an urgency, and significant degree of anxiety, about having getting a job and creating a career. They may not feel they have the luxury to fake a British accent selling concert t-shirts.
For too many college students, the summer jobs on the resume today directly constitute the career.
77
"But I also wonder whether their summer jobs are as likely to build their characters as their résumés."
Jennifer, don't worry. They have you, they'll be fine.
Jennifer, don't worry. They have you, they'll be fine.
13
It's another feature of growing up that is not going to happen for most American youth. Like riding your bicycle to the reservoir, playing pickup football, baseball, basketball, stickball or simply walking to school on your own.
Maybe it's still likely in small town Colorado, New Hampshire or in a country music song.
Maybe it's still likely in small town Colorado, New Hampshire or in a country music song.
62
I put myself through my undergraduate degree roughnecking on drilling rigs in Northern Alberta. Paid great and had free room and board. Somewhat dangerous, but I only almost got killed once or twice. Also made me realize I wanted a degree so I never had to work that hard ever again in my life. Best lesson ever.
112
It's the times, not the teens. We all had jobs through the school year, too, not just summer. Now the homework load and pressure for extracurriculars have ruled that out and summer is a time for paid and/or unpaid proof that you really care about that major. Much is lost. Time will tell if much is gained.
102
I believe that if more of our future business leaders and politicians managed to escape the bubbles they seem to live in and spend some time working for a living the world would be a better place.
119
Maybe. You're assuming that empathy is transferred from situation to situation and some people carry the bubble with them.
2
The most salient point here is that children of privilege, the sons and daughter of the 'superclass,' who's grandchildren will never know what a greenstamp is, are the ones who SHOULD do summer jobs irrespective of what they are. It will force them to understand (hopefully albeit a summer job to pay for their party time), how these who rely on tips and minimum wage do live and just how hard it is for that other class of 'ordinary Americans,' who politicians have yet to define from the upper reaches of the middle class. Maybe when these kids get out into the real world, they will look at things through a different lens not of pity or handouts but of respect.
190
Force them? What is this Cuba?
1
@Lidune
A Liberal is just as likely to enforce this mind-narrowing behavior as a Conservative.
We should all look in the mirror more often. It beats the heck out of pious lambasting of each other.
Case in point: Ms. Boylan and doubtless many others who are willing to be introspective about how we whine but all pine for the Ivy degree, a life of relative ease far removed from mindless labor, and the time and internet bandwidth to criticize the 1% who didn't seem to work hard enough to earn their private jets.
A Liberal is just as likely to enforce this mind-narrowing behavior as a Conservative.
We should all look in the mirror more often. It beats the heck out of pious lambasting of each other.
Case in point: Ms. Boylan and doubtless many others who are willing to be introspective about how we whine but all pine for the Ivy degree, a life of relative ease far removed from mindless labor, and the time and internet bandwidth to criticize the 1% who didn't seem to work hard enough to earn their private jets.
For me working to pay for college it was soda jerk, lawn mower and gardener, Good Humor truck, taxi driving, grocery clerk none of which had anything to do with engineering, which is where I was headed. But I learned very early that my time in those occupations was was to be brief, a step ladder to a very different future from those of my temporary colleagues for whom taxi driving or Good Humor trucks was the forever future. I respected those poeple. They worked hard and raised families while I sailed on by to my degrees and positions of privilege.
77
It is good to see Mr. Brennan mention what Ms. Boylan ignored, the value of getting to know one's co-workers at blue-collar jobs, learning a bit ab out their lives and feelings. I had friends who never did such work express fear of the so called "working class."
I must assume the Times headline writer did not have such experiences or would not had used the rude term"mindless."
I must assume the Times headline writer did not have such experiences or would not had used the rude term"mindless."
5
From a degreeless POV I became tired of having to teach incoming graduates (usual to a position with a title) how to do their job. I rose through the ranks but that cloak of entitlement always seemed to drape over their shoulders. It was wearing. And that is a pun.
2
Thank you so much for reminding us that lousy jobs provide oh so great memories and enhance our character. As my college son complains about his boring summer internship this will help my resolve in making him stick with it.
20
Why not let him develop his own resolve?
3
Of course, there are the summer and temp jobs that were just lousy, and went on for too long. One can use character-building as a reason for only so long.
1
I had the good fortune to work summers in a small shop in Miami building aircraft and helicopter seats. (Back in the 60s there was a strong demand for helicopter seats.) Making minimum wage and some overtime I earned enough to pay my tuition and a good portion of my dorm fees for the year. Can't do that today.
54
I worked at Burger King while I was in high school. That job taught me a lot--like showing up on time, breaking down boxes so the dumpster could hold more stuff, cleaning the dining area at closing to perfection, and, most of all, service. I am, and will always be, grateful to my manager for seeing talents in me and bringing them out of me. I still remember feeling, for the first time, that there is a place for me out in the world.
106
I agree with you here. My summer jobs were pretty boring but they prepared me for the work world. I got used to saying "good morning" to people as they came in and yes, making sure I reported to work every day on time.
11
It sounds like you were mindful in a "mindless" job. How oxymoronic. Or, as in a Steinbeck character, there is room for mindfulness in all things and beauty in any job well done.
1
thank you helping to validate how I am raising my children!
9
Another thing about a kid's working behind a yogurt counter or similar kind of job is that, if he or she has been wondering whether it was worth staying in school, the experience of those kinds of jobs convinces him or her that a degree is a good idea.
59
I made my son work for me after making him quit a job that was ruining his grades in 11th grade transcript year. Two summers with me kept him working for that degree in Civil Engineering.
If you don't work the crummy jobs you won't know a good one when it comes along.
If you don't work the crummy jobs you won't know a good one when it comes along.
1
Exactly! I spent two college summers working as a toll collector with varied shifts. It was dirty; it could be scary at times (like when the bars closed at 2 a.m., or when one traveler grabbed a toll collector's arm and tried to drive away, pulling her out of the booth); and, for the women, frequent sexual harassment from travelers. It paid well but I hated it - but it sure convinced me that I needed to follow my career plans.
2
I too did many many jobs form age 14 to 32 - before I went to graduate school to become a teacher. I worked with ex convicts doing yard work (I was not a convict - it was temp work) and I was a bike messenger. I learned to use my hands as a finish carpenter. I worked in cafes, restaurants and doing jobs at peoples' homes who were more then willing to pay for me to do the dirty work they refused to do. There is nothing glamorous about any of this - do not be fooled by Ms Boylan's words. I had to work - my parents gave me a work ethic but let's face it, I didn't know what I wanted to do and justified my job hopping in the name of "finding myself". The real problem today is there are so many fewer opportunities. I am sure almost all young people today would take any of the jobs I did - and more cheerfully - but these jobs do not exist. I feel fortunate that when I left home (1984) a young person could live inexpensively and independently.
50
It's one thing to do awful jobs in your teens up to 30; what's sad is that people at all ages, all levels of education and experience are finding themselves being forced to take whatever they can to survive.
8
Yeah, I had those kinds of dreamy summers, too, and I learned a lot about jobs, people and myself. But kids nowadays, like your sons, know they can't afford to have dreamy summers. To get into the best jobs, or the best grad schools, they need to be focused like laser beams on their career trajectory.
We move forward and make progress, but sometimes we lose things along the way. Thanks for the essay.
We move forward and make progress, but sometimes we lose things along the way. Thanks for the essay.
87
I wonder if "the best jobs, or the grad schools" are even the way to go. I traded a crack at that world for a second-string grad program and a non-stellar academic career. I have been employed 23 years by the same employer, own a house and a rental house, started a small business I will pursue in retirement, and travel a lot.
No I don't have a skyscraper condo, a beach house, or a Maserati. But I'm comfortable and live a great life. I wonder how many who focus on being among the 1% of business or academe "like laser beams" end up really happy? You might ask your sons "what is it you REALLY want to do?" Too few parents, in this age of anxiety, do that.
No I don't have a skyscraper condo, a beach house, or a Maserati. But I'm comfortable and live a great life. I wonder how many who focus on being among the 1% of business or academe "like laser beams" end up really happy? You might ask your sons "what is it you REALLY want to do?" Too few parents, in this age of anxiety, do that.
3
As person with a lifelong disability, I wish I have gotten a summer job when I was a teenager.. It would have given me confidence and a sense of responsibility. It would have me realize that I had a career waiting for me not a disability check. I would have been a taxpayer not dependent on the government for a handout. Not only did I loose, but society lost a productive human being.
Very true. Dreamy, endless summers were once the playground of a child's imagination. America's creativity and artistry grew from those seeds.
2
OK, I freely admit to being a cynic, and I get the idea of literary embellishment. Still, at my supermarket job, if you were over or under a dollar at the end of the day three days running, you would be fired, no questions asked. So to claim to have *always* been over and under *at a bank* does not ring true - unless of course Ms. Boylan was the daughter of the bank head. And while I don't have great experience with different lawn mowers, I do know something about running one particular lawn mower over apples. My mower never created goo; it would split through the apple on one side, and if the apple was really tough, the mower would stop, just as if it hit a rock.
97
Yes, I agree with your comments. But I loved her article. Great writing. And she makes very good points about the class privilege in society, which is the purpose of the article.
26
I figured these were rotting, mushy apples.
7
It may be an entertaining article but already we had proof that the author is a member of the "Brian Williams School of Journalism" by making up the applesauce business. Also the "over or under" every day with the bank drawer is a patent lie, as no bank would put up with a teller who was that poor at the job. So what we have here masquerading as fact, is a work of fiction.
5
Lovely piece of writing, Ms. Boylan. You have heart and character, and I'm confident that your sons will share these qualities, whatever their summer jobs.
26
Mowing lawns could be very profitable in wealthy suburbs. In 1974, my brother made nearly $200 from about 20 hours of work every week. He had his own mower, and did a very good job for demanding customers. He would double-cut the lawns in a criss-cross like they do at fancy golf courses.
45