What did you do to earn extra money growing up?

I really did not do anything for money until we moved to Oregon when I was a junior in high school and that summer I picked green beans on a large farm. That seemed to be the thing all the kids did to earn money. We got on a bus early in the morning and they took us to the fields to pick beans all day! Then my senior year summer I baby sat for two little girls everyday at their house while their mother worked at a bank. I guess that is why I love working outside in my yard now and I think I was a pretty good Mom!
 

I did a lot of babysitting -- I had quite a lot of "clients" when I was in my early teens. At 16 I got a part time job working at a savings and loan. Since my school day ended at noon during my senior year, I was able to work every afternoon after school.
 

We were expected to work around the house and farm. It was called "chores" . We never had the opportunity to get any outside job. The family was big for one reason, "free labor" Us kids were sent to work on a neighbors chicken farm a couple times a year when he was changing his layers out for pullets. Even though it was "off the farm" the deal was still between dad and the farmer. Our wages were eggs and chicken for the family.

The only outside money I ever earned was from my trap line. Muskrats were .65 or .70 cents raccoons about eight dollars. Mink were big money about 30 bucks, but were few and far between.
 
When I was about 12, I had a little job addressing envelopes for a neighbor who ran some kind of cottage industry and was sending out advertising. They hired me and a couple of friends, and we had several nice giggly sessions addressing the envelopes, by hand of course. They paid us 50 cents an hour.

I guess that kind of job is obsolete by now!
 
maggiemae said:
I really did not do anything for money until we moved to Oregon when I was a junior in high school and that summer I picked green beans on a large farm. That seemed to be the thing all the kids did to earn money. We got on a bus early in the morning and they took us to the fields to pick beans all day!
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if that was in the '50s. could it have been Sauvie Island?
I was there
My folks knew farmers there
Green beans forever
Tote sacks got heavy
 
At 9 years old I got a part-time job at Ann's Figurine Shop making .35/hr. stocking shelves pouring paint in to small jars and general clean-up. I also fed my neighbors dog every day at lunch time during grade school years. Then cutting grass, raking leaves, shoveling snow type work. At 13 I worked in an Italian deli. At 15 I went to work at National Tea grocery through high school. During college I cleaned teachers offices and building janitor work and worked at a Safeway store.
 
I had 2 brother's...I was the only girl....the middle child....When I took care of my baby brother,(we were 6 years apart), my Mom would give me an allowance...This was when I turned 9 years old..
She would go to the grocery store and I would keep my brother busy...He was a good boy....
I did the dishes after dinner, every night....dried and put away in the cabinet....I did this till I graduated High School...I then worked....
At 16 yrs old, I worked in a super market at the Meat counter....then was put on the cash register ....which were the old fashion ones that you had to count change for the customer...
I worked there till I graduated High School...I remember buying my clothes in Arnold Constable...My Mom and Dad didn't have to buy my High School clothes...At the time, girls had to wear
skirts or dresses....(I'm Old)....No Jeans allowed...Or slacks)....After High School, I was a Secretary....My Teacher recommended the job for me with a great place where they sold Swedish Pots and Pans....
 
I never had a chance to make/earn any money growing up. My parents didn't believe in paying for chores done; in fairness, I got pretty much anything I wanted and everything I needed. I had generous grandparents, too.....that helped.

I had always wanted a summer job like my friends had, but with a houseful of younger sisters and a working mother, I was always the summer babysitter. The unpaid summer babysitter, at that. I thought it was a bum situation at the time but looking back, I'm pretty sure I came out ahead in the long run.
 
Gary'O, it was Dallas, OR in the late 60's. And yes, those tote sacks got heavy dragging them to the scales! Lots of kids would start out picking strawberries and then green beans and then on to cherries. I never wanted to do the cherry picking because I did not want to climb the ladders up the trees! LOL
 
maggiemae said:
Gary'O, it was Dallas, OR in the late 60's. And yes, those tote sacks got heavy dragging them to the scales! Lots of kids would start out picking strawberries and then green beans and then on to cherries. I never wanted to do the cherry picking because I did not want to climb the ladders up the trees! LOL
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Yeah, we had strawberry fields, acres of 'em
Hoed 'em with a hoe
picked sun up to down
Money?
nada

escaped to the green bean fields
miles of 'em seemed
don't recall seeing any money
the straw boss chastised me a few times (picked 'em too small)
and, they were onto dirt clods in the bottom of those bags
sure was a long way to the scale

cherries
those three legged ladders were interesting

good times
 
I grew up during World War II. When I was 13, I wanted to earn some money, and my attention focused on a nearby grocery store. I was too young to be hired by the store, so I hung around where people emerged from the checkout line. I offered to help people carry their groceries home. With a huge apartment complex just across the street, I had good business. When I turned 14, I was hired by the store for regular indoor work.
 
I used to string pole beans in the summer in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. I'd make about $25 a day, which was a lot for a kid in the early 60s. I worked hard though. I also picked strawberries and beans.
 
I babysat and also trimmed pineapple at Dole Cannery one summer, which meant sitting at a conveyor belt where different size pineapples came drifting by and you'd better pick them up before they flowed into the tunnel at the end of the belt. Every one rotated at the conveyor belt until you got right next to the tunnel, and you had to be careful that your knife didn't fly from your hand into the tunnel and then your table got to rest for awhile until they got the knife out. Only happened twice and I swear both times it was truly an accident. Heheheh

And the babysitting, that was a trip. One time it was for a six year old girl and her infant brother, and she took the opportunity to ask me about sex. Lol Don't ever think those little kids don't think about those things. You know that, too, about yourself if you're honest. Anyway, really awkward. I had to change the diaper of the infant brother and he was moving around and so I called him a little "wiggly worm". When the parents came home, the girl told them I called the baby a "worm".

Another two sisters were fun until one of them cried and got scared because she suddenly became constipated. I had to assure her that it would eventually be fine and then we played games. When I parents came home, they didn't want me to leave because they had fun with me playing games. I didn't do much babysitting after that.
 

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