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My First Job©

Posted: Monday, November 21, 2011

by Arlene Wright-Correll
http://www.learn-america.com

I don’t know whether or not this qualifies as my first job, but at the age of six years old until I was nine years old, I was my grandmother’s “legs” once she became semi-bedridden. She sent me out with a list and the money and I went all over Brooklyn doing her shopping at the A&P, Bohack’s, Woolworths and many other stores and I received pay for it.

I don’t know whether my next job qualifies as my first job because from the time I was nine years old until the time I was twelve years old I worked for Mr. Keller when we lived in Ridgewood, Queens. Mr. Keller was a diabetic whose arms and legs were amputated at the elbows and just above the knees. This was a paying job and it was varied. I would get up early before school, go down to his apartment get his breakfast ready, fix anything in the clothing department he could not do himself and then scurry off to the nearest busy area to get him a cab, bring it back to his apartment and it would take him off to Coney Island where he sat under the Wonder Wheel selling shoelaces and pencils. This became a tricky job because eventually the cabbies knew me and they did not like to take him way out to Coney Island that early in the morning as there usually were no fares back.

Besides getting paid there was a great benefit to this job as I got to get my brother, sister, cousins and myself unto all the rides free because of Mr. Keller. Other things I did for him during those 3 years were to open his mail, take out the quarters and put them into rolls them for him. Mr. Keller had me put a letter with his picture on it and a pair of shoe laces and mail them for him. I often had my large red wagon filled with letters as I headed to the post office or the nearest post box to mail them out. The letter asked for 25 cents for the laces and most times everyone sent in the 25 cents thus the appearance of the quarters.

I guess I have always been a lone wolf entrepreneur because my next few part time jobs did not last very long even though anyone of them might have qualified as a real job. In the next two years I was a weekend short order cook in a diner, I was a ravioli stuffer, and I was a sewer one summer in a sweat shop sewing chains of collars. None of them lasted more than 4 weeks and the sweat shop job lasted 5 days. I was never fired or let go, I just fired them and got out.

By the time I was 14 I worked after school and all day Saturday at a Chrysanthemum Farm in Babylon, Long Island and I loved it. The pay was 25 cents per hour and I worked there until I got my really real first job.

That job was for the Bell Telephone company and I went to school from 7 am to 1 pm the last two years of high school and then at the telephone company from 3 pm until midnight as a long distance telephone operator. I worked there until I graduated from high school.

Old habits are hard to die as I have been working at something ever since.

About the Author & Artist. Arlene Wright-Correll (1935- ___), popular American award winning Artist, published author, columnist, & is the resident art instructor for Avalon Stained Glass School, at the age of 68, decided to pick up her paint brushes again after 54 years and paint. She is a cancer and stroke survivor who is able to strive forward each and everyday to welcome the beauty of this small planet. She also is a China & Porcelain painter, Sandblasting & Etching, Stained Glass & fused glass Artisan. She is one of the six KY Artists who worked 6 months to create the dolls for Journey Jots in 2006 and a Smithsonian Institute art exhibit in 2008. Her published books can be found here . She is also a featured writer for GreenThumbArticles.com and teaches Art Vacation Holidays at Avalon Stained Glass School and Creativity Center.

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