My first "Real" job was working with Debbie Husband at the Houston Zoo.  We worked the concession stand at the back by the duck pond.  I last about three months - we worked from 7 AM till dark and it was long hours but I loved the Zoo.  Johnny Grace took me to work every day and picked me up at night - so that was easy.

Well, not counting picking watermelons, corn and tomatoes at a farm off of Gulfbank and Hardy when I was 12-13 yrs. old, [$10.00 per day and all I could eat], I worked for Sherry Anderson's '69 dad at his gas station at Crosstimbers and Shepherd. Worked there from 4;00pm til 9;00pm then went to the Ace Cue Club at Berry and Bauman to work from 9:30 til midnight. Made most of my lunch money hustling pool while tending the place. Sherry's dad was paying me $1.50 hr. and I was getting $10.00 a night at the poolhall. I was getting rich!!!!!!! Took a toll on my social life,though. Wouldn't change a thing.....I was making memories.

That was why you were rich.....no girfriend to spend all that money for you...smart guy!!  I use to get groceries for the lady next door to me..lived on Hardwood Lane off of Westfield Road.  She gave me 25 cents each time I went for her...could buy 5 candy bars...and I wonder why I was such a little fatty then....loved that candy and now cannot hardly stand to eat it...go figure.

My first job was a paper route for the now long defunct newspaper Houston Press from 1960-61. My route covered the neighborhoods between Bauman Road and Little York just east of the Lutheran school on Rittenhouse Road, plus the homes surrounding Rittenhouse Lake. I even remember my route number: WW133! My grandma bought me a heavy duty Columbia bike for my birthday to carry the hefty canvas "Houston Press" monogramed bags. I recall the spokes on that bike were as big as drinking straws.

The paper drop was at Bauman Road Baptist Church. Gay Robinson's (SH '67) father was Pastor of the church. He was kind enough to allow the Press distributor, Mr. Sheffield,to drop off the papers there. I spent many a summer day sitting on the church's covered porch rolling my papers, jawing with the other carriers: Tommy Vann, Ed Charlesworth, Sonny and Joey Waddell, to name a few.  Sometimes I'd take the papers home to roll them so I could watch Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon on "Who Do You Trust". Even by today's standards it was a pretty offbeat show and I loved it. 

Rain or shine, the papers got delivered. Every now-and-then during the summer we'd get a deluge of a downpour, which flooded some of the neighborhoods. The water would be knee-deep in the street. No problem. I'd just throw on my bathing suit and deliver papers!

We route carriers had to buy our canvas bags, string, and waterproof brown paper bags for the papers, and do our own collecting. So it was like running your own business. There was one part of the business, though, that I really dreaded: soliciting. Door to door sales just wasn't my idea of a good time. Though, I have to say, soliciting taught me that you can get a hundred "no's" thrown at you in a day's time and the sun will still shine!

The subscription rate for the Press was $1.50/mo. The paper got a buck. I got fifty cents. With 70-80 customers, my take-home ran between $35-$40 a month. That was a princely sum for an 11-12 year old in "60 and '61. I was in high cotton! In fact, as a result, I had one of the best stamp collections in the neighborhood.

One August, just before school started, I was salivating over some early uncancelled US Air Mail stamps from the 1920's. I had just enough $$ to spring for a full set. Then my mother came to me one day and said: "Son, since you're making your own money now, you can buy your school clothes and supplies this year." Say What?!!!

Len, my Dad took the Press, Post and Chronicle...he loved the newspapers and he read them front to back everyday.  I learned to read at the kitchen table with the Sunday comics.  I have taken the Houston Chronicle for almost 40 years now....did you deliver to Hardwood Lane?

After 48 years, Deborah, I had to defer to a source more accurate than my memory:  Google Earth!

No, Hardwood Lane was farther east on the other side of Hardy. My route was on the west side of Hardy bordered by Rittenhouse and Little York, between Bauman Road and McGallion. Then back across Rittenhouse to Cooper between Bauman Road and Clark Street. Clark butted up to the east side of De Chaumes Elementary.

Yes, you're right. Houston did have three major newspapers. Now, it's down to one, the Chronicle. We're down to one paper in the Seattle area as well: The Times. The P-I (Post Intelligencer) went belly-up last year. No love lost, though. Politically, it came down somewhere between Pravda and the Daily Worker!

I worked one Christmas writing names with glue and glitter on Christmas stockings. Downtown Woolworths under the escalator. 

Connie, you've brought back old memories.!!! A bottle of Elmer's glue and a tube of glitter could provide hours of cheap entertainment back when we were in elementary school.

I'm curious, were you paid by Woolworth's for your work, and if so, how much?

I was paid but I can't remember how much.  Too many years.  This is a 1964 photo.

My first job was doing clerical work at Anway Carpet Service where my Dad worked.  It was during the summer.  Guess it would have had to be the summer after my sophmore year. 

The first job I got paid for that didn't involve burning up the family lawn mower was taking inventory at Danburg's Dept. Store Christmas holidays 1966.  I needed money to get a surfboard--the story of my life--and I was willing to prostitute myself like a big dog to get it.  But it wasn't so bad:  It was clean, warm, dry, with many nice people.  I worked for about a week or so for $1.45/hr. and made enough for my board and then some.  At the time I thought it was a real coup because several of my friends were working their asses off, outside, at service stations for a buck an hour.  Anyway, I bought a used 9'1" Hobie and thought I was hot stuff.  In retrospect I probably would have performed better on a warped 2x12.

In response to Len Wolff's paper route, in particular his soliciting.  You're right, soliciting sucked.  I did it for a month for the Post and my foreman, Hank Tholman, stuck me into every sleazy neighborhood between Hempstead and Homestead Rds. trying to squeeze blood out of turnips.--If you weren't a top flight salesman he had little use for you.  Greg Bryant and I got our revenge on him though:  One evening we found ourselves following him down Little York in his truck with his crew of 8 or 9 in the camper--where we had sat many a time dejectedly after walking for miles--So we decided to pass him.  With Burleson Terry driving, Greg and I gave Hank a double-barreled moon.  Some of his crew knew us, and they all just howled with laughter.

My first was babysitting kids from my church and then doing clerical work for my cousin, Larry Rogers, (Debbie Rogers dad) and his company Petroleum Products.  Then when I was 15, I guess, I worked for the Cunningham Pharmacy on West Hardy just south of Little York. 

My first paying job was at Northline Mall as a ticket taker for Cinema Theatres during the summer of 65. I was chosed to be the Usher for  the Premier of "War Wagon" and got to escort the actress to her seat. ( can't remember her name now) I was 15 years old worked 40hrs a week and got a whopping .65 an hour plus all the tickets I wanted to the shows. A lot of friends saw "Those Magnificent Men in their flying Machines" that summer for free. In 67 I was in DE and worked full time for Montgomery Wards (Sporting Goods) and spent 3 years there for $75 week and a comision selling Guns, boats, hunting and fishing supplies. What a job for a young guy! Met lots of great people at that mall over the years. Of course I grew up about 10 houses from the mall on Palmyra at fulton.

LYNDA PREJEAN COLEMAN wrote:

I forgot about Cunningham Pharmacy. 

JAMES BURRELL wrote:

What geat jobs you had.  I think we would liked to have worked at the movie theatre. 

My first REAL job was at the Dairy Treat on Jensen Drive.  My friends got really HUGE ice creams.  They had the best lemon custard ice cream..Mr & Mrs. Darnell owned the Dairy Treat.  Can't remember what they paid, but the meals were wonderful

My next "real job" after high school was at British Wideflange (later bought by British Steel).  They imported steel from England for companies all over the US.  Great job, money and beautiful offices at Main & Jefferson.  Spent "ALL" my money at Foley's.  Debby Husband worked in the shoe department and I enjoyed some WONDERFUL discounts on shoes - always my addiction.  Worked there for 5 years then found a job closer to where I lived off of 525 - Sequia Estates Addition.  Always loved working downtown.  My last job in Houston was for Merle Lynch across from Foleys on Main.  Needless to say I again spent "ALL" my money there.  Loved downtown Houston!!