I'll Show You Mine.......Show Me Yours!!

I got to thinking... (frightening, I know) and was thinking about my first ever job.

I started working when I was 14 1/2 at a store that had an ice cream counter. Due to certain circumstances, I really needed to get a job. So, while it wasn't rocket science by any means (and since my Aunt was ALREADY a rocket scientist Project Manager for NASA, I figured one of those in the family was plenty!), it was a little extra money, and it helped out. I worked about 25 hours a week during the school year, and 40 hours a week in the Summer. It was kinda fun. The counter was next to the electronics and Photo developing section, so, sometimes, I got to cover for that dept also.

One of the guys I worked with, he was a blast! He used to mess with me by cranking up the temperature (or down, whichever way you want to look at it) so that the freezer we had to scoop from had the ice cream almost like a solid rock. I ended up spraining the tendon between my thumb and forefinger 3 times on my right hand (and my right wrist twice!). The storage freezer in back was kept at 5 below zero. You had to put on a big ski parka to go in there and get the stock when it ran low out in front! Do you have any idea how heavy 10 gallon drums of ice cream is? Lets put it this way..... my biceps looked AMAZING!

The best thing about that job was that I could get things for the house with my employee discount. Now, that was a perk.

The store manager was .... weird. Mr. Kort. I have to try and describe him for you. He was about 5'6, slightly balding in the front on top, but tons of salt and pepper hair, he would do this freaky thing with what hair he had left by moussing it or something, on top and swiriling it around. It was a crack up. He had these big bullfrog eyes that popped out of his head with thick bushy eyebrows that arched like he was perpetually in shock. Really really big lips and on top of that? A pencil thin moustache like Boris from Bullwinkle. Add to this one of the most massive potbellies I've ever seen. His voice was exactly like... oh whats his name? The character Tim Conway played on The Carol Burnett Show that said "MRS.. WWWWWWHHIIIIIGGGENSSSS"
? Just like that! It used to crack my mom up whenever she heard him talk. He was awfully weird but nice. And he talked...real. slowwww. I always wanted to tell him "hurry up!!!", but I never did. Come to think of it, he shuffled around real slow too.

I did this for about a year until I moved into proper retail. Actually, I met a store manager from a retail chain during some fashion merchandising classes I was taking in High School and he liked me and thought I had good natural sales ability, so he offered me a job. Cool, no? Ooh, I moved up from minimum wage!

I worked there for a couple of years, moved into bigger retail chains when I entered college, including..... working 2 retail jobs AND a full college schedule to pay for college! I eventually had to admit that I couldn't work like that one full time, one part time, and a full class schedule, so, I got a waitressing job instead. (I still have nightmares about it) It was 4-5 hours a day, but more money than I made (tip wise+ paycheck) than I was making in retail!

Guess where my second retail, part time job was? Victoria's Secret. Maybe if y'all ask me real sweet, I will tell you a few stories about my days working there.

And to you ladies that shop there? When you are in the bra room? Please have mercy on the staff, don't go pawing through the damn drawers. That is back stock for WHAT IS HANGING ABOVE IT! OK? Y'all make a goddamn mess and a nightmare from hell for the poor staff that has extremely anal retentive managers that check those drawers to make sure they are color coded, by size, and folded a specific way... ALL THROUGH OUT THE DAY. So please be nice to the overworked and underpaid staff of your local Victoria's Secret.

Now, I'd love it if you all would share with me what your first jobs were. Fair is fair, I showed you mine, now show me yours!