Favorite Summer Job as a Kid?

I had some good, bad, and ugly summer jobs growing up, but mostly good. My favorite might have been cutting weeds. I had my own little business going there--I think I was fifteen. Nice to work outside, and to get paid in cash

My first thought was putting up hay. Then I remembered what it was like to work in the barn, temperature in the triple digits, humidity nearly 100%, overpowering smell of fresh cut grass, covered in a layer of pollen, seeds and insect parts all sticking to your sweat soaked clothes and skin, tiny paper cuts and punctures from the leaves and stems of the hay. Luckily I was good at stacking the bales and spent most of the time in the field where the temperature, smell and humidity were at least a little lower. Funny how much I miss doing that thirty years after the fact.

My second thought was working for Mr. Osborn. He was a teacher at our school but he was only about ten years older than us. I realized that for the first time as I sit typing this. He and his wife owned a farm and an antique store and were building a house out of an old barn. My best friend and I never knew what we were getting into when they called. We cleaned a cistern out, gutted a 100 + year old house to salvage the hand hewn beams, rescued a cast iron kitchen stove from a barn where it had sunk almost a foot into the dirt floor, and numerous other odd jobs. When I first saw Larry, Darrel, and Darrel on the Newhart Show I thought of Harlan and me working for the Osborns, anything for a buck.

I really regret that my kids did not get to grow up on a farm like I did.

I helped put up hay only once, and based on that highly limited experience, I agree: brutal!

The barn is a drag--especially breathing the dust--but yes, the field can be nice. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the New York Times (but originally from Iowa) wrote a very readable book on the subject called Making Hay. It was reissued not too long ago and might be up your alley, TLCrawford.

With the big bales of today, stacking is a dying skill.

The summer I was 11, iwas hanging around our branch library so much that they put me to work stamping date due cards. This was during WW2 & every place was under-staffed. Later I graduated to checking in books. There would be stacks of them sitting on the floor waiting for my arrival. I couldn't get paid because I was under 14 which was the legal working age. But I had fun & free ice cream bars, pop, ect.

I had lots of jobs -- many waitressing and working in retail -- but my favorite was working at our little town's library. It was, for a booklover, a dream come true!

I worked construction jobs over the summer to pay for my college education. Those were always fun. I wish I had the chance to work in a library though.