The first jobs I ever had in my life was to baby sit for my older siblings. It was mainly when the wife in the family had a baby. In those days, a mother was confined to the hospital with her baby for a week.
I was about thirteen years old when I was sent to my brother, Paul, who already had three other children. Sometimes the oldest child was only five or six years younger than me. At that age I just played along with the children and enjoyed my time.
Around fourteen, I spend the entire summer baby sitting for two and five year old nephews. My sister, Jannetta, and her husband, both worked and needed someone to watch over the children.
By the time I was sixteen, I helped my sister, Gladys, when she was in the hospital with her second child. You’d think by then, I’d have known a bit more of “how to” in the cooking area. I tackled macaroni and cheese and ended up burning the noodles and ruined the pot.
Actually, in all those years I was babysitting, I didn’t have to make meals. I think my nieces and nephews, that I baby sat for, would attest to the fact that I made the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – for both lunch and dinner!
When I was a teenager, I so wanted to earn some money, but living on a country farm had its disadvantages. My father was too busy in the fields and barn work to run a teen back and forth for a job in town. As a teen, the bus was not my idea to get somewhere.
And then, the summer before I graduated from high school, my classmate, Audrey, told me we could get jobs picking tomatoes. That job might have been the hardest I ever worked as a teen! I was up at 6 a.m. By 7 a.m., a farmer, with a tractor and flat-bed wagon, picked me up in front of our house. Only a few miles away was the tomato field. I don’t think I ever bend down so often in my entire life – and that was before lunch. After our lunch break, more bending and picking. I must admit, the green money I earned made up for the green hands I endured through the season. That year, I was able to purchase my graduation photos and a class ring, which I lost within a year.
After high school, I begged, probably threatened mom, that I must go to the shore to earn some money, in order to keep up with the life-style I was accustomed to. She relented, but she did not like the idea.
I went to the shore with a girl I knew casually. Once there, we got a third floor room at a boarding house. (Mom had given me some money, but she probably couldn’t even afford that.) It turned out we were there too early for the season. Jobs were not yet available, but the woman who ran the boarding house, also had a restaurant next door. She paid me to help set up the restaurant and later I got the waitress position.
By this time, my roommate wished to move on. Luckily, I met Dot Rust (a classmate) and she moved in with me and we shared the rent. Dot was familiar with waitressing. During high school, she took a bus to Allentown and waitressed at a diner.
In the midst of my work, I had a painful toothache. I didn’t have money to go to a dentist in Cape May. I called my brother-in-law, the dentist, and asked if he’d fix my tooth if I’d come home. He agreed. (To this day, I don’t know if my parents paid the bill or not.) My roommate, Dot and I, took a bus and left for Reading. Dot’s folks picked her up and my sister picked me up. The third day we were back in Cape May. I was gone three days, but still had to pay my rent.
How did my summer venture go? I went home broke.
After I was home only one week, my sister, Gladys and her husband, invited me to go to Georgia with them and the two children. Her husband was a draftsman and was temporarily transferred there. Gladys was expecting at the time and felt I could help with the kids during her hospital stay.
After the baby was born and Gladys was home, I asked her husband if he couldn’t get me a secretarial job where he worked. He felt he could. Now comes the funny part. In taking the typing test, I was so nervous I flunked. No job. Joe then asked his boss if they could use me in some way in the drafting department. His boss agreed to teach me some simple pencil drafting and how to use some tools. Wow, I was now a draftsperson, without the schooling.
After a few months, most of the temporary crew were being sent back to H.L. Yoh & Co., an engineering firm, in Philadelphia. Someone said I could room and board with a widowed aunt in the city. So, I, too, asked for a transfer.
I thought it would be neat living in a big city. Wrong! I was scared to death even walking a block to the EL from my boarding home. Soon, I met a girl from Leesport. Since she had a car, we both came home weekends staying with our parents.
At the Philadelphia office, I did the same type of draft work in pencil. Within a week, the boss insisted I work in ink. “What the heck,” I thought, “we only make instructions for airplanes!”
A few weeks went by. I received harder work and couldn’t grasp it. Finally the boss asked, “Where on earth did you get your degree that you weren’t taught this?” I told him I never went to drafting school, then proceeded to tell him I got this job, in the first place, because I was nervous when taking a typing test. His eyes agog, he grabbed me by the hand and led me to the secretarial department. He then told the head of the department, “Give this girl a typing job, but DON’T give her a typing test!” Thereafter, I had my rightful place in the work world, typing 80 words a minute.
After a year of city life, I moved home. I got a job at a loan company in Kutztown. Before I got married, I asked my boss if my classmate, Dot, (the same roommate I had at the shore) could have my job. He agreed. The two fell in love and were later married.
In my first marriage, I tried to earn money to contribute to our income. I cleaned for a lady. That job was great as she always kept a neat, orderly apartment. When my husband had back surgery, I cleaned offices at Deka Battery. Bathrooms were involved. I hated cleaning my own and now there were many! After that I did the billing for Fleetwood Building Block.
When my last child was in school, I don’t know what possessed me, but I baby sat for two toddlers. I had this job for a year when the mother asked me to potty train the boys. I had potty trained enough of my own brood, so I quit. But, I did earn enough money to wallpaper and paint the rooms of our home.
After my divorce, I did the bookkeeping for my brother, David’s sanitation business. And when something went wrong, like someone didn’t show up for work, my sister-in-law, Millie, drove the smaller truck and I went along to sling trash. So, I even was a trash slinger. One incident I recall was at a farmhouse, where the trash sat near the barn. When I got out of the truck, I yelled, “Millie, How does one accumulate so much crap?” Suddenly the farmer appeared around the corner laughing and said, “I’ll help you sling this crap I’ve accumulated.” And he did. Sometimes it pays to complain.
Every other Saturday I did the membership for the Pennsylvania German Society, as well as, clean the house the business was situated in.
After leaving my brother to become more independent, I worked 13 years for the Nursing Office at Cedarbrook County Home. I did admissions and payroll. The only part of this job I didn’t like was the morgue. I had to open the door to allow the funeral director to pick up the deceased.
In my second marriage, my family asked me to help take care of Mom with pay, plus putting in a day/night free as the siblings did.
My last job was the 15 years as a secretary at Memorial UCC, in Easton, where we were also members. I loved this job and the people. They became family. The added benefit was that the church was across the street from our home. Some winter days, my husband shoveled a path for me to get to church.
I must say I’ve had some great experiences in a variety of these jobs in my life. I still say God gave me these “things to do” so I could write them up now that I’m retired. He’s one smart guy!
Carole Christman Koch grew up in Berks County and has been published in numerous publications. She has a passion for writing and has many stories from growing up on a farm to raising children to humorous stories about her and her husband to everyday stories to season stories and more.
