NSAH V My first job.

It is time for another edition of This Was My Life.When I was 16 I got my first job or rather my dad got me my first job. You see spring and early summer were spent at the Centerville Ballpark. Dad coached, the boys played, Mom cheered and the rest of us were along for the ride. So it came about naturally that Tricia and I would work at the snack shack where we ate most of our dinners anyway. We worked with 2 other girls JoAnn and Amy. Our boss was named Horton and he was a gruff man with a softer side and a strange sense of humor. I remember he always paid us under the table so he wouldn't have to pay taxes. I won't mention his last name because I am pretty sure the IRS reads this blog often and I would hate to get him in trouble. We worked 2 girls per evening and had 2 shifts on Saturday so we all worked that day. We were kept very busy selling licorice ropes, candy bars, and about a million other sugar filled snacks. We were also known to invent strange flavors of sno-cones to sell. Bubble-gum with a sprite kicker was a popular one I invented. I am pretty sure they named it "The Kelli Special" after I retired. We had the usual ball-park fare of hotdogs, popcorn and nachos. None of which makes a very healthy meal but those were your choices. One of the best meal variations that I loved was popcorn with nacho cheese on it! Cheese corn! Loved it.

We had a back door where the teams would line up after their games and the coaches would buy them a treat. Usually it was just a sno-cone but every night there was at least 1 coach who bought the whole team a meal! I sometime yearn for those days when I am the treat mom at baseball because I always seem to forget and have to run to the store at the last minute.

The park also had a standing policy that for every returned foul ball that went over the fences the kid who returned it would get a sno-cone. I loved to watch the junior spectators jump off the bleachers at a dead run whenever a foul ball was hit! To this day when we are at a game and a foul ball is hit I will tell my kids "Run, go get it!" Only to realize when they just look at me incredulously that our park doesn't reward them so why would that be considered fun!

The umpires also got free drinks after their games. I remember some of them were a little bit demanding and would yell from the diamond for us to bring them their drinks.

The worst part of the job was the clean up every night. Cleaning that nacho pan was nothing less than nasty and slimy. We did keep the place really clean which as a mother now I really appreciate. On the flip side the best part of the job was the cute baseball players that we got to watch and flirt with while we worked. Really it was the perfect job for this 16 year old girl