Ten for Tuesday

Ten Jobs that I've Had:

I have listed 10 things that I have done as "jobs" since I was a little girl. Some of them earned an income, and some didn't.

1. The first "job" I remember having was drying the silverware and putting it in the drawer when my mother washed the dishes.

2. When I was in the third grade, I wanted to buy a lunch box so I wouldn't have to buy hot lunch. I hated that canned spinach my teacher made me eat before I could go play. In October, I got a job picking potatoes in a neighbor's field. I earned over just $19.00 and had more than enough to buy a lunch box. I used that lunch box until I was in Jr. High and decided that it was more "cool" to take my lunch in a brown bag.

We picked potatoes using baskets like in the picture below, only, rather than putting the potatoes in a box, we dumped them into potato sacks that were picked and placed on a truck.
I picked potatoes every fall until I was a senior in high school. That year I worked on a combine in the field--picking out rocks, clods, and weeds as the potatoes went by on a conveyer belt that fed them right into the back of a truck.

3. Our mom gave us Saturday jobs when we were growing up. The first one I remember was getting down on my hands and knees to mop the strip of floor between the two pieces of carpet in our living room. I didn't use a brush like the lady in this picture.

4. We remodeled our home the summer I turned 10, and we didn't have a strip of carpet in the middle of the living room floor any more. My mother gave us other Saturday jobs. Sometimes we dusted and vacuumed the living room, and sometimes we cleaned and mopped the bathrooms. We also took turns setting the table, cleaning the table after eating, and washing the dishes.

5. Like most teenagers, I babysat. I earned 25 cents and hour and sometimes my father told me he thought that was too much to ask.

6. We learned to help in the hay at a young age. I drove the little Ford tractor when I was really young. I couldn't use the brake and clutch, so when I needed to stop I reached down and turned the key off. Later, I learned to drive the big John Deere, the Allis Chalmers, and the hay truck. I also drove a derrick one summer for my brother. This involved driving the tractor back and forth while he and his co-workers used a big fork to lift the bales of hay off of the back of a hay trailor and putting them in place on the haystack. When my brothers were both away, my sisters and I had to lift the bales and put them on the truck, and then unload them to build the haystack. My dad adjusted the baler to make the bales lighter for us. Years later, he told us, in tears, how much he hated to have to have his girls work in the hay field. We didn't enjoy the experience, but knew he needed us to do it, so it was just something we did.

7. We also had the "opportunity" of milking cows with my dad while my brothers were gone. My sister, Lois, and I took turns--one week morning shift and the next evening. Dad just did it both shifts all the time. I don't remember that my other sister had this great opportunity, but if she did, I am sure she will correct my posting.:)

8. One summer during my college years, I got some weiner pigs to raise, with the goal of selling them before school began to earn money for my tuition. I drove our pick-up into the Kraft Cheese plan to load old milk cans up with whey, the by-product of the cheese. Not fun. I am not sure I earned much money with this endeavor, but it was an experience.

9. When Wayne and I were first married, I worked at Barbizon of Utah, a factory that made ladies' slips, pajamas, and nightgowns. I ran a power sewing maching. The first few weeks I zig-zagged and sewed the side seams of full-length slips. Then I was moved to sewing the yokes of pajama tops and nightgowns to the bottom parts of them. I enjoyed the second assignment more than the first. I worked there for two years--until Wayne was through with his Master's Degree and we moved to St. Louis. Below is a nightgown made by Barbizon. Since the time I worked there, Barbizon sold its company to someone else. The building in Provo where I worked is no longer there.

10. When Karen was little, and before Bryan was born, I taught piano lessons to some of the neighborhood children for three or four years. I hope some of them learned something. I did.

My most rewarding "jobs" have been wife and mother. I didn't include these in my list because they haven't been mundane like the other jobs. On the contrary, even though they have been sometimes hard and often challenging, these jobs have given my life much happiness and joy. They have made my life worthwhile.