There may be no other country on earth that celebrates its workers the way we do in the United States. We as a nation take the time to devote a whole day to celebrate work and those who do it. The people who make the country work. When you think about it, most Americans enter the workforce as kids, teenagers looking for money to hang out with their friends or fill the gas tank of their first car. We all remember that first job. Those jobs taught us about being employed, how to check a schedule to see when you worked, how to come in on time, and how to treat your coworkers. For most of us, they are memories that we look back on and smile.

… and what was your first job? pic.twitter.com/PxliysmjaZ

— BRIAN FRASER (@bfraser747) September 1, 2024

I got my first job at 17 in 1982 at a movie theatre with the help of a classmate who worked there. I can't say it was a bad job as far as first jobs go. I wore a blue uniform, blazer, a skirt that came down past my knees, and a white shirt, definitely not meant to be fashionable. In the days before buying movie tickets online, the most desired spot was working the box office. But you had to have been there a while and have a little skin in the game before you got that prime gig. 

So I, usually along with one other girl, worked the concession stand. We slung popcorn, candy, and soft drinks to moviegoers. The manager was a tall, skinny guy with greasy blond hair; he reminded me of Lurch and had the personality to go along. What a weird dude he was. But the flip side of Manager Lurch was Roscoe, the projectionist. In the days before the screening of movies was computerized, people sat in a booth above the theatre and manually changed out the movie reels. Roscoe was...interesting. He said things to teenage girls that today would heavily tap dance on the line of being wildly inappropriate. But the thing about Roscoe, he would come to the concession stand before the movie started with his personal cup, and he would ask you to fill it up with a splash of every kind of soda we had. A splash of Coke, a splash of Sprite, a splash of Mountain Dew, as gross as that sounds, you get the picture. I have never known anyone since that does that. 

I babysat and delivered newspapers at 14..

— DEPLORABLE ULTRA MAGA Susan (@susanbnj) September 1, 2024

For many teenagers, that first job was at a restaurant. My husband's first job was as a dishwasher at Red Lobster. As he came into the kitchen to be trained on his first day, the dishwasher who was supposed to train him quit and walked out. Talk about a quick hit of on-the-job training. But on the bright side, it's a chance to make that job your own, right? 

But a good friend of mine perhaps has the best first job stories. Fast food has long been where so many teens get their basic skills on the responsibility of how to hold down a job. She worked at McDonald's. She told stories of how cooks behind the front counter announced "burgers up" and promptly sent an entire tray of freshly prepared Big Macs over the top of the back counter and onto the floor. Did they pick them up and serve them? You decide.

How many of us, in our younger days, after a night out, have hit the drive-thru for an after-drinking snack? Well, one young man did just that at my friend's McDonald's. He might have ordered a burger and fries but never got to eat them because he passed out in the drive-thru. The boys who were working came out and pushed his car out of the drive-thru and into a parking spot on the lot. After work, they all went to the house of one of those working that night. On her way home, around midnight, she drove past McDonald's, and there was the same guy in the same parking spot, still asleep with a turn signal on the car blinking. Then, there was the time police chased a suspect into McDonald's, tackled him to the floor of the dining room, guns drawn, and handcuffed him. Never let it be said just how many situations fast food can prepare you for.

We can laugh about it now, but those first jobs really did teach us so much. They had a big hand in making us the people we have become. For myself, I may be able to say that I hit the record number of times seeing "Porky's" faster than anyone else. Hashtag: accomplishments you can be proud of.

I was 13 or 14. It was a summer youth employment training program. I was basically a janitor and gopher for the adults involved. It was a great learning experience. I did it every summer until I was too old, then I got a regular job at burger King.

— Bishop (@fbeeyeguy1) September 2, 2024