Show and Tell Tuesday: First Jobs

Linking-up with Andrea for Show and Tell Tuesday.  Today's topic is what was your (and your spouse's) first job.

My very first consistent form of employment was babysitting. Mandy and I started babysitting at age 11 and would babysit as a team. We loved babysitting twins and the parents of twins loved this too. One-on-one attention for both kids and extra hands helped with siblings too.  We were very popular babysitters because we loved to play with the kids instead of just watching them and we always tidied the entire house while we were there.  Mandy and I have kept in touch periodically with one of the families we babysat long ago.  I managed to find a photo of some of the girls we used to watch. 

The three older ones will all be graduating from High School in the spring.  Crazy.  Poor little M. cut her own hair quite frequently, notice the bangs.  This photo was taken at our house one summer when Mandy and I threw a group birthday party for nine of the kids we sat for consistently. 

We babysat all the way through high school but we wanted to earn more money so we started looking for paycheck jobs.  My first real job was as a holiday gift wrapper at a boutique toy store called Kazoo and Company.  You guys, I was amazing at gift wrapping, it is totally my special skill.  I love it so much that sometimes I wish it was an actual career.  I started wrapping the Christmas season of my sophomore year in high school and then got hired that following summer at the toy store to "work the floor."  I was a cashier and was soon recruited for my merchandising skills.  One of the managers, who I was terrified of, loved for me to help her organize all the boxes on the shelves in visually pleasing ways.  Apparently I was good at it.  I found this photo online and it is part of the store as I remember it.

I worked there until I left for college.  The store moved last year and then closed.  It was part of that neighborhood in Denver for generations.  Truth be told, I loved working there.  It was stressful and the owner wasn't very nice but I made great friends there, I developed a strong work ethic, and gained valuable experience.  I still keep in touch with two of the people I worked with there.

Dan's first job was working as a dishwasher at the "country club" in his hometown Kansas during high school.  Then he was hired by a family friend to help paint houses during summer.  He told me that the painting job was really great because it wasn't stressful and it was nice and quiet alone time.

And lucky me, I found a picture of him painting! I think this was a mission trip, but still, he is painting.