Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Was Your First Real Job?

With Labor Day just around the corner, Randy Seaver has decided to focus on work for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music):

(1) It's Labor Day weekend in the USA.  Do you have memories of your first real job?  What and where was it?  What did you learn from it?  How did it affect the rest of your life?

(2) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook.  Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your blog post on this post.

My first "real" job came after two jobs that weren't quite as formal.  Those first two were babysitting for neighbors and working in my grandfather's stamp and coin shop.  For both I was paid in cash, no deductions.  I count myself fortunate that I did not need to have a regular job before I graduated high school.

Then I went to college at the University of Southern California (USC) in September 1979 and got a job through the work-study program, which was part of my financial aid package (because USC is really expensive and I was not and still am not rich).  I don't remember how I found the job; there probably was some sort of listing of available positions?  But I began working for the Department (or Office) of Overseas Studies pretty much the same time that I started classes in the Fall semester.

When I started, the department head was a man named Bill Gay.  I don't remember much about him other than that he was stocky, was reasonably nice, and also happened to be gay.  I do recall that he hosted a Christmas party for the office staff that first year.  One of the other people working in the department was a Jewish woman named Miriam (Mimi) Kaplan.  She was upset that even though I identified as Jewish, I sang along with all the Christmas carols (because I love singing Christmas carols!).

The work was mostly administrative stuff:  typing, filing, answering phones, stuffing envelopes for mailings, that type of thing.  Those kinds of skills are always useful to know, and it definitely helped with jobs I had later in life.  I still remember lots of area codes and ZIP codes from working there, because of mailings and lots of phone calls.  I kept the job throughout my four years of undergrad studies.  It was part-tiime, because that's how work-study is set up.  I took full-time courseloads all four years also.

Something I learned there that wasn't par for the course:  One year we had a work-study student who was half Japanese and half Korean.  She taught me how to count to 1,000 in both languages.  Unfortunately, all I can remember now is up to 10 in Japanese.

I don't remember when it happened; maybe after my first year?  But Bill retired(?) and Constance (Connie) Horak took over as head of the department.  And Mimi wasn't there anymore.  Anyway, Connie was my boss for the rest of the time I worked in Overseas Studies.

After I had been there for a while and was a known quantity, Connie had me sign lots of paperwork for her.  I learned that imitating someone's signature well enough to fool people is extremely difficult.

At one point we wanted to paint the walls in the offices to refresh them, but we learned that the only colors officially approved by Physical Plant were four shades of off-white.  So instead of going through the university procedure, we painted the offices ourselves.  It was some kind of burnt orange that I wasn't crazy about, but it was definitely more interesting than off-white.

Connie and I got along well.  She had season tickets for the Los Angeles Dodgers and took me to a game against the Montreal Expos (my favorite team at the time) every year for my birthday.  Now that's a great boss!

One of Connie's volunteer activities outside of USC was coordinating a Los Angeles–Bordeaux, France sister city student exchange program.  In alternating years, students from one city would travel to the other city and be paired up with students from there.  The visit was for six weeks; the students were with their exchange partners for the first five and a half weeks or so, and then everyone got together for the last few days.  One year an American student who had hosted a French student the previous year didn't want to go to France, so Connie asked if I was interested.  I jumped at the opportunity, and that's how I was able to visit France economically.  It didn't quite turn out as expected (which I really should write about some day), but it was a great experience and I'm very happy I was able to go.

I don't know why, but I didn't stay in touch with Connie after I left that job, even though I continued to work at USC for six more years.  I only discovered while writing this that she passed away two years ago.  She apparently had stayed with USC since starting work there in 1975.

A Record of My Grandfather's Labors

For Labor Day, I'm celebrating the labors of my paternal grandfather, Bertram Lynn Sellers, Sr.  Along with recording every place he had lived duirng his life, my grandfather created a detailed list of all of the jobs he had held through the beginning of 1955.  Both are wonderful primary source material that provide me with leads to conduct further research into my grandfather and his life.  I can't quite take them at face value, because there are some discrepancies between the two, but I wish I had this kind of information for all of my relatives.

I'm sure Grampa had a purpose in making this list.  Maybe he was up for a promotion or eligible for a security clearance.  Whatever it was, I haven't found a continuation of the list with later dates.  I did, however, find one page titled "Military Certificates of Training" which ends with a date in 1961.

Obviously, I now need to find out where to apply for copies of my grandfather's Civil Service personnel file.  One record always leads to another . . . .

For Labor Day, a History of My Labors

Along with a list of every place he had lived during his life, my paternal grandfather created a list of all the jobs he had held.  Other than because he might have had some obsessive tendencies, I don't know why he made either list.  But his list of jobs inspired me to try to create a similar list for myself.  Labor Day seems to be the perfect time for it.  This is a list only of my paid positions; volunteer work will have to wait for another day,

babysitting, ~1973–1975:  Like many teenagers, I did some babysitting for neighbors.

general assistant, stamp and coin store, ~1977–1978:  The aforementioned grandfather had a store in Niceville where he sold postage stamps (as in philately), coins, and rubber stamps (for addresses, "PAID", etc.).  I did some sales and also made rubber stamps, which was with hot lead at the time.  Neither I nor my father was sure of the name of the store, but as usual my brother bailed me out:  It was Sellers Stamp Shop (very original, I know).

Overseas Studies Department, USC, 1979–1983:  The first "real" job I had was a work-study position when I started college.  I worked for Overseas Studies during all four of my undergraduate years.

dorm cafeteria, 1981–1983, USC:  During my junior year I added a job in the cafeteria, where I worked through the summer after I graduated.  Working on the Saturday breakfast shift is when I learned that Mountain Dew has caffeine in it.

fundraising department, USC, ~1983?:  For a very short time, I worked part time in a fundraising department at USC.  I didn't like it and it didn't like me, and we parted ways very quickly.

Urban Planning, USC, 1983:  The first full-time job I had was immediately after I graduated.  Urban Planning was not yet part of the School of Public Policy, which didn't exist.  This job is where I learned how to use the WordStar word processing program, with a flip-book self-paced tutorial.

Industrial and Systems Engineering, USC, 1984–~1986:  I didn't stay long in Urban Planning because a more attractive position became available in ISE.  This department had a great group of professors, including three from Turkey, a Persian, a Kiwi, and "Gerry Squared."  For a while we had a graduate student with a football scholarship in the department.  The first time I met a native Spanish speaker of Chinese ancestry was while working here.

French and Italian, USC, ~1986–1987:  Moving from department to department is not uncommon at big universities, and my next stop was French and Italian, where I had been an undergrad student.  The new department head, whose views could be rather parochial at times, thought it was my obligation to make coffee for his personal meetings — until he discovered how badly I could make coffee.

Classics, USC, 1987:  One thing I remember having to do in this department was get the computer working again (desktop computers were just coming into departments around this time), because the previous administrative assistant had actually reformatted her C drive, and everything was lost.

Marine Biology, USC, 1988–1989:  I believe this was my last position at USC.  I learned a lot about the scientists' trips to the Antarctic.

kosher cook, USC Hillel, 1988–1989:  While I was working on campus, I also had a part-time job during the academic year as a kosher cook at the USC Hillel.  Highlights of my time there included meeting Leonard Nimoy and making more than 500 latkes during the week of Chanukah.

sous chef, Trumps, 1989:  During the summer of 1989 I was a sous chef at Trumps, a very trendy California cuisine restaurant of the time.  One of the items on the menu was a quesadilla made with green grapes and Brie cheese (which most of us in the kitchen deplored).

housekeeper/nanny/cook, 1989–1990:  During the month of August 1989, all three of my housemates left (I had to kick out two of them, the first to force her to take care of her mental illness and the second because she assaulted the third housemate; the third left soon after being attacked), so I had to find a new place to live.  I moved to the San Francisco Bay area because I found an unpaid position as a housekeeper/nanny/cook.  At least I was being fed.

in-home aide, SSI, 1990:  Although I was being fed at my housekeeper position, I did need some income because I had student loan payments due.  I became an in-home aide for a woman with cystic fibrosis.  I did her shopping and errands and cooked very bland meals for her.

assistant production manager, Chessex, 1990–1994:  The income from 10 hours a week through SSI was not adequate, so I had to find a full-time job.  Lucky for me, someone referred me to Chessex Games, which was looking for an assistant production manager.  Here I learned how to place dice into plastic containers just so and how to roll game mats so they fit into plastic bags.  I also did all the editing and layout on our role-playing products.

editrix, convention schnook, assistant bookkeeper, Chaosium, 1994–1997:  I had been checking with a friend at Chaosium off and on, waiting for a position to open up.  When it did, I came right over.  I greatly enjoyed working as an editor on role-playing games and fiction books.  This is one of the few companies I know of that had a designated pot-smoking area.

sales, Lacis, 1994–1995:  While I was working at Chaosium, Lacis, a fantastic store that carries vintage clothing and textiles, advertised for a part-time position.  I worked there to be around all the cool items and for the benefit of the employee discount.

secretary, Girl Scouts, 1997–1998:  After some poor choices related to collectible card games, Chaosium had to lay off some staff, including me.  I worked for a few months at the administrative office of the Girl Scouts.  It was only a temp position, which gave me great incentive to look for a permanent job.

publications coordinator, junior Webmaster, Seismological Society of America, 1998–2006:  I had applied for this position once and didn't get it, but it was relisted a few months later.  I eventually discovered that the first person hired had been there but a very short time and abruptly left.  I learned a lot about seismology and earthquakes while copyediting one of the society's scientific journals, and met many interesting seismologists and geologists.

mystery guest, ~1999–2000?:  For about a year I was a mystery guest for a national company, as a paid employee.  I visited store locations and checked service and product standards.  Mystery shopping is interesting, but you need to be completely objective in your observations.

transcriptionist, Perfect Pages, 2006–2007:  After leaving the Seismological Society I worked for a year and a half typing transcriptions of audio and video.  About a third was from television programs, a third from advertising and marketing materials, and a third from oral histories recorded by Kaiser Permanente as it tried to capture memories of people who had worked there in its early years.

office manager, BlueSkies for Children, 2008–2010:  This is an upscale daycare in a poorer part of Oakland, for families with two professional parents who both have work they are dedicated to but they want to have children also.  The job title was "office manager", but it was really being a door guard, to make sure the correct people brought the children in and picked them up.

editor, indexer, translator, Sellers Editorial Services, 1990–~2011:  Mostly I'm an editor, but I also do indexing and translation.  Most of the work has been in the adventure gaming industry (think Dungeons & Dragons and games of that ilk).  I even won a few awards for editing.

genealogy teacher and coordinator, Alternatives in Action, 2012–2013:  For one semester I taught a genealogy class at a local high school.  The rest of the time I helped introduce youth in a juvenile detention program to family history.

genealogist, Ancestral Discoveries, 2005–present:  Now I'm obsessed with genealogy.  I do research, teach classes, write this blog, and spend an inordinate amount of time volunteering.  At least I enjoy what I do!

train operator, BART, 2012–2014 (kind of –present):  I began training to be a train operator in February 2012.  Unfortunately, I suffered two injuries while working and went out on worker compensation disability in June 2014, and I'm still out.  I really enjoyed working as a train operator.  I wish I could go back, but it isn't going to happen.