I'll bite
Age 9 - caddy
Age 11 - drove Ford LCG tractors pulling 20' wide gang mowers at the golf course down the road. CT labor laws allowed 11 year olds to drive tractors under the guise of agricultural law. With the exception of the bartender, the course owner had an entire workforce under the age of 17 - kind of a child labor camp if you will. Great job. Loved it. Kind of like Caddy Shack on power equipment. When not on the tractor, I would spend my free time at the single bay Esso garage / gas station next door, pumping gas, washing windshields and doing mechanic's helper work. Pay scale - one soda and one candy bar per day. Another job I miss.
Age 15 - Did some roofing and painting for a while, then scored a job as a caretaker on rural estate for some folks who owned a hotel chain. They were gone most of the time, darn it!
Age 18 - Apprentice toolmaker. Enjoyed that. Got to use traditional non-automated machine tools.
Age 20 - Tractor trailer driver. Also liked that - the sound of the turbo and intercooler in harmony with the sound of the torque & horsepower doing their thing on a long grade - uh huh.
My brother and I were 3rd generation truckers, succeeding my Father. We bought him out at over 3 times the value of the company by funding in full his & our Mom's retirement years. Not complaining, just don't like people to assume I had anything handed to me, not that there's anything wrong with that. I would surmise in the abstract that a small family owned trucking business is somewhat similar to a small family owned dairy farm, in that it's a 24/7 operation, only our cows were made of metal. We hauled around 5,000 shipments per year, primarily petroleum and dry bulk limestone, with flat bed work to fill in for the seasonal petroleum traffic. I drove for 15 years, then did managerial work and every thing else that goes on in a small business, for 15 years. In November of 07, our insurance renewal came in at double the price of the previous year. That was the straw that broke the Camel's back, and we decided at around 30 years each, we'd had enough of other people's hands in our pockets. Brother is selling petroleum and electricity, and I work as an estate caretaker for a guy who was a key player on Wall Street. He has been in the news now & then about that, but I won't reveal who it is, out of respect & loyalty to the job and my employer. I love the job. I'm outdoors now all day long. The pay isn't as good, but there is close to zero stress as compared to riding herd on 80,000 lb truckload quantities of gasoline and fuel oil at 9,000 & 7,500 US gallons per load.
I have my feelers out for other work that may pay better and especially offer health insurance, but so far no luck. I have no degree, for at age 18, I already knew all there was to be known.
When people with graduate degrees are applying for minimum wage jobs, things get a little askew in the job market for those of us without a sheepskin.
Still - I'm thankful & grateful for what I have,
(although my knees and joints would beg to differ.)
