If They Could See You Now…

Remember when your teacher would have you write a composition about what you did last summer?  (Me neither.)  I recently posed that question to the EtsyTwitter Team, and this is what some of the talented, artistic and hardworking members had to say:

Wendy of SweetwaterGifts grew up in the country about five miles outside of an average size town – just far enough to make going into town a big deal. Her mom couldn’t bear the thought of Wendy and her siblings having nothing to do all summer. That was “mom speak” for outside of their usual house cleaning, washing the dishes, feeding the animals (including chickens), vegetable picking and weeding the huge garden mom normally planted – they couldn’t simply lounge around doing “nothing!” So, mom decided to till up another half-acre of land for a pickle patch.  Please be advised, they didn’t live on a farm.

The kids planted, weeded, hand watered the pickle patch with five-gallon buckets they carried from the house a quarter mile away from the patch and then picked the resulting pickles. [Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...well, you know the rest.] The pickles were then taken to the local country bar where they were sorted and weighed, and the kids would be paid so many pennies per pound (the smaller being the more profitable). Wendy doesn’t remember making all that much money; however, she does remember getting to keep it! [Wendy, could you eat another pickle ever again after that summer?]

Suzanne of threepeats spent several summers during high school “caddying” at a big bridge tournament that was held every year at the New York Hilton. Caddying meant picking up hundreds of score sheets from the tables after every round and delivering them to the judges. It also sometimes meant trying to diplomatically extricate the aforementioned score sheets from bridge players who were crying or yelling at their partners or screaming at their opponents. According to Suzanne, she learned how to play bridge during those summers – even if she didn’t learn how to “be a good loser” or “act like an adult.”

Janet of HoneyFromTheBee had her first paid job as a truck stop waitress between her junior and senior years in high school. According to Janet, this was not a good fit for her shy personality. She worked with an older woman – think Flo from Alice (TV show) – who took Janet under her wing. “Flo” would trade with her when there was a group of guys that were a little too friendly.  They worked eight-hour shifts with no breaks – on the clock for $1 an hour and then another hour off the clock filling catsup bottles and salt and pepper shakers. The best tips came from her Dad when he’d stop by to and from his trips to the airport as an airline pilot; he’d always leave her a $5 bill! [Janet, I hope you are doing better than that with your etsy shop!]

[Please check back on Monday when more summer job stories will be revealed!]

Tagged as: etsy, EtsyTwitter Team, handmade, summer job, summer jobs