My first job

As I've mentioned many times , I'm from the hills of Eastern Kentucky. Happy Kentucky to be exact and born "up Scuddy" which means I was born in Scuddy hollow, but we pronounced it "holler".
My Papaw was a soldier and a carpenter. He built houses for just about everyone and was never too proud to take the smallest job. Outhouses to churches, he worked on'em all. He was a frugal man, not cheap or miserly, just learned over a long hard life to make the best of what he had. If someone wanted him to tear down a shed, he would not just knock it down, he took it apart piece by piece and then pull the nails out of the boards to save for some other project.
My job...well..

I was about 6 years old and my job was to straighten bent nails.

Papaw would pull nails for a while, put them in an old Maxwell House coffee can and when he had enough,, he'd bring them to me. IHe got me an old piece of railroad track about a foot long, a little kid's hammer and I had a coffee can sitting next to me to put the straight ones in. I would sit and ping, ping, ping for as long as he'd let me. Sometimes, I wouldn't get then all that straight and he'd just laugh and " bent nails hold better".

Lunch time, my Nanny would come to wherever we were and bring sandwiches and sweet tea in Mason jars.
We would sit in the shade, eat our lunch and then he would roll a cigarette [ yeah Prince Albert in a can and rolling papers ] and then we'd get back to work. When he saw I was getting tired, he'd take me back to the house and then go back to work. He always told me " you did good today".

Sometimes, maybe about twice a week, he'd take me to the general store my Nanny ran and let me pick out whatever I wanted. 25 cents to spend however I liked. This was 1970 and 25 cents went a long way for candy and bubblegum. He would stand and talk to my Nanny while I perused the candy jars, making my careful selection and planning what would last the longest.

My Papaw died when I was 20 and to this day, I miss that old carpenter.
But, you know what folks ? I still straighten old nails......and 50 years later, I still have that hammer.

a reply to: DAVID64
I love that story!
You don't hear about that kind of upbringing, or lessons in life anymore.

Thanks, I REALLY enjoyed your story about your grandparents.

Now that's what I'm a talkin about....

The mention of Prince Albert in a can brings back some youthful memories of telephone pranking.
We’d call the local tobacco shops or jiffy stores and ask them if they had Prince Albert in a can, if they answered yes we would respond “would you please let him out” and slam the phone down!
They caught on quickly and it only worked a few times but it was considered radical juvenile delinquent behavior back in my junior high days...
In that period of time in the summer we walked through the neighborhood with our old lawnmower looking for yard work jobs and in the winter carried our snow shovels looking for snow removal jobs.

There are no neighborhood kids that do the random snow shoveling jobs anymore, I can’t get around good anymore and I’m always hoping for that knock on the door before I have to go out and do it myself!

a reply to: choomsuba

now they go burn someone's house down and put it on instagram for likes!

A beautiful story, melancholic, but with a deeper meaning that goes beyond the simplicity of the imagery.

I like to believe that these 'simple' memories keep us sane in today's world. The fact that you still have the hammer and continue straightening nails is so very important; it's your anchor to reality and, possibly, better times.

I fear that many of today's youth won't have these kind of experiences to recall in the future. Technology, for however helpful it is, has eliminated the innocence of growing up and having to gain our experiences from simple, but important things, like straightening nails, enjoying the company of someone else over a meal and actually observing actions and those little details, like the ritual of rolling a cigarette.

Never stop hammering!

Thanks for sharing that. Awesome story, great memories for you.

Your Pawpaw and my Pop would have gotten along great. He saved all kinds of things, and would tell me , "you never know when I might need that."

a reply to: DAVID64
Marvelous David. I too straightened nails for my father. He and my uncle wanted to build a summer cabin in the mountains. To get the material, they located an old neighborhood that was being demolished to build a mall and the developers allowed people to come in and cannibalize what they could from the old houses. My dad and uncle did most of the tearing out including nails. We got 2bys and 4bys and window frames and door frames, and nails.

We too had a short section of railroad track, we lived next to the railroad. My job like you was to hammer out those nails they had pulled. I'd get a box full and my dad would go through them and pull out a couple here and there and point out that I must have gotten lazy with those and to do them again. He was big on ''give it your best and then add better to it''.

Thanks for helping bring back that memory David, I appreciate it.

I don't have much to add, but I did feel like saying this.

We need more of this from members, if we're a community, learning more about each other can only be healthy.

Thank you for posting this David.

a reply to: DAVID64

25 cents was a real score back in the Day....a Dime was a bonus....but a Quarter could take you places man....not many here have ever heard of five for a penny.....lol....lol.

Thanks for the Story it takes me back to my own roots as well.

originally posted by: one4all
a reply to: DAVID64

25 cents was a real score back in the Day....a Dime was a bonus....but a Quarter could take you places man....not many here have ever heard of five for a penny.....lol....lol.

Thanks for the Story it takes me back to my own roots as well.

Absolutely!

I remember the five & dime stores in South Philly in the early 70s. Woolworths was the UK equivalent I experienced in the 80s. To a kid they were like Aladdin's cave, and not just toys. I was more like Toolman Taylor.

I almost forgot. How about getting sweets instead of coins in your change. We had that in Italy when the cashier didn't have enough coins.

I grew up on a farm in the summers from around the time I was born till I turned sixteen. My first job....don't quite remember, I remember when I was pretty young picking veggies out of the huge garden or picking potatoes in the field. I think I just ate the strawberries when in the field, I doubt if I actually helped, I was probably more apt to crush the plants than put berries in the strawberry cartons. I remember feeding the two cows and the chickens, and the first time I helped to clean out the outhouse with a shovel through the back door under the double seater, I was only about six or so. At that young age, I knew I hated the job, that memory will be the last to go if I get alzheimer disease in the future.

originally posted by: choomsuba
The mention of Prince Albert in a can brings back some youthful memories of telephone pranking.
We’d call the local tobacco shops or jiffy stores and ask them if they had Prince Albert in a can, if they answered yes we would respond “would you please let him out” and slam the phone down!
They caught on quickly and it only worked a few times but it was considered radical juvenile delinquent behavior back in my junior high days...

In that period of time in the summer we walked through the neighborhood with our old lawnmower looking for yard work jobs and in the winter carried our snow shovels looking for snow removal jobs.

There are no neighborhood kids that do the random snow shoveling jobs anymore, I can’t get around good anymore and I’m always hoping for that knock on the door before I have to go out and do it myself!

If you do see young people with a Snowshovel or Lawnmower come up to your door they are likely scoping you out for a B&E the next time you leave or just checking if anyone is home before they Jimmy your door and empty your house.

Besides there are so many Laws now that any Kids with real dreams and motivation are snuffed out by some Rainbow 30 year old Snowflake with a "company" who uses Social Media to pressure Communities to send out Bylaw Officers to kick over any Lemonade Stands and confiscate any Rouge Snowshovels.