When I was young, I went away to a summer dude ranch camp for a couple of weeks each summer. This was a co-ed camp/ranch. The summer I was 14 years old, I worked at the ranch all summer for room and board. Bucked hay, dug fence posts, laid sprinkler pipe, and chased girls who came to camp for a couple of weeks at a time. I was in heaven. A new bunch of lovely young ladies every couple of weeks. The following summer I got "promoted" and helped take the "campers" on horse back rides. The group of campers were broken down by age into 6-7 groups and we would take each group on an hours ride each day. So in addition to riding with the kids 6-7 hours I also took care of the horses prior to and after the daily rides were done. Still zero dollar income. But, at the end of summer, the owners took me into town, bought me new boots, hat and a couple of shirts. Then the biggest surprise came. They cut me a check for $300.00 ($100.00 for each month) told me the horse I had been riding all summer was now "mine". The next summer, they actually put me on the official payroll and in addition to R&B I got paid $200.00 per month. On weekends we often went to and participated in local rodeos. So, I was an Urban kid working at the local grocery store during the school year and a cowboy living the life during the summers. I continued to work at the ranch for each summer including the summer after graduating from HS. I have no idea the value of that in todays dollars. But the experience, life-long friends and memories are priceless.
But my first job was washing dishes at a local restaurant to pay for my ham radio gear at 75 cents an hour.
