When I was 15

[AllOut]

During the summer, baseball every day, worked 8+ hours a day on tractors and mowers for $7 an hour. If I wasn't working or playing ball we were pond hoping or bank fishing the lake.
Winter, basketball and duck hunting!
Oh ya....
Lots of Beer and chicks on the weekends too LOL

 

[Bandit656]

Mowed yards for $7. $8 for big yards.
Got first job in public sweeping floors and emptying trash at Anthony's.
Rode my bike to my girlfriend's daily for a post #12.

 

[twoguns?]

Hauled scrap iron brass/copper from one junkyard to ...another.
Selling it ...Both times....8/

Carwash, mechanic, mostly carwash, but I was learning

AHHH, weekends at the mountains...Ive been on Every square foot of that range , on foot .

 

[subprep]

I started washing dishes on weekends and all summer long once school was out from age 13 (my parents Taco Hut).

Bought my 1966 Mustang when I was 14 and couldnt even drive it for another 2 years.

I pretty much had all my hunting, fishing experience before the age of 13, but there was a lot more to come in the following years.

GTFO my granny and aunt owned a taco hut!

 

[aarondhgraham]

When I was 15 I was starting my senior year in High School,,,
The problem was my mother had lied about my age,,,
She did this to get me in school a year early,,,
Then the school put me up a grade.

The other problem was that she didn't tell me my true age,,,
Until the birthday I thought I was turning 14.

I was thinking of getting an 80cc motorcycle,,,
But that didn't happen because I was only turning 12.

Even then I wasn't allowed to tell anyone my true age,,,
Mom had me convinced that the school would hold me back a year or two.

I told my school-mates that I got caught joyriding in my uncles car,,,
And that because of that I couldn't get my license until I turned 18 years.

15 years old wasn't fun for me,,,
16 was a blast though.

I graduated in 1968 and had two years,,,
That I didn't have to worry about the draft or Viet Nam.

Aarond

.

 

[120 Acres]

GTFO my granny and aunt owned a taco hut!

Cool beans!

Ours was the only one in the area (Van Buren AR), I knew it was a franchise, but never saw another.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Mainly new construction plumbing that summer. Setting fixtures in a house with the a/c hooked up is fun. Rough-ins and top-outs in open fields with no shade on triple digit days is hell on earth. I cut pipe and ran parts and cut and threaded gas line on an old Rigid that liked to hurt you and dug/bedded drains. I still hate a ******* shovel. I was never 1/8th as fast as the guys from Zacatecas. I also mowed 5-7 places in my spare time.

I had '65 Chevy I bought for $1,000 when I was 14. I didn't sink much money into it until I was 16, though. Proud to say I've never been given anything but a job.

I bought rifles and bows and fly rods and paid my deer lease dues. I was good for 1-2 deer a year by then. I think I bought my Ruger .270 off old man Lash that year, but can't remember. I think it was $480. I have the receipt somewhere. I may have been 13 or 14.

I never studied or took a book home. I hated school. Everything but math was easy and boring. I read Kafka and Brautigan and Orwell and HST. I think I called myself a libertarian. I clearly wasn't getting laid.

 

[okievarmint]

I lived in California, I wrote a letter to my uncle in Maysville asking to come work for him that the Summer. I came to Oklahoma to first work for my Uncle in Maysville picking up rocks, straightening metal, mowing his lawn, and shooting mice in the barn, until he did not have any more work for me to do. Then I hauled hay for about a week, then worked as a Broom Corn Jonny cutting broom corn from 6:00 AM till 6:00 PM for $1.25 an hour, and making enough for my plane ride home plus some spending money. I learned a lot cutting broom Corn, I learned how to chew tobacco, and drink water at the same time, how to keep my cigarettes dry while working, and flirt with the Broom Corn Sally's. It was hot miserable work, I always looked forward to a thunderstorm because it would cool the day off some. By the way I did not smoke or chew tobacco until that Summer. I had a hard time getting use to the heat at first coming from temperatures of around 79 degrees to Oklahoma that was 100 +. Another plus, I got to experience M80's, cherry bombs, firecrackers, roman candles, bottle rockets which were all illegal where I lived in California. I also learned how to run a trotline, and catch the biggest catfish I had ever caught . I would have to say it was quite a learning experience for me.

We must be kin! Spent most summers working in the Rush Creek and Washita River Bottoms hauling hay and cutting broomcorn (baling it came in early fall after it cured, stacked in the broomcorn sheds). Cutting corn you wore long-sleeves buttoned at the neck even in the 100 degree temps! That corn sure would make you itch!

 

[turkeyrun]

Spent every summer with my Grandpa remodeling, roofing, moving houses; at 15 was making $1.50 an hr. Time I got to 12, I was hauling hay in the evenings, to pay for horse pasture and feed. Saturdays were spent fishing, hunting bullfrogs, and squirrels. Of course, any rodeo within driving distance. Spare time was spent mowing lawns or tending the garden.

Got to admit, that nickel bale hauling hay was DAYUM good money. Always had money in my pocket. Paid cash for my first car (a '64 Dodge with 440, .21 gallon for gas) times were good.

 

[nofearfactor]

My father ran an auto body/paint/service shop and a couple of auto parts stores in San Diego after he retired from the Marines so all the kids in our house worked there from day one when we werent doing home chores. My mom and stepdad live in Osage county, when I went there in the summer we hauled hay, worked on the ranch, and helped my grandfather at his oil and oil field equipment businesses. We stayed busy back then. My stepkids have always had yard work to do here at home in the summers plus they also have worked in the wifes office summers and holidays since they were little to make spending money. Our 17 yr old is a senior next year and he has been working in the drafting/engineering room the last 3 summers to save for a car and is now looking at a career there.