Summer Jobs in the 1950s

Scenes from Childhood
September 1, 2021 at 12:00 a.m.
...by by S. McCafferty

In East Cleveland, Ohio, one had to be sixteen to work (unless you were a babysitter for 50 cents an hour). Our apartment was located near a business section that had an A&P Supermarket, a Gray’s Drugstore and a Manners Big Boy Drive In.

My first summer job was at the A&P in the produce department; the next was in the drugstore as a
“soda jerk.” The one with the best learning experience was as a car hop at Manners during the summer before college.

I learned how a business should be run. One couple with two kids and a dog drove in and ordered hamburgers, fries, etc. Our orders were checked by the kitchen manager and again by the car hops.

After I brought the order out, the couple called in on their order box and asked to see the manager. I went out with the manager, and they said they had paid for four hamburgers but only had received three on their tray. For some reason I looked in the back seat and there was the dog with a little ketchup on his chin. But the manager apologized to them and told me to fetch another hamburger, which I did.

After work, I asked the manager, “Didn’t you see the ketchup on the dog’s face?” He said he had, but that he also had written down their license number in case they tried it again.

Then there was this fancy sports car that drove in with a young man at the wheel. I placed the tray with the order upon it and asked him to roll up the window a few inches to secure the tray. He did, and then for a bit of humor, I said, “This won’t tip the little car over when I attach the tray, will it?” 

He nearly steamed up the inside of that little car in anger and told me off in no uncertain terms about my slandering his car. 

Whoops. No jokes to the customers, I learned. When I had my own business, many years later, these memories served me well. ❖
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