HIGH SCHOOL JOBS
In 1964 I worked at a deli on 87th Street between East End and Stoney Island. The store was nearer to Stoney Island and on the South side of the street. I worked there for a few months as a fountain-boy.
In November and December
1967 I worked at the Tropical Hut on Stoney Island
and 91st(?) as a bus-boy. In 1967 and 1968 I
worked at Andy's Tastee Freeze at 79th and Manistee.
I worked there with Larry Dalke.
~~~Donald Larson
I've had a
job since I was 14 years old.
Too young then to apply for work, I got a job at Vincense
Ace Hardware, owned by my uncle. Over the "Bowen years" I worked at Markon's at the deli counter and at the fountain, making
drinks and sundaes. Later I worked at Manor Ace Hardware after school and
weekends. Not only did Randy Brett and I work at Camp Chi, but we also worked
at a garden center where we sold flowers and dirt. The nastiest job I ever had was after high school. In 1969, I had a summer job washing
trucks with acid and steam. I had an International Harvestor
Step van with a machine that generated 900 pounds of steam and sent it through
a hand held wand that was like holding a jet engine in your hands. I would
drive to business that we had contracts with and clean their trucks, inside and
out.
~~~Mike Davis
In 1965 I
worked at the newstand at the corner of 87th and
Stony Island. A
kindly drunk named Ray Vanderworth(sp?) owned it. After a while I made a deal with him
to operate the stand on my own on Sundays and I hired a few friends. It was
fun. Later I wrote a short story based on this experience. From 1966
until 1968, during the summers and weekends I worked at the Chicago Candle
Corp. factory at 61st and Wentworth. It was hot and miserable work loading
trucks, pouring hot wax and cleaning painting machines but I learned a lot
about life there and I met some really intersting
people.
~~~Ron Buzil
I did some
babysitting. I think
I got 50 cents an hour. Is that possible? Sure doesn't sound like much.
My first 'real' job during my Bowen years was as a receptionist at Loretto Rozak School of Dance on South Chicago Avenue. I took ballet and other dance classes there. I worked there bartering the reception work for dance classes. BTW, I was the klutz of the class but I had a lot of fun. Many of my fellow students danced in the annual production of the Nutcracker at McCormick Place. Mrs. Rozak was a treasure of a dance teacher, always challenging us to put forth our best effort.
~~~Marcia Mayeroff Sacks
I started
working at Shellys clothing shop on 87th, when I was 15. I loved it, I bought most of my clothes there so I didn't really get
a paycheck. Most of my friends shopped there too. Once I got my drivers license, the owners would let me pick up their kids
and do the banking for them, in their cars. Shelly had a cadillac and his wife Gloria had a
Mustang convertible. It was quite a nice
job. I came back and worked there my first summer back from college too. They
ended up moving and opening a store in Skokie and Park Ridge.
~~~Karen Myers Martin
When I moved from Gage Park to the East Side between 8th and 9th grades I had been shining shoes for a about 3 years. At about $20.00 an hour it wasn't bad, but I tried to commute to the old "route" on Western Ave and it got old after a short time. I was actually embarrassed the some of the kids might know what I did. I tried delivering papers one nasty winter, the morning Trib on Luella's hills. Also short lived. Finally when I could get a work permit at 15 I got a job at Goldblatt's as a stock boy. Matt Koch worked for the candy department in the basement. It was good work until Dec of 67 when I literally marched to the sound of a different drummer. (I came home the next Christmas and worked part time as a stockboy at Goldblatt's.) I was really surprised a few years ago when I found out it is still open.
~~~Guy Carlsen
In addition to working "for the Colonel" at KFC, during the school year I worked at the Jewel on 95th and Jeffrey. Not a bad job and paid well too, but the store manager was anti-semetic so it was quite uncomfortable around the Jewish holidays.
Eventually, he and I had a parting of the ways (I was fired) but I ended up getting a job at a lawn & garden shop on 95th and (I think) Cottage Grove. Never worked so hard in my life but I enjoyed every minute of it. The people were great and, best of all, I got paid out of the cash register --- no taxes! When I left after graduation, the owner gave me a new $100 bill as a graduation present. I'll never forget that.
During the summers of 1967 and 1968, I worked at Camp Chi, first as a "go-fer" and later as a counselor and camp-craft specialist. Mike Davis worked there, too and we bunked together for part of the '68 summer.
~~~Randy Brett
Lots of us sold shoes together at Evergreen Plaza. Charlie Winship, Howie Katz, Bobby Klein, Gary Paul, and myself all sold womens shoes at Bakers (the most expensive pair was 10.00! ) Later we moved to sell at Chernins on Roosevelt Road. Also worked as a laborer at Republic Steel with Charlie. In retrospect, it was pretty dangero us work.
~~~Allan Schoenberger
During the
winter months I worked at the Burger King on 87th and Anthony. The summers were
the best- working at the Kiddieland on 95th and stony
Island. The type of ride you operated determined your status at the
park. The top dog ran the train, did the repairs on the other rides and
made the most money-$1.25/hr, 67-68 were the train
years. (life was so simple).
~~~ Dave Engel
It seemed I always had a job. First it was delivering the Southeast Economist Newspaper. They failed to tell me that you got paid by collecting subscription money. They also failed to mention that nobody subscribed, but you delivered to everyone and then tried to collect. They did mention that I was the first girl they had hired. After of month of trying to get money from people who had no intention of paying, I quit. Then it was babysitting, at the going rate of 50 cents an hour. The perk was being able to stay on the phone without interuption from Mom or my sisters. Since I had a bunch of cousins with small children, I had a built in client base. Then there was "Thelma's Dress Shop" on 100th Street. I think I got 75 cents there. Their claim to fame was carrying "Kimberly Knits" a line suitable for my Grandmother. I mostly did stock work there, and since they were NEVER busy, there wasn't too much to do.
Then "Sol's Drugs" at 100th and Yates. A whole buck an hour. For some reason he decided that I should work at the front register at night, and was instructed to NEVER sell anyone airplane glue unless they bought a model kit. Never. Not to anyone. I thought it would be a good idea to remove said glue from display, but I was apparently the only one who thought so. So there was this display with tubes of glue and when the knuckle dragging types came in to purchase it, presumably to sniff it, I had to stand there like a fool and say NO. We don't carry it. When they lifted their paws and pointed to the display, I looked right at it and told them, No, that was not air plane glue, even though the damn thing said so in screaming red and yellow. When I wasn't on the register from hell, I was cleaning shelves with "Pledge". I can still smell it. Yuck.
Then I worked at "Three Sisters" Downtown. Really inexpensive clothes, one step above "Robert Hall". I think I made 1.15/hour there which was big bucks to me. In those days everybody wore a girdle, even if you were 80 pounds dripping wet. They had a Monster Girdle, really scarey, with zippers and boning and built of iron. If you sold one of those, you got a bonus of 75 cents. One week I need money and decided to sell the hell out of them, managed to sell about four. The extra money was great, but I just couldn't keep telling people how wonderful they were. It was too big a lie. Besides, they looked like they might turn on you and kill you in your sleep. I shudder....
Then during the summer after graduation, I got a great job. I took the civil service test and got a position as a Junior Library Clerk. It was wonderful to be in the Main Library everyday. I would roam the stacks and wander around the areas the public never sees. They had a phone service to answer questions from the public and I worked the phones most of the time. Got to look up the answers to questions like "How many cows are there in Wisconsin?" or "How old do you have to be to get married?" It was great fun. Half the staff had lunch at noon, and half at 1:00, and if you left for lunch at 12:15 you could stay out til 1:55. The noon people thought you were going at 1:00 and the 1:00 people thought you left late for noon, so nobody looked for you at all. The only drawback was the intense heat. No air conditioning and the afternoon sun would just cook you. They said the floor would close down if it got up to 120 degrees, but it never got higher than 115. I worked there for two summers and loved it.
~~~ Shelley Volk
I arrived to South Chicago in 1949 and lived at 92nd and burley, went to school at Our Lady of Guadalupe made my first communion there in 1956. Had a chance to go to JN Thorp Grammar school also. Eventually graduated and went to Bowen High school where I had a chance to play in the Band. Things I remember well where the jobs I held. There was a grocery store IGA on 89th and commercial where I was paid .50 cents an hour. I had a chance to help the butcher, put up cans and clean, clean. We lived on 89th and exchange next to the Ramirez family. It was a great time. Remember going to Gayety Ice Cream Parlor for my shake, 30 cents would go to white castle and pay five cents a hamburger. Then I would take my treats and pay a quarter on Saturday afternoon at the Commercial theatre on 92nd and commercial to see three movies. My favorite movies back then was Gold finger, King Kong, etc. I eventually got a job as an usher and earned 75 cents an hour.
Great memories with my friends, Joe Salinas, Joe Bustos, had a lot of fun playing guitar and going to Calumet Park or Rainbow beach. It was a great time in my life. I graduated from Bowen High school in January of 1967. Went first to a junior college at CVS which then moved to a new location called Olive Harvey.
Met my wife at 14 years of age Rosa Linda Diaz at JN Thorp. Had my first kiss with her at the Library on Houston on 91st behind her house. Know we have have 4 children and 7 grand children. This has been fun remembering my old neighborhood in south Chicago.
~~~Zeke Montes
My first real job was at Shore Bakery on 79th or 75th street; it was a Jewish bakery, owned by the Simkovic brothers (who I think were Holocaust survivors). Besides for eating cookies and learning how to operate the slicing machine for the rye breads, I remember that was the summer that Richard Speck killed the nurses, only two blocks from my grandparents' house and right next door to Dennis Windmiller. I also worked at the JCC, but they didn't pay very well, so I tried to get a job as a counselor at Stony Island Park day camp. I was told at the park field house that I needed a letter from the Democratic ward committeeman - so I went, all by myself, to Stanley Zima's 10th Ward Regular Democratic Organization ward office. I thought that as a good student at Bowen with experience at the JCC, I could get a job. Mr. Zima asked me who my father was, said he didn't know him, and threw me out of the office. I learned a fundamental lesson in Chicago machine politics that day, which is probably why I worked so hard for Harold Washington's election many years later. I went back to work at the JCC which I kept doing even when I was in college in Hyde Park (and the J moved from 91st and Jeffrey to Hyde Park). I found out as an adult that a number of the staff members at the south side JCC were former communists who had lost their "real" jobs during the McCarthy era, but the Jewish Federation was happy to give them jobs - that's why the day camp songs we sang happpened to be the civil rights movement freedom songs - were all day camp kids in the early 60s singing, "We shall not be moved!"? I don't think so!
~~~Susan Gzesh
My uncle owned Cheltenham Bowling lanes at 79th & Exchange (in the basement). I worked there doing odd jobs. They had a lounge there called the Afterglow Lounge where my Dad worked as a bartender part time. He would tell me stories that women would wear dark clothing and then were totally embarrassed in the black lit room because of the lint all over their dresses. I did not go to Bowen (went to Mendel Catholic) but lived at 88th & Exchange across from the police station. Spent many a day at Bessemer Park, especially at the "half moon". Anybody remember what that was?
~~~Bob Gas
My first job was at Pinzur's on 95th Street. I was a
stock boy, delivery boy and general step and fetchit. I think I made all
of .75 an hour plus could read all of the magazines and comics I
could.
My next job was at Seigal's deli at 83rd and South Chicago. I worked
behind the deli counter every Saturday and Sunday, making sandwiches for the
restaurant patrons and bulk packages for the counter customers. I was
apprentice to the deli Maven, Bennie. After several months, I became
quite proficient in making platters and estimating how much meat or
cheese someone should buy for their party. This learned skill still helps
me.
This was a great spot to work because the weekend traffic was fantastic. My
biggest problem was when I took the Jeffery bus home after work. No one
would sit near me because by 7:00p.m. I smelled like everything in the deli
counter from chopped liver to dill pickles.
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