85 Cents Per Hour!

Yes, Sir, folks! that's what I made at my first job. That is my first job after being a paper boy at which I made no money.

My first job was as a dish washer at Brehmer's Cafe in Brainerd, Minnesota. I worked four hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday. That's a whopping $6.80 for the entire weekend. With that money I bought my first car, a 1952 metallic blue Chevrolet Biscayne. I also insured it and bought the gas. Of course gas was about twenty cents a gallon then.

I quit that job to work at the Sweden House for $1.05 per hour and worked about 16 hours per week. That's what you call "coming up in the world. " I worked there until I joined the Army Reserves and was shipped off to basic training.

As I look back I realize that one day at my first job would buy two tall Starbucks coffees today. Worse yet, it wouldn't buy me one gallon of gas today. In my F-150 I'd only get about 15 miles down the road.