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How Chester Worked: My First Job, South Carolina

As told by Students at Chester High School, South Carolina
Chester, South Carolina

Story Narrative:

Our Chester County (S.C.) School District planned a series of carnival-type events as part of the kickoff for their summer reading program. The summer reading program was to be combined this year for the first time with the City of Chester's summer feeding program. Both the reading and the feeding programs fill gaps for students in our community during the summer months when there are no nutritious means being offered by the school, and when there is no reading and learning taking place on a daily basis. Our Stories:YES group was invited to participate in what were called “Read Feed Succeed” kickoff events at each of on the three high schools. We thought this would be a good way to capture some “person on the street” interviews about a person's first job, and a way to compare and contrast the historical information we were discovering about what jobs in Chester County (and the region) used to be like with some more modern takes on working.

Our technology leader supplied a tent and some chairs and we set up our interview booth. We asked three questions: What was your first job?, what did you do?, and how much did you make?

Speaker 1 (00:06): ...To be the assistant parks and recreation director for the city of Chester. And I didn't make very much. It's like $9,000. Can y'all believe that? That was my first real salary. Yeah. And I did a lot of different things because in a small department you do a lot of things.

Speaker 2 (00:28): My first fun job was as a hot walker at Churchill Downs. My college was about two blocks from the racing field and I could get there at seven in the morning and hot walk horses that just breezed around. And they paid me $5 a horse to hot walk them, and then you'd throw a blanket on them and walk them out and then give them back to their trainer. And how much did I make? Not very much, but I got tickets to come in and watch the Oaks. So, that was a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (01:04): What is a hot walker?

Speaker 2 (01:05): A hot walker is someone that takes the horse off the track when they take the race horses out in the morning. They were usually little young, thin girls that would breeze them out, that's run them out, as the trainer asked them to do. And then when they finished, they'd have to be walked. But, normally these horses need a gentle hand because they're from 18 months to on up to 12 years. And the younger ones are hot and they get excited in a hurry, so the hot walker needed to be someone who could calm them down and walk them out.

Speaker 4 (01:40): My first job was working for my parents in our pizza parlor. We had a pizza restaurant, and I did a lot of dish washing and waiting tables. And then my next job... That I didn't really make anything because my parents didn't pay me. But, my next job that I can recall was working at Carowinds because I lived in Rock Hill at the time. I went to Rock Hill High School and, while I was there, I got a job at Carowinds. And I was Yogi Bear actually at Carowinds. You wouldn't know it was me, but that was one of my animal characters.

Speaker 5 (02:26): My first job was in textiles. I worked in a cart room. How much did...? $9 an hour. Cart room, I hauled the barrels around for them off the spinners. There was a lot of spinning going on. From the cart room to the slasher I worked too. And we did different things. We hauled the carts, they were loaded on trucks and shipped out. And that's mostly what I did.

Speaker 6 (02:59): ... At what used to be called Punt's Restaurant. I did a lot of different jobs there. The main thing is our Sundays we're the busiest, so basically we kept the food flowing. It wasn't the best in the world. I think I was probably making minimum wage then. It wasn't a whole lot, but at the time you were just happy to get a paycheck at that age. That was definitely one of the best perks. Whatever was left over when we cleaned up, as much as you can fit in those little styrofoam trays is what you got to take home. So, Sundays.... Yeah. They definitely... Well, that was a feast in itself.

Speaker 7 (03:51): My first job was with Sears, a catalog store here in Chester in 1972. I was a computer... At that time, I don't know if it was called computer. I did the orders for merchandise because we were a catalog store. Therefore, I keyed in the orders for merchandise that people would order from the catalogs. How much did I make? I think I made $6.25 an hour. I believe that was my salary. $6.25 an hour, and that was in 1972. My how things have changed.

Speaker 8 (04:39): My first job was at a bagel shop. I worked at Chesapeake Bagel Bakery, and I ran the register. I made sandwiches. You wouldn't believe the amount of sandwiches you can make with a bagel.


Asset ID: 2017.02
Themes: Crossroads, small towns, work, labor, industry, business, first job, change
Date recorded: 2017
Length of recording: 5:18 m
Related traveling exhibition: The Way We Worked
Sponsor or affiliated organization: City of Chester and Chester High School, South Carolina
More information: https://museumonmainstreet.org/content/how-chester-worked-cotton-hogs-and-dairy-south-carolinahttps://museumonmainstreet.org/content/how-chester-worked-downtown-merchants-south-carolina

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