Starting in high school my parents put me on a budget. They gave me a debit card with a set amount on it each month to cover all of my spending. Anything above that amount, I had to earn. I babysat A LOT, but starting in my Sophomore year of high school I started working on our downtown square in a boutique called K.Feathers. The owner, Karen, has since changed it from a boutique into one of McKinney's cutest (and yummiest) restaurants, Spoons, but I remember vividly my Saturdays spent running the register, picking up lunch, and helping customers.
Karen would take me with her on trips through the local antique stores to find unique items to decorate the windows and create displays and to decorate the windows. They have open mic nights now in those same windows that I used to help dress.
I got to go in the basements of lots of the buildings to bring out the Christmas decorations and helped wrap the lampposts with greenery and decorate the big Christmas tree (the original one that used to be in front of the courthouse). I knew all the other shop owners, had standing lunch orders at the two restaurants that were on the square at the time and I really fell in love with our downtown while working there.
The very first present Dave ever gave me was a necklace from the shop for our first Christmas together. I don't wear it often, but it's a really special memento for a lot of reasons.
She closed the shop down and I got a job at another shop downtown, Orisons. The store is currently on the other side of the square, but when I worked there it was in the building below...
... the building was the original newspaper building and I can't tell you how many Saturdays I spent there with all those doors wide open steaming clothes and helping women put outfits together. I learned so much in that job about the actual running of a small business and made great friendships at the store. I interacted A LOT with customers at Orisons and I credit this job with bringing me out of my shell. Across the street from the shop, the owner's husband owned an art and framing business. The framing business has since moved, and where it was is now part of Spoons (the building where my first job was).
After Orisons I worked at a couple other places on the square, but I consider Orisons and K Feathers my first real jobs.
Dave's first job is awesome. His aunt and uncle owned a tanning salon named B Tan (for real) and Dave worked there as his first job most of his Junior and Senior years of high school. I remember that he would go in right after school and I would bring him dinner and hang out up there and do homework for a while before coming home. Because eating dinner at a tanning salon sounds totally appetizing, right? I also got to tan for free - so there's that.
He would have to check people in, sell products, set all the timers, clean the beds and do all the laundry. And he rocked at it - because Dave rocks at everything he does.
One other funny job story, when we were in high school one of our friends told us that his uncle needed some help at his warehouse finishing up a project over Thanksgiving break so he could meet a deadline. We really didn't know what we would be doing, but we found out that we would be making $10+/hour and so we signed up. We arrived at the warehouse super early on a Saturday morning with Brock and a couple of other friends and we bottled lens cleaner for 12 hours. Seriously. There was no heat in the warehouse and we took turns running the bottles through the shrink wrap machine so we could get our hands near the heat. We ate peanut M&Ms for lunch and all fell asleep in the car on the way home. And then we did it again the next day. and I think for about two days after that.
I'm excited to read about all of your first jobs! Happy Tuesday, girls!
An InLinkz Link-up
One other funny job story, when we were in high school one of our friends told us that his uncle needed some help at his warehouse finishing up a project over Thanksgiving break so he could meet a deadline. We really didn't know what we would be doing, but we found out that we would be making $10+/hour and so we signed up. We arrived at the warehouse super early on a Saturday morning with Brock and a couple of other friends and we bottled lens cleaner for 12 hours. Seriously. There was no heat in the warehouse and we took turns running the bottles through the shrink wrap machine so we could get our hands near the heat. We ate peanut M&Ms for lunch and all fell asleep in the car on the way home. And then we did it again the next day. and I think for about two days after that.
I'm excited to read about all of your first jobs! Happy Tuesday, girls!
An InLinkz Link-up
Every time I hear you talk about Dave at B Tan, I laugh! Such good stories! Happy Tuesday :).
ReplyDeleteThere are several BTan stories that are not blog appropriate :) We'll have to discuss at a later time! hahaha
DeleteI bet the square was a fun place to work in high school!!
ReplyDeleteI love reading your blog! Reading your post and saw a picture of my cousins husband's band The Poor Kings pictured. He is the lead, Mike Marshall. How awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat is so crazy!!! Small world :)
DeleteThe job on the square sounds great - maybe that is where your talent for decorating and flair started!!
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it spurred a love for visual merchandising and Free People clothing :) hahaha
DeleteI love that you worked on the square!! What a fun first job!! Also, Dave's first job is my favorite. B tan!! I love!
ReplyDeleteIf you ever need a recommendation on tanning lotion Dave's your guy! :) hahaha
DeleteLove your stories. Love reading you because you're real!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Michelle!!!
DeleteSeriously...your first job involved shopping and decorating? So not fair! And my parents did the whole set debit card amount also, all of my friends thought I was crazy cool - but now I realize it's because they could keep better track of me that way ;) hehe
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