For many of us our first jobs were really eye opening. In those early employment experiences we learn how hard it really is to earn a dollar and how good it feels when we get that first paycheck. We learn that we don’t know everything, but we’ve got potential.
In the next installment of my series, “Lessons Learned from My Very First Job,” Wendi Gratz shares what it was like to begin working in an automotive repair shop when she was 16.
Today, Wendi is a sewing pattern designer, Craftsy instructor, author and all around creative person. Her site, Shiny Happy World, is home to easy-to-follow sewing tutorials and videos, patterns for quilts, softies, and embroidery, plus a plethora of supplies for all your projects.
Here’s Wendi:
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My current (and favorite) job is designing easy patterns and videos that help creative people make adorable quilts and cuddly stuffed animals. It’s about as far removed from my first job as you can possibly get.
I got my first “job” was when I was 10 years old. My grandfather owned an automotive repair shop where he rebuilt starters, alternators, and generators. My dad worked there – and one summer I did too. I got paid in Country Time Lemonade (it was a rare treat to be allowed to drink something from a can and felt very grown-up to me) but I think it’s fair to call it my first job because I went in every day and got actual work done. I even had my own work bench.
Wendi in 1979.
I don’t think the plan was for me to actually work there. I started the summer just playing with what was around. I cleaned up old brass bushings, engraved flowers and words on them, and wore them as rings. I pulled generator coils apart, hammered out the copper I found inside, and made bracelets. But pretty soon my dad started asking me to do a few things. Did I want to take apart some starters? Sure. I like using tools. Did I want to clean the cast metal casings? Absolutely! That used an awesome machine full of solvent and I loved the smell. Did I want to repaint them now that they were clean? Of course! Spray paint is the Best Thing Ever when you are ten. Step by step he added new tasks and by the end of the summer I could take apart and rebuild any starter – and I did several every day.
I learned that I can do anything if I’m interested and if someone will break down the steps for me. Of course, the flip side of that is a genuine belief that everyone else can learn anything they’re interested in – all they need is someone to break down the steps for them and show them how. The most fun part of my job is figuring out the best way to teach someone a new skill they’ve never tried before – and to do it in a way that’s fun and approachable.
Paper doll quilt pattern by Wendi Gratz.
I also learned that the right tools make tasks easy and fun. Those metal casings I cleaned? That would have been very Not Fun with a rag and some solvent. They were covered with a thick layer of cooked-on engine grease and dirt – sticky and black and really hard to get off. But we had a fabulous machine – imagine a large rock tumbler filled with small stones and mineral spirits. Toss the casings in there, set it to tumble, and a little while later you would pull magically clean casings out. For spray painting we had a bench set up with a bunch of alternator fans we used as little lazy Susans. We stood the casings on them so we could paint all the way around without having to reposition them. I learned to invest in the right tools for what I do, and to set up my studio to make my work easy.
Sweet Dreams doll clothes and quilt pattern.
Finally, I learned that practice really does make perfect. At the beginning of the summer my dad always checked to make sure I had sufficiently tightened the bolts holding each starter together. Eventually I always got the bolts tight enough and he stopped checking. And not long after that I got strong enough that I was able to twist the heads off the bolts. Bonus – I got to graduate from using a nutdriver to using the extremely cool (and loud) air wrench. The air wrench is set to stop turning when the bolt is tight enough. I love hearing from students who tell me that outlining applique pieces was really challenging at first, but by the last block in their quilt they felt like a real pro. Being able to see visible progress like that is such a magical feeling! I get it – and I’ve gotten it since that first job.
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Did Wendi’s story resonate with you? Tell us about your first job and the lessons you learned that stick with you today.
Wow! You certainly had an unusual “first job.” Mine was working in a department store, after babysitting, of course. I also worked in the kitchen of a nursing home whose owner was a friend o my Dad’s. All these experiences taught me to get my college degree and complete my goal of becoming a Home Economics teacher. I didn’t want to do any of these jobs the rest of my life!
That’s so cool!
My first job when I turned 8 was clipping onions on my grandfather’s farm on weekends. To go back to the beginning, my father was one of 12 children. My grandfather had a farm were he grew acres and acres of onions and as well as tobacco. Every August it was work time harvesting all those onions and tobacco. All my father’s brother and sisters along with me and all my cousins, 8 and older had to work the farm. I spent hours and hours sitting on a burlap bag and cutting the ends of each onion off with these great big clippers. There must have been at least a million onions, well it felt like that anyway. Outside of a sore rear end and numerous blisters I survived the Augusts. I hated when it rained because it was horrible sliding on that burlap bag which soon became all mud. It was kind of fun as I got to meet my cousins, whom were numerous, at least once a year. My grandmother and some of my aunts would be cooking for all of us. Grandpa had this long table and benched he made to fit at least forty of us. Good food, good company and all for a nickel a day. The year this started was 1951. After the onions, it was time to harvest the tobacco. Being an older child and a girl, I had to do what a boy would have done growing up with a mechanic as a father. Well those are other stories.
Forgot to say, it surely made you think of how hard it was to earn a nickel. I now probably do every craft that is known or at least have tried, except for quilt making. Never go into it. My lifetime job was an accountant even though my father would have preferred me to be a mechanic.
I started at 12 taking care of my mother who had a nervous breakdown and no one was interested in helping her as she alienated the family and friends so I was the only one that cared enough! got into huge trouble staying home from school and Dad had to go to court to explain what happened as we were poor immigrants and had no money to pay someone! Even the court costs he had to pay were too much, had to do a few pennies a week! How they managed to chance having two more kids is beyond me, I think she was scared I would get married and she was on her own again! At 17 my sister was born and I fell in love, at 21 anther sister whom I loathed as she did nothing but cry and was not the most prettiest kid! At 21 I did not care for babies, did not want my own! Each boyfriend that requested to meet my parents never saw me again as they got the short shift by my parents! Finally met my darling husband at 23, he was 25. We both knew what we wanted out of life and certainly not the lives of our parents! Now old and have 5 grandchildren after having three of our own and love all of them! Different life altogether from the parents and raised happy well rounded children who now pass that on to their children! Moral of the story, children should not be made to hold a marriage together and must be wanted for loving and making a life for them, not you!
Aww Such a cute story. And an awesome job at ten!! I’m loving this series of your. Thank you!!
That is just the loveliest, sweetest, first job story I’ve ever heard!