Did you have a Saturday job when very young and was was it

I started in a local department store in the stocking department. I became an expert on the differences between gauge and denier, fully fashioned and semifashioned, and the various colours.. They were sold in boxes of three pairs.
I was paid ten shillings for the day, and lost my first paypacket! The other staff had a whipround to compensate me, then a customer came back with the envelope, which I had packed in her bag of stockings, so the kind donations had to be returned

My first job was as a volunteer in the local Childrens hospital, l was 16 at the time, and awaiting tye start of my Nurse training Cadet year in the September. I knew all the Staff as my Mother had worked there for many years on Night duty, and l grew up as a regular visitor to the place.
My job was to weigh all the patients and write it down ready for them being called in to see the Doctor, l also did the urine tests using the paper dipsticks, then cleared up and changed the linen on the examination couches after the consultation was over. Like most teenagers l really needed to earn some cash, so once my cadet year started l also worked Saturdays at Boots in town, which brought me an extra £1.50 per week.

I was the same as homefarm, too. My parents would never have let me get a job, but I didn’t want one anyway. Far too much homework and, especially, reading. Music and ballet lessons were also on Saturdays. My time was very full.

This will amaze some of you, but I was 24 when I had my first paid job, after doing two degrees.

I didn’t expect to have lots of material things, so wasn’t itching for more money. I never thought about it. I had a small amount of pocket money from my parents while I was at school, then a very small grant at university, followed by scholarship money to do my higher degree. £500 a year, I think. (This was in the early 1960s.) It felt like untold riches to me! I had subsidised accommodation in London. Those were the best years of my life.

Saturday and Sunday day job , 8 hours and four hours , I was 11 when I started doing a milk round ..... 4 a,m start... the Milkman picked me up in his car... or we walked 1.5 miles to the farm.... loaded up our ‘float’ and was out on the road at roughly 5.30. I ran from doorstep to doorstep until we reached the countryside and the customers were more spaced .... I got 10/- a week for 11-12 hours work.... a pint of jersey milk to drink on my round both days, and a packet of biscuits and an extra pint of milk to take home to mum. My wage was 4 times my 2/6 pocket money. I worked every weekend.... right through the 1963 winter ( you ve got no idea!!)..... I’ve been as fit as a fiddle most my life and can knock spots of most people my age for fitness and alertness . Nowadays I think the know-alls would call it child abuse or exploitation ,...... rubbish... I learnt how to work.... how to do mental arithmetic (people’s bills)... how to run ( I ran for England youth team) and how to save money and use it wisely. I also learnt stoicism , how to finish a job I’d already started. Kids today should take lessons. Loved every minute of it!

The same as homefarm for me, though not for studies. We had hockey matches on Saturday mornings. I never made it to the first XI except as a reserve, but got good exercise with the second XI.

Too young for first job - in a souvenir shop at the seaside selling glassware, ornaments and jewellery. Enormous fun, working for friends of family at 13 years. My first money. Wonderful. Learned to add up and give change very proficiently and loved speaking to all the holidaymakers. Then Christmas Saturdays and holiday in a big toyshop. Very tiring listening to pleading children and spending endless time unpacking, demonstrating and re-packing toys in fiddly boxes. Summer Saturdays selling ice cream from a kiosk on the beach whilst a boyfriend sold tickets for the deckchairs. Then, finally able to work in Woollies. This was (hilariously) considered the cream of the Saturday jobs at 11/- per day. Most of the local Grammar school's 5th and Lower VI years turned up for work there. There was an actual waiting list and those waiting often accepted work in Littlewoods or BHS whilst waiting. We had such fun and all the regular staff said that Saturdays felt very different when we all turned up for work. At the end of a long 9-5.30 day standing in my brand new dark green stilettos, (which matched my uniform) all I could think of was my painful feet. So I would change and put my shoes in a bag, then walk home in bare feet on the wet pavements because this particular slave to teenage fashion knew when enough was enough!

Simple answer No. My father wouldn't let me. He didn't want my studies disturbed!!!

cleaning and shelf cleaning at the local Coop- had to do the butcher's counter, etc, which I hated. The guys once asked me to get something from back of cold room, where carcasses were hanging- once I got to back, they switched the lights off and closed the doors, and I had to find my way back feeling with hands ahead, touching the carcasses. I screamed the place down!

They were not bad guys, and for them, it was just a bit of fun- but they did apologise and felt awful once they realised how upset I was! Bought my first decent pair of modern skis and boots with the money.

My first Saturday job was on the baker’s van in the morning delivering bread and cream cakes! I did a Sunday morning paper round before moving on to working, aged 14 , in a card shop in a busy Brighton high street. Woolworths was next on the shoe department or the biscuit counter. I progressed to Saturday supervisor , had a white belt to prove it. I worked in the summer holidays as well. Before going to teacher training college in Leeds, I was a nanny then worked at the local bowling alley to get some cash together. During college I did the Christmas post, had holiday jobs in cafes, offices and finally 6 weeks in Sainsbury’s before starting teaching. I took a year out to work in Sydney, Australia and scooped ice cream plus did office work, followed by 36 years teaching back in the UK.
The work ethic has always stayed with me giving me confidence, a sense of worth plus financial independence. I think it is very difficult for young people to access Saturday jobs now due to retail changes etc. I feel lucky and privileged

I never had time to get a Saturday or out-of-school-hours job because my mother and older sister both worked and I had to stay at home and look after my siblings. Mum worked as a wine waitress every evening and as a banqueting waitress at weekends and my sister had a Saturday job at Miss Selfridge in Lewis's in Manchester - that left me at home with five siblings and the weekend cleaning, shopping and cooking to do - as well as feeding and looking after the baby. My sister was excused after-school and Sunday chores because she worked!

I left school and got my first full time job in a solicitor's office when I was fifteen. My 'hard work' for the firm was often commented on, but it was a doddle compared to being at home. Wherever I've worked my 'work ethic' has been applauded and made much of, but it was years before I stopped comparing paid work to the housework/cooking/washing/childminding I did from a very young age.

And my ongoing claim to fame from that period is that I can still change a wriggling baby on my knee. I am the Nappy Queen!

I worked as a Saturday girl in Woolworths on the tinned food and frozen food department
Also had to work 3 hours on Friday night after school
It was hard work. Had to add up on a sheet of paper manually as the till didn't add up anything for me
Then after the shop closed go to the warehouse and climb up shelving to get refills of food for the shelves.
After that get an enormous broom and sweep the entire shop floor
All for the princely sum of £1/3/9p
Since my dad only gave me 1 shilling pocket money I thought I was earning a fortune
Went on to becoming a bank manager

My sister & I both in our 60’s remembered the when we worked both Saturday & Sunday’s, when we was 11/12 years on our relatives stalls & shop in Petticoat Lane East London leaving home @ 5:30 am to help set up the stalls no joke walk out in the dark on a winters morning, plenty of people about at the time of the day no one took notice of us we would get cups of tea with salt beef bagels we ? it our wages for the 2 days was £2 plus tips, then as we reached 15 we had enough of the early starts & we worked in “ Woolies” aka Woolworths we felt so grown with our overalls & selling broken biscuits, cake from big slabs, selling records & LP’s by the unknown artists on the” Top of
the pops” LP’s with scantily dress girl on the front, what happy days the both of us loved it, youngsters today response to today would ?

I started off my saturday working at Merritt’s, the cake shop. I then progressed to Woolies, where I worked on haberdashery. I think I earned around 17 shillings for the day. I loved it and it taught me the value of money.

Nope left school at 15 went straight to work in an office as a junior.

Just thinking---I must have been happy amongst the muck at the farm when I took up nursing in a different kind of muck.

I spent many happy hours working in a soft furnishing covers shop. I got paid a set weekly rate of pay and earned commission on every thing I sold. I started working every Saturday from 15 years of age, 8.30 to 5.30. During the holidays I worked extra. It was a good grounding for work life after college and ensured I learned responsibility.

Me too, JackyB; I also worked in the lingerie department of an upmarket department store that was a bus ride from home. I can't remember what I was paid, but Saturday staff were not allowed out of the store during their lunch break (unpaid!) and had to eat in the staff restaurant. My bus fare and a modest sandwich and a glass of water took care of most of my wage. I lasted about four weeks as I recall!

My first Saturday job was working in the staff canteen at BHS. I was paid £1 but had a penny taken off for a stamp!

Oops! Stationery!!

Saturday job in Woolies on the stationary counter

My mum wouldn’t let me do a paper round as my brother had done, so at 14 I asked in all the shops if they needed a Saturday girl. I went in a little shop about half a mile from my house. They sold every thing from shoes to dustbins. They said they had never had a Saturday girl before but why not! They asked how many hours and I said I’m only legally allowed to do 5 until I was 15. They then said they didn’t know what to pay me and asked what my friends got. I told them my friend got 10 shillings in Woolworths, so they said they would pay me 12/6! It was a credit sales shop or tally shop. I had never heard of that but mum said it’s like a catalogue where people paid weekly. Loved it there and worked there for a year and learnt so much! ?

I got my NI number at 14 and as soon as I had it got a Saturday job at Woolworths. I earned £1.00, with 3d being deducted for National Insurance. From then on I had a variety of jobs until I left school. I actually worked full time in the last shop in the summer holiday before I went to university.
Imagine my disgust when I was told in recent years that any NI contributions before the age of 16 don’t count towards your State Pension. I asked for the money back and was told to get on my bike because I will have had my money’s worth out of the NHS over the years, which is true. Still - it was my 3d...

1966 aged 14, half day working at florist's for ten bob
Then Chelsea Girl all day
Eventually M&S

My first paid employment was potato picking when I was around 14, it was backbreaking but paid well. Then I had a paper round and a collection round, getting the money in. Eventually I was promoted to work in the village shop. All good experiences and I learnt very quickly that my Mum had been right all along, money didn’t grow on trees!

Once we leave the EU and there aren't enough pickers for the fields I wonder if our grandchildren would like to replace them as so many youngsters seemed to do years ago??