First job....what was it?

I was listening to one of the many radio commentators from the Road Dog Channel on my XM radio and he asked a pretty cool question.

What was your first job?  What memories do you have from it?  The calls he got were pretty neat and informative so I thought I would blog about mine.

Well, my first job was running the tractor on the family farm.  I have very fond memories as I was growing up, going clear back to when I was 5 about life on the farm around my dad and grandpa.

I remember when they would set me in front of them and let me steer the tractor or combine, which for a little kid was pretty fun.  What I didn't know was the great work ethic that they were slowly teaching me over the years.

I started to drive the tractor by myself when I was 12 years old.  Not only did I drive the tractor but I drove one of the work pick ups (that had a stick shift in it, gotta love that).  I would get up early in the morning, eat breakfast, pack a lunch and drinks in a cooler and hit the road.  Most of the fields were only 2-3 miles down the road from the house on county roads so I wasn't hardly on the main highway...whistles....

I would get to the tractor, fuel and service it and whatever I was pulling at the time, whether it was a disk, plow, spring tooth, sweeps etc.  Everything was greased and checked.  You didn't want anything to break down because that would cause a serious delay to the work, along with you helping in the repairs.

I would spend 10-14 hours on that tractor.  At times I thought I didn't like it, but I look back and realize that was that rebellious teenager speaking out.  If we still had the farm operation going, that is where I know I would be right now getting ready for harvest.  I do miss those days.

The first job I had outside of the farm was when I was 16 (and had a drivers license lol).  I worked as a park attendant at Little Sahara State Park outside of Waynoka.  It is over 1600 acres of sand dunes, trails etc that people would take their 4 wheelers, dune buggies, 4x4s and whatever else they could come up with out on the sand to play.  I did that all summer up to when school started.  The strange thing though was that I would work 8 hours at the dunes, go home, and then go out to the field to give my brother or dad a break from running the tractor so I still helped with the farm work.

I have to say that the farm did help develop me into the hard,(sometimes overworking) person that I am today.  It would be interesting to have a job where you only work 8 hours a day but I can count on one hand how many jobs I've had like that.  I found out that I got bored too easy with a job like that so who knows.  Truck driving really fit me well when I started considering the background I came from.  That's probably why I like it so much lol.