Curb Hop and Soda Jerk

[opaul]

Watching a TV show about great eating places reminds me of the jobs I had as a teenager. I worked Sunday afternoons at Jigg's BBQ in Hertford, NC as a curb hop. There was also dine in but most folks pulled up and ordered from the car. I'd take their order, bring it out and make change from my leather cash purse on my belt, actually counting back the change.
On Saturdays I'd work as a soda jerk at Harmon's Pharmacy grilling cheese and ham sandwiches. We had to actually fill the soda machines with syrup from gallon jugs. The carbonization came from tanks in the back. There were a few customers that always ordered special cokes - rather than coke from the machines we pumped syrup from the containers and then put the carbonization in. I actually liked them too but they were really really syrupy.
Jiggs cooked up some good BBQ and people would drive in from Virginia just to eat and order his fried cornbread.
That was back then when a smoke was a smoke and people said groovy.

 

[walkinghorse]

Moved and delivered furniture while in high school. When in school, holidays and summer, worked heavy construction (big guy, and rules looser then).
Couldn't hop a curb now or anything else now !

 

[Harkrader]

Soda jerk and burger flipper in an iconic restaurant on the edge of my home town in the late '50s early '60s. Pretty girls including a couple single mothers did the car hopping while I was hidden inside. Worked my buns off that summer, but it sure was fun. I hated working Saturday nights, but that was when the greatest cars showed up.

The place was known for its shakes and ice cream sodas made with "real" ice cream, called custard nowadays. I loved 'em.

 

[Comrad]

and served soda at the counter in something like this.

Used to cost us a dime when I was young and foolish.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Mostly worked construction and dug ditches.
I am in fact a former professional ditch digger completely ruint by higher education.

 

[Coldshooter]

Mention of car hops I haven't seen one of those change machines since the seventies, the kind with penny nickel dime quarter tubes and levers to kick out the coins. Funny how some girls could be beautiful just counting change.

 

[old bear]

Bus Boy/pearl diver (dish washer), one summer. Spent several summers as a hod-carrier. By the end of each summer, using tongs, I was able to carry 20 bricks up a 30' ladder 10 hours a day. Today carrying two bricks up a 3' ladder would kill me.

 

[Whitwabit]

Worked at a Sandy's Hamburgers back in 66 .. was before any McDonalds or the other hamburger joints .. the only other was the A&W Root Beer Stand on the other side of town .. Flipped a whole bunch of burgers in that place for 2 years ..

 

[pawngal]

and served soda at the counter in something like this.

Used to cost us a dime when I was young and foolish.

Those were a nickel back in my day.

I worked at a Dairy Queen when I was in HS, 55 cents an hour and all the ice cream I wanted. Still had nickel cones then too.

 

[Houlton]

The Casino

Watching a TV show about great eating places reminds me of the jobs I had as a teenager. I worked Sunday afternoons at Jigg's BBQ in Hertford, NC as a curb hop. There was also dine in but most folks pulled up and ordered from the car. I'd take their order, bring it out and make change from my leather cash purse on my belt, actually counting back the change.
On Saturdays I'd work as a soda jerk at Harmon's Pharmacy grilling cheese and ham sandwiches. We had to actually fill the soda machines with syrup from gallon jugs. The carbonization came from tanks in the back. There were a few customers that always ordered special cokes - rather than coke from the machines we pumped syrup from the containers and then put the carbonization in. I actually liked them too but they were really really syrupy.
Jiggs cooked up some good BBQ and people would drive in from Virginia just to eat and order his fried cornbread.
That was back then when a smoke was a smoke and people said groovy.

Did you go further south and hang out at the Casino?

 

[bricker]

Bus Boy/pearl diver (dish washer), one summer. Spent several summers as a hod-carrier. By the end of each summer, using tongs, I was able to carry 20 bricks up a 30' ladder 10 hours a day. Today carrying two bricks up a 3' ladder would kill me.

I spent my entire youth being a "hod" for my dad and two uncles. Good times.

 

[Just another 22 shooter]

Grew up on a farm, working it with my dad and Grandpa. First off the farm job was gas pump jockey at my cousin's Skelly Station. Pumped gas, cleaned windshields, fixed flats. If I recall correctly, gas was 23-28 cents a gallon.

 

[retiredbadge8091]

Worked as a laborer for my dad's plumbing and heating company. Lots of shovel work and lugging pipe and fittings. Made twice what my bag boy or burger flipping buddies were making though.

 

[Grip_Maker's_Wife]

I was the neighborhood babysitter, volunteered at the YMCA, and "cleaned" my mom's friend's house across the street. I say "clean" because there was never anything to do. I just cleaned the clean. They had a huge house with a built in vacuum system that was so cool to use. Once I turned 16, I worked summers on the base in England for traveling money. I was a switchboard operator but the man I had to work with was creepy. I switched to picking up appliances at homes US personnel moved in/out of and got to drive a small truck which was fun on the British country roads. I also volunteered with the elderly and with children that were taken out of abusive situations. My mom did a lot of work for the kids and I was happy to help.

 

[LedFowl]

First off the farm job was gas pump jockey at my cousin's Skelly Station. Pumped gas, cleaned windshields, fixed flats.

I worked as a pump jockey, too.

Free glassware with fill-up. Bulk oil. Cloth roll towels in the restrooms. Manager's name was Harley.

 

[quneur]

Bus boy at buffet restaurant. I hated Friday nights when they served breaded shrimp. People would leave mounds of discarded breading. Mounds like a horrible 5th grade volcano project gone wrong; literally from table edge to opposite edge. People would also fill their pockets and purses with shrimp to take home.

 

[rwsmith]

We have Sonics.....

We have Sonics that are good drive ins. The staff works on skates and they play 50's music a lot and on weekends the car club owners gather in their classic cars. It is cool as......well.... than anything.

We also have a local chain of sandwich/ice cream shops and they have a good selection of different things, too. Big salads, soups a huge variety of sandwiches (Reuben is my fave) as well as dogs and burgers. I REALLY like having a good local place and not a chain.

We had loads of Drive ins around here until the mid 70s when they started going out. One place hung on longer and it was about my favorite place to eat. They had BBQ sandwiches with mustard sauce and onion rings and all kinds of stuff. The waitresses were pretty and nice (I dated one) and they had this one old lady that ran around like she was on skates but wasn't. She was in SHAPE! They turned into eat in places that were still good, but just a couple of years ago, the last one closed.

I had a funny experience at a drive in that should have been out of business a long time ago. I had got off work from the grocery store and stopped in and ordered the veal. It was so bloody tough that I had to get out my razor blade box cutter to cut it and I was getting mad because the styrofoam box couldn't take much of that. A guy pulled in next to me and I held up my cutter with gravy dripping off of it and growled, "Don't order the veal!". I'm sure he thought I was some mad slasher. Well, the mad part was right.

 

[opaul]

Did you go further south and hang out at the Casino?

If you are talking about the Casino at Nags Head I sure did. Dance floor upstairs and lots of tough bouncers. Back then beer cans did not have a pop top, they used a lever on a stand that would put the V shape and air hole in top with one downward action.

 

[the ringo kid]

While having my own and purty successful yard care business, I also worked as a ''pizza chef'' at Godfathers Pizza. I also moonlighted for extra cash babysitting ( I needed the extra dough because of my then girlfriend, Patti--who I spent tons on) and sometimes I would work with my dad in his contracters business. To this day, I still hate doing hot tar roofs if I HAD to do so?

 

[J. R. WEEMS]

Worked at a Sandy's Hamburgers back in 66 .. was before any McDonalds or the other hamburger joints .. the only other was the A&W Root Beer Stand on the other side of town .. Flipped a whole bunch of burgers in that place for 2 years ..

We had one just up the street (1958) - as well as a Maid rite--- damn I loved those along with a ice cold A&W Root beer-- had a A&W like right across the street-- I wore out the RB Floats.