Journal Opinion
August 9, 2023
“Girl, high school age, wants summer job, house, mill or office work. Write Box 218, Bradford, Vt. “
A local girl placed this advertisement in The United Opinion
in May 1933. She, like many other young people, sought summer employment. Summer jobs is the focus of this column.
I placed notices in local community online sources and email
listservs asking for personal stories. I received over 35 responses. The following
draws from those responses as well as other sources and personal interviews.
Extended school summer vacation from school did not exist prior
to 1900. It was previously thought that practice was driven by farm family’s
needs. However, extra child labor is actually needed on farms during the spring
planting and fall harvesting periods.
Both primary and secondary schools in our area had an 8-week
summer term. In the 1880s, local village schools ended that term in mid-to-late
July and often didn’t resume until late September, coinciding with harvesting.
At that time, city schools often followed an 11-month
schedule. By 1900, the 9-month calendar became common for urban children who
needed a summer break from hot classrooms. Increasingly, children from upper-
and middle-class families used the break to escape from the cities.
Other than for college students who sought seasonal
employment at mountain or seaside resorts, there was almost no newspaper
notices of summer employment for young people before 1920.
By the 1940s,
employment opportunities increased. The most common jobs for boys were pumping
gas, mowing lawns, and restaurant work. Girls did housework and childcare. This
gave young workers more disposable income.
What follows are some of the responses that I got to my
inquiry about summer jobs. I have tried to deal with both the most common and
those that were unusual.
Several respondents told me of youth employment that was
questionable and in violation of child-labor laws, such as prohibitions on long
hours at meager pay.
In 1941, at age 10,
former Fairlee resident Phyllis Graham said, she worked alongside her
grandmother at a Bellows Falls chicken processing plant. Her grandmother was
paid, but Phyllis was not. There were also 16-year-old employees who worked as
an electrician’s assistant or in a hazmat suit removing asbestos
Beginning in the early 20th century, summer youth camps were
established throughout the area. Camp counselor position and other camp jobs
coincided with school and college breaks.
The camp economy also offered positions for camp office
help, laundries and infirmaries as well as at the local businesses and train
stations. As campers and counselors traveled outside the camps, they had an
impact on local restaurants and stores. In 1910, a group of girls from a local
camp descended on a Fairlee soda fountain and left the young local lad “quite
beside himself.”
Orford’s Ruth Hook
was among those who mentioned camp employment. Beginning in 1966, she worked at
Camp Merriwood in East Orford. Her duties included washing dishes, preparing
and serving food, mopping floors, and cleaning bathrooms. She worked six days a
week, beginning at $25 per week and saved money for college.
Tracy Paye Durkee shared her work experience at Newbury’s
Camp Farwell’s laundry in the early 1980s
Local resorts and golf courses also offered employment for
young workers during the summer. Ninety-three-year-old Dawn Houston of South
Royalton’s first job was at a Lodge where she worked in the kitchen and as a
chambermaid. “Work made me a dependable person later in life,” she wrote.
Piermont’s Lake
Tarleton Club opened its golf course in 1909 and hired caddies from Boston and
local communities for the summer. As the resort expanded, there were
opportunities for summer employment in the dining room, kitchen, maintenance,
and caring for guests’ rooms.
I received information from locals who worked at Fairlee’s Lake
Morey Inn, Bonnie Oakes, and Rutledge Inn as well as hostels in Woodstock,
Canaan, Mendon, and Hanover. Marilyn Welch-Fava of Thetford Center recalled
earning an hourly wage of $1.25 plus tips as a chambermaid in the 1960s
Several responses mentioned seasonal employment at local
restaurants. As early as age 14, young workers could start out as dishwashers
and then graduated to food preparation or as waitstaff.
I worked as an
assistant cook at Fairlee’s Kettledrum Restaurant in 1956. It was only open
during the summer and employed college students as waitstaff and high school
students as kitchen help. I was 14 and worked at least 60 hours a week for $25.
Nancy Jewel-Durkee wrote that while growing up in Bradford
in the 1970s, she worked at the Chimes Restaurant on Main Street. She later
worked at Lebanon’s Carter Mill. “If I wanted something, I had to work for
it.”
The first jobs held by many teens included picking
strawberries and babysitting. Beginning in June, pickers worked to make money
to buy school clothes or supplement the family income.
Many older residents spoke of picking strawberries as
youngsters. In the 1930s and 40s, they were paid 2 or 3 cents per quart. In the
1950s, it increased to 8 or 10 cents. The field boss kept a sharp eye out for
poorly selected berries or less-than-filled baskets.
Many respondents wrote that their earliest jobs were in
childcare. Bradford’s Amy Emerson said she both babysat and picked
strawberries. “I spent my earnings on milkshakes and gravy french fries from
Cootie’s restaurant.”
In 1965, Bradford’s Wendy Wright placed an ad offering
herself as an experienced babysitter for 30 cents per hour. Laura Allen Marsh,
who grew up in Bradford, mentioned that by 2004 she might get as much as $30
for a day of childcare. At age 14 she also began working at the Grafton County
Nursing Home for a minimum wage of $5.25.
In several cases, this summer position included spending
time with the children at nearby pools and lakes. One spoke of spending the
summer at the local pool as “a cake job.” Another wrote, “It was a way to work
while still having fun as a kid.”
Fairlee’s Isaiah Washburn said that he first official summer
job was as a gatekeeper for Thetford’s Treasure Island. Like several others, he spent part of his
time mowing neighbor’s lawns. His pay that summer of 2007 was deposited into
his savings account or used to purchase new fishing lures.
Children who grew up on local farms had chores from an early
age. In the 1930s, Vida Perry Munson of Bradford grew her family’s farm in
Corinth. Summer meant haying, and she was able to do all the related tasks, except
mowing. “Girls didn’t do mowing,” She said.
“When you had a chance for a job, you grabbed it.” That’s
how Fairlee’s Larry Martin spoke of working on a neighbor’s farm in the early
1960s. He began at age ten and worked about 50 hours a week for $10. He did
barn chores and ran the tractor and bailer for three summers. “It was fun,” he
recalled. He used his money for school clothes and a new bicycle.
Another boy who grew up on an Upper Valley farm spoke
positively of the experience. “Where else could a 14-year-old drive tractors,
trucks, and bulldozers?” Still another said he got room and board and a 10-cent
a week allowance for doing chores on his family’ farm.
Rev Jane Wilson of Wells River said that her first job was
also in agriculture, but of a different sort. She worked in the tobacco fields
near her home in Granby, CT. Shirley Beresford of Bradford has mentioned a
similar job experience.
Local governments and retail stores offered seasonal and
full-time positions for young workers. Vicki-Bacon Thomas, who grew up in Lyme
in the 1970s, worked for the Town of Hanover and as a cashier at a P&C
grocery store.
At age 14, Alicia
Plante of East Corinth stocked shelves at Huggetts’s store during the summer of
2003.To help her family, she also babysat, worked on neighboring farms, and
mowed lawns.
There were a few factory jobs open to older teens. Nancy
Jones of Bradford recalls the hot and sticky job she had in the summers of
1962-63 at the Maple Grove Factory in St. Johnsbury. “It was a job,” she said.
She used her minimum wage pay to purchase school clothes.
Bradford’s Dr. Robert Munson remembered working in the
Bradford Vaneer and Panel Company during the summer of 1966. At $1.25 per hour,
he saved $3,600 to purchase his first car. The next several summers, he served
as a lifeguard at Lake Morey Inn and as a carpenter.
Several spoke of working with a family business. John Adams
grew up in Lebanon. In 1961, at age ten, he began to work as a laborer’s helper
with family members who were brick masons. In the following summers, he
progressed in skills and duties. He also earned money selling night crawlers
for a penny each and working at Lander’s Restaurant.
Sometimes, summer jobs required workers to arrive earlier
than teens might want. West Topsham’s Westy Copeland recalled working in a
Vermont bakery “at some ungodly hour like 5 in the morning.” Jay Dunlap of
Thetford said that his job on a tent crew in 1970 required getting up at 3 a.m.
or before. “It was years before I could hear the sound of an alarm clock
without a panic attack.”
The Pew Research Center reports that teen summer employment
“follows a fairly regular pattern.” Jobs are more plentiful during good
economic times, falling during and after recessions. In 2008, during the Great
Recession, summer employment for 16 to 19-year-old Americans fell to under 30%.
Now, as the nation recovers from COVID, youth employment has increased to
36.6%.
These employment figures paled when compared to earlier
economic recoveries. In 1948, 56.6% of youth were employed in summer jobs., In
1956, “the Vermont seasonal summer jobs were at close to record levels.” In the late 1960s, the Federal Summer Youth
Program found jobs for high school students.
The July 2022 figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
report that 55.3% of young people age 16-24 were employed. This is slightly
less than pre-pandemic levels. It also includes those who have received
permanent employment.
The decline in low-skill entry-level jobs, shorter summer
vacations, unpaid internships, and the lure of unpaid community service jobs to
enhance college applications have impacted seasonal employment for high school
students. Some positions that might be otherwise open to youth job seekers are
being held by seniors who need the work to supplement their sixed retirement
incomes.
There were other
responses to the value of these summer jobs.
One said the job provided “life learning that was actually an
adventure.” One woman who grew up in Wells River and worked at the local
information booth, got her to meet “all types of personalities,” giving her a
better understanding of people.
Alexis Romano wrote of working at the Ice Cream Fore-U in
Lebanon beginning in the summer of 2008. She loved the job and was promoted to
shift supervisor. That gave her a “first taste of responsibility.” She spoke highly of her employers, Jennifer
and Meredith Johnson. “My work ethic and professional foundations were molded
by both of them which has helped me became a successful leader in my career.
Jay Dunlap said the summer of erecting tents “was a bad
summer, but it was an education into how tough many lives are and continue to
be.” Westy Copeland commented that she “learned how to work hard. Nothing comes
easily.”
Isaiah Washburn mentioned that he learned valuable skills
involving interactions with people and handling money. Others spoke of the
value of manual labor and “a job well done.”
While for most, the
jobs they held during those summers of their youth were dead end, they believed
that the positive work ethic learned served them well in later employment.
Other jobs mentioned to me included hospital patient-sitter,
drive-in car hop, library aide, concrete worker, bank teller, greens keeper,
paperboy, and working in a family steam laundry.
Summer jobs for local
young workers offered a variety of skills. Some jobs were easy, whereas other
were hard. Many gave young people an introduction to the world of adult work.
Paychecks were spent on both fun and essentials.
Looking back, they
gave us a variety of memories that still linger as we consider those summer days
of our youth.
