Apart from babysitting, my first real job was as a copy girl for the Springfield Shopping News. I got this job because my sister Eleanor worked at the main office and they needed someone part-time. I worked every afternoon after school and on Saturdays.

There was a little separate office for copy girls (I doubt it is allowed now to say copy girl) and copy men (we never said copy boys) right downtown. All we did was go to the stores that had ads for us to pick up or we had proofs to deliver to them. This was before internet, of course.

It was on this job that I first learned to shop for bargains. To get to the advertising offices, I had to go through the stores and all the tempting sales. I have to confess that I was not a great employee. Oh, yes, I always did pick up or deliver as directed, but what should have taken ten or fifteen minutes often took me an hour, for I thought I had to thoroughly paw through every bargain table. They really had some good sales in those days. The main department stores were Steiger’s and Forbes & Wallace.

Forbes & Wallace has been defunct for a long time. It was a sad story. The owner couldn’t believe the store had gone under. He had to be physically removed from his office. A sad thing to make the front page of the Springfield Daily News.

But back to my shopping habits. Although I must have looked at clothes, even then, housewares attracted me the most!

When I wasn’t out picking up an ad and shopping, along with the other copy people, I would just sit there in a row waiting for the next phone call to tell us what store to go to next.

I would love to hear about your first job!