My Very First Job

A part of my life when I was in high school was spent at the hardware counter at Ben Franklin's during the summer between my sophomore and junior year in high school and also on Saturdays during the school year.  My pay for a Saturday's work was $2.38 - now how do I remember things like that?   This picture of Ben's was taken in about 1936 and it would have been 8 years or so later when I was there so it would not have changed that much.  The ownership changed while I was working there and the Smiths sold the store to John and Bernice Lee. 

Here is the staff of Ben Franklins during the mid 1940's.  Darlene, Anna Mae and Mrs. Lee are standing and Goldie, little Alice Lee and I sit in front of them.  Mr. Lee and Wilma  stand behind the cosmetics counter.  You can see the candy counter on the right and the cards on the left.  The hardware counter, my section, was all the way to the back on the same side of the store.  How about my clean white shoes?  I probably was 16 years old.  Many, many moons ago!  This picture is further back in the blog but  it needs to be here with the exterior photo of my old stomping ground.  (Click to enlarge - this is a fun one to look at and see all the little "dime store" things)