This week I read the dismal (un)employment stats for teens, and it prompted me to post a question on my Facebook page: What was your first job? Amazingly, I received more than 50 answers. Here's what people have said so far:

Lisa: I worked for in Casa View Plaza for [a] computer company. We were only 15! Was that legal back then?
Elizabeth: Dairy Queen--15 years old
Rebecca: Worked in a meat market at a little grocery store where my parents both worked. I wrapped and priced meat and filled the counters, bagged chickens and other gross stuff. I was 14 years old.
Carrie: I was a cashier at a grocery store - 17 years old.
Ann: Aside from babysitting for neighbors, I was a tour guide in full historical dress at a living history museum and was almost 16.
Heather: Clerical support at the IRS. 16 years old. Lots and lots of baby/house sitting before that, which started around 10 or 11.
Peggy: I was a nurses aide and I was 18.
Gary: Does making pot holders and selling to neighbors count? My guess is I was 8. As far as I recall my first "real job" was at Peoples Drugs in Annandale, Virginia, at age 15. I smoked every brand of cigarette created, wore ugly ties, and found how easy it is to get robbed.
Lori: File Clerk for a real estate firm at 15, $2 per hour.
Roberta: Order puller at Best Products, 17 years old. I think I made $1.50 hour!
Sharon: My dad owns a lawn care business. That was my first job and I was 14. =) I loved it so much I did it every summer until I was 27. =) I miss it.
James: Citizen's Library, Washington, Penn. I was 15, I think.
Julie: Movie theatre at 15. Very good times!
Donald: Paper routes at age 11.
Larry S: Worked part time at a farm in Canada at 16.
Heather N: I was on the Dillard's Teen Board, age 16. I did runway modeling and then each member of the Teen Board had to work in the store. I worked retail and I worked in giftwrap. I really liked working in giftwrap. My first REAL job was as a dance teacher.
Sara: Lifeguard - 14 yrs...or does babysitting count? 11 yrs for that one.
Larry: Paper route (Dallas Times Herald), 14 yrs old. Threw papers while riding my unicycle.
Lori S.: Babysitting in 6th grade. I had several regular gigs. First REAL job was Ingles Grocery Store when I was 16.
Jacki: Detasseling in the Iowa cornfields when I was 14!
Raquel: I was 10 years old and I worked as a migrant worker in California. We picked onions...couldn't eat them for a long time.
Gigi: I sold snow cones by pulling a block of ice in my red wagon. I'd stop at houses and use a hand shaver to shave the ice and put it in a paper cup, then put sweet flavored syrup over it. I was bout 7 or 8 years old. It was a great idea, but the ice melted too fast and I made no profit on the amount I could sell. I also dusted a lady's house for an ice cream cone about the same time.
Donna: Summer kitchen staff and junior counselor at Christian camp, age 14/15.
Susan: File clerk at a law firm - 18.
Linda: Hostess...Richardson Parade of Homes. I was 15.
Michelle: Hostess in a pie resturaunt...16.
Karen: Other than babysitting, I was a waitress (16) at Giffords Ice Cream in Silver Spring, MD Liz: I believe it was counting peach trees in California when I was about 5 or 6. I earned 50 cents.
Me: At 8 or 9 my little sis and I sold wind-fall pears from the orchard for 25 cents/bushel (Oregon). When I was 14 or 15 I worked at Roy Rogers Family Restaurant (called Junior Hot Shoppes then), starting at $1.65/hour, saying "Howdy, partner, may I serve you please?" (Va). Later I painted houses. Ugh.
Margo: Cashier in a drug store at about 16, just for Christmas.
Vicki: Soda jerk at a drugstore in Preston Hollow at age 15 - this was in the early 1960's
Carrie: I picked in the fields - strawberries, beans, raspberries, marion berries, and logan berries - when I was 12 years old. That's how I earned my way to summer camp. They won't let kids do that now, but everyone did it.
Mary: 17...A&W car hop
Ella: At a very young age I had to steer a farm truck by standing on the seat to get the hay in before rain; at 8 yrs old I babysat 'alone', also at 8 I stacked hay bales on the loader for the barn as they were short-handed but kept on helping from there on out; at 15 I stayed with an elderly friend of the family and helped with meals.
Dave: Starting as soon as we could we to picked strawberries at the field across the road from our orchard (of course we ate the best and threw the rottenest ones tenderly at those we loved)...then it was on to raspberries, beans, blackberries, all the stuff Carrie mentioned (as well as the apples, pears, cherries and vegetables that were the jobs that came with being Grafe kids), my brother and I both bought our first bicycles with our earnings one summer. My first "real" job was at 16, working at Marriotts "Jr. Hot Shoppes" on Coumbia Pike in Arlington, Va. It was the local hangout for most of the kids I knew and I remember that we served mostly burgers, fries and fried chicken and that I did not like having to clean the grease pit. Driving a tractor and doing other orchard chores from age 8 was technically work I suppose, but I never felt taken advantage of. Pulling weeds on the other hand...
Sue: Cab company dispatcher for my uncle's cab business. 15 years old.
Leani: Marketing/sold clothes at a flea market - 13
Patti: ‎5 years old; dumping trash and cleaning toilets at a Dr.'s office...my dad's office.
Alla: I was 10. I was an actress so to say, as I was with my babushka. Filmed in a few scenes showing a group of people close to the historic place of my native town. The actions were supposed to be taking place in early 20th century. We had to wear different clothes. It was a one-week fun summer job and rather well-paid for the Soviet times! :) And what makes me now especially proud is that it was a movie in Belarusian and on the Belarusian history, before the Soviet times.
Patty: That is going back a bit far! I think selling Avon at about 14-15.
Brian: I was ten. Outside a store at the shopping center, a truck driver gave me a quarter to help him unload some boxes from his truck. I felt like I had climbed Mount Everest.
Paul: Odd jobs for my scoutmaster on his property. Welding fence, clearing brush, and tearing apart old cars...15 I think. Unless you consider the summer of mowing my brother and I did to earn a hundred dollars to buy the Nintendo (I was 5 or 6!) and we moved yards up and down the street for 5 bucks a piece!
Seta: Director of marketing at 23 with an MBA. Lived oversees as a teenager - not safe for young girls to work outside the home. Volunteered tons though.
Suzan: Picking berries out there by your home on the Willamette River! Great tans, great music on our transistor radios, great berry fights, endless supply of yummy berries! Fun times. Probably only about 12. Never made much money but made wonderful memories and friends.
Tina: I was a member of The Baby-Sitters Club @ 14! :-)
Kelly: I graded (sorted) oranges at age 16. I didn't even need to work, but some of my friends did and I wanted to hang with them. It was freezing cold, tedious work, and I was only paid $1.80 per hour. I also sold pomegranates by the bag in the front yard of our house starting about age 10.
Karen H: Minyards, checker...16
Evelyn: I copied music for my music teacher (piano) - age 15

How would you answer the question?