I started my first job (other than babysitting) between my junior and senior year of high school. I had recently turned 16. I only worked there for a year, because after I graduated from high school, I started a full time job (something for another post).
I was living in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area and went to work at a bowling alley called Bowlero. At that time it had 102 lanes. I worked at the front and side desk - you know collecting money, giving out shoes, and assigning lanes.
I didn't go to work there because I loved bowling. As a matter of fact, I don't like bowling, and never did. I didn't avoid bowling, since it was something groups of friends would go do. Hanging out with friends was fun, but the bowling part wasn't.
My parents loved to bowl, and my mother even worked there during the day. That's how I got my job there.
I didn't mind working the front desk, because I wasn't bowling. When there were no customers at the desk, and the shoes were all disinfected, I could chat with those with whom I worked. It wasn't a bad deal. The side desk wasn't as enjoyable, because you worked that alone and only had to deal with shoes and calls for equipment breakdowns.
Those who worked behind the pins had the worst job. It was noisy back there and got pretty boring for them. They would sit back there alone until there was a call about a pin being stuck, or the pins not resetting. We would call from the front or side desk and tell them which lane had a problem.
There were other jobs there, like those who worked in the bar area and the food area, as well as miscellaneous office and maintenance jobs.
Bowlero also hosted some of the travelling professional bowling tournaments.
They also had a weekly local TV show sometime after I stopped working there. My mother was the "Vanna White" of that show, the scorekeeper. She also had a following of a bunch of little old ladies who would come watch the taping of the show.
I remember going there to pick her up one day so we could do some shopping for my upcoming wedding. She was still taping the show, so I decided to watch. I was standing behind a group of my mother's "fans" when I thought it would be fun to try to get her to laugh on camera. I was making all sorts of faces, but she wouldn't look over where I was (maybe she suspected something, because she would have done the same to me). One of the ladies asked me if she was my sister. I said, "No, she's my mother." The next thing I knew, she's telling all the other ladies, "Look, that's Carol's daughter." They were all shocked and started chatting about how she couldn't have a daughter my age! My mother was a young looking 40-year-old, and I was 21, so I guess they could have mistaken us for sisters.
Overall, it wasn't a bad first job, and I did learn that every job is important. If someone doesn't do their job, the whole place will look and feel it.