Wednesday, May 9, 2012

David's first day at work

David became employed outside of the home for the very first time today.
 He is 10 years old and it is not a babysitting job. 

Our friends tree farm was looking for some boys to help remove baby fur cones from the inside of their Christmas trees.  The cones grow this time of year and are easily removed with a simple twist of the hand.  A ladder and perseverance is needed.  Apparently after about 3 weeks the fur/pine cones become much harder to remove requiring a hand shears.  So time is of the essence.  I guess if you have a few trees is not a big deal but if you have an entire tree farm, it IS a big deal. I guess these cones aren't like normal pine cones that grow and fall off nice and neat.  These become spikes and no one wants those to poke you when you decorate the tree for Christmas.

They asked David if he was interested in working for $8 an hour.  I thought 8 bucks an hour? My first job was babysitting and I got $1.25! Holy Smokes!  He made $40 today.  After seeing his first paycheck he agreed that work was worth the reward and would come again to finish the job.

Then another first.  Our trip to the bank to cash his first paycheck.  He had to endorse it and ask for the denomination of bills he wanted.  He was all puffy as a peacock with pride.

I stood to the side and thought about how he used to ask me to "play trains?"  It is evident that he is closer to being a man than he is to having been a toddler. Is that even possible?