Lessons I Learned as a Soda Jerk

My first job was at Dawson's Soda Fountain and I was a soda jerk. The definition of a soda jerk is a person who prepares and serves sodas and ice cream at a soda fountain.

I worked there all through high school. I learned so much that helped me in the years to come. Who would have thought that being a soda jerk in your hometown could begin to prepare you for the big world that lay ahead?

The soda fountain where I worked my first job (notice the parking meter in the front)

Dawson & Steven's Classic Diner (how it looks now)

Dawson was one of the local teen hangouts on the main street called Michigan Avenue. Our town was also a summer training location for the National Guard from several surrounding states.  When the guards came to our small northern Michigan town we were beyond busy. All summer we would no more than have one person vacate a bar stool or a booth and another person would sit there. 

We had a jukebox that was always playing the latest hit parade songs like Running Bear, Hit the Road Jack, Let's Twist Again, Put Your Head on my Shoulder, Dream Lover, Teen Angel, and Mack the Knife. I would go home and those songs would still be playing in my heads for several hours!

A jukebox was always a part of a soda fountain

 The soda fountain was family owned and there were two generations that ran it.  The mother of the younger couple is who I learned a lot from.  She was very strict and demanding but also rewarded hard work.  She would sit on a barstool right beside the cash register and watch all us girls add up our orders and when we brought the money to the register she would make sure we gave the customers the right change. This was in the day when you had to add and subtract with pencil and paper and in your head as there were no calculators.  In some ways, it was intimidating having her sit there but in other ways, I knew I was learning valuable lessons for my life. 

The old fashion cash register that we used to make change

I usually walked to work to and from work which was about eight blocks one way which is about one mile. At the end of my shift sometimes it was all I could do to walk back home after being on my feet serving ice cream sundaes, banana splits, sodas, cokes, and sandwiches for several hours.  But all these things were teaching me lessons in life.

This is my brother Larry and I in our teen years at my grandma house in beautiful northern Michigan

The day came when I graduated from high school and I went to the big city to work in a bank and eventually became a bank teller. I wasn't as intimidated when the bank examiners showed up in their black suits and black briefcases and sealed off the vault and each teller's cash drawer. Thanks to Mrs. Dawson sitting on the barstool and watching me add up orders and make the correct change I knew my cash drawer would balance.

Heading to the big city of Detroit to work in a bank and go to night school

God's word says in Zechariah 4:10 NLT "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin." Often in our small beginnings, we work hard and don't see much results. Also in small beginnings, we often are critiqued more than encouraged or praised. I believe I was learning work ethics at that first job. I learned how to work long hours and not complain. I learned how to charge the right amount for the food and service rendered. I was learning faithfulness, diligence, friendliness, honesty, and many other things in those first few years of working that prepared me for the next 40+ years in the workforce.