My jobs as a youth while living on Highland Circle

This is my first post about jobs that I’ve had over my liftime. I’m sending these to my children and grandchildren. So, if you’re receiving this, it is because you are my family.

Most of the photos were taken by my older brother Ron.

This is my first post. It will be about the jobs I had as a youth while living on Highland Circle.

Keep in mind that I lived here from age 1 to age 14, when my parents moved to Parkview Drive in the Mount Olympus Cove area.

Lawn Mowing

My first job was mowing the lawn around our house. Since the house was located on a 1/2 acre of ground, there was a lot of lawn to mow. Here is a photo of the north side of the house:

Then my dad bought a rotary lawn mower. This was not self-propelled. I had to push it around the lawn with a bag on the side.

My allowance was based on my mowing the lawn. I think I took over the lawn mowing responsibility when Ron and Ken were on their missions.

Entrepreneur – selling horse chestnuts

One of the first jobs I had was selling horse chestnuts. I think I got convinced by one of my friends, that these were such cool looking seeds that people would buy them.

Here is a photo of a horse chestnut before the shell comes off:

After selling a few of these, my mom got a call from our neighbors asking how to cook and use them. Unfortunately, I had to return the money I garnered from this endeavor, since these seeds are poisonous.

Raising chickens

I also raised help raise chickens, but that was mainly Ron and Ken’s responsibility.

Cultivating and selling sweet corn

I also helped plant, weed, irrigate and sell sweet corn. My dad’s counsin was also a corn producer. It is from him that we got the type of corn to plant. This is a view of the corn field viewed from the southwest of the old home. This photo was taken in June by my brother Ron. He was the photographer of the family.

Corn field in foreground – home in background