My First Job

"My first job was when I was 12 years old. The milkman lived about four houses down from me and he was looking for someone to go with him in the morning and basically be a runner. My job was to run up to the door, get the bottles and bring them back, hand him the money out of the empty jars, then go back and replace them with full bottles.

"In those days, milk was delivered door to door. Milk came in a quart or a pint or half-pint bottle, with cardboard stoppers in the top. People would put the bottles outside their front door at night and put their coins in the bottles.

"That was in 1947 in Greenville, Texas. The milkman's name was Aubry Ethridge. He would pick me up around 4:30 in the morning and we would go down and get the milk and ice up the truck. We would drop the bottles in metal crates and drop ice down around the milk to keep it cold. Then we would go door to door and he would have me home by seven o'clock. Fortunately I lived only two blocks from school.

"I learned that I did not want to be a milk deliveryman when I grew up and that if I wanted to get ahead and do something meaningful with my life, I would have to work hard and get a good education.

"He paid me maybe a dollar a day. I worked long enough to save enough money to make a down payment on a blue and white Columbia bike that cost $39.95. When I got the bicycle I was able to get a morning paper route, which paid more money and did not require getting up so early."

-Interview by Katie S. Betz