A soda jerk or a brain surgeon. (Oops, getting mixed up with Jethro Bodine).
Seriously, my first job fulfilled the soda jerk part, but it was in a convalescent hospital and it was a new concept for the time.
Most of the patients had grown up in the 1890’s, so they made a parlor like that and it was for staff, patients, and families and although I only got $1.60 an hour, it was fun, especially working with the patients. The nurses would watch what kind of crowd I had and, when it was slow, bring in the patients that needed help, one at at time. I was really fun making whatever they wanted and then helping them eat it and getting to know them.
We had one lady that thought she was on a cruise, because that had been the happiest part of her life. Luckily, I lived in a town with a lot of fog, so we were able to use that as a way to keep her from wandering ashore. Because of her, I tried cruising and absolutely love it and have seen a great deal of the world that way.
I wanted to be a mom from the get go, because my mom was such a great one. I also was fascinated with cameras and got to do that professionally for a while. The best part was finding out that my grandfather was a photographer at the turn of the last century and finding out we had a collection of antique photos in the family.
I also wanted to be a teacher, but the biggest satisfaction in learning how to do that, was getting to use those skills with my own child and then having him grow up to teach me.