Nov. 16, 2007
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Oftentimes a first job can be very memorable. For many, it was their first sniff of what the real world was like. The job usually paid very little, was very labor intensive and had very little reward. With every day on the job growing longer and longer, the anticipation that was built up for the first paycheck grew by the day until it was boiling over. Although the money wasn’t much in reality, it seemed like a lot as a kid.
Vanderbilt Baseball Coach Tim Corbin remembers to this day what his first job was like.
Growing up in Wolfeboro, N.H., Corbin’s first job was as a bus boy at Bailey’s Restaurant, now known as Morrissey’s Front Porch.
Corbin began working at the restaurant, which was a local favorite, when he was in seventh grade and worked his way up from bus boy to dishwasher and ultimately to the grill.
“It was a good job, and I actually worked there until my 12th-grade year,” Corbin said. “The owners were sports fans, and they allowed me to play summer ball while I was working, so it was very convenient.”
Although his family didn’t make him get a job, Corbin knew his family wanted him to gain the experience of having a real job.
“I think they wanted me to work, and they wanted me to understand the value of a dollar,” Corbin said. “I didn’t really consider it work. Back then — yard work was more work than working at Bailey’s Restaurant.”
A town of about 7,000 residents on the eastern side of the state, Wolfeboro had additional places for a kid to work, but Bailey’s Restaurant was the place that caught Corbin’s eye.
“I worked there because there were a lot of athletes that worked there, and it was just kind of a fun place to work,” Corbin said.
Like most first jobs, Corbin wasn’t going to break the bank when he cashed his paycheck for working 30-hour weeks.
“The pay wasn’t enough to pay off my student loans,” Corbin said with a laugh. “I don’t know what the child labor laws were back then, but they used them pretty well.”
Corbin eventually moved his way up to working the grill. Working the grill also introduced Corbin to what turned out to be his least favorite part about working at Bailey’s.
“The worst part was scraping the grill at the end of the night,” Corbin said. “It was just such a hassle every night.”
Despite there being a few negatives, Corbin also remembers the perks of working there.
“One of the perks was that we got to eat free food,” Corbin said. “The other good part about working there was that it was just a fun atmosphere.”
