12 Vanished Summer Jobs Pennsylvania Teens Once Fought Over

A first paycheck in Pennsylvania once smelled like machine oil, buttered popcorn, or fresh newsprint.

Then the machines showed up, the routes dried up, and the applications stopped.

These are the summer jobs Pennsylvania teens once fought over that kids today have barely heard of.

Setting Pins at the Bowling Alley

Before automatic machines took over, a Pennsylvania bowling alley ran on the backs of teenage boys crouched behind the lanes.

The pinsetter reset every pin by hand and rolled the ball back, ducking flying pins for hours.

Here’s a twist for Pennsylvanians: A man named J. Clayton Backus of Smethport patented an early pin-setting machine back in 1906.

His kind of invention put the pinsetter boys out of work.

By the 1960s, automatic machines had cleared pinsetters out of alleys statewide.

The pay came in nickels and dimes, and a fast kid could work two lanes at once.

Working the Soda Fountain

Every Pennsylvania drugstore worth its name kept a marble counter and a teenager behind it pulling levers.

The soda jerk mixed egg creams, phosphates, and ice cream sodas while the whole town watched.

It was the coolest post a Pennsylvania teenager could land.

The fountain doubled as the town’s meeting spot.

Then Walgreens rolled out full self-service in 1950, and suburban fast-food stands finished the job.

By the late 1950s, the soda jerk had mostly faded out, replaced by grill cooks and bottled soda.

Delivering the Morning Paper

The Pennsylvania paperboy was up and pedaling before most of the state’s alarm clocks rang.

You folded each edition, loaded the canvas bag, and learned which porches hid a mean dog.

Collection day meant knocking door to door for the subscription money.

You got a tip included, if you smiled right.

Newspapers got around child labor rules by calling their carriers independent contractors instead of employees.

Afternoon papers folded, subscriptions dropped, and adults with cars took over the routes.

The Pennsylvania paperboy is nearly gone.

Carhopping at the Drive-In

A Pennsylvania drive-in on a summer night needed teenagers hustling trays of hot dogs and root beer between the cars.

The carhop clipped a tray to your rolled-down window and balanced everybody’s popcorn in the dark.

Pennsylvania takes real pride in this corner of history. Shankweiler’s in Orefield, which opened in 1934, is the oldest drive-in still running anywhere.

Most drive-ins closed as land values rose and cable TV kept families home.

The carhop job went dark with the screens, one snack bar at a time.

Ushering at the Movie House

A Pennsylvania movie theater once ran on a squad of teenage ushers in braided uniforms and shined shoes.

You walked patrons down the dark aisle with a flashlight and pointed the way to the restrooms and the snack counter.

The perks beat the pay since you caught every new picture for free.

Then chains bought up the grand theaters and poured the money into projectors instead of a fleet of ushers.

Today’s Pennsylvania teenager tears a ticket, sweeps the floor, and answers to nobody with epaulets.

Riding the Milk Truck

A Pennsylvania milkman needed a strong teenager riding shotgun to run their bottles up the sidewalk.

You hopped off before the truck stopped, swapped full glass bottles for the empties on the stoop, and beat the sunrise.

In the 1950s, more than half the country’s milk came straight to the doorstep, so the routes ran long.

Home refrigerators and one-stop supermarkets ended the habit.

By 2005, home delivery accounted for 0.4 percent of milk sales, and the helper job vanished with the route.

Running the Telephone Switchboard

A young Pennsylvania woman with a steady voice could land a seat at the Bell Telephone switchboard.

She plugged and unplugged the cords, connecting every call with a polite “Number, please.”

The work was steady and respectable.

In 1950, about one in thirteen working women in America held the job.

Direct dialing let Pennsylvanians connect their own calls, and the switchboards emptied out through the 1960s and 1970s.

The operator who once knew every family in town became a recorded message.

Pumping Gas at Full-Serve

A Pennsylvania service station needed a teenager in a bow tie to fill the tank and wipe the windshield.

You checked the oil, put air in the tires, and sent every customer off with a wave.

Pittsburgh sits at the center of this story because Gulf opened a purpose-built drive-in filling station there in 1913.

The 1970s fuel shortages pushed stations toward self-service to cut costs, and drivers took the nozzle themselves.

By the early 1990s, roughly four in five stations nationwide had gone self-serve.

Pennsylvanians pump their own gas now.

Running the Department Store Elevator

A Pennsylvania department store like Kaufmann’s in Pittsburgh once hired sharp young women to run the elevators.

The operator worked a lever to control the speed, slid the accordion gate shut, and called out every floor.

“Ladies’ shoes, hosiery, and fine linens” rang out a hundred times a day, all with a smile.

Push-button elevators made the whole job pointless, and stores pulled the operators out.

By the 1970s, most Pennsylvania stores let riders press their own buttons.

Working the Cannery Line

Summer in Pennsylvania farm country meant the cannery hummed, and teenagers filled the line for the harvest rush.

You sorted tomatoes, snapped beans, and packed jars until your fingers went numb.

Pennsylvania grew up on this trade; Henry J. Heinz started his food company in Pittsburgh in 1869.

The York and Adams County canneries ran on seasonal hands through the middle of the last century.

Machines and consolidation shrank the local canneries, and the summer line job dried up with them.

Clerking at the Video Store

A Pennsylvania teenager in the 1990s dreamed of the video store, where the shifts came with free rentals.

You alphabetized the shelves, rewound the tapes, and talked a nervous dad into renting the scary movie.

Blockbuster ran more than 9,000 stores at its 2004 peak, and Pennsylvania strip malls held plenty of them.

Netflix and streaming gutted the chain, which filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

The late-fee lecture and the drop box slot went with it, and no Pennsylvania teen clerks the new-release wall now.

Minding the Farm Stand

A Pennsylvania roadside stand in July needed a teenager to weigh the corn and make change from a cigar box.

You stacked the tomatoes, shooed the yellow jackets off the peaches, and waved down cars from the shoulder.

Adams County peaches and Lancaster County sweet corn kept plenty of Pennsylvania kids busy all summer.

Picking berries paid by the quart, and your fingers stayed stained purple past Labor Day.