The summer after high school graduation, I learned to water ski at Lake Tahoe. No, it wasn’t during a family vacation. It was while working a split shift as a waitress in the dining room of historic Chamber’s Lodge, south of Tahoe City.

I had just graduated from Salinas High School. My friends planned to leave for college in the fall, while my education would continue at local Hartnell College. Instead of watching me mope around the house for three months, my resourceful mother borrowed a Sunset magazine from a neighbor and recommended I apply for a summer life guard job at a resort or camp.

It seemed like I sent a zillion letters, with copies of my senior picture, to tourist destinations listed in the back of Sunset magazine. I’d earned my Water Safety Instructor certificate from the Red Cross. Certainly, I’d get a lifeguard position.

I got one response offering me a waitress position at Chamber’s Lodge. Their lifeguard was a returning college student from Colorado. I’d never been a waitress, but the position included room and board. Plus, I’d never been to Tahoe in the summertime. It would be an adventure!

I bought my waitress uniform, white blouse and black skirt, and Mom sent me off in a Greyhound bus.

That summer was the longest time I’d been away from home, and I won’t say I didn’t get homesick. But I learned to live with 15 other college-aged resort staff and saved tip money and small salary for new clothes to wear that fall at the community college.

Besides, I was 18. It was the Summer of Love. It was a memorable summer job!

According to the Wall Street Journal, service and retail are best options for today’s young workers. But, teen summer employment is expected to fall to a 60-year low, with working teens ages 16 to 19 making up 34 percent of the population.

Continuing education plays a role, too. Fewer teens work because they’re in school.

Recommendations for teen jobs include distributing resumes in neighborhoods and creating an entrepreneurship. My brother, Doug, for example, did landscaping and had his own janitorial business at 16.

Renee Ward, founder of www.Teens4Hire.org, an employment Web site, cites a young skateboarder who started a business collecting household hazardous waste for recycling. The teen made $700 hauling paint cans, oil and other items to a recycling facility at $3 per item.

So, with encouragement from caring adults, kids can get summer jobs.

Here are some Web sites to help your teen search: www.Teens4Hire.org, job listings and resources; www.SnagAJob.com, hourly job listings; and www.RileyGuide.com/teen.html, links and resources.

Susanne La Faver lives in Hidden Valley Lake.

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