Welcome to a new Shorelines feature: My First Job, where your colleagues will share how their earliest work experiences shaped them as people and employees. To kick things off, Pulaski branch manager Katie Presser writes about working for her father in a slightly louder and livelier environment than the average bank location.

If you’d like to write about your first job, drop us a line at shorelines@northshorebank.com.

Katie and Chuck in a recent photo.

The first job I ever had was working for my dad, Chuck, at his bowling alley — Paradise Lanes in Racine. He managed it for 35 years, so I basically grew up there.

I started working at the bowling alley when I was 14, in the summer of 1998. I was the youngest of all my friends to have a job, but I really enjoyed it – most of the time. It was a lot of fun, because I got to do so many different jobs there – I knew how to do everything! I worked behind the front counter setting up lanes or preparing for leagues, worked in the restaurant, bartended and waitressed, even knew how to fix some minor lane problems on the machines in back.

And then there was the least favorite of my duties: cleaning the place! I remember my dad dragging me out of bed at 7 a.m. on the weekends to go clean before the bowling alley opened. Who does that to a 14-year-old high school student?! I was supposed to be sleeping till noon in my teens!

So as cool as it might sound to work for your dad, it wasn’t actually that cool all the time! He was extra hard on me, since I was family, and he had very high expectations. He didn’t want anyone to think that his daughter received special treatment, so just to avoid any chance of that happening, he was extra tough. That meant when someone called in sick, I had to go to work even if I already had plans. On special nights like high school football games or dances, when everyone else had requested off, he expected me to work. If I made a pizza and put too much sausage or pepperoni on it, or made a drink that was too strong, I was “cutting into the profit margin.” I know how to make a pizza, Dad — leave me alone! As silly as these things sound, it was frustrating for a teenager. (Although I did manage to talk my way out of work and make it to prom!)

But even though it was tough at times, the job had its perks. I had access to all the free bowling and soda I wanted, and I got to meet a lot of people. On weeknights, there were the regular league bowlers. I got to know everyone by name and would learn what they liked to eat and drink, and congratulated them on great bowling. Then on the weekends, there were new bowlers from out of town who would bowl in tournaments. I remember meeting so many new people and always trying to make their experience great, so that they would love our bowling alley. I guess that’s where my relationship-building skills started.

Looking back, I also realize that this is where I learned about work ethic. As much as I disliked working for my dad at times, he taught me that it’s important to show up to work with a positive attitude, to work hard and do a good job, and that sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Those principles have always stuck with me. I still strive to come to work every day with a positive attitude and work hard to do a good job.

I worked at the bowling alley for about 10 years. Even after I began my full-time career in banking 15 years ago, I continued to work nights and weekends there. I had some of the best times working at the bowling alley, but most importantly, it instilled a very strong work ethic in me that helped prepare me for my future career, and which I still carry with me today.

As for Paradise Lanes, it’s still there, but has a new name now, and my dad is no longer running it. My parents purchased their own bowling alley 14 years ago in Dyckesville, so my family moved to the Green Bay area at that time. Now he owns Chuck’s Dyckesville Bowl, and my two younger sisters had the pleasure of working there as they grew up, too!