Fablr

Questions to ask

Questions to Ask Your Dad About His First Job

The boss, the first paycheck, the uniform he hated. A first job tells you a lot about the man who took it.

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A father in his garage workshop shows his adult son an old photo of himself as a teenager in a gas station uniform.

More than the punch line

Most dads have a first-job story they have told a few times: the paper route, the gas station, the summer on a farm crew. Ask for it again, slowly, and you will usually get a lot more than the punch line.

A first job is where he learned about money, bosses, early mornings and being trusted with something. Ask for details: what he earned, what he bought with it, who showed him how to do the work.

Before you sit down

  • Ask about the first job before the career. The career questions come easily after.
  • Get the numbers: hourly pay, hours, what things cost. He will remember them.
  • Ask for names. The first boss is often a character.
  • If he still has a pay stub, a name tag or a photo, ask him to bring it out.

Getting the job

  1. How old were you, and what was the job?
  2. How did you get it? Did someone put in a word for you?
  3. Did you want to work, or did you have to?
  4. What did your parents think about it?

The work

  1. Walk me through a normal shift.
  2. What did you wear? Did you like it?
  3. Who was your boss, and what were they like?
  4. Who did you work alongside? Anyone you still think about?
  5. What was the worst part of the job? The best?
  6. Did you ever make a big mistake? What happened next?

The money

  1. What did you earn, and how were you paid?
  2. What was the first thing you bought with your own money?
  3. Did you have to give some of it to the family?
  4. Did you save any? What for?

What came after

  1. Why did you leave that job?
  2. What did it teach you about work that you passed on to us?
  3. If you could give that kid one piece of advice on his first day, what would it be?

Ask the same questions about his second and third jobs another day. Put together, they become his whole working life.

If he would rather tell it to someone who asks the next question for you, Fablr can hold the conversation by voice and pick up where he left off. Looking for a gift? See the best gift for a dad who has everything.

At the kitchen table, a granddaughter scans the printed code on a chapter of an open Fablr hardcover with her phone camera.

If you would rather someone else asked

A biographer who asks the next question.

Fablr holds these conversations by voice, at whatever pace suits them. It follows up the way a good listener does and remembers what they said last time. The stories become a hardcover, with a code on each chapter that plays it in their own voice.

Conversation
15 hours over one year. No schedule.
The book
Full-color 8.5×11 hardcover, included. Free US shipping.
Price
$149, billed once. No auto-renewal.
Give Their Story $149 See how it works

Questions, answered.

Start with numbers and objects: what he earned, what he drove, what the uniform looked like. Concrete questions are easier to answer than big ones, and the stories follow.

Let him tell it his way. Ask what he learned from it instead of why he did it.

Yes. Fablr is $149, billed once, with a year of voice conversations and a printed hardcover included. You can handle the setup, and he opens a private link and talks.

Give them a year set aside for stories.

$149 billed once. No auto-renewal. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Give Their Story $149