First jobs teach young people a lot of different things. For Marilyn E. Rossetti, executive director of Hartford Areas Rally Together, her job flipping burgers and as a junior park ranger taught her a lot about teamwork.
She also learned that working outdoors is really, really hard work.
Her foray into real employment — she and her brother first sold their comic books each summer for extra spending money while growing up — included two jobs at the same time. It was the summer of her senior year in high school, and Rossetti donned a McDonalds’ uniform nights and weekends. By day, she was working outside in the summer heat planting hundreds of flower bulbs throughout Hartford, including at Bushnell and Elizabeth parks, for the Knox Park Foundation.
What she liked most about working at McDonalds was that through teamwork, a lot could be accomplished. Rossetti was recognized as being a member of the $150 club for selling $150 worth of McDonalds food within one hour. That was a time when a Big Mac cost 55 cents, and a hamburger, fries and a soda cost less than $1.
She fondly remembers working at the fast food restaurant. “I really had a great time working at McDonalds and I still have friends from there. We worked hard as a team, and it taught me a strong work ethic,” she said.
Her junior park ranger gig educated her about the work of laborers. “It was really hard,” Rossetti recalled. “That [experience] deterred me from wanting to work at a job like that. I vowed that I’ll never work outside.”
But she learned to have respect for it. “My father would always say, ‘My hands may be dirty but the money is clean,’” she said.
Despite holding down two jobs at the same time, Rossetti maintains that she had a really great time that summer and that she remains friends with some of her old co-workers.
Although her high school sweetheart wanted to buy a bird with his earnings, Rossetti had her eye on something hanging on a rack at the former Lerners department store. Her first big purchase was a navy blue leather jacket. It matched her McDonald’s uniform, she recalled.
She was so fond of that jacket that she even saved a button from the garment.
Although Rossetti, a former Hartford city councilor, isn’t flipping burgers any more, she continues to remain focused on teamwork. As the head of the nonprofit H.A.R.T., which represents neighborhoods in the south end of Hartford, she and members of the organization work together to increase citizen empowerment through activism and education programs. H.A.R.T. is the oldest existing community organizing group in New England.