Mark Jones

Monroe County circuit judge

Long before Mark Jones was presiding over criminal matters and civil hearings, he was pounding the pavement in Buffalo, N.Y., doing his best to avoid angry dogs.

"I had a summer job with the Niagara Mohawk Power company," Jones explained. "I was a meter reader. I had to go out with a hard hat and Mace spray for the dogs. I definitely saw Buffalo from the ground up."

Jones was in his late teens and early 20s in those days, he said, working on his undergraduate degree. Law school was still on the horizon, but the meter reading job gave him insights into human nature, he said.

"I met a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds and I saw how they lived," the judge said. "It was interesting, One day I'd be downtown in an industrial area, then I'd be in someone's apartment in the suburbs and then I might be in a high crime area. I was all over Buffalo. It certainly was a learning experience."

And he suffered a few injuries.

"I got bit twice, I believe," Jones said with a laugh. "I got chased on numerous occasions. I still love dogs very much, don't get me wrong, I just didn't realize I'd be running into that many."

-- Adam Linhardt

Donie Lee

Key West police chief

Donie Lee said he was "born to be a police officer," but the Key West Conch had to find a way to make ends meet before he was old enough to apply to the police academy.

He had to think for a minute when posed with the question.

"There's probably still a few folks who remember when I worked as a bellboy over at the Hyatt," Lee said.

Growing up in the Florida Keys means there's only so many options for an industrious young person looking for college money.

"I was a busboy at Perry's (restaurant) for a while, too," Lee said. "You see a lot of interesting things, definitely saw some bizarre things working in the service industry."

He paused again.

"But nothing any more bizarre than in police work."

The Key West High School and University of Florida graduate politely declined to elaborate on some of the strange things he witnessed in those years.

"It's probably better for everybody that way," he said with a laugh.

-- Adam Linhardt

Mindy McKenzie

Director of development, Wesley House Family Services

Fresh out of college, Mindy McKenzie found herself closer to the president than most people dream of. Through a string of lucky breaks, McKenzie landed a position working for the Office of Administration in the White House's famous West Wing as an administrative assistant during the Carter administration.

Though the Office of Administration is one of the largest offices, McKenzie was one of just three people from the department who worked in the West Wing, known as the White House's center of activity.

"It was a wonderful experience for a young person," said McKenzie, who now works as director of development for Wesley House Family Services. "All of the things I did in Washington have helped me with what I now do."

McKenzie's most memorable day was actually her last day on the job in January 1981 -- the day incoming President Ronald Reagan would be sworn into office. The president's secretary stopped by her desk looking for volunteers to help clean out the Oval Office.

"I said, 'Sure, I'll do that,'" McKenzie recalled.

She spent the rest of the day in the president's office, boxing up personal items and files.

"The president's desk is amazingly very clean," she said.

-- Anne-Margaret Swary

Julie Fondriest

Owner, Historic Key West Inns

At age 30, Julie Fondriest thought the awkward first job experience was behind her. But after spending six years as an accountant, she abruptly quit her job and took off sailing for several years to rethink what was important to her and what she wanted out of life.

Fondriest eventually found herself underfunded and in need of a job and a dock.

"I sailed into Everglades National Park at Flamingo Lounge," Fondriest said. "They at the time were paying $3.35 an hour. I accepted a job as a hostess.

"At the time I sort of felt like a teenager again, starting a first job and learning everything from the beginning. It was a very humbling experience, but I learned a great deal about the value of a dollar and contributing through hard work."

Fondriest admitted she was not the most efficient hostess to ever work there. But she eventually rose through the ranks and became general manager of the entire resort property.

"And that's how I got into the resort business," said Fondriest, who currently oversees six guesthouses in Key West and chairs the Key West advisory committee to Monroe County Tourism Development Council.

-- Anne-Margaret Swary

Buddy Owen

Owner, B.O.'s Fish Wagon

"I got fired real quick," Buddy Owen said, recalling his first day -- and last -- as a painter when he was about 11 years old.

A painting career was not in the cards for the gregarious character who now presides over a fish sandwich empire at the corner of Caroline and William streets.

Owen and a friend were hired to paint the interior of Montzelle's Dress Shop, which formerly occupied the teal building at the corner of Fleming and Bahama streets.

"We didn't move anything before we started painting," said Owen, 68.

The result was painted dresses and gaping areas of unpainted walls that had been hidden by clothing racks.

"She came after me and I hauled ass," Owen said, thinking back on the fact that he never got paid. "She was a pretty lady, too. I had a good eye for them, even back then. I wonder if she's still alive, and whether she'd give me the five bucks."

-- Mandy Bolen

Russ Draper

Retired park ranger, Save-a-Turtle Beach Walks volunteer coordinator

Russ Draper's first summer job in 1958 made him very popular.

"I worked in the concession stand of a drive-in theater in Panama City, Fla.," he said. "The Gulfview Drive-In, that was it."

Draper sold popcorn, sodas and hot dogs in the days when commercials with catchy melodies lured people to the concession stand.

"It had a lot of perks," Draper said. "I got a lot of free passes, so everyone was my friend."

Draper worked at the theater in the summer and in the evenings after school during his 11th-grade year.

"It was a lot of fun," he said, remembering the responsibility of changing the outdoor marquee and lamenting the loss of the iconic drive-in.

-- Mandy Bolen

Billy Causey

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary regional manager

Billy Causey has addressed presidents and Congress in his long and illustrious career as a coral reef conservationists and diver. But his first job was a far cry from marine biology.

Causey delivered newspapers for the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph in the mid-1950s. The job forced the 11-year-old to wake up early everyday and bundle papers before making his rounds.

"I didn't like the morning hours," Causey quipped, adding the weight of the Sunday paper also was a pain.

Causey, who bounced between Texas and Louisiana, learned to scuba dive at age 13 and his life and future career path would be forever changed. His first open water dive was at the bottom of murky Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana.

He became a commercial diver, raising sunken barges and repairing high pressure gas lines. The work was both interesting and lucrative, as he was pulling down $75 an hour and paying his way through college.

"It was phenomenal," Causey said. "It is the most exciting legal rush you can get."

He later became a ranger and resource manager at Padre Island National Shore in Texas, where he developed skills that would be the foundation for his role as the Looe Key sanctuary manager, then the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary superintendent, then his job today.

-- Timothy O'Hara

Roman Gastesi

Monroe County administrator

Roman Gastesi has come a long a way since he cut grass as a youngster growing up in Miami-Dade County. The lone boy with a single lawn mower and some pocket change has grown up to handle a nearly $90 million budget and 485 employees, some of whom are responsible for cutting hundreds of miles of county-owned lawn.

Gastesi charged $15 a lawn and had about 30 customers in the early 1970s. With Florida's repressive summer heat and daily afternoon showers, the job set Gastesi's routine of waking up early and getting to work.

"I am an early bird," Gastesi said. "With the rains every day in Miami-Dade, you had to get going early."

That job was not his favorite, though. Tending bar in South Florida still remains his top job, he said. He worked at such Miami area hot spots as Sundays on the Bay in Key Biscayne. His favorite shifts were Thursday Ladies' Night and "2 to make 2 Sundays," where he earned a cool $200 in an afternoon shift that started at 2 p.m., he said.

He then moved onto the 1950s-style retro bar and grill Studebakers in Kendall, where part of his duties were doing performances.

"That was my best job," he said of bartending.

-- Timothy O'Hara

Jill Landesberg-Boyle

President, Florida Keys

Community College

The highly effective reformer of FKCC spent her young working life on a horse farm in Walpole, Mass.

"I worked at a stable for horses. In exchange for riding their horses, I cleaned stalls, worked with the horses, groomed them and got to travel to Olympic trials and was a judge for qualifying events in equestrian cross-country events around New England."

She particularly remembers an American quarter horse named Panda, a rescue horse from the track.

"I had to work him to break him in to be a good standard-bred trotter," she said. "When they go through a trot, they're trained not to break into a canter, though it's a natural gait. It takes a lot of patience and trust with the horse. There were times when the horse would get nervous and break that trot, but I loved that horse."

Once, after being away from the stables for three weeks, she walked up to the fence and saw Panda in the field.

"I held his harness up and called to him, and that horse broke into a full extended trot. I thought Panda was going to mow me over. He just stopped on a dime and nudged that harness with that soft muzzle," she said. "He remembered me and had missed me. That was a really, really cool experience."

-- John Guerra

Ernest E. Turner

Key West High School JROTC CWO and commanding officer

"I grew up in the inner city, in Baltimore, and as soon as I graduated from high school, I joined the U.S. Marine Corps, right away. I took communication and art in high school, but did boot camp right after graduating."

Today, Turner is a chief warrant officer and commanding officer of the Key West High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

His first assignment was training noncommissioned officers at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, along the Potomac River, south of Washington.

"Quantico was for officer candidates school. In their summers, college ROTC cadets would go to officer boot camp there. I was an enlisted instructor, teaching them the marksmanship training with M-16s on the rifle range there."

Turner taught them the BRASS system for marksmanship: Breathe, Relax, Aim, Slack, Squeeze.

These days, as head of Key West High School's JROTC, he teaches youngsters leadership skills. "I'm now helping students to aim for the things they want for their future," Turner said. He and his wife Pearl, also a retired Marine, now have five children of their own.

-- John Guerra