In the summer of 1954, the year before I turned 14 (and would be legally allowed to work), I learned that Kiddie Wonderland would "hire" underage boys to work the pony track. My mother insisted I find some work and it was she who learned about the jobs. In addition to walking the ponies around a dirt track when Kiddie Wonderland was open, we were responsible for grooming and feeding the ponies and mucking out the stables. It was hard work, but we had a lot of down time to screw around. On one rainy day, when KW was closed, all us boys went to the movie together and discovered that no-one would sit near us because we smelled like horses! We were NOT paid an hourly wage but paid according to what the owner thought was fair (
), based on how crowded KW was over the week. . It was a fun summer. The owner liked having young boys around (?) and even took a bunch of us to a pony farm when he was purchasing ponies. Since there were usually 5 or 6 of us, with a lot of down time, it was like working on a farm in the middle of Hackensack.