Who

Carey Hobbs, 75, president of Hobbs Bonded Fibers.

1st summer job

Sacked groceries at Thornton’s Department Store in Abilene, which sold food, farm supplies, furniture and clothing and also served as a Studebaker dealership.

Age

Hobbs was 13 and already had his driver’s license. His family had moved to Abilene from Carlsbad, N.M., where he and his twin brother, Terry, had received a hardship license at age 12 because their mother suffered from poor health and their father spent most of his time working in the oil fields. Hobbs said he sacked groceries five or six days a week and would carry the paper bags to the cars of customers who drove.

Pay

He made 50 cents an hour and considered the pay spending money. In later summers as a teenager, he performed oil field-related tasks. He workd several years for a company that sold drilling mud. He would load 100-pound sacks of this mud onto trucks and deliver them to customers. He later toiled as an oil field roughneck.

Loved

“The money,” he said with a laugh.

Hated

“I don’t remember anything I didn’t like about sacking groceries,” he said. But working in the oil fields of West Texas was another story. The heat and hard labor made him determined to learn a profession.

He studied petroleum engineering at Texas Tech University in Lubbock but did not graduate. He served five years as a pilot for the U.S. Marine Corps and has a commercial license to fly.

After leaving the military, he joined Clark Bros. Felt Co, which had plants in Beaumont, Houston and Fort Worth. He began buying interest in the company in 1963 and acquired controlling interest in 1972.

The company became Hobbs Bonded Fibers, and he eventually moved it to Waco. Through the years, it has made insulation for clothing, batting for quilts and sound-muffling materials for vehicles.

Lessons learned

“One size does not fit all. Be willing to adjust to the needs and wants of your customer.”

Advice on summer jobs

“Make yourself useful, and whatever you do, do it well.”

– Mike Copeland

* * *

1ST HOT JOB

Local business people recall the summer jobs that launched them into the working world in a series the Trib will publish on Tuesdays through August.

To suggest someone to be profiled, call Mike Copeland at 757-5736 or email mcopeland@wacotrib.com.

RELATED SEARCHES

• 1st Hot Job: Investor started as newspaper typesetter
• 1st Hot Job: Investment adviser was once a beekeeper
• 1st Hot Job: Waco monument maker a model of hard work
• 1st Hot Job: From gravel hauling to party planning
• 1st Hot Job: Maid company owner learned lessons at dentist's office
• 1st Hot Job: Head of Waco title company learned good work habits as a waitress
• 1st Hot Job: Auctioneer learned about hard work on the farm
• 1st Hot Job: Freddie Kish juggled 3 jobs as young man
• 1st Hot Job: Owner of Spice Village learned people skills at first job in video store
• 1st Hot Job: Waco car dealer Peter Kultgen washed trade-ins at age 14
• 1st Hot Job: Photographer got start with snow cones