My brother and I got an weekly "allowance" as kids as long as we did the expected chores; fed and watered the dogs, mowed the lawn, weeded the garden, etc. If the chores didn't get done there was no pay out. I forget how much it was but it wasn't much.

That is what motivated us to earn better money in different ways. at 8 and 9 years old we started wading in a nearby golf course's ponds to recover golf balls. we'd clean them a sell them back to the golfers at a little stand we had along the T-off at one of the holes. It was actually pretty lucrative, less work and lots more money than earning the allowance.

I worked as a trap boy and later a scorekeeper at the local gun club for 25 and 50 cents a squad. We shot groundhogs for a local farmer for a quarter a tail.

Trapping at that time (late 60's/early 70's) was by far our most lucrative enterprise. A single muskrat would pay double our weekly allowance.

BB & YT's posts got me thinking about whether or not we would have gotten into those jobs and endeavors had we just been given a sum of money each week with nothing expected in return.