Las Vegans received an education during their early teen jobs

Summer jobs.

They're a chance for a kid to earn pocket money. The place to develop good work habits that will last a lifetime. A peek into the psyche of adults in an environment more, perhaps, intimate than usual.

And, of course, later in life, summer jobs are fodder for some great stories.

As high school and college students' summer job searches kick into high gear, we thought it would be fun to ask a few fellow Southern Nevadans about their most memorable summer jobs.

Here's what they said.

Adriana Arevalo

News director for Univision Nevada (KINC-TV, Channel 15)

Arevalo, 35, was 15 when she landed a job that not only educated her about her native Bogota, Colombia, but, in retrospect, prepared her for a career.

Arevalo's cousin had a company that transported visitors to Bogota from that city's airport. During the ride, she recalled, "I was in charge of explaining to them which part of the city we were in, the temperature, a little bit of history."

She also served as a tour guide for those planning longer stays.

It was pretty exciting stuff for a 15-year-old, she said. "My friends were having jobs at, like, fast food restaurants and things like that. I was a tour guide (so) it was like, 'I'm an adult.' "

In addition to sharing her hometown with outsiders, she learned about other parts of the world.

"I think (the job) gave me my first idea about the wonderful chance of being in different countries and the magic of traveling," Arevalo said.

It also was "my first experience talking in public," she noted. "So maybe it was a good chance to improve my skills (that) today ... are professional tools."

Dian Diaz

Singer in the Fontana lounge at Bellagio

Diaz, 33, grew up on a farm outside of Albuquerque, N.M. For a few summers during and after high school, she commuted to the city's Old Town to work at a gift shop called Cook's Trading Co.

"It was cool because we got to deal with a lot of Indian and Native American pottery and jewelry and rugs, and everything was handmade by the artists," Diaz said.

"I got a lot of really cool jewelry," she added. "When I'd go back to school, everybody was, 'Cool! Wow, where'd you get all of this cool stuff?' "

Diaz enjoyed learning about the artists. She also liked watching performances -- flamenco dancing, for instance -- in the plaza.

"There was always some kind of entertainment, too," Diaz said, "so that was right up my alley."

Also great was that "when you work in a place like Old Town, you get people from all over, because it was a tourist attraction," Diaz noted. "I felt like I was traveling, even though I'd never been anywhere.

"When you're a girl from a small town, you want, maybe, to kind of see the world that's kind of closed to you. You get that meeting people coming from everywhere."

Marla Goldberg

Cantor of Temple Sinai of Las Vegas

Goldberg, 42, worked as a song leader at Camp Swig, a Reform movement camp in Saratoga, Calif., where rabbis from across the country would spend a week or two with their families to serve as staff members. One summer, she met a family from Milwaukee.

"I knew that because the kids were all wearing Milwaukee Brewers T-shirts," said Goldberg, whose family also was from Milwaukee. Goldberg introduced herself.

"She said, 'Who's your family?' I told her, and she looked at me and said, 'Oh, we're related.' "

"We were second cousins," Goldberg said. "I never met them before. It's was a small-world kind of thing. I got to meet cousins I had never known, and in California from Milwaukee, of all places."

Summer at Camp Swig was memorable for other reasons. There was, for instance, the earthquake that awakened Goldberg in the middle of the night and after which she promptly fell back asleep.

But, most of all, Goldberg said, "I was getting experience working with kids, and it was just another stepping stone into me becoming a cantor."

Tina Kunzer-Murphy

Las Vegas Bowl executive director and chairman of the Football Bowl Association

Kunzer-Murphy, 57, learned much from her first job as an usher at the old Huntridge theater when it showed movies.

"I'd go in with a flashlight as people walked in and got to see all sorts of things," she recalled. "There was always something crazier around the corner.

"I thought, at 15-and-a-half, when I first started working, I had seen it all at the Huntridge theater. But it was nothing."

The Huntridge back then was a "premier place to go see a movie," she said. And, at first, finding moviegoers doing things that didn't involve seeing a movie was "mortifying."

But, Kunzer-Murphy joked, "the longer I worked, I actually kind of went looking for different things."

While she did share her stories with an older brother, she didn't tell her parents what her job entailed. "My parents are pretty old-fashioned," she explained, and "if I would have told them ... no way I would have been going back."

It sounds like a lot of authority for a teenager. "Maybe," Kunzer-Murphy said, "that's why I'm so bossy today."

Kunzer-Murphy carries with her a souvenir of her career as an usher.

"Right before the movie opened, I'd be making popcorn, and I have a scar on my left arm where I unloaded the popcorn and butter dripped onto my forearm," she said.

"It was fun, and I have the scars to remember."

Myron Martin

Chief executive officer and president of the Smith Center for the Performing Arts

Between his sophomore and junior years of college, Martin, 52, played for the Texas Rangers.

Honest: That summer, Martin was the organist at Arlington Stadium, then home of the American League baseball team.

He was recommended for the job by the University of North Texas, where he was studying music.

As ballpark organist, there are "certainly things you go in knowing you have to do," Martin said, such as "the little baseball quips that get people to clap their hands" and musical intros for every player.

A good organist also can wing it when a musical opportunity arises. For instance, Martin played The Monkees' theme song one night when members of the group were at the game.

"Honestly, it was just fun," Martin said. "And the organist was in the press box, which meant I could go have lunch or dinner before the game, and I sat one day with Joe Garagiola, the great baseball commentator who I admired all my life. I got to meet with him and have a conversation with him."

Darwin Rost

Head football coach and athletic director at Palo Verde High School

Growing up in a small town in Iowa, "our summer jobs were a lot different than what you'd expect in a city like Las Vegas," said Rost, 50.

His most memorable job-- and one that today would cause OSHA to descend upon any employer who'd hire a kid to do it -- was driving a gasoline truck for his dad the summer of his senior year.

"Instead of having farmers get gasoline from a gas station, they were called bulk trucks," he said. "They'd deliver to the farm, and every farm had like a 50-gallon drum of gasoline there."

So, Rost would drive a gasoline-carrying truck on tiny country roads. Sounds a bit, perhaps, dangerous for a high school senior?

"It's kind of a dangerous job," Rost agreed. "You really think about it. In this day and age, I don't know if I'd even have the guts to do it. One wrong turn, and you've got that truck full of gas ..."

On the other hand, the job sure taught Rost about responsibility and attention to detail.

"My lesson would be that, on a job, you've got to make sure that you're careful what you're doing," he said.

In fact, Rost added, "even as a teacher, you want to make sure you dot all the i's and cross all the t's."