# When Did You First Get Your Social Security Card?



## Paladin1950 (Nov 12, 2022)

Although I live in New York, I got mine while living in Florida. My homeroom teacher passed out the applications to all of the boys, during the 1964-1965 school year, in 8th Grade. Being the South, and in the 60's, only the boys got them. The logic is in a few years, they may be the "breadwinner" in a new family. If a girl needed one sometime, she would have to apply for one by herself. 

I just came to school, sat in my desk, and had the application handed to me. How easy was that?


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## Kika (Nov 12, 2022)

I applied for my Social Security card during the Summer of 1960 at the local post office in Brooklyn, NY.  It was in preparation for obtaining working papers when I turned 14 in the Fall.



Paladin1950 said:


> Being the South, and in the 60's, only the boys got them.


We visited my brother in Florida in the 60s.  That was my first experience of a lot of things done so differently in the South. It was eye opening.  Especially the segregated rest rooms at the zoo.


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## Uptosnuff (Nov 12, 2022)

I first got my social security card when I started high school at age 14.  1974. The school office contacted my mom and told her they needed that info.  She was shocked.  She didn't even know where to get that info at first.  She made a big deal of it, which is why I still remember the incident.


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## JaniceM (Nov 12, 2022)

Near the end of my freshman year of high school, so I was 14.  
The school I attended, and another nearby school, had French club for students who took French classes in school.  The teacher arranged for us to go to Canada.  
She said there wasn't likely to be any problems, but in case we were asked for I.D. at the border it'd be easier and more convenient to have Social Security cards than to be carrying around our birth certificates.  So I, and other kids who wanted to go on the trip, went to the local Post Office, filled out a little card and mailed it in, and the cards soon arrived in the mail.


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## JustBonee (Nov 12, 2022)

Probably  when I started high school  -  don't remember exactly.  
 I was looking  for part time work after school hours, and needed the SS card.


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## Pepper (Nov 12, 2022)

When I was a senior in high school the school arranged for all of us seniors to get our SS cards.


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## Geezerette (Nov 12, 2022)

When I was 16 I was getting a summer job as a day camp counselor. My father took me to get it as he was retired at the time and my mother was still working. I was so proud of it! I still have it.


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## Alligatorob (Nov 12, 2022)

My 12th birthday.  My grandmother gave me $20 so I decided to open a savings account, needed one for that.


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## hollydolly (Nov 12, 2022)

It was called a National Insurance card here.. and I got mine aged just 15 when I was made to leave school and get full time employment...


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## Jace (Nov 12, 2022)

"A million years ago"...when first started working!


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## Alligatorob (Nov 12, 2022)

Kika said:


> We visited my brother in Florida in the 60s. That was my first experience of a lot of things done so differently in the South. It was eye opening. Especially the segregated rest rooms at the zoo.


Having lived in Florida for most of the 60s the only thing that surprises me about this was that black people were allowed into the zoo.  Don't think they were in our town...


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## Geezer Garage (Nov 12, 2022)

Been so long ago I couldn't really say. As long as I can remember, but that could be just a minute ago.


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## jujube (Nov 12, 2022)

Sometime late in my senior year.  I hadn't needed one before that, but I was going to be working that summer so had to go down and get one.


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## Nathan (Nov 12, 2022)

1966, at age 14.


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## Right Now (Nov 12, 2022)

I was in high school in Tampa, and I got one during the summer of '66 for a part time job.  Next year I got my first passport to go to Germany after graduating  and getting married.


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## Pinky (Nov 12, 2022)

Around '62, when I was 15 .. had part-time jobs around Xmas, sorting mail at a postal outlet, and pricing
boxes of ornaments for a department store. The sales job at the blouse store didn't last .. I'm the worst
salesperson in the world 

I got a new card when I moved from B.C. to Ontario in '67, when I was 20, and got my first job government
job at Queen's Park.


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## NorthernLight (Nov 12, 2022)

In Canada it's called a Social Insurance card. I started working full time at age 16. I can't remember how I got it. Maybe my employer provided the application.

Not long after, a government employee commented that the number was not a local one,  that local Social Insurance Numbers started with a different set of numbers. No idea what that was about.

In Mexico, I needed a national number for something or other. I didn't have one, so the clerk figured mine out for me. It included my birthdate, letters from my name, place of birth, and gender. Nice that it was ready made and I didn't have to wait!


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## PamfromTx (Nov 12, 2022)

In 1970.


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## Disgustedman (Nov 12, 2022)

My Sister and I both sent to SS for a card as we had to have "Work permits" in Oregon in 1973. The funny thing was,  our numbers are 11 apart. Yet we're born 1958 and 1960.


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## Gaer (Nov 12, 2022)

Age 14.  When I began driving.


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## dobielvr (Nov 12, 2022)

I must have been about 12.
I was going to work in my family bakery, and I needed one.


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## oldpop (Nov 12, 2022)

When Did You First Get Your Social Security Card?​
I believe I was thirteen years old.


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## Pookie (Nov 12, 2022)

Gosh! I think I was 18, back when I was inventing dirt. 1979.


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## Ruthanne (Nov 12, 2022)

I think I sent for it when I was about 12.


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## Feelslikefar (Nov 13, 2022)

Not really sure when I got my first SS card, but remember getting my first Military Dependents ID card 
with my picture on it.

Very official looking, with my Dad's info on it.

Carried it in a wallet I made at Camp one summer ( the leather ones you pound designs on it and lace it up ).
Mom would only allow me out of the house with it on special occasions.

Man, did I feel important when I had that in my back jean pocket...


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## Devi (Nov 13, 2022)

My dad dragged me into a store somewhere to get Social Security numbers for my brother and I. I _think_ it must have been a Post Office. I was about eight years old.


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## katlupe (Nov 13, 2022)

When I was 14. We were living in FL and everyone in our class had to apply for them before we took 8th grade tests. I remember my mom having to fill out the paperwork for me.


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## Paladin1950 (Nov 13, 2022)

katlupe said:


> When I was 14. We were living in FL and everyone in our class had to apply for them before we took 8th grade tests. I remember my mom having to fill out the paperwork for me.


I see I wasn't the only one who got mine in Florida. When I switched my 401K to an IRA, my Bank Manager asked for my SS number. I told her that I didn't get my Social Security card in New York. She told me she could tell that my looking at the number.

https://www.ssa.gov/employer/stateweb.htm


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## Alligatorob (Nov 13, 2022)

Paladin1950 said:


> I see I wasn't the only one who got mine in Florida. When I switched my 401K to an IRA, my Bank Manager asked for my SS number. I told her that I didn't get my Social Security card in New York. She told me she could tell that my looking at the number.
> 
> https://www.ssa.gov/employer/stateweb.htm


Interesting, I can see why mine is a 262 now.


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## Kika (Nov 13, 2022)

Employer Filing Instructions & Information - Social Security Number Allocations (ssa.gov)


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## katlupe (Nov 13, 2022)

Paladin1950 said:


> I see I wasn't the only one who got mine in Florida. When I switched my 401K to an IRA, my Bank Manager asked for my SS number. I told her that I didn't get my Social Security card in New York. She told me she could tell that my looking at the number.
> 
> https://www.ssa.gov/employer/stateweb.htm


Yeah, it is in the numbers.


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## jimintoronto (Nov 13, 2022)

Here in Canada its is known as a Social Insurance Number, with 9 digits. I got mine in 1964. I have had it memorized for ever. The 4 at the begining means it was issued here in Ontario. I still have the original red and white plastic card.  JImB.


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## NorthernLight (Nov 13, 2022)

jimintoronto said:


> Here in Canada its is known as a Social Insurance Number, with 9 digits. I got mine in 1964. I have had it memorized for ever. The 4 at the begining means it was issued here in Ontario. I still have the original red and white plastic card.  JImB.


Aha! Mine starts with a 6. That's why the govt employee said I didn't get it locally (Burlington/Hamilton), even though I did.


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## LadyEmeraude (Nov 13, 2022)

I was 21 years old when I got mine.


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## jimintoronto (Nov 13, 2022)

NorthernLight said:


> Aha! Mine starts with a 6. That's why the govt employee said I didn't get it in Ontario (I did).


And if the SIN ends with a 9, the individual is a Permanent Resident, not a citizen. When they become a Canadian Citizen, they get a new number to reflect that change in  their Immigration status. I used to have a numeric formula that you could apply to a questioned SIN is order to see if it was either a good one, or a made up one. That was when I was working as a Private Investigator in the 1990's in Toronto.  JimB.


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## Paladin1950 (Nov 13, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> Interesting, I can see why mine is a 262 now.


That explains how I got 266.


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## Manatee (Nov 13, 2022)

I got mine in 1950 at age 16.  It is very tired looking now, but I still have it in the file.  I have not carried it for decades.


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## Buckeye (Nov 13, 2022)

I was in high school, so early 60s.  This was in Southern Ohio


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## DaveA (Nov 13, 2022)

Probably 1949 or '50, just before graduation from high school in '51.  Worked for a local grocery store.


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## funsearcher! (Nov 13, 2022)

When I started working at 13 and they needed it to pay my taxes.


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