Old Jobs

My youngest sister Beth has moved back to St Louis from Cape Girardeau to continue her schooling at Webster University, for writing and business last I heard. She's taking two part time jobs for income, one at a grocery store, the other at either Applebee's or Panera. Her going-back-to-retail reminds me of when I was there.. ha! I have to laugh at myself for such an experience...

My first real job was a doughnut girl at Krispy Kreme, where the oil from doughnut fryery covered the floor at all times. The place was basically a skating rink during the busiest time of service. It always amazed me that so many people want doughnuts at all hours of the day. It was also interesting that I developed a knack for predicting what flavors of doughnuts people would order. Hispanics and black people always ordered lemon-filled doughnuts. Old guys always ordered chocolate-covered-custard-filled, and of course kids always wanted sprinkled. I used to snack on the freeze-dried blueberries, and my lunch generally consisted of a bagel.. bet you didn't know Krispey Kreme had greaseless bagels. They do. Well this one did. I also formulated a ridiculous crush on one of my many Bosnian coworkers. It's so funny and kind of embarrassing to think back on old crushes, hehe. I thought he was cute, but he was pretty much clueless and destined for no destiny. He got his finger nearly chewed off once by one of the dough mixing machines. The best stories from working here came from the the drive through, even though I wasn't usually stationed there. Supposed celebrities would come through, or people with llamas in their back seat, or jerks chewing us out for slow service. Good Lord.

My second job was at Panera. It was leaps and bounds better than Krispy Kreme, or at least it had healthier options so I didn't have to feel like I was leading people to a quicker death-by-sugargrease. It was much slower-paced, too. I only worked on the bakery side. My manager was 19 and left me a secret note once: "Missy, give me a call sometime 846-2121 - Aaron." (I've got my old 2000-2003 journal opened here and I saved the note so I could make fun of it, ha). This guy was a looser, one of those jeep-driving types with the upside-down "It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand" decals on his windshield. He had a girlfriend too, and had no business asking me out. I ignored him. Actually I just made this connection, but some time shortly after this I suddenly was scheduled for fewer and fewer hours at Panera. Whatever, dude.

My third job, and my final experience working customer service in the food industry, was Schnuck's grocery store, in the deli...slicing meats and cheeses, and getting bits of meats and cheeses in my hair (we didn't wear hairnets, thank God).
Look at me in my deli getup in 2001! And check out this line from my old journal "..maybe I can get one of my new co-workers to be my date to prom!" Ha. Wow. Can you tell having a job was really my first experience with the desire to date boys? Yes, I went to an all girl's private school, hush. It was new for me, even if all the boys I was forced to meet were invariably lame, including the one I developed another pointless crush over. Jerk. I also realize that my first three jobs put me in a position to be hit on by old men quite often. On guy actually acted like he was inviting me to a party with his friends! He was like 75 years old! (and ordering head cheese, mind you). Do I look like I want to be at a party with 75 year old men and head cheese? No, no, no, noo... Schnuck's had so many interesting customers. There was Ed, an old man who always came in for like 5 pounds of hot green beans, ha. He looked kind of homeless, but we loved him. And then there was the Rhino Lady, who was difficult to understand her orders, she had some kind of speech impediment, and also fingers that looked like rhino feet. There was also No-Eyebrows Lady (they were deliberately shaven and redrawn on very poorly). Honestly it is kind of hard to wait on people like this sometimes. It's hard not to be distracted. Then you have those customers who want 1 ton of meat sliced Bible-page thin. Snack bologna is only 2" in diameter, so when they want a pound of it sliced real thin, it takes forever, then they get mad and huffy with you when it takes too long. Not my fault, sir. The best was when the power went out and we had to try to keep all the cases closed so everything wouldn't rot. Oh, and the grossest product, by far, is tongue and blood loaf. Who wants that? And why is it that old men always enjoy these strange things?

I plan to keep these types of experiences in the past. I have no desire to revisit customer service, or doughnuts or head cheese.