I am trying to capture the jobs I had during my lifetime. I will probably jump around, but my mind does that once in awhile. Well ok, it does that a lot!!
When I was 13 & 14, I worked in strawberry fields in the summer picking (and throwing) strawberries. I threw a big grey moldy one and hit the field boss! I was fired from that job and went to the next field. It was dirty hard work. I remember the mornings being cold and damp. The smell of the dirty and moldy berries, crawling on your hands and knees in the mud, picking the berries really sucked. In the afternoon it would be HOT and dusty!! I would save some berries in my pockets for throwing out the windows at tourists standing on the bridge when the bus drove over the bridge! I remember one old woman screaming and grabbing her chest when a juicy berry hit her in the back. oooops!! HAHAHAHAHA OOPS fired again!! I also babysat at night. When I was 15 my friend Loraine got me a part time job after school sorting laundry in a dry cleaners. I worked there a few months until I sorted a red towel into a Navy chief's white shorts and t-shirts. Whoops!! They all turned out pink!! I think I was asked not to come back. I can’t remember.
When I was 16 I was shopping at the local drug store and the owner, Ted Christianson, came up to me and asked me if I would like to work for him. I told him I was on probation for stealing, and he said he knew that but would give me a job if I wanted one. I was flabbergasted!! I started working for him in the drug store and the clothing store attached. I learned how to wrap presents there, and to this day I love wrapping presents! This man I will never forget. He saw a teen that was going through troubled times and gave her a chance!! God Bless you Ted!! When you think that you can’t make a difference, think again!! That one kind gesture 40 years ago influenced my life!! I in turn look at troubled teens and see potential not doom! I try to encourage them and give them something positive to aim for. I like to tell them I was right where they are and I got out, and so can they. There is hope for you kids!! Of course they roll their eyes, give me the finger and walk on! Hahahahahahahaha
Let’s see, I was 16 years old when I went to pick up my sister on the Navy Base. She worked in the cafeteria and on the other side was the Enlisted Men's club. I walked in the front door of the club looking for her, and she pushed me into the restroom and told me to take out the curlers in my hair and put on some lipstick. I did, and we went out and sat at a table and ordered Shirley temples. Ooooooooo I felt like such a grown up!! Sailors would come up to our table and talk to us, and buy us some Shirley Temples!! I think the next day I aged 5 years!! I was suddenly a grown woman wanting to look pretty and go dancing!! So I did! I found out there were dances Thursday Friday and Saturday nights. Mom said as long as I don’t miss any school I could go to the dances! I bought some pretty dresses at “Gloria’s” where I worked, and grew into a young lady!! I really loved the attention I was getting at the dances!! The boys in my school had no interest in me, but at the base, well I was eye candy to the sailors. I can remember walking in the front door and hear wolf whistles!! Woohoo!! HEAVEN!!!! When the band would start guys would trip over themselves trying to get to our table first!! (we were the only girls there). I remember my sister had two friends that took the job of being my “big brothers” Joe & Gomer. They would not let me date certain guys because of their reputations. They called me “princess”. I was chubby when I started going to the club but lost 60 pounds right away!! The dancing and the attention gave me incentive!! Some of my girl friends at school found out where I was going and wanted to go with me. Cheryl, Carol, Linda, Heather and Cathy all started going to the club with me. Well in school we got the reputation of being “sailor bait” right away. That was not a good name to have in Coupeville, ‘cause that meant you were “easy”. Heck, I think I was the only virgin at graduation! I was having way too much fun teasing the guys to stick to just one!! There was a band called the Sceptre’s. It consisted of 4 sailors from Heavy 10 squadron. Paul, Harvey, Ken & Dave. I think I had a crush on all of them at one time. They had a small house in Coupeville and us girls would go to their house and listen to them practice!! Carol ended up Marrying Ken, Cathy (her father was Ted that owned the store I worked at) married Paul, Heather went with Harvey and a gal that worked with me married Dave & Linda married a sailor that worked in a gas station in Coupeville.. I was dating a guy from White Deer Texas I met at the club. Life was gooood!!
In the summer of 1966 I went to the Seagull Cafe on Front Street to visit my friend Carrie while she was waitressing. I was sitting at the counter, and she told me to go in the back and help them wash dishes because they were so busy they needed help. I did, and Helen hired me to wash dishes on the weekends. It was back breaking work!! I would take a big grey tub out to the tables and fill the tub with the dirty dishes, then lug that heavy tub into the kitchen. There were three big stainless steel sinks, (no dishwasher machine) I scraped the food off the plates, washed them in the hot water, rinsed them in the middle sink and sanitized them in the third sink then stacked them on the drainer, then put them away and I’ll be darned if that danged Helen would pick up those clean dishes and start all over again!! During the slow time I would peel potatoes and put them in the French fry cutter and put them in stay fresh in a 5 gallon bucket. REAL French fries folks, not those frozen mushy fake things! And when we closed, the pans rolled in!! YUCK!!! Then I had to sweep and mop the floors. Hard work!! Later on in the summer Helen threw a ticket book at me and told me to get out there and take some orders!! I had no idea how to do any of that, but learned real quick when I saw the tips rolling in!! In August the band played at the local Island County Fair in Langley, and us girls go-go danced on the stage with them!! Woo hoo!!
More tomorrow….
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