
I’m playing along with BlogMomma’s Flash Back Friday.
This Friday we’re talking about our first “real” money-making job.
I got a job working at a new frozen yogurt shop that was opening in our local Smith’s Food and Drug Store. It was called The Golden Swirl. There’s something you need to understand about where I grew up. I grew up in Surprise, AZ but by the time I was 15 we moved to Waddell, which was about 10 minutes away, at the base of White Tanks Mountains and just 10 minutes northwest of Luke AFB. This Smith’s store was roughly 15 miles away in Sun City. The home of the retired folk. It took me about 20 minutes to get to work one way and I was a new, inexperienced driver. I worked late on the weekends, sometimes not getting home until after 10:30pm. Scary stuff. Back then, in the early 90’s, there were no houses out in Surprise, El Mirage and Waddell. It was covered with sweet smelling fields and ditches crisscrossed the empty acres. You had to be really alert while driving. There were way too many times I nodded off, almost landing in an irrigation canal.
I got the job along with two girls (twins who looked nothing alike) that went to school with me. They were a year older than me and really not in my crowd. One was nice and we both were tutors together, and the other was a cheerleader (I was too, the next year) who was in with a crowd of girls that HATED me. It was a bit awkward working with them at first, but as the months went by we came to a bit of an understanding. At work we could enjoy eachothers company and talk like friends, but at school she would go back into the “I’m a cheerleader and therefore better than you” routine. I really enjoyed working at this frozen yogurt shop. I had never had a job before, and it was such an eye-opening experience. I learned how to work with the elderly. I learned how sweet they could be and how crotchety they could be.
I also remember learned how openly racist some people could be. I remember one night, a guy friend of mine came to hang out, while I was closing up the shop. This happened often, one guy or another would come hang out. When I say hang out, I mean they would come and buy a yogurt and either stand off to the side or sit at one of the benches and talk to me while I was cleaning out the yogurt machines. These other guys were either Hispanic or White. This one particular night, my friend who was Black/Hispanic was there, eating his yogurt and talking to me, nothing out of the ordinary. My manager, a little old White lady, apparently forgot something in the day and came back to get it. She walked in and her eyes were immediately drawn to him. The first thing I noticed, and thought was really weird was that her hand went straight to her purse and she pulled it around to the front of her and kept it clutched in her hand. Then, eyes never leaving him, she called me into the back room. She proceeded to tell me off for letting the “dark fella” into the shop while I was closing, and for opening myself up to being robbed. WTF? I was floored. I mentioned that I have had other people visit me before, as had the other girls, and that he was a paying customer just sitting there enjoying his yogurt. She said she knew that, but something didn’t seem right about this guy and she wanted him gone as soon as he finished his yogurt. It was amazing. She didn’t even seem shocked about what she was saying. She didn’t think it was wrong at all.
Thankfully after that she quit and we got another manager. I still remember her and how bad I felt for my poor friend, who just was there to enjoy his yogurt, and left feeling like dirt.