Minimum Wage

Spurred by a surprise blog visit from a voice from the past, I bring you a glimpse of the Southgate Years.

(Warning: This is certainly of no interest to anyone except 2 or 3 people, including me, but I have nothing else to write about, so there. Feel free to wander about the internet. I won't be offended. I actually encourage it.)

Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Charles got the job first.

It was 1985 and he and I were broke and in college. Just a hop across the river, in the suburb I grew up in, was the Southgate Theater. Yes, it was part of a chain, including the imaginatively named Westgate and Eastgate, located to the west and east. Southgate was to the south. It had 4 screens, and was completely basic, shaped like a large box, sitting on the main drag, next to the pizza place. But the hours were great for a student and, hey, minimum wage, what could be better. Much better than his last job of washing trucks for UPS at midnight, during December. For that job, as the temperature was in the teens (Fahrenheit), he sprayed water on the trucks, which froze on contact. He then sprayed on the soap, which froze on contact, and then more water, which again froze. When I would go to pick him up, he would be encased in a coat of ice, himself.

So this job, pushing popcorn, pop and candy seemed cake, especially with the fringe benefit of free movies. After a few months or so, I signed on, and worked my way up to that cushiest of jobs: The Box Office. This was truly the best, as all you did, especially after the remodel which put "the box" outside the theater in, of course, a box, was sell tickets. In the summer, you sold tickets and Fun Packs, these coupon books. You got 50 cents commission for each one you sold, so that was even better. During the down time, you read or studied. If you worked on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, there was almost total down time, so you were paid to sit and do your biology reading.

The best part about it, though, was the crew. My sister, Gail, ended up working there, as did Stacy, her best friend and "the little sister Charles never wanted". Of course she was my adored friend, too. Brian, Maryann, Pearl, Doug, Jake, all those guys. We partied together, several dated, and Brian and Maryann got married. All but one of the 8 bridesmaids and ushers in our wedding worked there.

Charles eventually became assistant manager. ("4 dollars and hour, wear your own clothes, looks good on your resume", went the mantra we chanted at him when he asked why he agreed to do it. Never mind you stained all your own clothes with grease from the "butter flavoring" we squirted on the popcorn.) He then moved on to projectionist, truly the best job, as you got to wear jeans and t-shirt, made the same 4 dollars an hour, and didn't have to deal with the public at all. The only down side was when the film broke, but the people usually took it out on the manager, not him. He was safe up in the booth.

According to Stacy the building is empty now, which is kind of sad. I was told it was a dance and cheerleading school for a while but apparently that went belly-up, too. So here's to the old Southgate, we knew you well. Good times, good times.

And my worst job? I think that would be the summer I hostessed at Denney's restaurant, home of the Build-A-Breakfast! where I wore a brown polyester wrap skirt and an orange and brown polyester peasant top. They were grooming me for waitress but, tragically, school started and I really needed to concentrate on my studies. So sorry. The Christmas working for the scummy PayLess doing cashier work was a close second. That was in the days when there were no scanners, you had to key in everything, running the credit cards through the hand-slide thingy, that pinched your fingers. And the stress of balancing out each night. (Shudder)

The worst job I ever heard of was what Charles's friend, Frank, spent doing. He picked up chicken carcasses that these 3 old lady chicken killers threw down on the ground, after they had broken their necks. Apparently they cackled while doing it, one delighted in using her teeth, and they looked like they were straight out of Macbeth. He lasted a whole week, but Frank was made of stern stuff.

So there you have it. Youth jobs. Got me where I am today. So glad I stayed in school.

And you?