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keiramarcosI worked through college-- one job during the year and often two every single summer. I often worked 70 to 80 hours a week during the summer. More than once I drove from one job straight to the other and napped between shifts. My boss would come out and knock on my car window when it was time for my shift as a waitress. I talked fast, worked hard, and made really good money as a waitress because I had to make that money to pay for school. I worked it like mad.
At any rate, the summer I turned twenty I was waiting tables in a 24/7 breakfast place and I had this co-worker who would make it a habit to get sick and go home whenever it was slow in the restaurant. You know the type, right? I was reminded of a particular evening when she did me so wrong today because this young man come up to me and says, "Don't think I'm weird or anything but did you ever wait tables at the 24/7 because I think you waited on my entire scout troop one night." (way to make me feel old dude) and I was like, "Yes, I did."
Here's what happened. It was a Thursday night and it was 7pm and dead. I worked the 6pm to 4am that day. LazyAss coworker had a 5 hour shift that started at five. She made it to six-thirty before she got a "sick headache" and left me by myself on the floor with thirty tables (granted they were empty but still!) and we had one cook. Forty-five minutes after she left, two buses pulled into our parking lot and 47 kids and 15 adults entered. I was twenty. I took one look at them and I teared up. (no lie) I turned and looked at the cook and the only reason he wasn't nearly crying was because he was a grown mother fucker who owned his job (and he knew I'd tell EVERYONE).
The troop leader took one look at me was like, "Look don't turn us away -- these guys are hungry and we're all exhausted and we've been on those two buses all day."
I said, "Okay." and I grabbed a pad of post-it notes and told them all to sit where ever. I slapped a number down on each table, grabbed a chair and stood up on it and announced my plan to get them drinks. When I called their table number, they were to come to me and order their drink -I would fill it and they would take it back to the table without spilling it. They all gamely agreed. I don't know how I would've handled it now but at the time it seemed like the best solution.
Then I took their food orders, one table at a time got the cook started on his end of things. I carried plates for an hour and a half with no break, filled drinks, made coffee, made chocolate milk shakes for 47 kids. When they all left three hours later, the two girls who worked over night were just arriving. The scout leader handed me two hundred dollar tip and told me I was a rock star. I changed my name tag and refused to put my real name back on it the entire time I worked there.
Today I saw one of those kids -- he had two kids of his own.
At any rate, the summer I turned twenty I was waiting tables in a 24/7 breakfast place and I had this co-worker who would make it a habit to get sick and go home whenever it was slow in the restaurant. You know the type, right? I was reminded of a particular evening when she did me so wrong today because this young man come up to me and says, "Don't think I'm weird or anything but did you ever wait tables at the 24/7 because I think you waited on my entire scout troop one night." (way to make me feel old dude) and I was like, "Yes, I did."
Here's what happened. It was a Thursday night and it was 7pm and dead. I worked the 6pm to 4am that day. LazyAss coworker had a 5 hour shift that started at five. She made it to six-thirty before she got a "sick headache" and left me by myself on the floor with thirty tables (granted they were empty but still!) and we had one cook. Forty-five minutes after she left, two buses pulled into our parking lot and 47 kids and 15 adults entered. I was twenty. I took one look at them and I teared up. (no lie) I turned and looked at the cook and the only reason he wasn't nearly crying was because he was a grown mother fucker who owned his job (and he knew I'd tell EVERYONE).
The troop leader took one look at me was like, "Look don't turn us away -- these guys are hungry and we're all exhausted and we've been on those two buses all day."
I said, "Okay." and I grabbed a pad of post-it notes and told them all to sit where ever. I slapped a number down on each table, grabbed a chair and stood up on it and announced my plan to get them drinks. When I called their table number, they were to come to me and order their drink -I would fill it and they would take it back to the table without spilling it. They all gamely agreed. I don't know how I would've handled it now but at the time it seemed like the best solution.
Then I took their food orders, one table at a time got the cook started on his end of things. I carried plates for an hour and a half with no break, filled drinks, made coffee, made chocolate milk shakes for 47 kids. When they all left three hours later, the two girls who worked over night were just arriving. The scout leader handed me two hundred dollar tip and told me I was a rock star. I changed my name tag and refused to put my real name back on it the entire time I worked there.
Today I saw one of those kids -- he had two kids of his own.
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Date: 2013-11-20 08:30 am (UTC)And what a HELL of an impression you made that day.
Well done!
~L
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Date: 2013-11-20 08:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 08:48 am (UTC)*trying out RS for a while.. *
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Date: 2013-11-20 08:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 09:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 12:59 pm (UTC)You really were and are a rock star and can totally see how you could make such a lasting impression.
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Date: 2013-11-20 01:00 pm (UTC)That is all.
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Date: 2013-11-20 01:42 pm (UTC)I was doing much the same back in the early 90's (IHOP), working the graveyard shift on a Saturday night. These 5 guys come in - so drunk they're holding each other up and barely staying vertical - and just order coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. It's after 3am, so even most of the bar-closers are just straggling in, and these guys aren't doing the happy dance. They're hugging and consoling one of their group. Turns out, he'd had the shittiest week *ever* He was laid off, his wife left him and took the kids to shack up with her lesbian lover (no offense to lesbians, but she had no class in HOW to do it), and she cleared out his bank accounts (legal cus of community property laws) which meant the bank would foreclose on their home. He'd been close to jumping off the interstate bridge when his buddies grabbed him to go drinking. Two hours of team counseling later, I called a cab for them and went to clean up for end of shift. They'd left $50 as a tip for my help with him. Best part was the next evening - two of the wives came in, nearly in tears, and thanked me for making sure the men had been in a cab, cus the bar where they'd all left their cars had been *bombed* the previous evening just after they walked over to our restaurant. They hugged me tight enough I squeaked, then shoved another $50 at me and left talking about how they were going to beat the ex-wife into next century.
IMHO - good waitstaff get their applause and kudos by little things (though the super tips for odd jobs is fun too). Saw the guy whose wife had pulled a runner a few years ago. He's CEO of an oil company, has custody of his kids plus two more from wife 2. He remembered me, bought a fancy lunch, and we chatted away like old buddies. My boss at the time nearly spit rocks - he'd been trying to woo this guy's business *cackle*
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Date: 2013-11-20 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 04:48 pm (UTC)You are a more than a star, you are a galaxy!
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Date: 2013-11-20 05:07 pm (UTC)But, I have to ask...how good did it feel to be remember for doing something awesome, instead of saying something awesomely bitchy? ;)
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Date: 2013-11-20 07:51 pm (UTC)Thanks for sharing - I love your slice of life stories.
♥
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Date: 2013-11-20 11:54 pm (UTC)Waiting tables is one of the hardest jobs i ever did. But fun too and also the most rewarding. There is nothing nicer then happy guests who leave with a smile or laugher in their eyes (or a nice tip).
Everyone should try to serve 250 guests with one other waitress while our barkeeper (lazy good for nothing 17 year old boy who rests on his fathers money)runs off to "chill out" in the summer heat. At least once. ;)
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Date: 2013-11-21 12:47 am (UTC):-)
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Date: 2013-11-21 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-21 03:27 am (UTC)But really, his own kids? Those pesky scouts, going and growing up. I totally feel like that when my clinic kids walk in 2 feet taller than they did the last time I saw them. ;(
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Date: 2013-11-21 07:11 pm (UTC)