Living la vita waiter

Did I give them that or did they give it to me? Don't think that's my handwriting

 

It's sort of embarrassing to say I've been at this job forever. Today I waited on a woman who is hurtling towards middle age. I've waited on her since she was about 16. On other days I've brought chocolate milk to toddlers who's mothers got chocolate milk from me when they were the same age a couple decades back.

Then there's the guy I served breakfast to on Sundays (he only eats on Sundays. The rest of the week it's just coffee). The first time I ever waited on him was at a place about 3 blocks away. Back then I was a barista, not a waiter, and he was still a drug abuse counselor.

When was that? Well, it was during Clinton's first term, back when Rush Limbaugh went national.

This is NOT the Sunday breakfast guy.

 

The work is low status, though the pay is good for what I do. Still, Elon Musk I ain't. I used to occasionally take shit from the North Shore suburban types who'd boat up to the harbor for lunch.They would do some Hierarchical Mockery, what with them having real jobs and me not. 

Honestly, I was happy when the crash of 2008 came. They got to see how fragile all jobs are and the shock immediately halted the dominance displays.

I once had a root-free nomadic life. I motorcycled, hitchhiked and vanned cross country whenever the urge hit me. I had no real grasp on time and aging because I never stayed in one place long enough to watch time and aging happen. Now my life is essentially a couch cushion with my ass print sunk deep in it. I don't know if that's good or bad, I just know that it is. Oh well.

 

Customer Economic Commentary Art

 

At least there is some good in what I do. Stay in one place long enough and you develop a rapport with your customers. You give them shit, they give you shit and that turns what is normally a sterile, polite Applebee's-esque environment into a sort of family reunion free-for-all with those all those foul mouthed, funny relatives you'd forgotten you had.

Long time servers are part of the community. We help provide the customers with a sense of continuity and nostalgia as well as being house historians and eventually house history itself. We love to tell stories about the crazy shit we've seen until one day we're gone and those stories get told about us.

I've met a lot of people over the last couple decades at the restaurant and my plan is to share some stories about the ones who've left a mind print. But that's for later. I hope to see you then.

 

 

 

Customer Art Appreciation

 

Final Note - all these photos are mine, plucked from the archives. Hope you liked them.