Money, Money, Money!!
Tip Your Waitress – True Story
I was looking for a part-time job while putting myself through school. I went to a lot of restaurants like the Tick Tock Restaurant but they wanted a waitress with experience. I finally found a waitress job at a local private club.
You had to wear a white uniform and a black apron to keep your tips and order pad in. I remember coming home from work and tossing all the tip change on the kitchen table where my dad would count it all up and put it into bank rolls.
It was a pretty nice job but you had to deal with a taciturn boss who was not only the cook but also the manager. He had a way of counting up the hours and always short changing your paycheck. Not sure if he subtracted a dinner break which you never got. He also had a bad temper and would yell very loud if you picked up the wrong order. Everyone in dinning room could hear him.
The members were generally pretty pleasant. I remember one group of older ladies who would come for lunch and all order hot dogs and coffee; the cheapest thing on the menu. They would each leave you a .15 cent tip which was pretty much nothing back then but you didn’t care. The ladies were cute and probably didn’t have a lot of money. That was their big meal out.
When you worked on Saturday dance nights, at 11:00 p.m. they would always dim the lights and honor the members who had passed away. They also had an odd clock that was part of the ceremony.
One Sunday I was working and a local businessman, who owned one of the town’s shoe stores, came in with a large group of his family for breakfast. The tables were pushed together. It was probably ten or so people at the tables.
Anyway, I worked this table giving out their breakfast mainly eggs and bacon. There was a complaint that they thought the breakfast was cold. I don’t see how this is possible but perhaps I took too long in picking it up. I ran countless times back and forth serving their breakfasts with water, coffee, juice, etc.
When they left, I had to bus the table and found that huge table did not leave me a tip. Boy, that really taught me. The only thing I learned that day was I worked very hard for nothing. I was working my way through school, and could have really used the tip money.
It has been years and years since I worked there, and that shoe store owner has long forgotten the incident, but this former waitress will never forget his cheapness.