Post by david on Dec 9, 2006 23:25:58 GMT -8
When I enrolled at UC Berkeley I really wanted to live on campus. My parents let me pledge a sorority, as my sister had done, but they said they couldn't afford to let me live at the sorority house. So I became a "town girl." It was sort of like being an insider and an outsider at the same time. My friends were other town girls, and we never got to feel the real experience of a Greek life on campus. /
As compensation I got my parents to agree to allow me to go away for the summer to work. I was interviewed at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco for a job as coffee shop cashier at the concession at Richardson State Grove for the summer. The interview was the classiest part of the experience.
Richardson State Park is a beautiful spot on the Eel River along the Redwood Highway. It was fun to watch people get out of their cars and look up. There may have been sunshine somewhere, but our area was completely enclosed by tall redwood trees.
My job as cashier was interesting. I worked with a couple of waitresses behind the counter. I talked with customers and took in money. My biggest responsibility was at the end of the evening when I counted the cash receipts, bagged them and put them in the safe at night. I didn't even have to reconcile anything.
My boss was a lecherous soul. He enjoyed embarrassing me and once took me for a ride in his car which had no doorknob. I could almost see the horns popping out of his head as I talked him into returning me to the park headquarters. I was 18 - he was about 40!
There were a couple of bellhops who were Jehovah's Witnesses. They tried to convert all of us. There was the stuttering ranger who fell in love with me. There was another ranger who looked exactly like Robert Wagner, my favorite movie star. Alas, he was married, but he still tried to hang out with us.
My roommate was a hypochondriac. I learned a lot from her as I watched her bind her legs every night and go through the array of pills she kept on the window sill. She was a lot older than I was.
Another bellhop was scheduled to get married in August. He left us to go the wedding ii San Francisco, except he called from Yankees' Stadium to say he couldn't do it. And finally there was the busboy who planned to rob the Garberville Bank when the summer was over. We found out in October that he did just that.
This was my odd introduction to living away from home. After 2 years at UC and 1 yeai of Business College, I finally moved to San Francisco, which didn't seem so bad after Richardson Grove. There may be a lot of strange people in the big city, but nothing prepares you for independence like a state park.
As compensation I got my parents to agree to allow me to go away for the summer to work. I was interviewed at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco for a job as coffee shop cashier at the concession at Richardson State Grove for the summer. The interview was the classiest part of the experience.
Richardson State Park is a beautiful spot on the Eel River along the Redwood Highway. It was fun to watch people get out of their cars and look up. There may have been sunshine somewhere, but our area was completely enclosed by tall redwood trees.
My job as cashier was interesting. I worked with a couple of waitresses behind the counter. I talked with customers and took in money. My biggest responsibility was at the end of the evening when I counted the cash receipts, bagged them and put them in the safe at night. I didn't even have to reconcile anything.
My boss was a lecherous soul. He enjoyed embarrassing me and once took me for a ride in his car which had no doorknob. I could almost see the horns popping out of his head as I talked him into returning me to the park headquarters. I was 18 - he was about 40!
There were a couple of bellhops who were Jehovah's Witnesses. They tried to convert all of us. There was the stuttering ranger who fell in love with me. There was another ranger who looked exactly like Robert Wagner, my favorite movie star. Alas, he was married, but he still tried to hang out with us.
My roommate was a hypochondriac. I learned a lot from her as I watched her bind her legs every night and go through the array of pills she kept on the window sill. She was a lot older than I was.
Another bellhop was scheduled to get married in August. He left us to go the wedding ii San Francisco, except he called from Yankees' Stadium to say he couldn't do it. And finally there was the busboy who planned to rob the Garberville Bank when the summer was over. We found out in October that he did just that.
This was my odd introduction to living away from home. After 2 years at UC and 1 yeai of Business College, I finally moved to San Francisco, which didn't seem so bad after Richardson Grove. There may be a lot of strange people in the big city, but nothing prepares you for independence like a state park.