Scintilla Project: Day 1
For the next two weeks, my blog posts will include responses to prompts provided by the Scintilla Project. I strongly encourage my readers to visit the site, check out the blogs involved, and join us!
Day 1: Tell a story set at your first job.
I took some liberty with this prompt and “wrote” a poem based on one we all know by Robert Frost:
Stopping by a Perkins on a Snowy Evening
Whose pancakes these are I think I know.
This stack spills off the plate, though.
The customer will not see me stopping here,
A 16 year old waitress filled with woe.
My coworkers must think it queer
To stop with the customer so near
Between the grill and swinging door,
Spilling this food my darkest fear.
The manager gives his head a shake
And asks if he made a mistake
In hiring me. I start to weep,
If only I could serve cornflakes!
My fear is desperate, dark, and deep
And the pancakes lie in a heap,
I’m now demoted to counter girl,
Happily demoted to counter girl!
Laura Gesin
Freehold, NJ
1979
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I love this. So much. Such a good chuckle.
Nice! I once dumped an entire pitcher (HUGE Tupperware pitcher) of water in the lap of one of the hunters I was cooking for. The cover pushed off the top and swooooosh all over him. I was mortified. Ah the joys…
oh my god, but this is great! i could not stop laughing or smiling. i’ve never been a waitress because it always looked too hard and too scary. i was right!
d smith kaich jones recently posted..i was a balloon girl and i always wore a bra: the scintilla project, day 1
Laura, MY GOD, this made me laugh. I cheered for the counter girl! When I was a teen my mom wanted me to apply at restaurants and I knew I just couldn’t hack it–my local Eat’n Park wouldn’t even take teens on.
Also, the riff on the poem was perfect. I will never think of pancakes the same way again.
Kim recently posted..#scintilla13: swampwater
HA! As you saw from my post (attached), I can relate to spilling that food. I remember how PISSED my Dad was that I’d managed to ruin the customer’s experience, clothing and a little bit of his reputation. He managed the situation VERY well, but I don’t think I’ve heard the end of it… and it’s at LEAST 12 years later now
Casey E. Palmer recently posted..The Scintilla Project Day One — The Last Day My First Job Existed