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San Diego Momma

Sharing some humor, a bit of writing and way too much information

Home / Etcetera / Where I Learned To Be Sweet

Where I Learned To Be Sweet

Etcetera

“It’s time,” my mom announced at the dinner table, and I knew just what she meant. For months, she’d insisted I look for a job and that evening over the phone, her church buddy told her the Jelly Bowl Bakery needed a counter girl. Being 15, I felt sure I’d never get a work permit, but somehow it never mattered, and so a few days later, I applied for the job.

 

The bakery’s owner, a drained mother of two with frizzy hair zinging from beneath her hat, and red eyes, and clogged pores, took my application and told me right then that I could start tomorrow. Her husband, similarly as exhausted seeming, grunted, and that was the only sound I ever heard from him my entire employment.

 

My schedule included weekends, and I spent all day Saturday and Sunday taking orders, filling ice cream cones, showing cake designs, packing donuts, and sweeping sprinkles. After the shop closed, I mopped the floors, cleaned the back kitchen, washed the baking equipment, took out the garbage, scooped buttercream frosting from enormous vats and into pastry bags I stacked in one of two stainless steel fridges. I remember thinking that I did the work of three people, and I still think I’m right.

 

Throughout my illustrious employment, my boss remained exhausted and pissy and stressed and hormonal. I hated staying so late on Saturdays because it cut into my social time, and friends would routinely meet me in the shop after closing to help with my chores. I regularly worked two hours past close just to finish the extras my boss put into my expansive job description.

 

I knew the shop owner didn’t care for me much. After all, I had some life left in me, and hers was all but sucked out. The contrast must have killed her. Her husband lurked in the background, and seemed a nice enough man, but around her, his mouth stayed sealed. I looked forward to her absence from the bakery because her presence lent it such despair, and when she was gone, I’d dance with the mop or chatter to myself.

 

On the nights I worked, I was permitted to take some extra pastries home (the others went to a rescue mission, picked up by a disheveled volunteer), and one evening when I thought I was alone in the shop, I preemptively shoved a cupcake into my mouth, positioning myself on my knees and over the garbage can because goldangit, I was sick of sweeping up sprinkles.

 

I recall the speed with which I wolfed that cupcake down, because I wanted to finish it before Soul Sucky Drainersen came back, and about 5 seconds after my first bite, I stood up, satisfied, to wipe the remaining non-pareils into the trash. Of course, as you might guess, I was not in the least bit alone and I looked up to see Draino’s husband staring at me, usually glued mouth agape. To his credit, he pretended nothing happened, but I knew deep within my muscle fibers, that it was the beginning of the end.

 

Sure enough, about a week later, I’d left the front door unlocked all night after joining my waiting friends outside the shop. I didn’t even look back as I scrambled into the car that was to whisk me from the bereft Jelly Bowl Bakery and to a lively high school football game. Of course, I didn’t do it on purpose, and was sorry to hear that a bum had wandered into the store and helped himself to a doughnut or two.

 

i never even knew it happened until my next shift five days later, when, after not seeing my time card in its usual place, I asked Draino about it. I believe she actually felt a little bad letting me go, but we both knew it was the best thing for me. I don’t know about her, though, I think she’d run out of best things a long while back.

 

And for the record, doughnuts don’t always make you happy.

 

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January 28, 2009 · 15 Comments

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Previous Post: « PROMPTuesday #40: Phoning It In
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Comments

  1. Blognut says

    January 28, 2009 at 5:55 pm

    The cupcake over the garbage, that was classy! I agree with you, doughnuts do not always make you happy, but I think they’re usually a good start for me.

    Reply
  2. matteroffactmommy says

    January 28, 2009 at 6:28 pm

    really? you learned to be sweet there? huh.

    Soul Sucky Drainersen made me crack the f up!

    love you!

    Reply
  3. foradifferentkindofgirl says

    January 28, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    Allow me to say the same thing about cinnamon rolls, some of which I stuffed down my gullet while working at a cinnamon roll shop around that same point in life…one day early, one day late, every day a chore.

    Reply
  4. Twenty Four At Heart says

    January 28, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    Eating cupcakes on the job. For shame! You were just before the times … helping out the homeless by leaving the door unlocked. Too bad they didn’t appreciate you! :)

    Reply
  5. Cheri @ Blog This Mom! says

    January 28, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    I worked at a bakery in high school. It was my second job, after my modeling career ended.

    Reply
  6. Steph says

    January 28, 2009 at 9:11 pm

    I lasted all of two days at a bakery. Which..ironic since I now love to bake.

    And nice way to find out you’re fired. Good grief.

    Reply
  7. the mama bird diaries says

    January 28, 2009 at 9:33 pm

    if i ever worked in a bakery, i’d way 10,000 pounds. i would not be able to put down the danish.

    Reply
  8. g says

    January 28, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    It’s ver-r-r-r-r-ry interesting that they were passive/agressive enough to fire you that way without directly telling you about it. Jerks.

    Great story. Really great. I can taste it all so vividly, and it’s so incredibly yucky!!!

    I once worked for a cookie bakery, and I felt about the same.

    Reply
  9. tinsenpup says

    January 29, 2009 at 1:36 am

    Who leaves a 15 year old to lock up anyway? What’s wrong with all these people?

    Reply
  10. Chris says

    January 29, 2009 at 6:28 am

    I bet your hair smelled like doughnuts all the time. The boys probably loved it!

    Reply
  11. Green Girl says

    January 29, 2009 at 8:12 am

    Oh man, your job sounds SO much like my first “real job” at an ice cream parlor…the memories are flooding back.

    Reply
  12. Danielle says

    January 29, 2009 at 9:32 am

    I probably would have enjoyed working at a bakery, I would visit my friend who worked a doughnut shop and the biggest thrill for me was being allowed to fill my own jelly doughnuts. Was I 15 when this happened? No, I was 30.

    Reply
  13. Jenn @ Juggling Life says

    January 29, 2009 at 10:19 pm

    My first job was at a bakery in UTC. I just found out that my current bff worked there as her first job also. I got to wear a yellow gingham apron and matching kerchief, plus I learned to decorate cakes. I actually liked it.

    Reply
  14. Da Goddess says

    February 1, 2009 at 4:38 am

    I hate when business owners heap way too much work on teens and then wonder why kids don’t stick around or why they have bad attitudes. I think you should have eaten way more. And did you just say cupcake? Mmmmm

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. San Diego Momma » Blog Archive » PROMPTuesday #42: Remember When? says:
    February 9, 2009 at 9:22 pm

    […] through party radios. Not only that, I’m physically returned to the boys I loved, and the cupcakes I ate. I recall textures, patterns; the coarse feel of my blue and white uniform skirt, the shadow of a […]

    Reply

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