QotD: My First Gig

What was your very first job? 
Submitted by Laurel.

Man.  I was going to blow this off because I was thinking my first job was at Wendy's when I was in high school.  I almost totally forgot I worked for a couple of summers, underage and under the table, at a truckstop doing dishes and prep work.  Ah, Arkansas.  I must have been 12 or 13 those summers, something like that.  I always used to love hanging out at that truckstop.  My aunt and dad used to go down there almost nightly for "shift change."  That was when there was a maximum number of staff on site, of course--some coming, others going.  Pie and coffee were the ritual, and lots of schmoozing.  My dad was an unbelievable schmoozer, and he had all of those waitresses wrapped around his finger.  These nightly pilgrimages were the start of my trouble with insomnia.  All through childhood I had thought that these waitresses were the absolute height of cool.  I wanted their job.  I wanted to swish around with a coffeepot and call everyone "hon" and "shug."  Bless my soul.  I also wanted the free access to the sweet tea.  And, so then, my dad's current wife or girlfriend or whatever was a waitress there one summer, and they had some people quit, and they needed help, so I went to work.  I doubt I made minimum wage, but I wasn't exactly being taxed either.  You don't know dirty in all its connotations until you work in a truckstop.  I was too young to understand a lot of that dirty--not too young, I guess, but I was naive somewhat by choice.  I wasn't interested in boys...until I met Raphael...who was also underage, and working at the truckstop under the table.

Laurel, whoever you are, thanks for letting me remember that.  A time of innocence, a time of grace, a time of all the free sweet tea you can drink. 

But, oh crap, I think that was the wife/girlfriend who used to make potato salad using instant mashed potatoes and heavy amounts of yellow mustard.  Holy shit.  I think I'm going to throw up now.