UNCONDITIONED CHAPTER 24

Power Plays

At Friendly Restaurant, the waitress uniforms were an anemic version of the French maid costume—pale gray with white ruffled collars and aprons that tied in a bow in the back. The skirt had to fall below the knees so when bending over to scoop ice cream, young thighs couldn’t be ogled. We had to wear white nurse’s shoes and nylons. Despite this standard of modesty, every shift included at least one old man saying, “I’ll have a waitress with no dressing.” My first boss, Dick would sneak up behind me and whisper-bark in my ear to smile, which always brought me to the verge of tears. But I stuck it out.

I preferred working the ice cream windows because it meant briefer interactions with the public. It was more challenging for dirty old men to get away with crude remarks when there was just a small window through which to communicate. It was easy for me to disappear.

Dick was a bit of a hard ass, but basically a good guy. He ran such a tight ship he soon moved up the Friendly management lad…