“Liza, you are 14 years-old, when are you going to start looking for a job young lady?” These were always the words I dreaded hearing from my parents.
“Soon, I am looking, but no place seems to be hiring…” We all know that that was my way of getting out of the whole situation, but sooner or later I knew that I would have to find a job, or else my parents would catch on.
I tried a couple of places; the first place I tried was Kroger, which was walking distance from my home, just like the neighborhood park was. That did not work out so I went to the next place I thought of, The Dollar Tree, which was right next door to Kroger. Luckily, I got that job.
I still remember my first day at work. The place smelt like cheap old toys that would break the moment you touched them, mixed with the smell of too strong car air fresheners that would go out within days of being put into your car. Me, my sweaty palms and shaking knees, walked up the manager and said, “Hi, I am Liza. Should I clock in?” What kind of question was that? Should I clock in? Of course I should have, I mean if I wanted to get paid I would need to.
My manager, Belva, who still today reminds me of a hip older woman that you see breaking it down at the club, put me right to work. Unloading boxes of half broken picture frames, and if they were not already broken, they would be by the time I put them on the shelf.
That is all I ever did, was unload boxes, help ring out a customer that bought maybe two things, and unload more boxes. At times there were those odd customers that came through the line with a year supply of shampoo and groceries and that of course would take forever.
Ugh what a boring job!
“Soon, I am looking, but no place seems to be hiring…” We all know that that was my way of getting out of the whole situation, but sooner or later I knew that I would have to find a job, or else my parents would catch on.
I tried a couple of places; the first place I tried was Kroger, which was walking distance from my home, just like the neighborhood park was. That did not work out so I went to the next place I thought of, The Dollar Tree, which was right next door to Kroger. Luckily, I got that job.
I still remember my first day at work. The place smelt like cheap old toys that would break the moment you touched them, mixed with the smell of too strong car air fresheners that would go out within days of being put into your car. Me, my sweaty palms and shaking knees, walked up the manager and said, “Hi, I am Liza. Should I clock in?” What kind of question was that? Should I clock in? Of course I should have, I mean if I wanted to get paid I would need to.
My manager, Belva, who still today reminds me of a hip older woman that you see breaking it down at the club, put me right to work. Unloading boxes of half broken picture frames, and if they were not already broken, they would be by the time I put them on the shelf.
That is all I ever did, was unload boxes, help ring out a customer that bought maybe two things, and unload more boxes. At times there were those odd customers that came through the line with a year supply of shampoo and groceries and that of course would take forever.
Ugh what a boring job!
This is good. I really like the sentence about the cheap toys and car fresheners.
ReplyDeleteIt's really lucky that your home is next to your workplace !It took me half an hour to get to where I work and the transportation cost is like more than my salary lol
ReplyDeleteits ok Liza that's the same thing my parents said to me except I was 16
ReplyDeleteWhat was your discount if everything was a dollar or close to it?
ReplyDelete