We had a nice storm last night in Dallas. I enjoy a good thunderstorm. The cats don't. But sometimes, it's not all about them. There was one boom of thunder that not only sent the cats scattering but me, as well. I understand we could have more bad weather today. I won't mind.
Just before the rain started last night my house was dusted for mosquitoes. It reminded me of Bay City when I was in high school. There was no way to sleep very late during the summer when I was a teenager since the crop dusters always started up by 8 a.m. I hated when the fields around our house were being dusted. If I lived down there now, I think I would really enjoy going out and taking pictures of the crop dusters doing their thing. But back then, I would have been happy to have a rocket launcher. It's not like we lived out in the middle of a big farm or anything. We lived in Del Norte, a big neighborhood a few blocks from the high school. But practically anytime I had a chance to sleep late, the stupid crop dusters would be flying about 30 feet above my bedroom ceiling.
After we moved to Bay City between my sophomore and junior year in high school, my mom got a job as a seamstress at Creta's which was an alteration shop downtown. She had never worked outside of the home before that. Up to that point, I would get out of bed in the summer time and sit around and wake up for a little while and once we were a little awake, Mom would tell us what we were supposed to do that day. A lot of times there were no chores involved, she was just telling us what was going on. Sometimes she did give us chores to do and usually they needed to be done before we went out to play. But once she started working in Bay City, she didn't have time to wait for us to gradually wake up and since she was working, she always had chores for us.
So she started doing this thing where she would wake me up 5 minutes before she was ready to leave for work and she would go over a big long list of all the things she wanted done before she came home for lunch. It was a list. Lists are made to be written down so that you can check items off as you complete them. But NOOOOOOOOOOOO.... she would stand in my bedroom while I was semi-conscious and say things like, before I get home for lunch you need to get this bedroom cleaned, clean both bathrooms, vacuum and put your breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. Then she would stand there and demand that I repeat the list back to her. Then she would leave and I would go back to sleep.
When I woke up, if I remembered her coming into my room at all, I would imagine that I had dreamed it. I would eat my bowl of cereal and put my dishes in the dishwasher. While putting my breakfast dishes in the dishwasher, I would think to myself, Mom will be so happy when she comes home for lunch that I put my dishes in the dishwasher without even being told to do it!!!! Nothing else got done and then she would come home for lunch and want to strangle me. All of that heartache could have been avoided if only she had woke me up and said, there is a list on the kitchen counter. Complete everything on it before I come home for lunch. If you don't, I will strangle you. That would have worked! In fact, I probably would have gotten out of bed immediately just to see how bad the list was. I mean who can go back to sleep when you know you have a list of things to do, but you don't even know how extensive it is? Not me! This went on for an entire summer. It was almost enough to make me wish school would start.
I worked at Perry's that summer but they didn't open until 9 and I usually only worked in the afternoons anyway. Mark DeLeon, who I was in band with worked there too. It was kind of fun. If you got hungry, you could just make some popcorn and get a coke from the candy counter. When they hired me during the spring, I worked outside in the plant department which was set up temporarily in the parking lot each spring. I was a stupid 17 year old kid and these men in overalls would come up to me while I was watering the plants and ask me about the size of the fruit you would get off of one tomato plant versus another one..... Really?!!???! I am a stupid 17 year old girl and you are an old man wearing overalls.... who is likely to know more about this topic? But I started asking the store manager questions about it and he gave me some information to read and soon, I was an expert on the wonders of the Beefsteak Tomato plant.
Once summer came around the plant area went away and the parking lot became all parking lot again. Right after school was out I went on the band trip to California. I'll have to tell you about that another time. It was so much fun. When I came back to work, there were only a few plants left in the parking lot. I was wondering if they would still have a job for me. But no fear, I was the designated vacation coverage. It didn't matter who went on vacation, I covered their area except the office lady. When she went on vacation the full time girl who worked the register covered her job and I covered the register. But that summer, I learned about cutting fabric, catching fish and turtles and putting them in plastic bags full of water, maintaining the candy counter, making popcorn and stocking shelves.
By the time school started back up, Mr. Brassau, the store manager had given me responsibility for the hair goods area. I had to stock it when we got a truck, keep it clean and move things from their regular shelf to an end cap when it was necessary. I was also the cash register back up. So, I would be stocking along and the bossy witch who worked the cash register full time would yell at me that she was taking a break and I would have to move all of my boxes out of the aisle and go cover for her. I think she was on break more than she was at that register. She would go to the breakroom and read True Confessions magazines. Her old copies were all over the breakroom. I began reading them just so that I would have something to do while I was on break. They were addictive. Who can resist short stories that are supposed to be true about crimes? Not me!
In the Perry's parking lot there was a building that was a former Dairy Queen. They sold tamales and they were the best tamales in the world. I would walk over there during my break and get 3 tamales for $1.50 and take them back to the breakroom to eat while reading True Confessions stories. I don't know if you ever went to Perry's and got popcorn back in the day, but let me tell you. The popcorn at Perry's for 50 cents was better than anything you ever had at the movies.
There were a few times when I wanted to quit that job. I am pretty sure that the full time cash register witch and the store manager had a little thing going on and she got special treatment as a result. There were no lockers, just a closet in the stockroom. When I got my first pay check she told me to get it cashed and did. Then I put the money in my purse and put my purse in the closet. When I left that night, all of my money except $50 was gone. I always suspected that she stole it. If you were a random thief, you would take all of the money. It was all in the same place together in my purse. It's not like I separated it and they missed the $50. They intentionally left me $50. She and the lady in the office were the only two people who knew I had cashed my check. And why would she have encouraged me to cash my check if she didn't have a reason for doing so? I might have read her magazines but I never liked her after that. And I always put my paycheck in my pocket until I could take it to the bank after that too. The store manager tried to convince me that nobody in that store would do something like that. I think he was just covering for her.
Years later, when I worked at the former employer who shall not be named, I learned that most theft is from a company's own employees. I had several friends in loss prevention who would let me watch video of people stealing. You would be shocked at the people who you think are perfectly trustworthy who will still their employer blind if given the slightest opportunity. Apparently, they think that the employer has money to spare and they are owed more than they are being paid. It was sad and eye opening. But that summer in Bay City, I didn't even think the cash register witch was an otherwise trustworthy person who was given an opportunity. There was never a doubt in my mind that she was just a bad person. She probably only read the True Confessions magazines for new ideas so that she could rip more people off. No doubt she is in jail somewhere now. If not, maybe she still lives in Bay City and was awakened this morning by a crop duster flying 30 feet above her bedroom ceiling. I hope so....
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