I became a snob at the age of 20. I will explain how that came about. I had always worked at my parents’ store and at such a young age that I can’t remember when I didn’t work there. But when I turned 18, I knew I should get a “real” job and so I applied at Burger King. Their main office was on 42nd Street. I went there and filled out an application and figured I would go home and wait to hear. But they sent me to work right off the bat. Within minutes, I was dressed in their polyester orange uniform at their 34th Street location. Literally I was thrown in. My first position was filling the soda cups. After an hour of that, I was given the task of separating blocks of cheese slices. And then immediately put on the register. I was supposed to learn to work every position…making the burgers, the fries, cleaning but I never did. After I was placed on register duty, they never had me do anything else.
They were ahead of their time. The registers were programmed with the different items - Whopper, Whopper with Cheese, Fries, Onion Rings, etc. At the time, they didn’t have the value meals so everything was ordered separately and to your specification. Kathy always ordered a Whopper with extra pickles so they would have to make a fresh sandwich. I had a microphone and had to call the order in with each customer. My first day, I was quite overwhelmed and made many mistakes. I didn’t want the manager to know so would throw away the erroneous receipts. Well…at the end of the day, I didn’t know I would have to balance my register..(Duh) and I was off by over $100! At first I didn’t understand how that could possibly happen! I could not have given out change that incorrectly but it turned out I needed to keep all receipts that were “voided” to off set the money in the till. I never made that mistake again and was always pretty much right on the money.
It felt like I worked at BK for years but it was only one month! One of the perks of the job was a free meal. If I worked an afternoon shift, I would bring my Whopper and fries home to eat and Kathy would be green with envy. But in all honesty, I didn’t realized living in my own La-la land. For what it was worth, I had a good time at BK, made new friends and the staff liked me. The supervisors particularly liked me and when I finally quit, they tried to get me to stay on but I was on to bigger and better things.
My girlfriend Marianne had been working at a needlepoint company and when she heard about my BK job, she thought I should work with them. It would be easier for scheduling since I could work from home. I was starting NYU in the fall and I would make about the same amount of money. I would transfer designs from paper to canvas for needle pointing and was paid by the piece within a certain deadline. It was a great gig. The office was located on 57th Street between 5th & 6th Avenue. I got to see Marianne whenever I dropped off my work. I did this until I graduated from NYU with no real skills or idea on what to do with my life. A position opened up at the office full time and I didn’t think twice.
So there I was, a young woman with no real responsibilities working on 57th Street off of 5th Avenue. Where did I shopped? Why, the stores around there, of course. Bonwit Teller’s, Bergdoff’s, Bendel‘s. I opened up my first bank account at The First Woman’s Bank right on 57th and Park Avenue because it seemed soooo “chic”. I had my hair cut at Cinnadre’s….costing at that time about $100 which was outrageous. I carried designer bags, wore boutique styled clothes and desired to be like my bosses. Two ladies who left for hours once a week to get their hair done. Yep…somehow I had become a Fifth Avenue babe.
I love posting photos but I don’t have many from that time. (I guess 5th Avenue babes didn’t take pictures..too busy living life). But I soooo wish I could have one to post of me in that lovely orange BK uniform! Ha!
To be continued...
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