I’ve worked at the A&P since I was seventeen. Seems like I started just yesterday and I’ve been there forever. Does that make sense?
Spent a summer scooping ice cream down to The Town Scoop when I was fifteen. That was my first job. The Scoop’s deal was hard serve. Appropriately named. It’s one thing to eat ice cream, it’s a whole other thing to wear it. Big sticky patches of it on your tee shirt, your shorts, your face, the whole shift. No thank you!
The next summer, I worked as a chambermaid and waitress over to Henderson’s Lodge and Cabins on Moose Megantic Lake. We’d have people from away who’d come stay for a couple a weeks, a month, some the whole summer. Most folks were real nice, but every once in a while, we’d get somebody who was just flat out committed to being miserable. “This egg isn’t cooked right!” “What do you mean you don’t have phones in the rooms?” “The loons are keeping me up at night.” I mean, come on! You’re in Maine!
Tips weren’t bad, but the chambermaid part just wasn’t my thing. Hey, I’m all for cleaning and keeping a tidy house. But there’s something about other people’s dirt that just seems…dirtier, you know? Plus, the hours changed week to week and were the exact opposite of Charlie’s. He’d graduated that spring and was working part-time down to the mill and filling in hours with the town at the sand pit. That amounted to more than full time. Charlie’s always been a hard worker.
In May, the following year, I turned seventeen. One morning at breakfast, my dad says to me, “Ida, I was talking with Fred Nichols last night down to the Elks Club. He asked after you and Irene. Says he’s hiring for summer, looking for dependable workers for down to the A&P. Wondered if you’d be interested.”
I’d never really thought about working at the A&P. Don’t know why. I guess, up until that point, a typical summer job is where you work all hours, usually for tips, trying to make as much money as you can. The more I thought about it, though, the idea of working at the A&P seemed kind of nice. Not so dirty and exhausting. Probably wouldn’t make as much money as waitressing, but maybe I could pick up a couple shifts during the week when I went back to school. You know, earn a little money all year ‘round then it’d even out.
I’d known Fred Nichols my whole life, but suddenly the thought of applying for a job and doing a job interview made me kind of nervous. But I did it anyway. I put on a nice dress and a little makeup, and off I went. I wanted that job, and I was going to get it!
Fred was always a super nice guy. Turned out, I didn’t even have to fill out an application. Like I said, he’d known me my whole life. More importantly, he knew my family, how I was raised. We talked a bit. He showed me around the parts of the store you don’t see as a customer: break room, storeroom, time cards, loading dock.
Fred told me, “You’ll start off as a bagger, Ida, learn the job from the bottom up. I know it’s not as glamorous as being a cashier, but it’s an important job. A lot of times, the cashier needs to know how to bag as well, keep things from getting backed up. Plus, bagging will help get you used to how things work. Is that alright by you?”
“Sure, Mr. Nichols. That’s a good way to learn.”
Stay tuned. I’ll continue my “Me and the A&P” series next week.
That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!
Hear Ida Tell It: Me & and the A&P: Part 1