When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #55

55-My first job – Tastee Freeze

I guess I should correct myself by saying that my newspaper job was my first job. I did that job when I was about 12 years old. But my first real job, we’ll call it that, was at age 15 ½. I remember being nervous about asking to be hired. The owner’s name was Mr. Ferris. He made his living from that business. I know he was married. I don’t know if he had children. He was probably about 50 to 55 years of age when I worked for him. He eventually retired years later and sold his business to someone else.

I remember being nervous about starting. I was excited though! I remember making my very first banana split. He would show me and then later on watch me. Well a customer came up to the window and ordered a banana split. I put the three scoops of ice cream in the banana dish and then poured, strawberry preserves over the first scoop, then chocolate syrup over middle scoop, and pineapple preserves over the third scoop. Then I sprinkled coconut over the strawberry and pineapple toppings. I sprinkled chopped nuts over the chocolate ice cream. The man paid for it and started to walk away from the window. I looked down at the counter and realized I ‘forgot’ to put the banana that I had sliced in two halves in the dish. I called out to him, ‘I forgot to put the bananas on your banana split, please come back.’ I had just made a ‘banana-less’ split! He brought it back and smiled and said that he had not noticed the bananas missing. I put them in the dish and was so embarrassed I forgot! Well, I never forgot again!

My family was supportive and came down to order an ice cream and I was so proud to make it for them! I also would give my friend an ‘extra squirt’ of cherry flavor in his cherry sprite.

In the summer we had a flavor of ice cream that was orange pineapple. That was so good. It always sold well. We would only have it for a month. We always had vanilla and chocolate ice cream. I remember learning how to add the ‘mix’ that you poured out of one-gallon milk cartons into the ice cream machine. It was thick like cream. The ice cream machine froze it into soft ice cream. We had to take the machine apart at closing and clean all the parts and put it back together again. I wasn’t crazy about cleaning up but I did like serving the public. I rarely had a grumpy customer, but once in awhile you would get one that would not be satisfied with the order no matter what you did. They were far and few between all the good customers.

I only had one not so good experience. This is where the ‘Holy Ghost’ prompted me and ‘I listened!’ We had deliverymen who would come and leave off our supplies. This one particular afternoon I was working by myself. Mr. Ferris had to run an errand and I was alone. It was a slow afternoon and there were not very many customers. I had just been in the back of the store and had put some stock back in the walk-in refrigerator after having refilled containers up front that needed refilling. A delivery guy came and left stuff in the refrigerator. It was like a big walk in closet refrigerator. I kept up front. The delivery men usually did their thing and left. They were usually done in 10 minutes or less. However, this on this particular afternoon this one guy seemed to take longer. He called out to me, ‘There is a spill on the floor back here and I need you to come back here and clean it up.’

My heart pounded in my chest because all of the sudden ‘I knew’ he was lying. I had just been back there and I knew there weren’t any spills. A ‘BIG RED FLAG’ went off in my brain, and a little voice shouted in my mind, ‘Stay up front!’ Unfortunately the telephone we had was in the ‘back’ of the store. So I couldn’t call for help. There were no customers out front to ask their help. So I said a quick mental prayer, ‘Oh help me please!’ So I picked up the pipe that we used to take apart the ice cream machine. It was made of steel and was about 3-feet long and about one-inch in diameter. It has two short prongs on the end. I told him in my bravest voice, ‘There is no spill back there and you better leave. I told him customers were going to come up to the window.’ He left.

Mr. Ferris came back about 15 minutes later. I told him what happened and boy was he mad! I was relieved that he had come back because I was panicked! He called the company where the man worked and told them of the incident. We learned a short time later, perhaps one to two weeks, that company fired that guy.

So here’s the little lesson to share with you from that experience, ‘listen’ to the promptings of the Holy Ghost when it warns you and tells you what to do and ‘do it!’. Things could have gone bad had I ignored that warning. I am just thankful I was protected!

On a happier note, I stayed at that job for about a year. I liked working there and liked the money I earned. I loved spending it too!