When I was 16 years old, I got my first “real” job working at McDonald’s – real, in the sense that I wasn’t being paid under the table. I spent two years there in the upper-class section of downtown LA. The employees were almost entirely of Latin heritage; there were three of us who were black. This was not a big deal for the most part. We all got along, except for my supervisor, Laura. For some reason that I never quite understood, she had a problem with the black employees. It was clear in the preferential treatment she gave to her other employees when it came to breaks, reviews and raises, and also just in the manner she addressed me.
Despite having many customers who made a point of coming to my line every day because they liked me, I only saw one 10-cent raise during my entire tenure there. I’d inquired about raises fairly often, and she would tell me that one “was coming” and that she’d talk to the store owner about it, but that never happened until I spoke to him directly about it. She would constantly nag me about nitpicky things that no other employees were ever reprimanded about. I even had customers ask me what her problem was, but I was not very assertive and never complained (not to mention the owner turned a deaf ear to just about anything that didn’t directly affect his pocketbook). It got to the point where I would get a talking-to for going to the bathroom too often. She would even make it unpleasant for me to order my own lunch with the employee discount.
As I started to become bitter over time, I engaged in what I know now to be inappropriate behavior. Specifically, I was friends with a security guard who came in fairly often, and I started giving him free food. I just didn’t care. But after a couple of months of this, Laura caught me in the act. No question that I was in the wrong, but I’ve never seen a person so happy to nail someone. She pointed to me with a HUGE grin on her face and said, “AHA! I got you!” She couldn’t stop smiling, and she jumped on the phone to report me to the owner. I was sent home for the day. The next time I reported for work, she was ever so sorry to tell me that they had to lay me off. With a very sweet smile, she handed me my last paycheck and “wished me luck.” The whole thing was sickening. I had given my enemy exactly what she’d wanted – an excuse to be rid of me.
So fast forward to last night, some 14+ years later. Jakeline and I go out for dinner at IHOP. And just who should happen to be our hostess/waitress? It was really weird, the range of emotions I went through when I realized who she was. My immediate reactions tended toward the petty side. I remarked to myself and to my wife how this woman had gotten to looking old and haggard. I laughed thinking about how she was making probably a quarter of what I make now. But I also found myself wondering if and how she had changed over those years. She looked like she’d led a rough life because she had seemed so young and perky, with fiery eyes, when I’d last known her, and none of that was present in the person who stood before me at IHOP. Her entire demeanor was so different, and I actually found myself feeling sorry for her without quite knowing why.
I didn’t say anything to her to suggest that I knew who she was, and I don’t know whether or not she recognized me. But in talking with Jakeline about it later, it was strange to realize just how much seeing her had affected me. So many unpleasant memories I hadn’t thought about in over a decade. I find myself unsure that I want to go back in there because I was just generally uncomfortable with having her serve me.
Anyway, there’s no real point to this (which is why this is in MPSIMS), but I figured I’d share and open it up to anyone else who has had an encounter with someone unpleasant from their past.
I mean, crimeny, we were KIDS! Did they think I was the same person as I was when I was 12?
