I was was barely 17 when I graduated HS a year early, in June of 1958. My very first job was at W.T. Grant company in the cosmetics dept... I hated it... having to dust and look busy while the fat store manager strolled the store looking for infractions and puffing on his stinky cigars!!!!! The lunch counter was right next to my dept., and I eyed it, thinking if I learned to be a Waitress, I would always be able to find work, so I applied and was allowed to change departments. I did not stay long, taking a job at the Desert Oasis Hotel as a waitress in their dining room... good memories of those days... Just a happy teenager... Then that job came to an end and I applied to be a Car Hop... Yep... just like in American Graffiti... We had 2 main drive ins in town and everyone cruised between the 2 of them all night long mostly on the weekends... I was thrilled to be a car hop... (no roller skates).... One of my customers was this good looking guy in a little 32 Plymouth coupe, with windshield wipers that fell off in your hand when you tried to put the ticket under them. He liked to tip just a few pennies... Yes, even back then that was a slam, but designed to make the waitresses take a 2nd look at him! I was hooked! One Sunday afternoon our local Electric company was having an open house at their new facility... I thought I would use that as an excuse to get closer to him, but he was nowhere to be found... so I hit on another guy I was not at all interested in... After touring the site we returned to the Top Hat for something to drink... and while sitting there, I saw the cool guy pull in... I said good bye to my stunned date and hopped out of his car and over into the Plymouth coupe... I was wearing a mint green skirt and sweater made of wool and I spilled my coffee all over the skirt... The stain never did come out! We went for a drive that night and the rest is history....with a few more stories in between! One of the current hit songs at that time was To Know Him Is To Love him and I was in love with that song and will forever associate it with Rodger, my husband for 36 years. Sadly he died in 1997.



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