by Chuck—Age 32—Hollywood, CA Age 5, my father sits me on his lap in his Oldsmobile and lets me drive us into a snow bank and then yells at me. I later have nightmares about being in cars until I have my own license. Later, my mother teaches me how to drive in a cemetery. [...]
by Rosemarie—Age 55—Los Angeles, CA Sixteen, working behind the deli counter that’s taller than me, the same old man comes every week to buy a half pound of nose-snotty, slip-ploppy, ripped-out-alien-guts oysters. Seventeen, singing folk songs for the Friday night country clubbers’ dinner hour, I am not discovered. Nineteen, one month pregnant with her, I [...]
by Lorri—Age 44—Renton, WA My most ill-suited job was as a babysitter, which I quit after a boy three years younger and two inches taller wrapped me in a rug and rolled me into the hall closet, singsonging his version of a popular commercial: “You know how my dad spells relief? F-U-C-K-I-N-G.” My favorite job [...]
by Holly–Age 37–Spokane, WA Age 17: Waitressed at The Huckleberry, in the mountain town of McCall, Idaho. I was eager to please. Customers scared me. Coworkers slipped me Xanax. Later, in college, I studied for tests with one sentence taped to my desk: Never Waitress Again. Age 22: Graduated with a B.A. in English; moved [...]
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