Kindnessgirl

This week has found me dressed in crisp white shirts and tailored black pants. My dear friend Windsor got me a job working as a caterer’s assistant by night, it’s one of my many jobs right now to get us through this crazy time. I’m also delighted by the fact that I’ll be old someday telling stories of the 1,000 different jobs I experienced. It’s like the old man at parties that tells about how he traveled with the circus as a young man or something. Not that catering is at all like being a trapeze artist (well, it can get a little loopy) but I hope I get to try a a bit of everything in my time.

It often feels like an honor to be at someone’s special event, like serving the cake that is the sweetest end to the day you promised to be with your beloved forever or listening to speeches from the top of the stairs in celebration of the birth of your wife so many years ago. ….and then there are days when it’s simply about pure decadence and wealth. Yesterday was my funniest experience with such a crowd. We were catering for high tea to 200 women from the local women’s club. These were probably the wealthiest women in my city all gathered together in one place. I have never seen so many big hairdo’s, fur stolls, and brightly colored suits in my life.

I passed the yummiest hor dourves and nodded my head graciously as the women accepted or rejected my offer. The oldest ladies in the room were painfully polite while the older women occasionally (actually) turned up their noses. I found myself completely taking in this crowd like I was observing some rare bird in the wild. I then realized I had been spontaneously giving curtsies to the last five women I’d encountered.

I ran back to the kitchen where Rose was washing dishes. Rose is a lovely african american women who was dressed in a maid’s uniform and has served these women for many years. She laughed as I told her my story of my subconscious response to perceived royalty while we scraped dishes together. “Look at this….”, she said. We chuckled at the brightest red lipstick print on the china tea cup you have ever seen. I imagine Rose has many more stories and I wished I could have stayed by her side for a little while longer. I realized I’ve always preferred the company of the kitchen.