Smitty

This was the policeman on the downtown beat in the 1940's in our town. Everybody knew him and liked him. On the right is my friend, Lu. We both worked at Kresses from 1947 till 1951. We worked Saturdays from 9 till 8 with two hours off for lunch and supper. For these nine hours we received an envelope with four dollars and fifty cents in it - cash money! I think we made such a small amount (fifty cents per hour) that they didn't withhold any taxes. However, during the summer when we worked full time to relieve others for vacations, they did withhold fifteen dollars one year for my entire tax bill. And cokes were a nickel, banana splits, malts and milkshakes were twenty-five cents. The most fun was working at the small lunch counter where we served sandwiches, drinks, ice cream and potato salad. One day a co-worker who trimmed the windows bought her lunch and took it upstairs to eat it in the lunch room. People of color did not sit at lunch counters then. A man said to no one in particular, "I didn't know you took THEIR money." I said, "THEIR money is the same color as yours." I wonder if he had told the manager I would have been fired. Don't know, since he did not.