Working at the Friendly Cafe. 1968 - 1972.

Kushal asked me to write about the Friendly Cafe, or actually my take on California Cafes.

I decided to try for the one that I knew best.

My parents bought it just after the Watts Riots. I don't know what year. I was still in Mulberry, AK. at the time.

I arrived in Lucerne Valley, CA. in 1968. They had already owned it for a year or two. I'm not sure which.

It had been owned by a couple named Doc, and un named and much disliked by customers wife beforehand. When Doc died, his wife, whom every one described as an absolute harridan and slut, ran it into the ground, let it get filthy, and fill with mice, rats and cockroaches.

My parents had to sulfur bomb the place three times before they could even begin to clean. I have no idea how many times it had exterminator attention for the rodents.

Most of that was over with when I arrived on the scene in 1968.

I began at the bottom as dish washer and janitor like all family run restaurant and cafe family members do.

My very first day, I dropped an entire tub of dirty dishes. Great start huh. About $25 worth of dishes - crash.

Since I was not getting a salary, I got a lecture instead.

At that time, dad was cook, and mom and Bonnie were our waitresses, plus cashiers.

I even took money, and slowly eased into table serving as time passed.

Within a few months dad hired Virgil and left to play prospector with his friend George in the desert. He never worked in the cafe again. Never mind that HE bought the place against mom's wishes, HE got bored, as usual.

I became the cook, which I loved, Virgil became dishwasher and janitor, and things got less hectic.

After a while, dad got a job as a night watchman for Pfizer, along with his prospecting. A little later, he went down to work at his old job as a Service Writer for Felix Chevrolet, and came home only on weekends.

One weekend he brought a man named Elmer Barnhammer back with him to be our dishwasher, leaving Virgil to just be janitor.

Talk about nightmares, he was a horrible man.

I have worked with many mentally challenged people. He is the only one I could not like. He wanted to be boss. He did everything exactly the opposite of what he was told, deliberately, and argued every decision mom made.

He did not like women. Dad had brought him with him because he was about to be thrown out on the street.

He washed dishes in cold water. What a battle. He put the purex in the cold dishwater. He made the first rinse water luke warm, and only the second rinse water hot.If the Health Inspector had come, we'd have not only lost our triple A, we'd have been closed down.

We finally got that into his head. Then there was the 'painting of the cabinet' job. Simple. Even the folks I worked with at Morningside Industries could do it, and many were much worse off than Elmer.

Bonnie showed him how three times, and he still tried to do the back first. She finally lost her temper and slammed the cabinet onto a chair with the back to the chair, opened the doors, and yelled. "Paint the inside first! Start with the top shelf!" That scared him into doing it right.

We had a three bedroom house, and dad ensconced him into what had been his mother's room, across the hall from me.

Every few nights, he would get a tummy ache and call 911, go to the hospital and return with the news nothing had been wrong. After a while, he got informed that his insurance would not pay for those pointless trips.

Finally, mom informed dad that he had a choice between Elmer or her. Since Elmer could not support dad in the manner he liked, he was taken back to his old employer.  He was not fired, nor thrown out on the street. Dad had, as usual, fallen for a pack of lies.

He did have a soft heart for the down and out and small animals. He did have a good side. It just was not working for a living.

After his exit, our cafe jobs went back to normal. Mom hired a teen age son of some friends of ours to do the janitorial work. Kurt was very good, and we had no more problems there.

Virgil's partner (called a shack job) in those days I'm afraid, needed a job. Mom hired her as a second waitress. It did ease the work load, except for when she took off her shoes because they hurt her feet, right in the middle of Wells Fargo Days, the biggest work day of the year, in the busiest part of lunch. We made $150 in an hour and a half.

Remember that we were in a three block town in the center of the Mojave Desert.

Thank God the Health Inspector did not show up that day either!

The only time we ever lost our Triple A was moms own fault, and quite funny.

He came in, marked everything neat and clean and the food fresh, etc- then handed mom the clipboard with the paper to sign.

"Why no A?" Mom was startled.

"No hairnet." He sounded almost apologetic.

"What, Sharon, Bonnie and Shirley have their hair nets?" MOm looked at us to be sure. We did.

"Yeah, Nita, but you don't." He replied.

"Im just taking money." She looked puzzled.

"You are working here though." He gave her her copy and left.

It was not much longer before dad got the job with Dell Web building manufactured homes.

Within a few months, the wall fell on him. That caused the string of events that began his heart attacks. He went to the company doctor who told him it was spotty arthritis, and he should expect t at his age.

After a few more attacks, we took him to the doctor mom and I saw, and he found them to be heart attacks.

Dad lived one year and died of a blood clot slamming through his aneurysm. We sued the Dell Web Corporation and won. Ninety people testified that a Safety Engineer (of all people) poured water onto a plastic sheet to keep the atmosphere moist, which is needed in that procedure, I guess. I don't know much about that, and assume things have changed since 1972.

Dad's life was worth all of $5,000 in 1972 after the lawyers got theirs.

We soon sold the cafe and came back home to Washington State.

Sharon Pribble