[Sca-cooks] tipping the wait staff

[Georgia Foster]

While serving as a soldier at Fort Jackson, SC, I was forced to augment my 
monthly paycheck in order to cover the rent and child care bills.  That, in 
and of itself, is a sad commentary on what soldiers are paid.  There were 
several jobs, along the way, most of them waiting tables, mostly because the 
tip money was a ready source of cash for stuff like diapers and milk.

The best waitress job, money wise, was at a german beer bar.  We made $2.01 
per hour at a time when minimum wage was $4.35.  One was required to claim 8 
percent of the total food and booze sold, for tax purposes.  If, at the end 
of the shift the .08 didn’t make up for the difference between $2.01 and 
$4.35 one was entitled to claim the difference.  That being said, if one did 
claim the difference, one was branded as poor servers and given fewer 
shifts, so … guess what … nobody ever claimed the difference, even in the 
dead-days after New Years.

That was … lordy … 20 years ago.  There were very very very few occasions 
where I did not turn a $70.00 night in tips … but the uniform sort of helped 
with that.  Having somewhat overdeveloped secondary sexual characteristics 
didn’t hurt either.  We wore the dirndl dresses, and the blouse that went 
with the dress didn’t quite cover enough … but that is yet another topic 
unto itself.



Jo (Georgia L.) Foster
jo_foster81 at hotmail.com

Never knock on death's door........ Ring the doorbell and run. He hates 
that.

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