Who gave you your first job?

When I was 15 years old, my family and I would ALWAYS go to 5 o'clock Saturday evening mass at St. Cletus Church in St. Charles and then head out to dinner. We had two "go to" places in St. Charles. The first was "Bonanza" at the corner of West Clay and Duchesne and the second was "The County Seat Restaurant" located at the corner of West Clay and First Capitol. "Bonanza" was a typical steakhouse kind of place and fashioned after the popular 60's western TV show. You would walk into the front door and get immediately into a line that wrapped around the perimeter of the dining room. The walls of the small hallway were lined with older western photos, bridles, spurs and other assorted leather goods. As you got closer to the front of the restaurant, you could place your order to one of the lovely female servers who would relay your order to one of the male cooks in the back working over an open flame! It all seems so dramatic. My Dad and I would always order the same thing - A Number Four Medium Rare. I have never really been much of a "steak guy" and raw meats have always kind of grossed me out. A "number four" was a large ground beef patty (a big oversized hamburger!) but to be a tough guy, I would order it medium rare with just a little pink in the middle. I would always get sauteed onions, mashed potatoes, green beans and gravy over the mashed and steak. And of course, I would always order the salad bar that was an enormous a never ending, sneeze shield covered, one thousand choice extravaganza located through the middle of the dining room. It was always an experience and the female servers were always attractive so I loved going there. My parents favorite place to eat was "The County Seat". This place was a totally different dining experience. When you walked into the front doors, you would walk through a small foyer and through a second set of doors to be met by a hostess. The hostess was a very nice lady named "Liz". Liz had short dark hair and she wore glasses and was always properly dressed in some very appropriate dress and fancy shoes. It seemed a lot more upscale at the time but it was probably just that my dining experiences were pretty limited. Liz would walk you through the restaurant and we would be seated at a very nice booth or table (my parents always preferred a booth and would often ask for it specifically!). The tables were covered in red gingham vinyl-like covers with a round candle, salt/pepper shakers and little packets of sugar in the middle of the table. Our silverware was always placed on a napkin at each chair under a napkin with the fork, knife and spoon all positioned perfectly. After being seated, Liz would always let us know our servers name and that she would be with us "momentarily". A bus-boy would soon arrive and provide us with our waters as we looked at the menus to order. The server would always arrive a couple of minutes later to take our drink order and let us know what the "special of the day" was on that Saturday night. "The County Seat" always had fried chicken on Saturdays and some other special. Because I have never been a very adventurous eater, I would always get the "Ground Steak" to match my "Bonanza" choice with mashed potatoes and green beans with a bottomless clear plastic glass of Pepsi! One cold Saturday evening in December 1975, my parents chose to hit "The County Seat" after mass and we pulled into the parking lot and quickly made our way through the foyer to meet up with Liz. The evening went pretty typically and as we were finishing up our meal that night, Liz came over to our table and let us know that the bus-boy had recently quit and she apologized for the slower service that evening. She mentioned that the waitresses were in charge of bussing their own tables and the busy Saturday evening crowd had been a extra crazy with customers coming in after Christmas shopping. My Dad asked Liz how old someone would have to be to get a job there and she quickly said that all help had to be 16 years old. I vividly remember the exaggerated look of disappointment on my Dad's face when he announced that it was just too bad because the son sitting next to him was "only just turned 15 years old the month before". Liz looked right at me and asked me what year I was born. I told her that I was born in 1961 and she looked at me through those glasses and said, "I bet that when you fill out your application form, you can make that one at the end of the year look very much like a zero." My Dad patted me on the shoulder and said that he was pretty sure that I would be able to do that and Liz brought an application form to the table! I filled the application out as we finished our meal and I was hired on the spot. I guess - looking back on it - it was my very first time to lie on an application form (and my last!). I was unable to drive (obviously! I was only 15!) and so the next week, I started riding my white 10-speed bicycle around Lindenwood College and up to the restaurant to assume my bus-boy responsibilities. I absolutely LOVED this job and it turned out to be a great 5 years of employment. I worked there my entire high school years and then over summers and breaks during my brief college experience. I worked there nights and weekends to help supplement any other jobs that I had at the time and it was the perfect job for an overly social high school kid. I graduated from bus-boy to dish washer and then was promoted to waiter. Honestly, being a waiter was probably the best job that I have ever had. I got to talk to great people every single day, chat it up, pour on the charm, serve delicious fried chicken and collect my tip money! I loved bringing home $30-$50 bucks a night and I always had money in my pocket. Liz taught me so much as I worked there with her and her husband, Stan. Now, here is where this story gets a little crazy. Fast forward to October 2015...I dropped off Melissa at church and she wanted me to run to Schnucks and get all of the fixins' to make chili when we finished up church. (We love to make chili in the fall and watch football games on fall Sunday afternoons!) I drove down Highway K to Schnucks and walked all through the store to get everything that we needed including a big bag of Frito's. (I Love Fritos in my chili!). I walked up to the checkout lane and as I placed my items on the belt to pay, I looked up at the cashier and immediately recognized her! I said to her "I know you! Your last name is Amick and you are Liz's daughter!". Her bottom jaw dropped and she put both hands on the conveyer belt and exclaimed, "No one knows my maiden name. Who the heck are you?". I don't know how or why I recognized her but Liz's daughter was a couple of years older than me and she worked at the restaurant very rarely but I immediately knew that my cashier at Schnuck's was Liz's daughter. I told her that I had worked for her parents at the restaurant when I was in high school and it had been the best job of my life. She told me that her parents had divorced but that they were both still living, her Mom had remarried and had recently moved back to the St. Charles area. It was a random and pleasant conversation. I collected my chili-fixins and headed back to church. The conversation stirred a lot of memories for me and I shared the story with Melissa and relived my favorite restaurant experiences with her on the way home from church. I didn't think much about it after Sunday. About two weeks later, I received a message from one of the other bank employees that a very nice "older lady" had called the office and was looking for me. He handed me a yellow sticky note that said "Liz" and had a phone number on it. He told me that she said that she used to work with me and was trying to track me down. That evening on the way home, I called the number on the sticky note and left a message. A couple of days later, she called me back. I missed the call and she left me a message. Honestly, I got busy at work, never returned the call and misplaced the sticky note. A couple of months had passed and I was sitting at my desk one evening and was trying to get myself a little more organized when I came across the faded sticky note under a stack of business cards. Memories filled my mind as I sat at my desk and dialed that number again. The voice at the other end of the phone was the exact same voice that greeted my family through those foyer doors. "Mr. Hollander! How the heck are you doing? I Googled you and tracked you down!" We talked for almost an hour and decided to meet up for lunch soon. We chose a place and time and put it on our calendars. Several days after our phone call, I met this little tiny bespeckled lady at "Blue Sky" for lunch. We pulled into the parking lot at the same time. We hugged and laughed as we walked inside. We sat across the table from one another and relived stories that we each had forgotten. We laughed and laughed together for nearly two hours and caught up on each others lives reminiscing about our times at the restaurant. As it turns out, I was the only male to ever be a waiter there. She only had female servers! Liz is also going through cancer treatments and she visits Siteman in St. Peters regularly for bloodwork and then goes down to Big Barnes for her treatments. We shared our "war" stories of treatments and hugged again and again before leaving that day. We have kept up with each other via text and an occasional phone call over the last year. I have loved every minute of it. As I think about my time at "The County Seat", I learned so much working there. I dated two of the cooks - sisters actually! Missy and Patty Willman. I took Missy to my Junior Homecoming Dance and then I took Patty to my Junior Prom. I got my sister a job there later as a cook and we worked together for a couple of years! I learned how to properly set a place setting of silverware on a table - fork on the left, knife in the middle with the blade facing the fork and then the spoon on the right. To this day, if I am setting a table, I place them in exactly these positions! I learned that I needed to clean every table and make it feel like the next guests seated there were the very first people to ever sit at the table. Every crumb needed to be cleared, the candle lit, the sugars filled and the setting had to be perfect. I still wipe down our kitchen table and push the crumbs into my hand - exactly the way that Liz taught me. Vegetable choices still roll off of my tongue "Green Beans, Candied Carrots or Buttered Corn". I truly loved working there and I am so glad that I have been able to reconnect with Liz. She was a tough business owner...but she taught me so much. I have now been employed for 40 straight years....Those first five were incredible and the other 35 have been great, as well.