College Jobs & Getting By
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Winter commuting
I remember commutes from Minneapolis home to St. Paul on cold winter days in cars with no heat.
Dwight Esau
Don and Ralph’s way to wash glasses
When I waitressed at Wally Hall, Don Olson and Ralph James who were on dish detail put Dreft or some such detergent in the dishwasher so the glasses would come out with no spots, as Miss Yike, the resident dietitian would hold them up to the light to see if they were clear. If all of us were "good" she would give us ice cream. Well, needless to say, when she found out about the Dreft, guess who didn't get any ice cream!
Janet Taylor Dybdal
Painting the bleachers — and a mouse
Lying on the ground, I scraped and painted the steel girders of the football bleachers during the summer of 1956 for about $1.00 an hour using Army-surplus olive drab paint. During the painting process, a white mouse came out of a hole in the ground. It was sprayed with beautiful olive drab paint while it hurriedly crawled back into the hole.
Theodore O. Ousdigian
Clearing the air in the library
I remember opening the library windows in the winter to "clear the air" much to the dismay of some library-goers.
Theodore O. Ousdigian
Wallace Hall waitressing
As well as some scholarship money, I had a waitress contract for Wallace Hall. Dorothy Yike, the dormitory dietician, would provide as much "overtime" as possible for those willing to take extra duty. Toastmasters met in Wally Hall's private dining room as did the Trustees. We preferred to work the Toastmasters' event — they tipped — the trustees did not.
Alison Mossler Wright
Financial help from Macalester
I did get some financial help from Macalester, probably after surviving the first year. I don t remember now how much I received and whether it was part loan-part grant or all loan. What I do remember is how horrified I was to go in the Bursar’s office — remember Mr. Budolfson — to stand in front of the counter, while other students and office workers were potentially listening in as I made my desperate plea. I can’t say if the open-style office was a deliberate ploy to scare away applicants but it might just as well have been. One of the reasons I have made cash contributions to Macalester over the years is to help other students avoid the intimidating experience I had, involving demeaning groveling.
Thomas E. Johnson
Working in the cafeteria
Like a lot of students, I held down a few jobs while attending Macalester. One was as a helper in the cafeteria. My main duties were as a dishwasher and as a busboy for the tables. We were obliged to take our dinner before the cafeteria opened. Back there with the dishwashing machine, most of us sang at the top of our voices, probably resonating throughout the cafeteria, and we all quickly learned how to speed-fill the dish holders by taking a stack of plates and then “spraying” them on to the dish holder one by one in a quick sweep. Those dishes must have been high quality because I don’t remember chipping a single one. A bad assignment with a silver lining was pots and pans duty. Those cooks knew how to use every pot and pan in sight, often crusting them up in a big way. There was an enormous tub in the kitchen where they plunked the dirty ones and we would be up to our elbows in sudsy and sometimes greasy water. But the big-hearted cooks always parked the desert trolley near the tub and never asked why some of those treats disappeared.
Thomas E. Johnson
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