I have some very fond memories of my days in Wright Cafeteria.  I learned how to clock in, working the system by clocking in 6 minutes early and clocking out 6 minutes after my shift to get an extra 46 cents every day.  We were told to wear jeans and close-toed shoes and a hairnet over our hair, and we had these adorable red-and-white checkered jackets to wear while we worked.

I did many different jobs in the 4 years I worked there, but my favorite was serving breakfast.  I was an early riser anyway, and it was a slower, more relaxed pace than the dinner meal.  We had full-time cooks that did the actual cooking, and we would help some but mostly work the serving line.  I enjoyed talking with the students, my shift went quickly, and then I had the rest of the day for other things...like classes, studying...fun things like that!

My best friends from college are those I worked with in the cafeteria.  The middle gal in the photo is my closest college friend.  Susie and I were roommates for two years and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding.  She now lives the high life in Los Angeles, with maids and gardeners and handymen and pool people in an area where celebrities live.  She's a long way from our dorm in Bloomington, Indiana!!!  But we still keep in touch regularly, with email and phone calls and Facebook and the occasional visit when we can work it out.  Even when we were in school, Susie was so much more worldly than I (it didn't take that much!) and taught me about things I didn't even know existed!  She had gay male friends that wore fingernail polish (I had never heard of such a thing!) and had the risque book, The Joy of Sex, on her bookshelf.  We were (and still are!) total opposites in so many respects, yet I loved her...and still do!

The full-time employees were interesting characters as well.  One lady named Jan worked the breakfast shift with me and she kept inviting me to attend a church service with her.  I finally agreed, thinking how bad could it be?  I mean, I was raised in church so I knew (or thought I knew!) what I was in for.  Jan picked me up one evening during their Revival Week and drove me out in the country to a tiny Pentecostal church that was filled with people.  As the service went on..and on and on...the crowd became more agitated and even frenzied, speaking in tongues, running around the church, rolling in the aisles.  I had never seen anything like it and sat frozen in horror in my pew!  When the service climaxed with an altar call, I was the only person who wasn't convulsing around the altar.  I quickly grabbed my purse and high-tailed it out of the sanctuary, with the minister screaming at me as I ran down the aisle and out the door that I would burn in hell!!!  I sobbed in Jan's car, having no idea where in the world I was and no way to get home, and eventually she emerged smiling as if nothing out-of-the-ordinary had just transpired.  If I hadn't already been a Christian, that experience would have kept me away from religion for a long, long time.  Most of what I learned in college did not come from classes and books!

And then there was Richard, an unforgettable character!  Richard ran the dishroom and I worked with him often.  Students ate off real dishes and silverware back in those days, and Richard was responsible for running all of them through his huge dishwasher, that he affectionately called Ethel.  When students finished eating, they put their trays filled with their dirty dishes on a conveyer belt that came into the dishroom.  We would take them off, scrape off the food, and load them into Ethel.  Ethel ran continuously, so it was a challenge to keep loading the dirty dishes and unloading the clean ones coming out on the other side.  You might think it was yucky, boring work, but Richard made it fun.  He always had a monologue going, singing and chattering away, sometimes to us  but often just to himself.  Once in awhile, we'd get behind or something wouldn't go quite right and Richard would go on a rampage, yelling and even shaking his fist at Ethel.  Occasionally he'd get in trouble with the boss-lady (who he despised!), but we were all very protective of Richard and took the blame whenever possible.

A huge movie buff, Richard also had pet celebrity names for everyone.  He always called me Mae West (whom I had never even heard of before then, but apparently she was quite the sexy vixen in old-time movies!) and he named Susie Minnie Mouse.  Everyone had a nickname, and I'm not even sure he knew our real names.  He had a massive collection of films on movie reels that he watched non-stop when he wasn't working.

Richard lived in his own world and we all appreciated him for who he was.  Imagine how surprised I was to find out that he was STILL working in the Wright Quad dishroom running a newer version of Ethel when my children went to IU some 25 years after I had left!  All those years he had faithfully ridden his bicycle to work, and my children would share stories about Richard much like mine.  I've heard he's now retired, but he is one who will never be forgotten.

Life lessons from Wright Quad cafeteria have followed me these past 35 years.  It opened doors for friendships and experiences I never would have had.  It reinforced what I already knew about responsibility, loyalty, and the challenges of working with people.  And a little extra spending money was just a bonus!

They never cease to put a smile on my face...

...Wright Quad cafeteria memories!