perhaps more than any other
corps of
high school aged workers, kids working in
grocery stores tend to be eerily
all american. particularly in
small towns. they look like they could be recruited as extras for
political campaigns. they look like
straight-a students, local sports legends, perfect teenagers who are good to their parents and go to
church on sundays and have girlfriends or boyfriends but are
waiting until marriage (or at least
prom) to fool around with them. few have
piercings,
tattoos, messy clothes,
bad skin, untended haircuts.. true, some of the boys may
bleach their hair and some of the girls may wear
pornstar makeup, but they seem in no way to defy the
standards set forth by mtv or
parental units.
i've known precisely one person,
grown up, who worked in a grocery store as a
teenager. he was working in a
gas station with me after being fired from said employment on
suspicion of theft. he was deep in
debt, addicted to
gambling and cheap beer, got into fights in
bowling alleys, and crashed his not-yet-paid-off truck frequently. while i knew him, he managed to
impregnate his seventeen year old girlfriend, be
arrested for possession, have all his
credit cards yanked, be
thrown out of his parents' home, and completely
total the aforementioned truck.
yet every morning he arrived at work looking
friendly, open-faced, and newly
scrubbed. someone even remarked once that the two of us looked like
chevron ken and barbie. i don't know how he pulled it off.
like i said, it was
eerie.