A Day at the Bakery

I worked my first two years in high school at Dunford Bakery in Sugarhouse. That chain still exists today. If you can picture a waitress in a restaurant in the early fifties, that would be how we had to dress...stiff white dress with maroon cuffs and collar and a little maroon head piece. The uniforms were provided but kept at the store. So we had to change when we went to work.

My first assignment was as the "cookie girl". It was my responsibility to fill all of the cookie orders that came in each day and keep the front counters stocked with fresh cookies. Back in those days there were no bakeries in the grocery stores (we didn't have super markets, only grocery stores) so bakery provided wooden boxes with glass fronts to hold cookies which they could order. It was my job to fill those orders. The favorite cookie was date nut. After filling all the orders I would then take the rest of the freshly baked cookies (racks and racks of them) off the cooking trays and arrange them on trays to be put out in the display cases. When all this was done I could go home. I enjoyed my work unless it was a day that they baked chocolate cream filled cookies, about once a week. Besides my regular work, it was my job to fill all of those cookies with vanilla icing by squeezing it on one wafer and topping it with another. It was very time consuming which meant longer working hours on that day. If I had a lot of homework on those days it was very stressful.

Later on I was taught how to wait on customers out in front. That was a lot more fun. We used a regular old cash register which didn't figure out change like the computers today. So we had to use our own math skills to make correct change...something that I find younger clerks today just cannot do. I laugh quietly inside when I see them get so confused when you give them extra bills or coins so you won't get back a lot of one dollar bills. I think you know what I mean. We had to operate a bread slicer to cut whole loaves of bread. It could be a little dangerous if you weren' t careful. The new ones I've seen today are a lot safer. On days when my eczema kicked up, they would find work for me to do in the back as I'm sure customers who would see my inflamed skin would have some concerns. I'll always appreciate the manager of that store making accommodations so I could work. My salary started at $.75 an hour and worked up to $1.00 an hour.

The best part of my job was that we were allowed to eat anything we wanted as long as it was on our own time. I only took about a week before I could hardly stand the sight of all that sugar. I admit I gorged that first week, but hardly ate anything after that except hot bread right out of the oven slathered with lots of real butter that we also sold in the store. I think our boss knew the wisdom of his "eat all you want" philosophy. Employees and their families were able to buy products t 50% off, which was a nice bonus that my mom appreciated. While working there I actually bought a musical wedding cake topper that I saved for five years until it finally found its' place on our wedding cake.

Working at Dunford Bakery still brings fond memories. I worked there for two years, then quit working during my senior year. Mother's health was deteriorating and she needed more of my help since Claire was married and Georgia was working full time. I feel there is great value in young people working and paying their own way as much as possible. I know it was the case for me.