My wife asked how it is that so many diner waitresses are
“like that,” refering to the bantering style we had just encountered. We had never been to this particular
restaurant before. I knew what she meant without further explanation, and after
a moment’s thought offered that it’s mutually selecting, and likely
reinforcing. If you go to a diner, as
the bikers, boy scouts, and people after church we shared the place with had,
you know at some level that such interactions are possible. If you don’t like that, you learn not to go
to diners, whether consciously or not. Food and time are not our only
considerations, even though it is what we are focusing our thoughts on.
I figure they don’t test waitresses for banter on interview,
and certainly some are quiet types who simply take your order and serve
you. Yet if that’s your style, you learn
at some level “maybe I’ll fit in there.”
The customers are seldom going to mind, and will often encourage that
instant familiarity. We all like to have
places we belong, even at some cost in other considerations, such as pay and
amount of work.
1 comment:
Maybe they learn it. Maybe it's the long familiarity with the regular customers. (I did that with a number of my regular customers where I worked.) That can bleed over to the new customers, and then to first-timers, thinning as we go.
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