Taylor: How many years have you waitressed?
Bernard: Hmmm. I’ve been here 19 years. Well I’ll be 70 in December, so I’ve
been here 19 years, plus I worked 10 years at the Fort Cafeteria Mall. The New York people came down and trained me. And then they closed that out after 10 years and made that Apple Annie’s Buffet. I worked there 10 years and then I worked somewhere’s else for five years and then I went right back to restaurant work.Taylor: So that’s about 30 years you’ve been waitressing?
Bernard: Yeah, or longer.
Taylor: Can you state your name and say how long you’ve waitressed?
Bernard: I’m Juanita Bernard, and I’ve waitressed about 30 years.
Taylor: Where did you grow up?
Bernard: Harlan County.
Taylor: So that’s Eastern Kentucky right?
Bernard: [Nods] It’s in mountains.
Taylor: What brought you to Lexington?
Bernard: Well, my grandmother raised me, and when she died I came to Louisville
with my aunt, and then I met my husband in Louisville and married and moved in here.Taylor: How is eastern Kentucky different?
Bernard: It’s changed up in there now. My nephew took me up there for his
mother’s birthday, the both of us…I don’t want to go back up there it’s changed too much.Taylor: How has it changed?
Bernard: I was raised up in Walloons Creek, just before you get to Harlan County
and there’s nutin…no town there anymore, it’s all houses.Taylor: Well, I’ve heard a lot of the coal mines closed so that was an economic blow.
Bernard: Yeah. It went way up there in the coal mines and everything. It’s
changed a lot since I was a little girl.Taylor: And what happened to your mother?
Bernard: My mother died a diabetic. And then when my grandmother died, she died
of kidney poisoning.Taylor: And what about your father?
Bernard: He’s dead too.
Taylor: What did he do for a living?
Bernard: He was a coal miner. And my mother’s daddy was a coal miner.
Taylor: In the same county?
Bernard: No, one was Harlan and one was Bell County.
Taylor: And what did your mother do for a living?
Bernard: She worked in Louellen’s Laundry there in Harlan.
Taylor: So how long have you been in Lexington?
Bernard: My daughter had just turned nine months-old when I moved here, and
she’s 59.Taylor: And what does your daughter do for a living?
Bernard: Well, I’ve got a 16 year-old granddaughter and that takes up all her
time. She’s 16 and she works here every once in a while.Taylor: Oh, she’s a waitress?
Bernard: Yeah. Three or four days a week.
Taylor: And what does your daughter do?
Bernard: That’s what she does.
Taylor: So she’s a waitress also, so your granddaughter’s not waitressing, it’s
your daughter.Bernard: No, she works in a restaurant somewhere’s here in town, but she loves
to work. We taught her in here when she was a baby, that’s where she learned how to roll the silverware and everything.Taylor: That’s great. So do you have any siblings?
Bernard: I’ve got a sister that lives in Louisville, and I’ve got two nephews
and a niece and that’s all there is of my family left.Taylor: How many did you have when you were young?
Bernard: That was it. That was it.
Taylor: Can you tell me about your first waitressing job? How you got it…?
Bernard: I took my daughter to get the job and I got it. I wasn’t dressed for
it, or nothing.Taylor: And how old were you?
Bernard: I don’t know. It was in a cafeteria. She was at the age that she could
get a job.Taylor: So had you ever thought about waitressing?
Bernard: I just liked being around people. I tried to retire here and I stayed
gone for about 7 months, and I called Tommy and said, “I’ve got to come back. I about to go nuts.” Sharon threatened to have me committed. I was trying to quit smoking and she said, “You’ve got to go back to work or do something.” So I just came back to work.Taylor: How old were you when you tried to retire?
Bernard: It was about a year ago [laughing]. About a year ago and I’m still at it.
Taylor: Well, you know, a lot of my waitresses have tried to retire and they
find that it’s just too hard.Bernard: See, I lost my husband 16 years ago and then I lived by myself. And it
just don’t work.Taylor: And also, you have so many connections with your customers’ here.
Bernard: Yeah. I can’t go nowheres here in town without runnin’ into some of ‘em.
Taylor: And so how about physically? How does it feel to be…you look amazing…
Bernard: Well, I’m having problems with my legs right now. They get kind of weak
on me. I’m under a doctor’s care right now. But other than that I’m fine. I go everyday.Taylor: And do you work eight-hour shifts?
Bernard: No, I work about six, six and a half a day. The doctor kind of made me
slow down a little bit.Taylor: How many days a week?
Bernard: I’m off Monday and Tuesday. I usually work about four days a week now.
I was working six days a week. Can’t handle it anymore, getting too old [laughing].Taylor: You know that’s funny because I was waitressing…I waitressed for about
eight years, and that’s how I came to do this project. You know I worked with so many younger waitresses in their 20’s and I was in my 30’s, early 30’s at the time, and they just constantly complained about how hard it was and they were working four days a week so.Bernard: I can work circles around everybody here.
Taylor: Why do you think that is?
Bernard: What takes them two hours to do a job, I can do about five in that. It’
just…I don’t know. I can’t figure it out either.Taylor: When you first started did it just come to you or did you have to
struggle and learn?Bernard: No. I guess my grandmother taught me how to cook. I loved to cook and
after I lost my husband, I just dove my life into restaurant work.Taylor: Did you find it hard in the beginning?
Bernard: No. It just came to me naturally. And then the old man had this before
Tom took it over. So I started out with him. And then they asked me to stay and I stayed with them.Taylor: You know, I think it’s rare to find waitresses who take too it easily
and end up being such good waitresses. Because there are a lot of people who wait tables who are not necessarily good, you know, they’re adequate.Bernard: I can do anything in here.
Taylor: That’s the difference. So if it’s busy in here and you have to cook, do
you cook?Bernard: Yeah. I sure do. They’ll holler, “Hey Juanita!” I’m a test taster too.
[laughing] Oh boy.Taylor: So when you first started, did you think this was something I’m going to
do temporarily?Bernard: No. I just enjoyed it. I just enjoyed it.
Taylor: Did you ever do any kind of secretarial work?
Bernard: No. I worked at a dime store for about a month and that was it. I
didn’t like that. Too many problems. But I love doing work in a restaurant. I like being around people. If I wasn’t around people I guess I’d go crazy. But I enjoy working here.Taylor: You know that’s amazing because part of what I’m finding in this project
is that people are so interested in these stories because they think when they see a seventy year-old waitress that you should feel sorry for her or think: “How sad. She has to work after retirement age.” And the thing they don’t realize is that a lot of these women love what they do.Bernard: Yeah. Just like this guy come in one day and he said, “Hey Juanita, You
wanna go out on a date?” And I said, “I’m old enough to be your grandmother.” He said, “Well how old are you?” I said, “I’m gonna be seventy in December.” He said, “No. That’s fine, you’re too old” [laughing]. I cut up with him, you know this and that. But I’ll go out with him if you want me to.” “No, just forget it” [laughing]. It’s fun.Taylor: Do you think waitressing has kept you looking younger or feeling younger?
Bernard: Well they all say I don’t look seventy. I guess me working on my feet
all of the time has helped.Taylor: I think so because a lot of people would assume it would be the
opposite. That it would wear you down.Bernard: Because I got depressed when I tried to retire and I just couldn’t
handle it, couldn’t handle it.Taylor: Seven months is a long time.
Bernard: Yeah, well I was trying to quit smoking. I got depressed. My daughter
called me one day and I just bit her head off. I can’t handle it [laughing]. That’s when she threatened to have me committed [laughing]. I said, “Oh, no you don’t. No, no way.” So I came right back to work. But I do enjoy being around my customers and I have a good time here.Taylor: So what’s different about the Meadowthorpe?
Bernard: It’s just home cooking. Just a home country place. Now I’ve worked in
other restaurants you know, but it’s nothing like this one.Taylor: What were the other restaurants you worked in?
Bernard: Forum Cafeteria, Apple Annie’s Buffet.
Taylor: And were these coffee shop type of restaurants?
Bernard: No, this was a big restaurant out at Fayette Mall.
Taylor: Was it more of a chain?
Bernard: Yeah, it was New York and Kansas City. They came down and trained.
That’s when I took my daughter out there to get a job, you know? They gave me a job and stuck me in the kitchen. And then I ended up as the kitchen manager, dessert manager. And I just enjoyed it.Taylor: What do you like best about waitressing?
Bernard: People I guess.
Taylor: What do you like least about it?
Bernard: Nothing. I just like being here working with people [laughing]. You
don’t believe that do you?Taylor: I do, but only because I’ve interviewed about 40 waitresses at this
point, you know career waitresses who love what they do and they all say, “I can’t find a bad thing to say about it.” It’s just strange to hear that coming from my previous waitressing job where so many people only had bad things to say.Bernard: Yeah.
Taylor: So what do you think that’s about, it terms of the younger generation?
Bernard: Young people just don’t want to work anymore…and that’s the truth.
Taylor: What makes you say that.
Bernard: Because we’ve had too many come through here. They’ll work a week, get
a paycheck and leave. They just don’t want it. It’s too hard for them.Taylor: Do you think it’s the physical….?
Bernard: They just can’t handle it, for some reason or another.
Taylor: Do they get along with the customers?
Bernard: Yeah, it’s just…I don’t know, they’re afraid to break their
fingernails. You know these young people just can’t handle it.Taylor: Do you think it’s because you grew up doing hard work and it doesn’t feel….
Bernard: Well I’m from the country, and I’ve done nothing but work all my life.
So, yeah that’s probably it.Taylor: I think that’s a lot of it. A lot of these waitresses grew up working on
farms and they’re not afraid of hard labor, and I think they have a different work ethic. And I think you just are used to it so it just doesn’t affect you as much, maybe it’s psychological, I don’t know.Bernard: I couldn’t go to another job. I couldn’t handle it. Restaurant work is
my life, and I guess I’ll stay here until I can’t walk no more[laughing]. I’ve asked them for my pink slip for three months here and they won’t give it to me [laughing]. Oh, I cut up with them all the time.Taylor: So it sounds like you have a good relationship with the cooks and the
management, and you know a lot of waitresses and cooks end up getting into arguments…Bernard: Oh, I’m just like their mom here. I’m older and I’ve been here longer.
I get along with all of them.Taylor: That’s good. How many waitresses do they have on the floor?
Bernard: They’ve got two here tonight. We usually have me, Alma, Mary and Debbie
on the days.Taylor: And where is your section usually?
Bernard: Right over here. We’ve got another dining room right on the other side.
I stay up here and wait on customers.Taylor: Do you write down orders or call them in?
Bernard: We write them down; they come through here for lunch. If they want a
cheeseburger or something, we’ll write it down, give them a number and they’ll give it to the cashier and she’ll send it back up to us.Taylor: So they’ve never threatened to move to computers or anything here?
Bernard: No.
Taylor: Do you wear a uniform?
Bernard: No, we just wear our regular clothes.
Taylor: And what’s your clientele like?�
Bernard: We get mostly elderly people. Now during the daytime, we get the city workers. And this big subdivision out here, we’re building.Taylor: Is there a factory over there?
Bernard: Yeah, there’s a bunch of factories over here, way up on Leestown Road.
Taylor: And do you get factory workers?
Bernard: Yeah, and they get a bunch at night.
Taylor: How late are they open?
Bernard: They close at eight.
Taylor: Do you think most customers understand what waitresses do, in terms of
what it takes to be a good waitress versus an adequate waitress?Bernard: I think so. I really do think so.
Taylor: So you feel like your customers appreciate you?
Bernard: The ones I wait on do [laughing].
Taylor: Can you talk about your regulars? The ones that stand out in your mind.
Bernard: You know where I work we have a bunch of these men come through here,
maybe a few women and they’ll come through and cut up with me. And I can hear ‘em as soon as they open the door.Taylor: Do you have any stories?
Bernard: Well you wouldn’t want to hear ‘em.
Taylor: I do want to hear them.
Bernard: Not what we talk about [laughing]!
Taylor: Yes, I do!
Bernard: Well we’ve got some black people they come in and holler, “Mom” to me.
Of course this one guy calls me mom; he’s black. He’s nice as he can be. His mother used to come in and be my customer, now she’s not able to so he comes in. And they’re real nice. Course, I don’t have time to stand and talk to them and tell stories.Taylor: How busy do you get in here?
Bernard: Like the other day, there was a line clear out the door for two hours
and that’s for lunch only. And that starts a little after 11. We get everything on the line by 1:00a quarter to 11, lunch.Taylor: Do you use the term, “In the weeds?”
Bernard: In the what?
Taylor: It means “I’m too busy.”
Bernard: No, I just tell ‘em I’m meeting myself several times a day, turning
around so many times. I do. I’ll go up there and dip up, I’ll dip up gravy and pork chops or something and I’ll go over to the stove and get the sauce for the meatloaf and by the time you turn, you know for about an hour or two, you’re meetin’ yourself. That’s the way it goes.Taylor: Have you ever threatened to walk out?
Bernard: Oh, yeah honey, plenty of times but it doesn’t do any good, they just
look at me and laugh. They don’t take me serious here. That’s the reason I ain’t worried about my job.Taylor: But you’ve never walked out have you?
Bernard: I’ve gotten mad at ‘em. Just like Tom called and reminded me of this,
cause I’d forgotten about it, because he told me I was off. I didn’t know I was going to be off.Taylor: Do you think waitressing has offered you a decent life, in terms of financially?
Bernard: Yeah.
Taylor: Because I think that’s a big misconception, you know people think
waitresses don’t make any money and that it’s an unrewarding job.Bernard: Well you know little restaurants like this don’t pay like the big
restaurants do. But I get along fine.Taylor: How much do you make an hour?
Bernard: I make the minimum wage here, it’s 5 somethin’…$5.25 I think, but see
when I lost my husband, I get money, so I don’t worry about it. I just work to help my daughter and granddaughter.Taylor: So you really don’t have to work?
Bernard: No. No, I don’t have to. I just like to.
Taylor: I think that’s significant because a lot of people think….
Bernard: Umm hmm, the bosses know better. I saved my money, because I got my
daughter and my granddaughter and that’s all I’ve got to worry about.Taylor: Good for you. Did you save for retirement? Or did you get a pension from
your husband?Bernard: No, no, I’ve got a savings I put in every week and that’s it.
Taylor: How did you save?
Bernard: I put my check in the bank every week. I got a checking account and a
savings account. The saving account is for Sherry if anything ever happens to me.Taylor: And you live in Lexington?
Bernard: Yeah, I live in a mobile home right over there on Price Road, it’s paid for…
Taylor: That’s great. What are the most significant changes you’ve seen through
the years? Technology or people…Bernard: Hmmm, well it really hasn’t changed that much for me? I mean it’s
changed but not for me, you know.Taylor: Roughly what percentage of your customers are regulars?
Bernard: The ones that come in here all are regulars, we get new ones everyday.
See all of ‘em lives right around this section, downtown.Taylor: So you pretty much recognize everybody that comes in.
Bernard: Yeah. I can’t go nowheres without them recognizing me and I don’t even
know their names. They know mine, ‘cause I been here so long.Taylor: How do you feel about the term lifer?
Bernard: Lifer? What do you mean?
Taylor: Well you know some people call waitresses who’ve waitressed their entire
lives, ‘lifers.’ Does that term bother you?Bernard: No, that doesn’t bother me. Honey, I’m from the country, nothing like
that bothers me. I’m out to work.Taylor: I guess I’m from California where everybody’s so sensitive. So I just
ask everybody if I use that term…Bernard: Well, I’m not [sensitive]. I guess my grandmother raised me up the
right way.Taylor: What did your grandmother do for a living?
Bernard: She was a housewife. My grandfather was a police officer and she was a
deputy sheriff. She carried a gun so you know I was raised up right [laughing]. You don’t sass them old women. And my daddy was a policeman at one time too, back in Bell County.Taylor: So are there any stories you have about regular customers?
Bernard: No, honey, I can’t [remember], it’s all the same.
Taylor: So do you usually remember what they eat?
Bernard: Yeah, some of ‘em.
Taylor: Do you think it makes your job easier, that you have so many regulars?
Bernard: Yeah. It does, because you usually know what they’re gonna get. Now I
got one little old man, he’s real sick now, he comes in and he gets a hamburger steak and green beans and if we have macaroni and cheese, he’ll get macaroni and cheese, if not, he’ll get cabbage or something like that.Taylor: I think that makes your job easier, because working in a place where you
have to always ask them what they want, and you have to make extra trips because they might not know….Bernard: Well, I don’t have to ask them too much because they’ll tell me what
they want.Taylor: Do you feel like the tips have gotten better over the years?
Bernard: They’re about the same. You know in a small place like this, it’s the
same. It’s smaller than if you work in a big restaurant, in a big restaurant they tip better. Here you get mostly farmers and factory workers and this and that. But we do good here.Taylor: Do they average about 10% or 15%?
Bernard: Each girl probably ends up with 60 or 70 dollars. It’s not too bad.
Taylor: That’s not bad, because I’m sure the cost of living is much less than
where I live [San Francisco].Bernard: Well it’s high priced here in this town, you pay here. Everything’s
high here.Taylor: Oh really?
Bernard: Yeah. On account of the university, UK.
Taylor: Oh, I see, the University of Kentucky.
Bernard: They say Lexington is one of the highest places you can live.
Taylor: Did you ever work for a union restaurant?
Bernard: No.
Taylor: Do you have health insurance?
Bernard: Yep.
Taylor: Do you pay for it yourself, or did you get it through your husband?
Bernard: Yeah, I got it through my husband, and then I get his social security.
I got Medicare…so I’m fine.Taylor: Do you have any major health problems?
Bernard: Well, she made me quit smoking, my doctor did yeah.
Taylor: How long has it been?
Bernard: It’s been two weeks, Wednesday. And I’ve got to go back to her Wednesday.
Taylor: Well I have to tell you, it’s the best thing you’ll ever do.
Bernard: I know it.
Taylor: I smoked for about 15 years….
Bernard: Yeah, honey I’ve smoked longer than that, but she scared me when I went
to her the thirtieth. She said your numbers are reading so low, I doubt if they can ever be reversed and then I’ve got a breathing machine at home. I give it to myself once in the morning and once at night, I don’t even use them all the time now, I can tell the difference.Taylor: Yeah, my great aunt is dying, pretty much right now because she wouldn’t
quit smoking and she had lung cancer and still smoked and my stepfather who is down there now.Bernard: Yeah, she scared me and then I got after my sister and called her, so
she’s quit. She’s been quit now for five days. It’s about to drive her crazy. Yeah she called me Saturday and called me Sunday. I said, “How you doing?” [she said] “I’m about to go nuts.” I said, “Well, join the crowd.” [laughing]Taylor: Is it getting a little easier everyday?
Bernard: Yeah.I had one of the customers bring me a bag of suckers. I go around
with a sucker in my mouth, or chewing chewing gum. And they don’t say nothing to me about it here because they know I’m trying to quit. But I haven’t had one since the 30th, I threw them away in her office, so….Taylor: Yeah, it would just be terrible, because you’re healthy and able to work.
Bernard: Yeah. Well as long as I’ve got something to eat in the house, chewing
gum, suckers…I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I can do it.Taylor: So I think those are all of my questions. Do you take vacations?
Bernard: I ain’t got time to take vacations. I got that little white truck out
there and I’m lucky if it takes me home and back to work and the store. I can go anywhere…well now if somebody takes me I’ll go. Now if my daughter goes for the weekend, she’ll take me. She own vans, so I get to ride in it.Taylor: Do you have anything else you want to say about waitressing?
Bernard: No, honey, I’ve told you everything I know. I get up, go to work, go
home and come back here. I leave at 2:00 today and go home, come right back the next morning.Taylor: Have you ever hurt yourself and had to go to work?
Bernard: I’ve fallen in here, I don’t know how many times. Just bounce right
back up and go on, I’m like that. One of these days, I’m going to fall and I won’t ever get up. I fell one day in here and it was one morning, we had a carpet running from the kitchen door, one of the runners and one of the men had pushed the rug up and I didn’t know it and I’d come through with a case of eggs and I went. Here come the cook Janet, she had tomatoes in her hand, they all flew up and one went over the camera. You know they’ve got cameras in here. And I bounced right back up. “Juanita, you all right?” I said, “I reckoned. I broke a case of eggs.” Tommy come in and said, “I heard you had an accident.” I said, “Yeah, I broke a case of eggs.” [He said] I ain’t worried about the eggs, are you all right?” I said, “I ain’t gotten no broken bones, I’m fine.” I’ve had one broken bone, and that was my little toe. And that was my fault. I was running through the house when I was little.Taylor: Do you have any hobbies?
Bernard: I love to crochet, if I got time, to make afghans. Yeah, I love to
crotchet, I taught my granddaughter how to make ‘em. That’s all I know. I love to make fudge, I make fudge every Christmas for everybody.Taylor: That’s wonderful. I think that’s it. I want to get some photographs now.
[end]
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