The Sooper Dooper Chronicles – chapter 3 – the morning ladies

The Sooper Dooper chronicles – the morning ladies

If you were lucky enough to work any mornings at Soooer Dooper, you got to work with Pat, Charlotte or Lorraine. If you were really lucky, you got to work with all three at the same time. As high school employees, we were lucky to be exposed to such good people at such a vulnerable time in our lives. They were like moms to us and they treated us like their own kids.

The morning crew. The morning ladies. The faces of Sooper Dooper. They came at 7 or 8 and worked until 2 or 3. A few times I worked in the morning when one was on vacation, a fill in. I also worked during the summer, pretty much full time.

Going in to work in the mornings was amazing. The smell coming from the bakery was unbelieveable! The smell. The hugs of comfort from baking bread. Sooper Dooper had a full service bakery. They had the best long john’s, cinnamon rolls, breads, and pullaparts to die for. They also had delicious cookies. One particular cookie was kind of a sugar cookie with apricot and then folded over. I can’t remember the name of them, but they were delicious!

Pat was tall. Her real name was Pearl, Pearl Palmer. Pat was in charge of ordering the candy and the cigs. The candy was all up front. So were the cigs. The cigarette rack was up above one of the big candy shelves. A person had to reach up to find the kind they wanted. When we were working, we had to make sure the cigs were stocked. There were a lot of smokers back then.

Pat was such a nice lady. She passed away in 2013. I can still see here with her paper and pen, writing down the candy order…

Next up we have Charlotte. Charlotte Hiller. Charlotte was short. She was feisty though. Nobody got away with anything when Charlotte was working. She loved all of us kids though. We had some really good talks. Any of these ladies would have done anything for any of us.

Next up was Lorraine Ebach. Another lady with a big heart. Such hard workers, all three. They taught us all how to work hard and not complain. Who wanted to listen to a bunch of teenagers complain? You’re right, nobody!

They all took care of the front of the store and greeted customers as they came through the door. It was their job. They did it well. They were all friendly and made everyone feel at ease. Even when they had to train new kids.

The front of the store had three checkout lanes and one emergency lane. The emergency lane had an antique till that was manual. You even had to add the tax separately to the order. No automatic adding there. There were only a few of us who knew how to use the antique. It was really cool looking, but man were customers stacked up when the power went out and that was the only till to use.

I see Charlotte and Lorraine once in a while. They always remember me and are just as nice as they were 30 plus years ago. I appreciate the Sooper Dooper years. The Sooper Dooper years were good to me.