Beach Life Series ~ Chapter III: Living with strangers and employment

 
In one summer I lived with eight other humans and later that summer one other person and her dog.  All different personalities, from all over the United States and a wide range of ages.  The following summer I had just two roommates.  I started off working for one shop but ended up working for another by the end of the year.  Our stand was burnt to the ground at the end of the summer and that pushed us off to start traveling with the carnival during the fall months.  Never a dull moment.

My first summer in OC, Maryland taught me many lessons on living with strangers.  Some were even tempered and others not so much.  Some were not as trustworthy as others.  A few had serious addictions, a few has no concern for others well being and some were downright pleasant, thoughtful and pure joy to have in company.  The two bathrooms we all shared were difficult to keep clean, it was up to everyone to workout some sort of cleaning schedule.  Or none at all in our case by mid summer. There was only one other female in our apartment and we did our best to keep the bathrooms in a usable state.  From time to time, sometimes every night, was a party night.  Sometimes there were people I didn't know in our apartment having a good time or ralphing in our bathroom making a worse mess.  There were good times with our roommates and some very bad times.  A few of the roommates were very unpredictable and not so agreeable.  The other female that shared our space was truly a beautiful person.  She bought me a beautiful set of wind chimes for my birthday (I still hang them outside during the summer) and we had many late night chats.  We kept each other sane during all the madness.

After working for Down To Earthwear for about half the summer, I got fed up with my boss.  I discovered he was a very unhappy, negative and truly mean person.  I remember having a disagreement with him and quitting.  Then a few other disgruntled workers also quit.  He refused me $1500 of my hard earned money (just one week of pay, the money was excellent) I filed a dispute with the courthouse but did not have enough proof to prove he owed me any money.  I never did get paid.  Employment is abundant at the beach during the peak season.  Plenty of room for waitresses, retail sales people, hotel maids and amusement workers.  My boyfriends boss upon hearing my woeful story and finding out my skills hired me on the spot.  Wax hands.  I was his new wax hand girl, he was confident I was perfect for the job.  I spent the rest of the summer dipping customers hands in wax.

Nearing the end of the summer, tensions were very high at the apartment.  A friend working on The Pier offered us a place to stay for a month or so rent free with her and her dog.  We moved our stuff out, payed the remainder of our rent and let our homeless friend stay in our apartment till the end of the summer.  Our new roommate was a great person, very generous and caring.  Her dog......eh.  He was a bit destructive and frustrated.  We all worked long hours on The Pier and her poor doggy was alone all day.  So he ripped apart her sectional sofa.  I mean SHREDDED it.  Like, you could barely tell it had been anything other than a pile of fabric and foam.  He was a friendly pit bull, lick the freckles right off you, just a bit frustrated.  One time I came home and found little pieces of leather, plastic and paper all over the kitchen.  I thought nothing of it until my roommate came home.  She recognized the pile of rubbish....."my WALLET!!" she cried.  I took a closer look, sure enough the pieces resembled credit cards, her license, dollar bills and a leather wallet.  It was unbelievable.  She always tried to gate him in the kitchen so he couldn't roam the house, but we are talking about a very muscular pitbull. He was always out when we got home.

One morning our roommate ran into our room when we were getting ready for work and told us that our stand had burnt to the ground on The Pier.  Shocked, we called our boss.  He was unreachable.  So we ran down to The Pier, sure enough, just a pile of blackened ashes remained.  All the other stands were untouched, just our two stands had been burnt.  There were rumors that it was arson but nothing could be proven and nobody was accused.  Our boss told us he was taking off in a few days, he offered us a place to stay with him and his family in West Virginia.  Said he would let us know before he left if we wanted to come.  And that led into my adventures with the Reithoffer Show.


Coming soon:
Chapter IV: Things to do and yummy places to eat.