Thursday, January 07, 2010

Waitress in a Donut Shop


Back in the late seventies, I worked at Cafe du Monde, slinging beignets to tourists.

Here's a beignet at Cafe du Monde - pronounced ben-yay (emphasize either syllable, we'll know what to serve you.) Tourist attempts on that ranged from bengays to big nuts to bayonets.

Above is a picture of me in 1976. One day, Madamoiselle magazine did a photo shoot at CDM. We kept trying to slip the models beignets - they were so skinny!

I remember being annoyed with them being in my way all day, and this picture captures that. I don't know why that's the one they chose to publish. There's a little note "Beth age 16" in my mom's handwriting at the top, on my paper hat.

4 comments:

dr kill said...

Hey Beth, The bride and I are attending the Orpheus Ball. Reggie is the Grand Marshal.

Beth said...

How cool is that? You will have the time of your life. I'll be on the parade route yelling "Throw me somethin', Reggie!"

Michael Haz said...

Whoa. You've got serious beignet cred, Beth.

The best I did at that age was work the fry grill at a A&W root beer drive-in.

Peter Eagan is one of my favorite columnists/authors. His columns form Cycle World magazine have been combined into this book called Leanings, a wonderful read.

In one of Egan's stories, he wakes up in his home near Madison, discovers that he is out of coffee, and rides his motorcycle along side the Mississippi River so he can buy a can of chicory coffee at Cafe du Monde.

I may do the same thing one week this summer, depending.

Beth said...

Michael,

What a dream ride. If you do it, I'll meet you at Cafe du Monde for a cup of cafe au lait and an order of beignets.