Rose Bowl Girls

Especially these days, with a tough economy there are no dishonorable jobs. You take what you can get and can be darn proud to have it. Believe me, if you’re picking up trash or cleaning a soda machine while I blog in some corner of your restaurant – you are my hero! Still, I know there are jobs that ‘normal’ people probably prefer doing over others.

When we were young and work was tough to come by, my wife tried to get a gig cleaning up squished animals off of the highway. Those were still in the days when sexism was alive and well and they would not hire her because they thought it was not a good ‘fit’ for a young lady? You know what is a good fit for anyone – cold hard cash in the palm of our hands! Around this same time I got a job exactly for ONE DAY cleaning some elderly lady’s house. I did a good job and was trustworthy, but the next day the lady called in and wanted a ‘girl’ to clean her house because ‘cleaning’ was better left to the 'women folk'.

Then and now, most people do not like working on commission or in sales because it is performance based. Every day you must face rejection and (most difficult for many), you never know how much income you can count on earning. My kid had the same concerns but needed some real job experience even MORE than money. So after some weeks of the normal grocery store, mall, and restaurant applications, she actually settled on, an ‘all commission’ sales job at a local amphitheater selling ROSES.

Now oddly this is not a bad gig at all. My daughter gets exercise walking around up and down aisles and hanging out by the men’s restroom. She gets to listen to a variety of concerts for free (on the stage not in the restroom), and with tips and commissions, the pay is far better than minimum wage. An unexpected perk too, is that invariably concert patrons, inebriated and otherwise will buy roses FOR my daughter. So not only does she get a commission on the deal, but she brings a bouquet back home to help mask the smell of burnt waffles and wet raccoons (hillbilly staples).

Yes we have a vase or two in some dusty cabinet, but more often than not, my kid will stash those fancy roses in an ordinary water glass or cereal bowl. It seems somewhat of a pedestrian end for luxurious red roses, especially after all the work that went into standing and smiling at GUYS all night. Well it is a tough economy so I guess somebody’s got to stop the bullets. Gee, as I have gotten older, I stand by the bathroom all the time anyway, and I LOVE fresh flowers. After all these years, maybe society is finally ready to buck its sexist ways . . . I think I’m gonna' be a Rose Girl too!