the beef people.

My first summer job was as a cashier at Winn Dixie. It wasn't a bad job, certainly was easy enough. I just had to be friendly and run things past a scanner. There was a little bit more to it than that, but not much.

The job made me feel kinda old, since I had just graduated from high school, and I was working with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores. I didn't know anyone, since the store was in a different town. I didn't fit in, but I didn't particularly mind. They all seemed so high school, and fitting in with them was not what I wanted to be. It made lunchtime a little lonely. After I got to feeling entirely too pathetic sitting in the parking lot, I decided to drive to a nearby park and eat there. Equally pathetic, probably, but at least lower profile. Another disadvantage to being the girl no one knew was the fact that none of the baggers would bag for me unless it was absolutely necessary. They tended to hang out with the cashiers they were friends with, even when I was obviously elbow deep in canned goods and frozen pizzas.

As with any job, I learned some things about people and about grocery stores. I learned that food stamps are often not used wisely. I learned that baby food was the most fun thing to ring up ever. I learned which baggers were the best, and which were worthless. I learned that patches and gum that help you stop smoking are really expensive. I learned that the bathroom was straight down aisle 10. I learned that "Red Line 1" was in fact red. But mostly, I learned produce numbers.

Each fruit and each vegetable has a four digit number, starting with 4. Rather than use barcodes, you ring them up using these numbers. It became my goal to learn a new produce number every day, since looking them up was such a pain and made you look inefficient and stupid. Bananas were the first one everyone learned, because they're the most commonly bought. Most everything else sold more during particularly times of the year or when they were on sale. Bananas always sold. But soon I added canteloupe and broccoli to my repetoire. Then baking potatoes, leaf lettuce, sweet onions, limes. My head was swimming with them. Late that summer, I was hanging out with some friends in a room where there was a bowl of wax fruit. Suddenly, I realized I was naming the numbers of every piece of fruit. Yeah, I know my friends were impressed.

That summer was really the only time I worked at Winn Dixie. I worked a couple of weeks over Christmas, but when I moved to Boone, it was pointless to keep my shirt and badge. But I'll never forget my first job and the valuable lessons I learned there.

Bananas are 4011.