Work #2
I worked in a jewelry booth for a couple of years, first one day a week, and then full-time. This booth was across the walkway from the bookstore, and paid about twice as much per hour.
The booth was twenty feet long and five feet wide. Along the front and one side were glass cases lit with hot lights that burned our arms when we had the misfortune to brush against them. The booth had wooden boards, six feet by two feet and heavy, that slid along a groove in front of the cases. We filled the grooves with boards, then locked with a padlock for the night. In the morning we reversed the procedure, stacking the boards in cupboards under the cases. The owners never trusted me with a key.
When we weren't helping customers, my friend and I sat at a small wooden table with white plastic chairs and ate too much and talked about mostly nothing and cut wrapping paper into squares that fit around the jewelry boxes. Sometimes we rearranged the cases of jewelry or dribbled the gold chains of necklaces into little piles behind the gems. The prices were not to face up. The customers were supposed to ask us what the prices were, and then we could try to sell them something.
Tourmaline is generally found in granite, in the top third of mountains. They have to blast to get to it. Probably the mountains in Acadia National Park are full of tourmaline, but the park service doesn't allow blasting (this was often met with genuine regret from customers). Tourmaline comes in more colors than any other gemstone. Sometimes it's heat-treated to bring out the deep colors (not something to tell the customers). Pink tourmaline is a secondary birthstone for October, because opals are soft and breakable. Tourmaline is a hard stone, a 6 and a half on the scale. (Or maybe not, maybe I'm finally forgetting.) Tourmaline is Maine's State Stone, but tourmaline comes from all over the world. Therefore, our tourmaline was not guaranteed to come from Maine. We could never have such a selection of fabulous color and clarity if we limited ourselves to one geographic area. This does not, however, change the fact that it is Maine's State Stone. If a chickadee flies into New Hampshire, is it not still Maine's State Bird?
Jewelry customers are often needy, trying things on over and over, asking your opinion and then not liking it, finally choosing the first thing they try on. They look at the color of the gemstone against their skin. They take the jewelry out into the more natural light of the mall. They look at pendants on long and short chains. They hold earrings against their ears. Maine State Law prohibits trying on earrings. They go away to think about it.
We sized their fingers with a group of metal rings in different sizes. Sometimes the sizing rings got stuck on customers' fingers, and then, having no water, we sprayed them with Windex.
The owners called us "the help." They would not accept returns more than two days after Christmas, even in the case of a woman who died before her grandchildren could give her the pendant they spent so long picking out.
I was in the jewelry booth on September 11 when the second plane hit the second tower. My friend and I listened to the news all day on the little boom box radio on the table. A few days later a woman came in and cried while looking in one of the cases. "I knew someone in the second tower," she said. "She was young," she said, "just like you." She could barely get the last words out. I thought about how awful it would be to die at work.
Still, it would be another year before I left.
The booth was twenty feet long and five feet wide. Along the front and one side were glass cases lit with hot lights that burned our arms when we had the misfortune to brush against them. The booth had wooden boards, six feet by two feet and heavy, that slid along a groove in front of the cases. We filled the grooves with boards, then locked with a padlock for the night. In the morning we reversed the procedure, stacking the boards in cupboards under the cases. The owners never trusted me with a key.
When we weren't helping customers, my friend and I sat at a small wooden table with white plastic chairs and ate too much and talked about mostly nothing and cut wrapping paper into squares that fit around the jewelry boxes. Sometimes we rearranged the cases of jewelry or dribbled the gold chains of necklaces into little piles behind the gems. The prices were not to face up. The customers were supposed to ask us what the prices were, and then we could try to sell them something.
Tourmaline is generally found in granite, in the top third of mountains. They have to blast to get to it. Probably the mountains in Acadia National Park are full of tourmaline, but the park service doesn't allow blasting (this was often met with genuine regret from customers). Tourmaline comes in more colors than any other gemstone. Sometimes it's heat-treated to bring out the deep colors (not something to tell the customers). Pink tourmaline is a secondary birthstone for October, because opals are soft and breakable. Tourmaline is a hard stone, a 6 and a half on the scale. (Or maybe not, maybe I'm finally forgetting.) Tourmaline is Maine's State Stone, but tourmaline comes from all over the world. Therefore, our tourmaline was not guaranteed to come from Maine. We could never have such a selection of fabulous color and clarity if we limited ourselves to one geographic area. This does not, however, change the fact that it is Maine's State Stone. If a chickadee flies into New Hampshire, is it not still Maine's State Bird?
Jewelry customers are often needy, trying things on over and over, asking your opinion and then not liking it, finally choosing the first thing they try on. They look at the color of the gemstone against their skin. They take the jewelry out into the more natural light of the mall. They look at pendants on long and short chains. They hold earrings against their ears. Maine State Law prohibits trying on earrings. They go away to think about it.
We sized their fingers with a group of metal rings in different sizes. Sometimes the sizing rings got stuck on customers' fingers, and then, having no water, we sprayed them with Windex.
The owners called us "the help." They would not accept returns more than two days after Christmas, even in the case of a woman who died before her grandchildren could give her the pendant they spent so long picking out.
I was in the jewelry booth on September 11 when the second plane hit the second tower. My friend and I listened to the news all day on the little boom box radio on the table. A few days later a woman came in and cried while looking in one of the cases. "I knew someone in the second tower," she said. "She was young," she said, "just like you." She could barely get the last words out. I thought about how awful it would be to die at work.
Still, it would be another year before I left.
posted by Elizabeth Thorpe at 12:10 AM
1 Comments:
I once worked at a mall as a wishing fountain. I soon tired of having small change thrown at me.
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