A Monday memory....

My first paying job.....

was in the donut shop section of Tice Farms,

way back in 1968.

Friends had already started working there on the weekends and I couldn't wait to get my working papers and join them.  I worked Saturdays and Sundays, from 8am until 6pm.

My wage? A dollar an hour. Seems a shockingly low number now, but I thought it was great, paying as much as I had previously earned babysitting.

("Farm labor" did not have to pay the same rate as minimum wage.)

Training didn't take long and I soon got into the swing of things. There was a man in the back section who mixed the dough in a huge mixer, then spread it onto a floured wooden table to rise. Next, the risen dough was fed into a machine with a conveyor belt which contained a tiny river of cooking oil.  After the donuts came through their cycle, our task was to remove them and toss them into either the powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar drum.  There the machine would turn round and round, until the donuts were completely covered and exited the other side.

The donuts were then arranged in neat rows, in long rectangular wire baskets.  These were either stacked or placed in the glass cabinet.

Quite new to me, and quickly becoming my favorite, were the glazed donuts.  After rising and baking, they were gathered on wooden dowels and hung up on a rack.  Then a large metal pitcher, filled with the glaze, would be held above the top row and the sweet ooze would flow down over all the donuts.

They were best eaten straight away, while they were still warm and gooey.

Pure heaven!

Less exciting were the variety of "filled" donuts we assisted in making.  These included apple, blueberry, strawberry, and a vanilla cream.  I seem to recall tiny insects circling the large yellow containers that held the fillings, so I passed on sampling those.

Truth be told, the days were quite long and the job was tedious at times.

The most difficult days were those of the Autumn.

People would drive from great distances in order to reach the Farm and soak up the atmosphere, as well as the produce.  Tice's was well known for its sweet cider, made on site.  So "cider and donuts" were as suited as "milk and cookies" - if you bought one, you had to buy the other.

And buy they did!  The line would stretch and wrap around the building, with waits of at least twenty to thirty minutes.  That line formed by opening and continued non-stop for the entire day.  So we workers were truly "run off our feet" most days.

By the time my Dad would come for me in the car, I was often covered, literally, from head to toe in powdered sugar, despite the knee length apron I wore.  I even had it in my hair!  I can recall sitting at the dinner table, exhausted, and unable to eat a bite.  I suspect the fact that I had shoved a couple of donuts in my mouth during the work day probably contributed to my lack of appetite too.

Donut making did not seem to be my calling, so I gave up the job after several months.

Despite all the hard work, the experience certainly taught me a great deal.

If nothing else, it expanded my knowledge of donuts dramatically.