Scrooge and the Misses
Employees came and left at Dairy Queen when working for Mr. Traze. The many comings and goings was for different reasons for the different employees. Since David’s first meeting with the owner of Dairy Queen, it became obvious that Mr. Traze and his money were Scrooge-like. David did get paid the first week working at Dairy Queen. He was paid $0.90 an hour while the federal minimum wage at that time was $1.60. Illinois is among the few states that set sub-minimum wages for teenagers. Mr. Traze was below the required state minimum wage.
Raymond Traze or Alastair Sim? HINT: No glasses
Raymond Traze or Alastair Sim? HINT: No glasses
If a customer commented on the white menu board with black and red lettering having its prices too high, Mr. Traze would directed the customer to the lower far left window at the customer counter. There taped on the glass was Dairy Queen’s Commonwealth Edison bill, the electric company. It would have the total cost of that month’s electric usage circled in red ink. He would then tell the customer, “Tell Edison to stop charging businesses such an enormous amount for electricity.”
Most Dairy Queens closed during the winter’s cold months. The traditional layout of Dairy Queen stores was no indoor sitting area. Maybe one or two picnic tables would be somewhere in the park lot. Customers order from nature’s outdoors through a screen window.Inside the store, the soda jerk created the ice cream phenomenon. It was much like today’s drive thru windows minus the automobile and screens.
With food being added to the menu, this made Dairy Queen competitive to the surrounding McDonald’s and Burger King. Mr. Traze’s store had no indoor seating area. Regardless of his money woes, the Scrooge did find money and put on an addition to the front of the store. From the order windows to the sidewall, he enclosed this area with brick walls half way up and windows all along the top of the brick walls. Three doors allowed access into the new area: Two on each side, and a double sliding door allowing them to open as during the old days of summer. Along the windows was a counter and bar stools for the shoppers to eat in heated and dry comfort. Dairy Queen of Evanston stayed open during most of the construction. There was a three week period the store was completely shut down. By the end of David’s first year of employment, the addition was open to the public.
After the facelift, Mrs. Traze came and worked during some of the daytime shifts. No one knew why. It could have been to cut cost for Raymond Traze. Or it could have been for her to understand the cost of money. Whenever an employee asked for a pay raise, Mr. Traze would point to the electric bill taped on the front window, and lecture that, “You teenagers don’t understand the cost of money.” His reasoning didn’t make a whole lot of sense to them.
Most Dairy Queens closed during the winter’s cold months. The traditional layout of Dairy Queen stores was no indoor sitting area. Maybe one or two picnic tables would be somewhere in the park lot. Customers order from nature’s outdoors through a screen window.Inside the store, the soda jerk created the ice cream phenomenon. It was much like today’s drive thru windows minus the automobile and screens.
With food being added to the menu, this made Dairy Queen competitive to the surrounding McDonald’s and Burger King. Mr. Traze’s store had no indoor seating area. Regardless of his money woes, the Scrooge did find money and put on an addition to the front of the store. From the order windows to the sidewall, he enclosed this area with brick walls half way up and windows all along the top of the brick walls. Three doors allowed access into the new area: Two on each side, and a double sliding door allowing them to open as during the old days of summer. Along the windows was a counter and bar stools for the shoppers to eat in heated and dry comfort. Dairy Queen of Evanston stayed open during most of the construction. There was a three week period the store was completely shut down. By the end of David’s first year of employment, the addition was open to the public.
After the facelift, Mrs. Traze came and worked during some of the daytime shifts. No one knew why. It could have been to cut cost for Raymond Traze. Or it could have been for her to understand the cost of money. Whenever an employee asked for a pay raise, Mr. Traze would point to the electric bill taped on the front window, and lecture that, “You teenagers don’t understand the cost of money.” His reasoning didn’t make a whole lot of sense to them.
Mrs. Traze was an older woman who looked like an older Heidi of the Alps, a Shirley Temple version with a wide round face and red puffy cheeks. Her older body still had a full figure. She must have been a looker during her younger days. The only thing brighter than her brain was her bright blonde hair and the blue florescence bulbs that spotted the store’s ceiling. For some reason, her eyes always seemed dazed. To this day, when told a blond-joke, David pictures Mrs. Traze.
If cost savings was the purpose of having Mrs. Traze work at the store, it made no cents [sense]. She would get many orders wrong. Thus, her finished item would be thrown out and remade. Sometimes her re-made items had to be thrown out and the third time was the winner. It got to the point that when two windows were open, the customers knew to wait in her line. For her ice cream cones may have lack the signature ripple and curl, all the same, her cones and sundaes surpassed the required size. A small cone had a medium size amount of ice cream; and a medium cone had a large size amount of ice cream; and a large cone would have too much ice cream that it capsized and was served as a cone in a cup - the sone sticking out of the cup's top.
If cost savings was the purpose of having Mrs. Traze work at the store, it made no cents [sense]. She would get many orders wrong. Thus, her finished item would be thrown out and remade. Sometimes her re-made items had to be thrown out and the third time was the winner. It got to the point that when two windows were open, the customers knew to wait in her line. For her ice cream cones may have lack the signature ripple and curl, all the same, her cones and sundaes surpassed the required size. A small cone had a medium size amount of ice cream; and a medium cone had a large size amount of ice cream; and a large cone would have too much ice cream that it capsized and was served as a cone in a cup - the sone sticking out of the cup's top.
“I just don’t understand why my lines are longer than your line,” Mrs. Traze would say to David. “Let’s switch windows.”
They did, and the line of people would follow her to the new window.
They did, and the line of people would follow her to the new window.