Studs #8

Dalores Dante:

       Dante had a really challenging life, being the single mother of 3, working only as a waitress. She was a waitress at the same restaurant for 23 years, and she loved it. Because she loved it so much she was able to support her three kids that her husband left her with. She felt that waitressing was good for someone in a broken home because you could earn fast money. She witnessed a lot of sexism while working, and me often approached her asking for sex and other things. Another area of her job that she didn't love was the fact that her boss was never satisfied with her. She would do well and jealousy would rise, and if she did bad her boss would get angry.  She described her boss as "in life there is always someone who wants somebody's job" (333). She drew attention to the restaurant and people would wait for her specifically.  She really worked hard to make the customers happy, and said "whatever you do be professional" (334). This is really easy to relate to because my family owns a restaurant, and my dad is the same way. He gives everything he has and really tries to please his customers.

Phil Stallings:

       Stallings is a spot welder at the Ford assembly plant, and his job is to basically stand in one spot and push a button all night. He was only able to stop when the line stops. He tried to dream and think about other things in order to reduce tension with the other workers. He wishes that his job was better than it was as he said "I bet there's men who have lived and died out there, never seen the end of the line" (355). He had a major problem with the foremen of the plant because they always use there power to get what they want, and they thought that they were the best. They treated machines better than the people, they ignored emotions. There only hope was to keep the line moving. Stallings had had many different injuries while on the job, yet the doctors would always send him back to work. He said "I love using my hands-- more than I do my mind. I love to be able to put things together and see something in the long run" (358). Another key piece of text was when he said "How can I feel pride in a job where I calla foreman's attention to a mistake, a bad piece of equipment, and he'll ignore it" (359).  This shows his anger toward the doctors and his job in general. He wishes he could have worked in a place where he was able to move, and he wishes that he had went to college. This connects to the working conditions that we talked about earlier in the year. Obviously these are not to the same extent, yet we can still see how the same problems continue to arise.