Candacy Taylor - Counter Culture - The American Coffee Shop Waitress

M for Mystery is co-sponsor and will be on hand with copies of the book for purchase. Nonfiction. Oral historian, photographer and former waitress Taylor turned her aching joints into the springboard for a mission: uncovering the experiences of diner waitresses in this sociological overview. Most are 'lifers,' now senior citizens who abhor the idea of retirement. Others may see these women as uneducated service workers, but waitresses see themselves as psychologists, nurses and family to their beloved regulars, who expect a little sass with their ham and eggs... With color photographs (mostly by Taylor) of waitresses in their diners on almost every page plus feisty first-person anecdotes about how the women handle nasty customers and customers who sneak out without paying the bill (one waitress threw a ketchup bottle at them), this unique perspective is much like the professional diner waitress -- difficult to pigeonhole, impossible to ignore.