Darwin stops by Hardee's...

First of all, to give a little background: I recently became employed at a Hardee's fast food restaurant in Green Cove Springs. Green Cove is a primarily low income area of the county and is about 30 minutes from my house in Middleburg. I work what I term a "mid-day shift" from about 8 to about 4. I am lunch cook, among other duties, so during the breakfast hours I prepare the store for lunch.

Now, the women that work the morning shift are all black and over 25. This is obviously a very different demographic than the ones I tend to interact with. Well, as they cook in the mornings I am running around performing various duties. Most of these duties are out of sight of these women, so they are completely unaware of the things I do. Every time I see them I smile courteously and continue about my business. Well recently, everytime I smile at one of them they would laugh. I was at a complete loss to figure out why. Eventually I started catching snatches of conversation, while they were standing around and doing nothing, about how they are of the opinion that I stand around and do nothing. I was pretty shocked at first because I have always prided myself on being a hard worker. Anyway, as the day wore on today it got worse. Eventually it erupted into outright criticisms of the things I was doing, despite them having no clue what my job entails. I was so amused at this outright hypocrisy, because most of their time is spent figuring out ways to do as little work as possible. When they have to move about the store they waddle as slowly as possible. I was so amused by them that when I took my break, I shouted back into the kitchen, "Look! I'm taking a break from taking a break!" Of course they found this very amusing and erupted into laughter. I went and sat in my car, after I ate, and thought about my situation chuckling to myself. Then I went back into the store and waited until both of the culprits were standing near each other. This is what I said:
"You know what you're going to be doing this August? You're going to be coming back to Hardee's to work for minimum wage. You know what I'm going to be doing this August? I'm going to college because there is know way in hell I'm going to be working at a fast food joint for minimum wage when I'm your age!"
Of course they were stunned and apalled. I was so pleased with myself that I just went back about my business and smiled for the rest of the day. The true laugh came when I got my check today, and found that I was getting paid a full dollar an hour more than them. Social darwinism is my comfort in a world full of ingorant people trying to avoid an honest days work.