Waitress: America's Unsung Heroine 1985 1st Capra Press VG+ True Stories ☕
by Leon Elder, Lin Rolens
$48 · Offered by eBay
First edition
☕ WAITRESS: AMERICA’S UNSUNG HEROINE True Anecdotes from the Women Who Keep America Fed Leon Elder & Lin Rolens Capra Press, Santa Barbara, 1985 Apparent first edition (no later printings stated). Trade paperback. ISBN 0884962350. 136 pages. Black-and-white photographs throughout. Measures approximately 9.25″ × 7.5″. Long before the pie-baking musical and the indie film that shared the name, this little Capra Press gem was already listening. Elder and Rolens sat down with real working waitresses and let them talk—sharp, funny, tired, proud, and completely unfiltered. The result is a warm, clear-eyed oral history of the women who carry trays, memorize orders, absorb bad moods, and still somehow keep the whole American restaurant machine humming. You’ll meet the lifer who has been pouring coffee since the Truman administration, the college graduate who discovered the tips were better than the degree, the woman whose husband still thinks she works in a bank, and dozens of others whose stories feel like they could have been told yesterday. The black-and-white photos catch them mid-shift: white uniforms, sensible shoes, that particular mix of exhaustion and competence that only people who have waited tables instantly recognize. Leon Elder (the same Noel Young who founded Capra Press and once wrote the unlikely bestseller Hot Tubs under this pen name) and co-author Lin Rolens give these voices room to breathe. No heavy academic overlay—just the women themselves, talking about custo
- Publisher: Capra Press
- Year: 1985
- Binding: Paperback
- ISBN: 9780884962359
- Condition: Very Good
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