continued from "The Nevele Country Club - Ellenville-NY.
After Passover, I sort of got tired of Victor’s imperial ways. Herman, a grey-haired waiter who used to have his station next to Victor’s knowing I was unhappy with him approached me with an offer I couldn’t refuse, and to Victor’s utter consternation I dropped him and started working with Herman. But that didn’t last long. I was in for the shock of my life when at the very week before the summer season began I was uncerimoniously dropped by Herman who had a fresh Brazilian bus-boy to take my place. Victor who had already got over my 'defection' could not help but gloat about my undoing. I felt betrayed by Herman, the bastard, but couldn’t do much about it because that's the way it goes in this heartless business.
I was given a position everyone shunned: to work as a relief bus-boy for those on their day off. It was a strange arrangement because the bus-boys I relieved had to pay me out of his weekly pay. The bus-boys paid me on the Sunday afternoon after their guests left for the city. It was really weird having 6 bus-boys whose days-off I had covered come to me all at once and pay me out of their tiny tip-envelopes. What a fish market that was. But it worked all right. Americans are really organized when it comes to money matters.
The Nevele dining room. The picture must be from the 1970s because I remember those black water pitchers so well.
Relieving bus-boys on their day-off I had the chance to work with almost every single waiter and waitress at the Nevele dining room. One day at a time. Then, after a couple of weeks I was given a new position: to work permanently with Guru Dev in the Kids’ Section. Older kids and teen-agers. That’s when everything started falling into places.
GEORGE KONG
But before we get to that I’d like to introduce George Kong, a very nice Chinese young man who started working at the Nevele a few weeks before the Summer season. We became fast friends almost instantly. I liked George because he was intelligent and had a bright school-curriculum. He was still at High School, probably 1977 would be his graduation year. I liked George and George liked me. I liked him because he spoke English as a native speaker. He was born in the U.S. His mother worked in the pantry - in the kitchen - and she was a very loud lady who was always shouting at everyone. After she realized I was her son’s buddy she started treating me well, but I always avoided her. George was her opposite, such a calm & collected kid. Soon after, other bus-boys started talking about us as if we were an ‘item’, but George was too young and used to a High School environment to be bothered with that kind of innuendo. Anyway, most of the talk was done in Spanish and Portuguese so George was not even aware of it, which gave me a quiet pleasure knowing that the rabble were so low and their pettiness so base and inane that it wouldn’t even make itself known to their intended target.
George and I used to talk all the time while we were setting up tables; before the dining room doors opened, while guests were entering; while guests were sitting; while in the queue for soup or bread; while carrying bus-boxes to the dishwashing crowd; while waiting for the last guests to leave; while setting up for the next meal. It was never a dull moment, and I guess the other fellows were jealous of me, because I was able to be friends with someone whose language was not Portuguese or Spanish. Maybe they thought I would have to stick with those of my own age. George behaved like a regular American citizen who knew how to speak the local language.
I tried to learn as much English as I could listening to him talking about all kinds of subjects. He used to say that he only went swimming when the thermometres marked 90º Farenheit. I was even learning how to deal with the Farenheit gradation with George. At first I was afraid George would make fun of my accent but he never showed any concern about that which made me proud of myself. He was used to hearing all types of accents hailing from a Chinese background. He probably spoke more than one kind of Chinese too, although I never heard him speaking anything but English.
Even when Summer really arrived and I was demoted to being a relief-bus-boy George and I found ways to talk to each other when we happened to be working near each other's stations.
Then, when I started working with the kids in the back I saw less and less of George because we started work earlier and left earlier too. George was lucky enough to have found another Chinese bus-boy to bond with. Jeffrey was a diminutive Chinese youth whose parents worked in the kitchen somewhere. He was shy and collected whereas George was exuberant and out-going. I wish I kept in contact with George. I wonder whatever happened to him. He must have gone on and become a middle class professional.
Then, when I started working with the kids in the back I saw less and less of George because we started work earlier and left earlier too. George was lucky enough to have found another Chinese bus-boy to bond with. Jeffrey was a diminutive Chinese youth whose parents worked in the kitchen somewhere. He was shy and collected whereas George was exuberant and out-going. I wish I kept in contact with George. I wonder whatever happened to him. He must have gone on and become a middle class professional.
Nevele's Kid's Section
Working with the kids, I entered a different world where English was spoken all the time instead of the usual half-Spanish-and-Portuguese. Guru Dev was a Jewish young man from Manhattan who obviously was a rebel against his heritage even though he was earning his summer money at a Jewish resort. Stewart, the other waiter, was a local Ellenville boy and Gates, Stewie's bus-boy, was a young Jewish local dude who was stoned most of the time. It was so much more fun working with these guys than with those who only thought about how much money they would make at the end of the week.
Stewie was blonde and very popular with girls and boys. He played the guitar and sang reasonably well. He was particularly fond of America, a threesome pop group who broke out with 'A horse with no name' in 1972 and had been very popular in the summer and fall of 1975. Stewie played 'Sister Golden Hair' [# 1 in 14 June 1975], 'Tin man' [November 1974], 'Sand man', 'Daisy Jane' , 'Lonely people' and other assorted hits.
Stewie was blonde and very popular with girls and boys. He played the guitar and sang reasonably well. He was particularly fond of America, a threesome pop group who broke out with 'A horse with no name' in 1972 and had been very popular in the summer and fall of 1975. Stewie played 'Sister Golden Hair' [# 1 in 14 June 1975], 'Tin man' [November 1974], 'Sand man', 'Daisy Jane' , 'Lonely people' and other assorted hits.
I suddenly noticed I was popular with the teens whom I served and liked by my co-workers as well. I was a mystery to them because I never mingled with anybody after work. As soon as we were finished, I would go back to Jeffery's room where we watch TV together or talked about life in general.
Guru Dev was curious about my whereabouts after-hours and one day he asked me: ‘Why don’t I ever see you with other Brazilian boys after work?’ I knew exactly what he meant because Brazilians are a lot of gossipers and they must have told something about my living with an American Blackman. I just evaded the question with a smirk and a silly answer.
Guru Dev was a very smart guy who wore a short wig on top of his long hair in order to be allowed to work as a waiter at the Nevele and even though he was into Indian religion and philosophy he was very matter-of-fact in his dealing with money and a neat and reliable waiter. I thought he might be gay but I was never sure about it as he wasn't sure about my sexuality.
Guru Dev and myself served about 4 giant tables of older teens and Stewart & Dale served another set of four tables with younger teens. That was the teen-ager section of the Nevele at the very back of the dining room. Even though the kids paid a little less money than the adults, actually we ended up getting the same amount of tip-money because we served a bigger number of them. In the end serving kids was a much better deal than serving those old farts. Kids come early and leave as soon as they finish eating whereas adults drink endless cups of coffee or tea after their meal. Most kids skip soup altogether. The only thing we had to work on the double was the massive ordering of iced-tea and ice-cream for lunch and sherbert for dinner.
Salmon pink was the colour of the dishes for breakfast and lunch and blue was the colour for dinner, as the Jewish custom dictates. One cannot eat dairy products in the same dish that one has eaten meat. That’s the kosher law. Basically one is not supposed to mix the mother’s milk with the mother’s flesh and blood. Does that make sense? None whatsoever, but that is their custom. The ideal situation should be not to kill the mother to start with. Then there would not be any flesh to mix with milk or blood.
Guru Dev was curious about my whereabouts after-hours and one day he asked me: ‘Why don’t I ever see you with other Brazilian boys after work?’ I knew exactly what he meant because Brazilians are a lot of gossipers and they must have told something about my living with an American Blackman. I just evaded the question with a smirk and a silly answer.
Guru Dev was a very smart guy who wore a short wig on top of his long hair in order to be allowed to work as a waiter at the Nevele and even though he was into Indian religion and philosophy he was very matter-of-fact in his dealing with money and a neat and reliable waiter. I thought he might be gay but I was never sure about it as he wasn't sure about my sexuality.
Guru Dev and myself served about 4 giant tables of older teens and Stewart & Dale served another set of four tables with younger teens. That was the teen-ager section of the Nevele at the very back of the dining room. Even though the kids paid a little less money than the adults, actually we ended up getting the same amount of tip-money because we served a bigger number of them. In the end serving kids was a much better deal than serving those old farts. Kids come early and leave as soon as they finish eating whereas adults drink endless cups of coffee or tea after their meal. Most kids skip soup altogether. The only thing we had to work on the double was the massive ordering of iced-tea and ice-cream for lunch and sherbert for dinner.
Salmon pink was the colour of the dishes for breakfast and lunch and blue was the colour for dinner, as the Jewish custom dictates. One cannot eat dairy products in the same dish that one has eaten meat. That’s the kosher law. Basically one is not supposed to mix the mother’s milk with the mother’s flesh and blood. Does that make sense? None whatsoever, but that is their custom. The ideal situation should be not to kill the mother to start with. Then there would not be any flesh to mix with milk or blood.
Peter Frampton’s Live Album ‘Frampton comes alive’ was all the rage in the summer of 1976. Jefferson Starship’s ‘Red Octopus’ came a strong second.
Some kids were curious about my music tastes and would ask me if I liked Peter Frampton's music being myself a foreigner. I suppose I was a special foreigner because I knew most of the Top 40 hits.
Guru Dev used to hum Lou Rawls’ ‘You’ll never find another love like mine’, which I hated and then make fun of myself telling the kids it was my favourite tune. Dev whose real name I don’t remember was such a good person. He used to be very skillful in getting the kids to decide their orders very quickly. As we started earlier than the rest, Dev was getting the main dish ordered and served when the adults were still entering the dining room.
Working in such a huge dining-room is like a race against time. We, the bus-boys used to ‘root for’ our waiters to see who would be first or second in the kitchen line. Dev was always first because there was no way of beating him. We started at least 15 minutes before the rest and as we skipped the soup racket, we ended up with a two-course meal: main dish and dessert. That was my revenge for having been dumped by bloody Herman. I ended up better off than all of them together.
Flying me back to Memphis got to find my Daisy Jane...
A Nevele post-card from 1948.
Ellenville-NY nowadays. Now that the Nevele doesn't exist anymore Ellenville looks even smaller.
The Nevele Country Club dining-room staff in the summer of 1976.
This photo was taken on a Sunday after lunch just when everyone was happy with their tips received a little earlier. In summer guests usually stayed for a period of seven days arriving at Friday dinner and leaving after Sunday lunch. There was a lot of waiters and bus-boys not included here. I could name at least 10 off the top of my head.
Starting from the last row in the back from left to right: 1. Scott, bus-boy; 2. 'Tomato Juice' nickname of a funny Colombian bb; 3. Rudy Aguilera; 4. Dalmo, Victor's Brazilian bb; 5. Humberto Flores, Peruvian bb; 6. Santos Rodrigues, Peruvian waiter; 7. Pablo Castro, an older Peruvian bb; 8. Angelo, older Colombian bb; 9. tall Jewish bb; 10. Luiz Amorim (myself); 11. George Kong, my best friend; 12. Harry Wellman, oldest bb at Nevele.
2nd row from the top - from left to right: 13. Alberto (standing up), tallest staff member - a Colombian bb; 14. Alejandro Abondano, Colombian bb; 15. Ernesto, Colombian bb; 16. waiter Londoño, Juan Pablos' brother; 17. Oscar Diez; 18. Ray Foster; 19. Kaya, bb from Turkey; 20. Ernesto, Tadeu's Colombian bb; 21. Kats bb; 22. another young Jewish bb.
3rd row from the top: 23. a new Colombian bb; 24. Echeverria, 'el Cura', an older Colombian bb; 25. Henry (Burro) the funniest Colombian bb in the place; 26. Jeffrey, diminutive Chinese bb; 27. Juan Pablo Londoño; 28. a Jewish bb; 29. Fernando Montoya; 30. Henry Castaño ('Petardo'); 31. Oscar (flaco), Colombian bb; 32. Bob Schiess, shortest bb in the Nevele; 33. Leon Gomes; 34: Lima, older Brazilian bb.
4th row from the top (all standing up): 35. Arthur Miller, waiter; 36. a Jewish bb; 37. Abby bb; 38. Kaya's brother; 39. Jay, social-democrat Jewish bb; 40. Don, bb; 41. Mike Molina, only Puerto-rican bb; 42. Victor's old friend whose name I can't recall; 43. Jayme; 44. a Jewish waiter with rimless glasses; 45. Gabriel Morales, young Chilean waiter; 46. Joe, waiter; 47. Kaplan.
5th row from the top (front row): 48. Carlos Benz, waiter; 49. Tchaikowsky, Brazilian bb; 50. Perelechinsky, Argentine waiter; 51. Bobby Brown, waiters' captain; 52. Mr. Irving Gerstein, Nevele's Maitre 'D; 53. Sam Rasummy, 2nd captain; 54. Cindy Friedman; 55. Cindy Chueng; 56. Meylee Newman; 57. Edna Tuo.
sitting cross-legged on the floor: 58. Jorge Quintero, the Captain's Colombian bb; 59. Ritchie, a Jewish waiter; 60. Bruce Fox, a favourite Jewish waiter (he was going to Medical school).
Note: What I mean by 'Jewish bus-boy'. They are those Jewish high-school students who work at Jewish resorts only during the summer months to make a little cash of their own. It means that they arrive a week before Memorial Day and leave soon after Labor Day. I don't recall most of their names 'cause there was not enough time to get acquainted with them during the busy summertime days.
Waiters & Waitresses working at The Nevele Country Club circa 1975-1976:
Captain: Bob Brown; bb: Jorge Quintero
1. Sam Rasummy (had a heart attack) – Captain’s deputy
2. Terry (Tadeu); bb: Ernesto (?)
3. Larry Feld; bb: Tchaikowsky
4. Victor; bb: Dalmo
5. Victor’s old & bald grumpy companion
6. Herman; bb: Brazilian bus-boy with glasses
7. Evelyn (or would be Beverly?)
8. Marilyn (?) her blonde (too) Ellenville friend
9. Colombian coffee planter (forget his name); first waiter I worked with.
10. Arthur Miller
11. Perelechinsky (Argentine);
12. Rudy Aguilera (Argentine);
13. Ray Foster (gambler);
14. Santos Rodrigues (Peruvian smiley man)
15. Leon Gomez
16. Jayme (?)
17. Gabriel Morales (from Chile)
18. Joe
19. Kaplan
20. Carlos Benz
21. Cindy Friedman
22. Cindy Chueng
23. Merilee Allyn Newman
24. Edna Tuo
25. Ritchie Levy
26. Bruce Fox
27. Gary Weinstein
28. Mauricio, mineiro magro (Brazilian);
29. Guru Dev (Mitch Glucksman) (Teenager section) bb: Luiz
30. Stewart Taylor (Stewie); bb: Dale Gates
31. Londoño (Juan Pablo’s brother)
32. Jewish student with rimless glasses
33. Cathi (Oscar Diez’s sweet-heart)
34. Howie (Howard Sandler) some time my waiter
Bus-boys
1. Tchaikowsky Petersen (Tichinha)
2. Humberto Flores
3. Juan Pablo Londoño
4. Myself (Luiz Amorim)
5. George Kong
6. Gustavo
7. Oscar Diez
8. Zé (from Governador Valadares)
9. Lima (1st room-mate)
10. Dalmo (Victor’s bb)
11. Herman’s Brazilian bb w glasses
12. Dale Gates
13. Henry Castaño (Petardo)
14. Jorge Quintero
15. Mike Molina
16. Echeverria (Cura)
17. Ernesto (Tadeu’s bb - Colombian smiling face)
18. Pablo Castro
19. Fernando Montoya
20. Peruvian bb w Variant; cara fechada
21. Angelo (grey-haired bb)
22. Tall Jewish boy
23. Kaya (from Turkey)
24. Kaya’s brother
25. Kats
26. Alberto (tallest man in dining-room)
27. Tomato Juice
28. Alejandro Abondano
29. Ernesto
30. Henry (Burro)
31. Oscar (he thin one)
32. Jeffrey (the other Chinese boy)
33. Abby
34. Jay (social-democrat)
35. Don Berger
36. Michael’s friend (?)
37. Harry Wellman (oldest bb in Nevele)
38. Bob Schiess (shortest bb)
39. Carmine (his father was a waiter, but I don't recall his name).
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Ellenville's only movie theatre is still in existence... but it doesn't show movies anymore.
Brazilian Nevele staff had an array of new vocabulary concerning the art of waiting and busing off dishes: sarapiar means 'set up tables', disha (dishwasher machine), parkear (park a car), ringar (telephone someone).
The Nevele through the day...
Mike Molina (encircled at the centre) was the 2nd tallest man in the dining-room staff; Alberto (from Colombia) standing up in the back was the tallest of all.
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