When I was 16 years old I worked part-time as a cashier at IGA grocery store on Long Island. In the summers, the managers would ask for volunteers to drive out with them to the Hamptons to work in their locations that were short-staffed. I was always the first to raise my hand. Even though it was only for the day and I would be working, it was an adventure and an exciting place for a 16-year-old to be—the premier summer playground of the rich and famous!

The Amagansett store was always bananas-busy, so busy in fact that I barely had time for a bathroom break, much less to even look up to see who I was ringing (remember, this was before scanners, when everything needed to be rung up manually). Because we were in such a wealthy area, many of the “regulars” had “house accounts” with the store so they could send their housekeepers to do their grocery shopping and be billed later.