Does anyone remember Robert Hall Clothes? Well this has almost nothing to do with them, except I worked at one when I was sixteen.
I was the low man, of course, doing all the back room stuff and allowed out front to replace stock.
The "princes" of the staff were the salesmen
. Besides preying on the public, one group liked to compete in pepper eating toughness.
As the gopher, I was sent out to get food for them, so they could stay and sell.
Well, most of the little fast food places there in San Gabriel were Mexican-family owned and I discovered they usually had some private stock peppers they would give me to give the hotshots back at the store.
Ah, the delights of macho posturing and "saving face."
To the red faces, tears and sweat Bruce mentions, add wheezing, snot, coughing, speechlessness and futile rushing to the bathroom.
I can't help laughing as I write this 64 years later.
