the pool I worked at via gyminsight.com

It was Memorial Day Weekend 2012.  I had just started my new summer job working at a pool snack bar.  The first day went by smoothly but then came the second day…the day I washed the floor with grease and became immortalized in snack bar legend.The first day of work, I learned the basics of the job – how to cook a burger, stock supplies, make a frappe, etc.  Of course, I also learned the proper sequence for cleaning the floor at night when we closed.  First, you scrub with soapy water.  Second, mop with water (and a dash of soap, though this is contentious and depends on who you ask, but I digress).  Simple enough.

Fast forward to the next day where I was trusted to clean the floor at the end of the night by myself with no supervision.  This proved to be a bad idea, for I mistook the big jug of grease to be the big jug of soap.  They weren’t even near each other.  I was just so sure of myself even though another coworker questioned my judgement.  It was part of my whole new “I’m going to be assertive” thing.

So, I scrubbed the floor with a water-grease mixture.  My coworker mopped after me and then we locked the door and left.

Two days later, I was sitting in my Spanish class, waiting for everyone to arrive.  Eventually, another coworker came in and said, “You washed the floor with grease??”  I immediately spluttered and was confused.  How did I wash the floor with grease?  I ended up texting my boss apologizing profusely, but they laughed it off and said it was no problem.  I still felt like an idiot.

Now, in 2015, it has entered the lore of the snack bar.  Whenever we train new employees, we all say, “Don’t wash the floor with grease!” But do you know what?  I still maintain that the floors of the snack bar were never as clean as they were that fateful Memorial Day weekend.