So when you’re between the ages of 14 and 19 during the summer in Grand Haven, chances are you’re either a server, dock hand or working in one of our many ice cream shops lining the streets. I am 17 and as predicted, I work in a fudge, chocolate and ice cream shop and what I have learned there the past two summers, well, it’s definitely not what I expected. So, here’s the scoop on what it’s like behind the counter and what you should know from the other side.

1. Never underestimate the importance of cleanliness

You never realize how dirty things can get behind an ice cream counter until you’re in the thick of dessert happy hour. Milkshakes spray on the wall, ice cream drops on the floor, chocolate spills and people throw their trash on displays. An hour, heck, minutes after you sweep, polish or pick up, it’s filthy again. I’m not sure the general public realizes just how much or often we clean and how incredibly difficult it is to wipe your children’s ice cream covered hand prints from the windows. If we’re not scooping, making and serving fudge, or catering to your every chocolatey whim, we’re cleaning curious fingerprints, picking up stray trash, dusting and restocking. It’s an all day job really: once one task is done, there’s another waiting.
We know the second there is a break, we have to inspect the floor and make sure it is as clean as possible. So for those on the other side of the counter, I promise we do our best to keep everything spick and span, just so you know.

2. The customer is always right, unless they're wrong

Don’t get me wrong, I love customer service, but sometimes I think people need to be reminded that I’m serving you, but I’m not a servant. I would love to gift wrap your goodies, and print you an extra receipt, and package this separate from that, but I think you can throw away your garbage 10 feet away rather than leave it anywhere you please. That’s all I ask. Also, I do know what I’m talking about when it comes to my job, so when you ask me multiple times if we have a sugar cone, smoothies or baby scoops, I promise you, we do not.

3. It's harder than you think (especially when it's frozen to -20 degrees)

I am truly sorry that it’s taking me 15 minutes to make you a milkshake but here’s the sob story: the vanilla ice cream ran out when my coworker beat me to the bucket, so I had to go into the deep freezer, find the stack of vanilla (it’s like a needle in a haystack, but it’s really cold and everything looks the same), switch out tubs and dig up a freshly frozen double scoop with a sore wrist. Then the vanilla syrup squirted all over my arm and the mixer struggled just about as hard as me to break up the rock hard ice cream. On top of that, nobody replaced the whip cream, so I went to get a new one and then I got cherry juice all over my fingers. So long story long, making that milkshake was not easy but it better be so good it brings everyone to the yard.

What I’m saying is please be patient, because my feet are sore from an eight-hour shift and my wrist is halfway to broken from the ice cream and I’m mentally exhausted from forcing a smile on my face while scooping my 100th superman. It’s not all sprinkles and samples. It’s hard work.

4. In a tourist town, it can be pretty great

Despite all my heated typing, I really do love my job. Which is probably the most unexpected thing I learned the past two summers. In a place like that, you get college and high school kids each with their own stories that just keep going and you get to be a part of them. You could be lucky enough to have a great boss that makes work much more entertaining like, I do. You get to sneakily sample ice cream when you’re desperately hungry. You can step out the door and watch Fourth of July fireworks down the road.
But the best part is when you get to say ‘I love your accent, where’s it from?’ and find one of the sweetest international love stories that brought a couple all the way from Munich to a little beach town in West Michigan. Or when you hand chocolate chip cookie dough to a sad little kid and give his day a total 180.

Anyone that lives in Grand Haven year round immediately has a disposition to hate tourists, but when you work in customer service, you really do have to look past that and realize that they’re not there to clog up the boulevard and take our parking spots. They’re there to enjoy it just like we do, and you get to be a part of it. So it’s my job to make them remember that little fudge shop they loved so much on their trip to Michigan. And that makes all the cleaning, questioning and scooping worthwhile.