Photo credit: Tom Jenz
"The Waitress"
I met Goldie on 12th and Vliet across from the Milwaukee County Health & Human Services building. She was headed for the corner store. Goldie told me she worked as a waitress at a Chinese restaurant in the Pabst Building. “The virus shut us down,” she said, “but I finally started back to work. I really missed work. Been in food my whole life, and these are the best bosses I ever had, the Chinese.”
This is America, I thought. An African-American woman works with a Chinese business owner, the restaurant frequented by blacks, whites and Hispanics. Then, Goldie shared her career goals. “I wanna get my own food truck, park it outside the downtown bars after closing. You come out of a bar after a night of drinkin’ and you smell my delicious food? Whooooeeeeee!”
Central City Stories is a collection of visual narratives from Milwaukee's central city by writer and fine arts photographer Tom Jenz. You can see more of his work at TomJenzAmerica.com.
