‘We were making $10, $15 per night, which was a lot in tips. I started at 75 cents an hour.’

Back in the days when teen-agers drove souped-up Chevys and hung out at drive-in malt shops, Norma Richmond began her waitressing career. The 57-year-old mother of five has waited on cars and tables for 35 years, the last 20 at Ricky’s Family Restaurant in Mission Valley. Richmond credits her longevity at the restaurant to the kindness of its owners, Claude Koven and Al Sheren. In her beige-and-brown uniform with the ruffled collar, Richmond moves efficiently among her tables, working the breakfast and lunch rushes with nary a hair out of place. She serves up the restaurant’s famous apple pancakes and other family fare with a smile. Richmond, who has a long list of regulars who ask to sit at her tables, is known for calling her customers “honey.” Times staff writer Caroline Lemke interviewed her, and Vince Compagnone photographed her.

I’ve been a waitress all my life, since I got out of high school. I started in the mid-’50s. We were carhopping in those days. I was at George’s Drive-in in Imperial Beach about three or four years. It was where a lot of the high-school kids came in. That’s when Cokes were 10 cents each. Then I worked the Oscar’s stand in San Ysidro--they were quite popular here in San Diego. Then I worked an Oscar’s stand on L Street in Chula Vista.

I worked the fountain filling the drinks, milk shakes, the sodas, banana splits, sundaes, like we all did in those days. And finally a little waitressing on the outside. Most of it was outside, carhopping. There weren’t that many booths or anything. Drive-ins were very popular in those days. I think the fast foods kind of beat them out.

Our tips then, of course, didn’t even come close to what they are now. I worked at what was considered a kid’s drive-in, and in those days they were customizing their cars. This was in 1953, ‘54, ‘55, ’56. You couldn’t tell whether it was a Ford or a Chevy. But the kids were into customizing their cars, fixing them up, and they’d come in and order two Cokes, that was 21 cents, and, when they said, “Keep the change,” and gave you a quarter, they meant it sincerely, not as an insult. Because those four pennies went a long way. The kids did not have the money to spend that they have now. The majority of their money went in their cars in those days. We were making $10, $15 per night, which was a lot in tips. I started at 75 cents an hour, just like everybody else. I could live on that and have some left over.

I tried a few office jobs. I did work at Rohr in the shipping department, and I took the usual bookkeeping, shorthand, typing. And I worked as a bookkeeper in El Centro for a gentleman that owned a battery business, but it just wasn’t for me. I think probably the enclosement, just sitting day after day after day, wasn’t for me. I feel better moving. Standing bothers me, walking does not. I could never become a clerk or any position that moves slow. It just isn’t for me.

The majority of us here were working mothers. We worked one job, a lot of us worked two jobs, and raised our families. We did not have the conveniences as far as the home goes, all the washers and dryers and things. When I was working, the diapers were washed on a wringer-type machine and hung on the line. But we always had time. It was just the thing to do. All three of my sons were in Little League, and I always had time to go to the games. My eldest and middle son were active in Boy Scouts, and we went on their outings on the weekends. Honey, we just did it in those days.

I’m pretty lucky here. I honestly don’t have that many frustrations because I don’t allow myself to get that way. I do the hiring here, and I have a staff that mostly includes girls who have been here many years.

Every restaurant is operated differently, I don’t care if it’s breakfast and lunch or a dinner house. You have your menus to learn, their way of running things, and, for me, it is much easier to stay in one place then it would be every two or three years changing.