When You Want An Everything Bagel We Give You Everything

In my last two years of university, I did my one stint in hospitality/food service. I worked part-time at one of the campus cafeterias that specialized mostly in sandwiches and pizzas.

One evening, I was working at the sandwich station when a female student came in and ordered a toasted bagel. At the time, we were simply using one of the bread knives (long and sharp) to cut the bagels in half for toasting. The most common technique was to hold the bagel down with the palm of one hand and slice it horizontally.

In my rush to get it cut, I didn’t hold the bagel down firmly enough. The bagel slipped under my hand and my thumb basically ran up the length of the knife, almost slicing a fair chunk of the end of my thumb off.

There was no pain (thank you, sharp knife), but as I looked in shock at the copious flow of blood from my thumb, I dropped the knife and ran back to the kitchen for first aid. As I stumbled through the door to the back, I heard the following:

Student: “Don’t get any blood on my bagel!”

The on-duty supervisor helped me bandage my injury enough to get to Medical Services for proper treatment and stitches.

When I came in for my next shift a few days later, the sandwich station had been supplied with a proper bagel holder to prevent any further “incidents”.

I still remember the customer’s reaction over forty years later.