Working: Katie Morin and Elizabeth Marcotte not your average carhops

LEWISTON — Katie Morin and Elizabeth Marcotte are working as carhops at Val’s Drive-In for the summer, just like they’ve done since they were about 14. Big smiles and personalities are particularly welcome here. In fact, the regulars at this cash-only, 1950s throwback have come to expect it.

“When customers come to Val’s, they are expecting a ‘Happy Days’ experience,” said owner Chris Lawrence who, with the help of his mother, Gail Lawrence, have come to depend on the tight-knit cadre of carhops as much as they depend on their bosses for work. And they come back year after year in may cases.

Almost 20 now, Morin, a Lewiston High School graduate, is working her sixth summer at Val’s.

“I really like it here,” she said. “It’s a way for me to really just connect with the community. I love all the regulars that we have coming in here that still to this day go at the beginning of every season. They’re like, ‘oh my gosh, you still work here? What are you up to now?'”

Morin works weekends at Val’s because she has another job as an intern in Sen. Susan Collins’ office four days a week, and is taking two summer classes at Thomas College, where she’s set to graduate early this December with a degree in political science in just two and a half years.

“We’re very proud of Katie,” Gail Lawrence slips into the conversation as if she were her own daughter.

Elizabeth Marcotte, left, and Katie Morin wait for customers Friday morning at Val’s Drive-In on Sabattus Street in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

BUSINESS LESSONS, LIFE LESSONS

The money Morin has earned over the years at Val’s has helped pay her way through college and for her car. “I bought my car in cash, like right before my 16th birthday,” she said proudly.

At 20, “Lizzie” Marcotte, as she’s known by her friends and coworkers, has also paid for her cars — three in all — from working at Val’s. She is attending Southern Maine Community College after graduating from Edward Little High School. She’s been taking business classes, but said she wants to switch to radiology.

Like Morin, she’s outgoing and likes working at Val’s.

“I think it’s fun and we make good money and there’s a good group of us girls that work here,” she said.

“Both girls are upbeat and happy as they interact with their customers,” Chris Lawrence said.

Morin grew up in a family that owns a business so the lessons she’s learned at Val’s run parallel with those of her family’s, especially how the economy shapes how that business looks and responds.

“The economy right now, everything, all the prices are high around us so we have a lot less business because people are struggling to pay their bills and their heating bill went up over the winter, so they don’t have a lot of extra money to spend in the summer. So, we kind of tweak our deals during the week to match what’s going on so that people come in depending on that.”

There’s another aspect of working at Val’s Drive-In that will likely stick with them forever — the skills they’ve picked up without even realizing it.

“It’s interesting to see how Chris and Gail keep things similar from when Gail’s father ran everything, and like the things that they still do,” Morin said. “Like the uniforms … we have a cash register that’s from literally when they opened and you like have to push the buttons down manually.”

The “old-school” ways mean all the carhops have to learn to count back change in their heads as they go, starting at a young age. “When people like pay me out of $100, and I count back there 20, 40, 60, 80. Here you go. Here’s your change. Your total is this. This is your change,” Morin said. “They’re absolutely floored by a 15 year-old knowing how to do that.”

Marcotte is not as expressive about her experience at Val’s, although Chris Lawrence describes her this way: “Lizzie is the ‘fun’ one. All the girls love working with her because she makes them all laugh.”

But she has also learned a lot more than she lets on. “Lizzie’s in charge of making all the ice creams, pouring all the drinks, putting all the food out and tallying up all the slips and adding up everything, and then she does the cash register,” Morin said.

A customer peeks out the back seat window Friday afternoon as Elizabeth Marcotte delivers an order at Val’s Drive-In on Sabattus Street in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

TAKING ADVICE FROM A TEENAGER

Working with the public also teaches the carhops a lot about people. Some are cranky or rude, but most are not, Marcotte said, in fact just the opposite. “Yeah, most of our customers are nice, we get a lot of the same customers.”

Morin said she is surprised by the number of connections she’s made at Val’s.

Then there’s the story about a regular who used to pull up in his company van every Thursday and they would talk. He came back this year to reveal he had taken her advice from a few years back.

“‘I don’t know if you remember me, but I was thinking about selling my company. And you told me to go for it, and I did it,'” she recounted. “‘I bought 50-acres up north I moved up,'” Morin said the man told her.

Morin said it was absolutely baffling. “I never knew that something that I said to someone would have that kind of impact on their life, and the amount of stories I’ve heard of people’s lives working here is absolutely unreal. I’m so blessed to be able to like be connected to the community in this capacity, yeah.”

Morin said she’ll probably take a job in government before she goes back to get her master’s degree, or go to law school.

Marcotte said she’s always wanted to work in the medical field, so radiology makes sense to her.

Both women said they love the outdoors, with snowmobiling, fishing and all terrain vehicle riding high on Morin’s list.

For Marcotte, it’s the beach, hanging out with friends and snowboarding in winter, even teaching her friends at Lost Valley in Auburn, although she said she prefers the bigger mountains when she wants to get serious.

Chris Lawrence has nothing but praise for both workers. “Both Elizabeth and Katie are very reliable, honest, teachable and accurate with their orders. They both have lots of common sense, which is a great asset when you’re working in a fast-food establishment.”

He acknowledges the two are very different and offered a final analogy. “If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Grease,’ Katie would be Sandy, while Lizzie would be Rizzo! We are very grateful for both of them.”