In this episode, Julia, a familiar face at the Hotchkiss Snack Bar, reflects on her days working as a high schooler, how the campus has evolved, and the joy she finds in serving students today. Tune in to hear her tips for navigating the snack bar, insights on student life, and memories of her journey from Millerton to Hotchkiss.
Hi, I’ m Dwyer, and I’ m Teo, and welcome to The Hodgepodge. This is our podcast to interview staff and faculty members about their lives and experiences working at Hodgkiss. Today, we’ re interviewing Julia from The Snack Bar about working at Hodgkiss as a high schooler, tips on how to get free drinks from The Snack Bar, and the problem of stealing. You know her, you love her, and you’ re about to get to know her better. We hope you enjoy. I want to fold clothes for you. I want to make you feel good. Baby, I want to do the right thing. Hi, Julia. Thank you for coming on the podcast today. You’ re very welcome. And I guess we ll start off by asking you about your life story, where you grew up, what your childhood was like.
Well, first, I am Julia from Dining Services, and I work in Snack Bar. Yeah. So I grew up actually in Millerton, New York, and when I was a teenager, I actually worked in Dining Service here. It was an all -boys school, and they wore jackets, pants. Shirt and tie. And back then, the evening was run mostly by part -time students that would come in after school. Oh, wow. So. And that was, you did that during high school? Correct. Where did you go to school? We would talk public school. Public school, okay. Yeah, in Armenia, New York. Uh-huh. And you would come here to get your money? Yeah, about 3:30-ish. We would carpool. I don’ t know. I don’ t know.
It was a time when a lot of parents were still working, so we’ d go around and pick up kids and come over and drop us off, and the parent or parents would come back and pick us up after dining hall, after we finished working. And the one thing I used to love to do that I have never seen since I’ ve been back here is we used to make sheet trays of Jell-O. And we would take a knife and go all the way down and make like rows, and the Jell-O would sit there just like, you know, bouncing around. That sounds really good. Yeah, you should bring that back. Yeah, I was having that tonight. Did the snack bar exist back then? Excuse me?
Did the snack bar exist back then, or was it just the dining hall? To be honest, I don’ t recall, because you’ re talking probably almost 40 years ago. So, I know in my 20s it did exist, and I believe it was on the ground floor here, and I worked in it, but I don’ t remember anything. I don’ t remember anything about it. So, I was here as a teenager in my 20s, and now. And what did you do in between that time? Uh, I was working out in Boston, got married, and bounced around outside of Philadelphia, worked in Princeton, New Jersey, then went to Dover, Delaware, then to Bettendorf, Iowa, because of my ex-husband’ s job. Yeah, he kept getting new jobs to move up the ladder, per se.
Yeah, and moving around. Yeah, yeah. That’ s fun, man. What do you think’ s changed the most, Hotchkiss, from when you were 20 and a teenager to now? Is there anything you’ ve noticed? Well, there’ s young ladies here. Yeah, yeah. The dress code is totally different. I never attended sports, so I have been able to do that now, and I’ m sure there’ s more sports. There’ s more sports. There’ s more sports now than there used to be, and there’ s a lot more new buildings. What’ s your favorite sports team on campus? That’ s tough. That’ s tough, because I did not grow up with ice hockey, but we had our son play travel hockey, but I had never seen lacrosse until last year, and I really, that’ s really neat.
I’ ve never played lacrosse, but it’ s really fun to watch. Oh, it is. Because it’ s almost a little bit, to me, like hockey. Not identical to it, but the movement around and everything, and passing the ball, you know, passing the puck around. And that you can go behind the goal, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Our girls’ team is nine in the country now, so we’ re quite good at lacrosse. Oh! Yeah. That. s awesome. I did not know. Yeah. We have a strong lacrosse team. Oh, that’ s good. Can you tell us a little bit about a day in the life of you working? What’ s it like working in the snack bar? What’ s it like?
We’ ll come in the morning and set up to open for nine o ‘ clock, so it’ s like maybe adding ice, putting muffins out, making coffee, and then, you know, we open for the students, which is always awesome, because if I’ m just a little down, once you and the other students come in, I just, I start to light up. You guys are wonderful to work with and have come in. That’ s really nice. Thank you. And then, you know, we close for lunchtime and, you know, come back and wipe tables down and soda machine and different little things to get ready to open again. And what do you like to do after working? Go home and relax. Yeah. I have a dog now, so I will take him out, and sometimes we go on a walk.
I watch way too much TV. Now that the weather’ s nice, though, I like to go out and garden. I’ m not good at it, but I love it, and I have to work barehanded. I’ ve tried over the years to use gloves, and I just cannot. What plants are you growing now? Pretty soon, we’ ll be planting what will we, well, the daffodils are up, the hyacinths, the forsythium, but then we ll plant pansies, petunias. Yes, I’ m trying to think. Some of them just come up every year. Daisies, black-eyed Susans. Some of the plants I don’ t even know the names of. Have you been to Fairfield Farm? Yes, but not the tour that everybody gets. Oh, okay. Yeah, but I would love to be up there in the garden.
You do? Oh, yeah. You have the hat on right now. I should go to Fairfield. Yeah, springtime, I put the Fairfield hat on. During winter, I kind of wear Torrey Hills. Yeah. But, yeah, I’ ve been up there. I’ ve kind of walked around a little bit. I’ ve seen, you know, the cows when they’ re over in the far fields. I think I only saw the pigs once, but we do events up there. What TV do you watch when you’ re at home at night? What type of shows? Yeah. And do you have a favorite show? NCIS and Blue Bloods, pretty much. And then I’ ll find a movie every so often. And what’ s your favorite movie of all time? Oh, jeez. Oh, Beauty and the Beast. Oh.
Solid choice. Which Beauty and the Beast? The animated one? Yes. I prefer the animated, probably just because that’ s the first one I saw. Yeah. And I know a couple of the voices, so it’ s kind of neat to see the characters with the voice you know. What did you think of the live- action one? It was good, also. It was good? It’ s just totally different watching, you know, characters versus, like, real life. Yeah. So. I always think the live action Lion King was kind of weird to see. I’ ve heard you think about it, but. Yeah, I think it is. Yeah, very much so, because you get a lot more feeling of seeing, I’ m terrible at remembering names, but seeing them. Yeah.
And I think it’ s also interesting to see how they interact with each other, especially, is it Scarface? Or who’ s the bad one? Scar. Scar? And then Mufasa is the good guy. Right. Yeah. So when you see that confrontation. Yeah. It’ s very different. And the hyenas. Oh. Yeah. You definitely get the chills. Yeah, but the Broadway show does a good job of doing it. That’ s what I’ ve heard. Yeah, I’ ve not seen it, but. Yeah, Sharon Playhouse did a version of it. Oh, really? And I’ m like, how are they going to do this? How are they going to do that? And for being local and a little bit smaller type thing, I thought they did a very good job. Do you go to the Sharon Playhouse a lot?
I haven’ t heard of it before. Oh, you haven’ t? Yeah, it’ s, those who are into it, the arts and that, it’ s very popular. They actually have some professional actors or actresses that will come up and play parts. And we have some local ones also. Yeah. So, and they do a wide variety. Just, I haven’ t been lately. And they also do a couple of the, not children, children, but they have young ones that are probably, anywhere from six to teenagers, put on a couple of performances during the summer. Maybe that’ s why you’ re not that familiar. Yeah. Because it’ s during, more during the summertime. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned you live in Millerton. How has Millerton changed? Oh, like night and day? Really? Yeah.
Turney’ s was closed down a few years ago, but that was like the general store. And we, us kids would go in there and we had penny candy, candy. So, it’ s like we’ d sit there and they We got a brown paper bag, and we tell them how many of each little candies that we want. And, you know, they put it in; I mean, for 15 or 20 cents, you got like 15 or 20 little candies. Ooh. And also, they had newspapers. The newspaper was there; they sold newspapers there, and they also had fantastic milkshakes. And then, they had a section on the other side that was kind of like hunting- type stuff. Flannel shirts… I can’ t even think of some of the things because it’ s been so long.
Was that hunting store still there? There’ s a store that says guns and ammo.’ I have no idea what that is; it’ s not associated with Turney’ s, because he passed away. Oh, I see. Yeah. I don’ t know if it was his dad that had it and then he took it on. And then Gary used to work there, I think, when he was a teenager and he still lived in the area. So, he would come in and help. Gary? Who is Gary? When? He grew up in Millerton. He was in my brother’ s class. Oh, wow. So, it was a big thing for him to be part of Turney. So, he’ d come and help out. What’ s your favorite store in Millerton? When?
We’ ll get in now, now and all the time. I would have to say I’ m not good at picking one thing. So, I would say Turney’ s because of the pen and candy. And then we used to have a store called Deltzen’s. And they had just about everything you could think of. Paint, nails, hammers. But then they had greeting cards. They had fabric you could buy to make clothes with. They sold clothes. Shoes. I mean, it just was like a little bit of everything. So, it was kind of fun to go. And toys. So, as a kid, going in and doing these things, you know, playing toys. I used to sew. So, it was just really nice having everything local. What about now? I really don’ t go to downtown, to be honest.
But I would have to say Harney’ s Tea. Yeah, we go there a lot. Do you? Yeah. I got my mom tea for Mother’ s Day last year. I did, too. That’ s awesome. I think it’ s neat because it’ Local. Yeah. And they were small. They actually were out of a little house in Lakeville, across from the fire company. So, they started out real tiny. And then they eventually moved to Millerton. And, of course, their tea room is a lot bigger than what the house was. And they moved the tea, to produce it or make it or whatever they do over in Millerton. So, it’ s neat because you can go in and taste different ones. They’ ll make them for you to taste. Yeah. So, my favorite is white Ceylon silver tea.
But it’ s one of the more expensive ones because you can only pick it at a certain time. It’ s like when it’ s very young and it S almost like velvet type thing. We have a whole assortment of Harney & Sons teas here that we get for breakfast. I think it’ s wonderful. They support locally. Yeah. And Harney’ s has grown to the point where they’ re even in hotels over in Europe. Yeah. Yeah. I think they just opened a tasting room in Soho, in Manhattan. Oh, they did? Yeah. So. Yeah. So, I knew they were real tiny and they weren’ t very much around. And then someone told me they were traveling in Europe somewhere in one of the hotels. Wow. And they were serving it. I was like, really?
That’ s just local tea to us. It’ s no big deal. Yeah. Yeah. That’ s super cool. We tried Japanese Sencha today. Oh, you did? Did you like it or not? So-so? Yeah. Different? I think too sophisticated for our team. Too much of a taste. Yeah. Okay. So, do you have a favorite? I like Paris. I really like Paris. You like Paris. Okay. Yeah. It depends how tired I am. I think I’ ll go for English breakfast if I’ m really tired. Okay. And then green tea. You like your green teas. I’ m not. Right. If you don’ t need that little extra kick. Yeah. Exactly. How else has Millerton changed? A lot more New York City people. Yeah. On weekends, I don’ t drive through town very often because I don’ t really need to.
But you drive through there on Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. It’ s like these cars are all over, lying up and down both sides of the street. And like, where are these people? So, like the inn is fairly newer. That used to be a doctor’ s office in his house. Yeah. So, it’ s just a lot busier, a lot busier. Yeah. And they brought the movie house back. There was a time it closed up and they added the upstairs. So, now they have two there. So, a lot of people are coming to town for that. I have not been to the movie house yet. I want to go some time though. Okay. Yeah. Well, and back when I was younger, the train actually came to New York. I think through Millerton.
Oh, really? Yeah. From New York? Yeah. Oh, wow. That would have been helpful. Yeah. I know. It still happens. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That’ s true. Yeah. I think they should have really kind of kept it. I mean, it’ s nice having the rail trail. I mean, that’ s a wonderful addition. I think it gets more people out. But I think with the commuting now, I think it’ s grown so much. And it used to go, I believe, all the way up to Hillsdale. The rail trail? It does now. But actually, the train. Oh, the train. Oh, okay. How long is the rail trail? And where does it go? I have not completed it. I believe they did extend it to Hillsdale. And I don’ t know how far below Emilia, so it’ s a good distance.
Wow. And it varies along it, I’ ve heard. I mean, back to the snack bar. Okay. Can you say that again? Can you tell us a bit about what are the most sold items? I think the biggest thing and the hottest thing is your Eggo bagels in the morning. I get those almost every day, I think. And the interesting thing is sausage is way more popular. Yeah. And bagels. They really don’ t care for the English muffins or sometimes we have them on rolls. And my preference is English muffins. Really? Yeah. I think I got it once and I was very upset. I’ m sure. That’ s what I’m saying. The Eggo bagels are like the biggest hit in there. Yeah. Even compared to afternoon or evening.
And slowly they’ re learning they can specify like an Eggo bagel that they can get sausage and egg. So, if they don’ t want the cheese, they can have it without cheese. Oh. We also make it egg and cheese. I’ ve had that sometimes. And we have one student that likes two sausage patties and one slice of cheese. So, if there’ s something specific, a lot of them don’ t know you can actually ask for, if you have time to wait for it. Yeah. And then chicken tenders, I would say, would be the next biggest seller. They’ re good. Yeah. Hey, was roommates good? Yeah, yes. Tenders a lot. Do you? Yeah, I learned another life hack, I think, from you that all of the sodas you’ re allowed to refill for free.
Oh, with a water bottle, which apparently no one knows. Correct, because everyone just buys cups each time. Yes, yeah. And also, you can get the hot tea and the coffee. Yeah, if you have your own container. And you wouldn’ t believe how many faculty members do not know. I did not know that. Yeah, oh, you didn’ t know if you have your own container, you can help yourself to soda, hot tea, and coffee? Yeah, that’ s helpful. That’ s it, right? Yeah, yeah. You can get something other than water. Yeah. Which is big now. So, that’ s a good thing. Since Dining Hall is closed next door to the snack bar. Yeah. So, we see a lot more water. Has there been a lot more traffic in the snack bar since they closed the Dining Hall?
Yes and no. Like, if you’ re studying for an exam or a test coming up, you don’ t want to walk across. Definitely, breakfasts, I think, have decreased a lot. Just because it takes me about seven minutes to walk over from the snack bar. Yeah. And I’ m not sure how many minutes back, I’ ve never timed it, because of the hill. Yeah. So, I can see where at times, depending on the schedules of the students, why they may not go over. Yeah. I’ ve definitely had some chem tests in the afternoon and stayed in the snack bar. They tore it down. Yeah. And that’ s one thing that interests me is you all like to come in and, like, study. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don’ t know how many times I go through.
Yeah. I mean, the laptops are up, the books are out, or the notebook and the writing notes and everything. Yeah. So, it’ s pretty cool. The students really do enjoy it. What’ s your favorite item from the snack bar? I don’ t usually buy anything. Oh, okay. It’ s very rare. You don’ t get to take a sausage, egg, and cheese? No. Oh, okay. We pay for what we would like from the snack bar. Mm-hmm. Once in a while, I’ ll try something that I’ ve never seen before that we have. I’ m sure you want to know what, and right now, I’ m not going to be able to think on my feet. I do want to try the Main Root Blueberry Soda. I’ ve not tried that.
Yeah, I’ ve not. I didn’ t even know that existed. Yeah. Maybe I’ ll be there this afternoon to get one. Yeah. Do you have any fun anecdotes from the snack bar? A favorite memory? Or maybe a student did something funny. Yeah. My memory is not that great when it comes to that. I’ m sure there has been, because I do chuckle. Yeah. I think just because I’ m at the counter, I’ m not always out and about. I love it when the student’ s there buying their thing, and the friend next to them is trying to push it over to get their friend to buy it, and it gets pushed back and forth, back and forth. Yeah. Like, nope, nope, they’ re holding it. No, I’ m not paying for it.
I guess on a more serious note, we want to ask you about stealing in the snack bar. What do you think? What do you kind of think of that? How we should combat it? And just generally your experience with it. I personally don’ t see it, except for one student would come in, and he’ d be … Finally, I saw it. He’ Do open up the door to the drink, take a drink out, would look at it, study it, read it, put it back, and would take another one. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, you realize he’ s taking it out of a snack bar. So then I started staring him down. I don’ t know if I should or shouldn’ t, but then all of a sudden, it kind of stopped.
So I know I’ ve heard the night crew say they see a lot of it. I don’ t really know what you could do about it. I don’ t know if it’ s really worth it, per se, because you don’ t want to create too much animosity. Yeah. It’ s supposed to be where you go and enjoy yourself. I mean, I’ m sure it happens outside of here in stores, too. And some, I think, they may do it just to do it, literally, just to see if they can do it. I don’ t have any more questions. Okay. I don’ t think I do, either. Okay. Well, I’ ll just say, while we were telling people about this interview that we would have you on, everyone I mentioned to said, oh, Julia, she’ s so nice.
Oh, my gosh. My mom wouldn’ t agree with that. Well, I think the whole Hotchkiss community would. Yeah. Well, thank you. We’ re really happy to have you here. Yeah. I think this was a great interview. Thank you. And I think you, the two of you, and the other students make it fun. That’ s good. And sometimes they’ ll say, how. Is your day going? And I have never heard anything really negative. Oh, it’ s going. It’ s okay. Oh, it’ s great today. I’ ve never really heard, oh, it’ s horrible, it’ s really bad, which is, you know, it’ s really nice to hear and know the students probably appreciate sometimes hearing just somebody asking them how their day is. I definitely do. And I think- Do you?
It makes a difference. Yeah. I think everyone does. Because when you ask, people can tell you really care. Yeah. And listen. Okay. It’ s always nice to just have a little bit of small talk while buying that. In between classes. Yeah. Just to kind of break up a little bit of that. Yeah. And have someone ask how you’ re doing. Because, I mean, we’ re all here without our parents, so it’ s nice to have an adult. And I have told other people, it’ s basically your home away from home. Yeah. It definitely is a community. It is support system. And it has to be your home. I mean, you’ re living here. You eat here. You do your laundry. You sleep. You study. Yeah. So, I have come to the point that I call it home away from home. Yeah. That’ s definitely true for all of us. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much. You’ re very welcome. Take care. Yeah. Thank you. You’re welcome.