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Wednesday, March 29, 2000
8A
They sleep as the city works and work as the city sleeps. As Lawrence darkens, they prepare to begin their days.
Night owl regulars, students pulling all-nighters and the moon keep them company.
They rarely get enough sleep, are plagued by shoplifters and face drunken bar rats with fresh beer breath. They have lost touch with friends who work during the day. And often, they work alone, leaving themselves vulnerable to what the night has in store for them.
They work the graveyard shift at the late-night and 24-hour businesses sprinkled throughout Lawrence. These are their stories.
Midnight munchies
Jimmy John's Gourmet Sub Shop; 1447 W. 23rd St.; 1:30 a.m.
Jessica Jessica, Colby junior, has worked Mondays,
Wednesdays and Saturdays at Jimmy Johns for the last
month. She comes in at 11 p.m. and gets home at 3 a.m.
on weeknights and 4 a.m. on weekends.
Luckily for her, she doesn't have class on the days after she works. However, her class schedule has set her sleeping pattern, and she is unable to sleep past 9 a.m., regardless of when she went to bed.
Denise Svaglic, Lawrence resident,
laughs as she tells stories about interest late night customers she has encountered at her job. Svaglic works the night shift at Kwik Shop, 845 Mississippi St.
Although the sub shop was empty at 1:30 a.m. yesterday morning, Veeh said the number of customers drifting in as well as ordering deliveries was fairly constant. "Saturday night is the most unique," she said. "We get a lot of drunk people hanging all over each other. We have some regulars who are loud and come in all the time. "
Although Veeh works the sandwich-making station alone during the late night hours, accompanied at times by a lone delivery driver, she said she hadn't felt concerned about her safety.
Graveyard grocers
Dillons; 3000 W. Sixth St.; 2 a.m.
The Dillons customer service desk is closed, as is the film developing counter. Only one lane is lighted.
Anthony Nieto is the solitary cashier, and he works five and sometimes six nights each week. He works from 10:30 p.m. until 7 a.m. in the required Dilions maroon polo shirt and name tag.
He goes to bed about 4 or 5 p.m. and wakes up about 9:45 p.m. He said that he gravitated toward late night work and that it didn't faze him that most people slept while he worked.
"It would be useful for me to work during the day, I like working at night because it gives me free time during he day," said the
story by Heather Woodward photos by T.J. Johnson
Lawrence resident and former KU student. Nieto attended the University of Kansas from 1983 to 1987.
On his days off, Nieto maintains a normal schedule.
On his days off, Nieto maintains a normal schedule. "I've pretty much trained myself to go to sleep whenever I want to." Nieto said, pausing to help one of the many customers who wandered in for late-night purchases yesterday morning about 2 a.m.
Because the store is short-staffed, Nieto said he had been working six shifts a week since December, which doesn't allow him much time for friends.
"I don't socialize much," he said.
Although Dillons has a security guard at night, Nieto said shoplifting was a sporadic problem.
"One night there was a shoplifter who took a swing at me," he said.
After-hours apothecary
Walgreens Drug Store; 3421 W. Sixth St.; 2:30 a.m.
Walgreens was empty, save one yesterday morning around 2:30 a.m. — Charlie Downing, who was busy sticking color names on rows of Loreal nail polishes in a rainbow of colors.
The Lawrence resident was attracted to the nighttime job, which he has had for the last five months, because he works a seven-day week and has the next week off.
"On my week off, I try to get back onto a normal schedule." he said. "But it doesn't always work."
Spending nights at Walgreens doesn't make for a lot of time with friends.
"It's weird, because sometimes I get home, and I'm ready to be social and have a beer at 9 in the morning," Downing said, rarely turning away from the makeup display.
The drugstore is not immune to strangers in the night. Downing said a man once passed out on the floor by the cash register and that another man had stalked a female employee, sitting in his car watching the store long after he had been kicked out. And there are a lot of shoplifters, especially of the cigar-smoking breed.
"They want the blunts, so they tear off the tags and walk out with them." Downing said. "Generally, though it feels safe. I'm tough."
Late-night lodge
Chrystal Faucher, Lawrence sophomore, was busy reading *Odyssey* by Homer for her Greek and Roman Mythology class at close to 3 a.m. yesterday morning in the Hotel Lawrence lobby.
Hotel Lawrence; 740 Iowa St.; 2:45 a.m.
She sat alone in the plush pink room filled with tables, a couch and a glowing television set.
Faucher divides her week between clerking at the new hotel and working at Munchers Barkery, 925 Iowa St. She is awake during the graveyard shift seven nights each week.
Keeping such odd hours has taken its toll on Faucher, who has dropped out of the University two times but is making A's and B's this semester. Doing her homework between the doughnut delivery and calls from guests and customers seeking reservations has helped Faucher improve her grades.
"I fell asleep in class a lot," she said. "I'm really tired all the time. I usually sleep three to four hours a day, on a good day, five."
When tired on the job, Faucher busies herself with physical tasks, such as vacuuming.
Faucher has stuck with graveyard shifts because she
gets a higher wage than the regular workers. She makes $7,25 an hour at Hotel Lawrence and uses her paychecks to pay rent, bills and tuition and to save toward her upcoming wedding.
"I don't have much of a social life any more." Faucher said. "I see my friends once or twice a week for a couple of hours."
Past midnight at the pump
Kwik Shop ; 845 Mississippi St.
3 a.m.
The Kwik Shop at Ninth and Mississippi streets is never really empty when Denise Svaglic is working, which is five nights a week. Her friends are always sure to stop by, visit and keep late night prowers at bay. Two visitors kept her company yesterday morning, cracking jokes, speaking animatedly and listening to music.
Although Svaglic has witnessed a cast of colorful characters rotate in and out of the gas station — the guy who mooned her, the man who searched through the trash and the woman who began screaming uncontrollably in the dogfood aisle — she is devoted to the regulars.
Svagli, Lawrence resident and former supervisor of Wescso Terrace, works at night so she can spend time with her 9-year-old son when he gets home from school. Two close friends take turns staying with the child during the nights when she's away.
"Right now I'm on a Guns 'n Roses kiss," she said with a hearty, contagious laugh and a flip of her long blond hair.
"I know so many of the customers because this is a neighborhood store, and I'm familiar with a lot of them on a first-name basis." Svaglic said.
Lawrence police constitute a large portion of the regulars, too, which Svaglic appreciates since she has to call them about four times a month about disturbances in or around kwik. She also estimated that shoplifters entered the store three times a night.
To show her appreciation for her loyal customers, Svagliic cooked a full buffet on New Year's Eve. She single-handedly prepared three types of meat, eight salads, assorted vegetables and desserts for the revolving door of customers who rang in the new year at the gas station.
It's 3:30 a.m. and graveyard shifters are halfway done. As the sun rises, they will head home for a breakfast that tastes like dinner, say "good day" as they slip into a slumber that sounds like "good night," only to rise again with the stars and work in a city that is theirs while it's dark.
Above; Jessica Veeh, Calby Junior, prepares a sandwich at Jimmy John's Gourmet Sub Shop, 1447 W. 23rd St. Veeh works the late shift at Jimmy John's three nights a week.
Top: Slow business during the early morning hours gives Charlie Downing, Lawrence resident, time to organize shelves of cosmetics at Walgreens Drug Store, 3421 W. Sixth St. Downing said he been working nighttime shifts at Walgreens for five months.