Memories of Summer Jobs, Internships and Hot Dogs on the Curb

The article describes how interns used to flock to restaurants such as Rumors, the Mambo Room, Millie's & Al's, and My Brother's Place where, from the regular menu or specials, they could find a $1 taco and wash it down with a $3 beer. But now the city is the home for the $14 martini, a $9 beer, and a $22 plate of pasta. The article states that the University of Pennsylvania advises students who have accepted unpaid internships to bring along at least $4,000 for room, meals, and incidentals during their eight-week stay in the city.

I am a native Washingtonian and was never a summer intern. I couldn't come to the city because I was already here. And for another thing, we had no congressional representative where I could intern. But I did have a number of small-paying summer jobs: I was a camp counselor whose location alternated between the city and Nanjemoy, Maryland; a laborer at the Post Office where I helped punch holes in mail bags; and a mail room clerk at the Army Times when that publishing operation was located in Foggy Bottom where the Nigerian Embassy is now.

At the last one, I remember we used to bring cheese sandwiches from home for lunch, but on Friday, which was payday, we would go to Blackie's House of Beef, which was nearby and is also long gone, order hamburgers from takeout, and eat them in the park at Washington Circle. The Sabrets hot dog carts had migrated from New York where you could get a  half smoke, chips, and a soft drink for $1.50. I remember sitting on the curb eating a hot dog while convincing myself that the D.C. Department of Health just had to be on top of the hot dog vendor situation.

Two decades later, I was publisher of an enterprise that offered summer editorial internships, and they were paid internships. The program had initially been funded by the widow of giant in that particular industry. She remarried, the funding stopped, and I convinced my superviors to pay for the program out of the operating budget. During my 10-years in the position, we had as many as three interns per summer. We offered $2,500 each as a lump sum, which, allowing for inflation, was probably close to the $4,000 the University of Pennsylvania suggests would cover costs today. It was assumed that the intern would pay for housing out of that sum, but we also provided contacts at local universities where the students could obtain a university room at a reasonable off-season price. My very capable managing and associate editors did the initial screening of applications, and together we picked finalists. The program provided additional editorial coverage when writers took summer vacation time, and the interns came away from it with several articles from a national trade publication for their portfolios.

I was and am proud of that program. I know that at least some of our interns went on to successful editorial careers. But I remember one summer we offered two internships, the finalists accepted, and then two days before he was due to report one of them called to say that he wasn't coming after all. I phoned him back, and I said we had notified all of the other applicants the positions were filled. He had accepted the internship and had an obligation to us. He said he disagreed and hung up. I got so angry that I wrote his dean and told him what a student of his had done. The odd thing was that I received a letter from the student's faculty advisor who indicated she had advised him to ultimately turn the internship down if he found something better. And it was out fault, she wrote, because we hadn't provided the stipend PLUS the cost of housing, noting how expensive housing was in Washington.

I wrote her back and indicated that we had found sources of lower-cost housing, but, more importantly, here we were trying to do something good and we had a faculty member undermining us. I wrote her that there were internships in the city that offered no stipend at all, just the opportunity to work at a publication for the summer and earn clips. And that is the case today. We only had one intern that summer.

And now, according to the Post, interns are lucky to find $22 plates of pasta and an $8 beer.