Anne and I were travelling around Europe in our late teens trying out being backpackers. It had taken us a whole year to convince our parents that we were old enough and responsible enough to do it. Things didn’t work out as planned.
A week into our trip we were in Frankfurt Germany. We had just arrived by train from Paris and we went to the closest hostel left our things there while our dorm was being cleaned and went to get some lunch. We arrived back later that afternoon to discover that our backpacks, with all our clothes, our travelers cheques and passports had been stolen. It could not have been worse as we had left our wallets in the backpacks and taken only a few eurodollars to get lunch.
It was horrible feeling so helpless and desperate. We immediately went to the police, who were unhelpful in laying a charge against the hostel. They claimed that if we left it in an unlocked area in the hostel that we had no claim against them. Such was life. Anne and I were two very unhappy backpackers. We had only the clothes we wore on our bodies and between us about US$30.
That night we used 10 dollars eating at Macdonald’s as that was all we could afford, as the other 20 dollars went for applications for new passports. We tried calling our parents reverse charges but to our dismay they were away on holiday and this was before cell phones existed. It was quite terrible having no money, not even enough to buy a meal.
We stayed at the hostel that night telling them we would pay them as soon as money was sent to us from our families. The next day we both set off to try the police again. They told us it would take 1 week to get us new passports and to get the traveler’s cheques reissued.
Anne and I decided we best get temporary waiting jobs or whatever to buy us food and clothes until the week was over. We were still wearing our clothes from day before.
After 3 hours of walking in and out of restaurants asking for any job we sat down together and just cried. We were tired, hungry and now had 2 dollars left so we shared a muffin and decided we would continue to search for a job.
We finally came to a restaurant nightclub. It was down a few stairs below the street level and had a huge neon light on the side with the name "Night Owls" and a picture of owls. We walked down the stairs and asked for any job whether it be waiting tables, or cleaning dishes.
The man at the front desk was wearing a tuxedo and in perfect English said " I may be able to help you, but you would earn minimum wages. You can earn good tips however".
We were ecstatic that a lifeline had been given to us and we would be able to have some cash again. It is a terrible feeling to be so desperate. The man then said, "You need to arrive at 6pm for work".
We thanked him for the job and then Anne sheepishly said to him "We had our bags stolen so we don't have any other clothes to wear".
He smiled and said that didn't matter as the club provided the clothes to its staff anyway. We were so relieved.
At 6pm we arrived at the restaurant and went inside. It was nothing like we expected. It had tables set up with poles for table dancing and was very dark inside. In we walked wearing our jeans and tourist T-shirts. A lady approached us and ushered us into a room behind the kitchen.
In a strong German accent she introduced herself "Hello my name is Claude, I am the manageress, you first eat", and she pointed us to sit down at this table and gave us menus, "and then you change into the outfits I give you". She looked us up and down and said pointing at me "you a small" and then at Anne "and you a medium".
We were starving. We had not eaten anything all day other than the muffin we shared. We ordered huge meals and then Claude came back holding some hangers of clothes and placed them on the table. She then said this was all she had and we would have select one each and change into them after we had finished our meals. We were so ravenous that we didn't even look at what she had handed us to wear.
She then said "you must start work at 6:30 and your job is to serve the food and drinks to the guests. You will get paid 2 dollars an hour." She placed our meals on the table in front of us and she left the room.
We shifted the hangers of clothes onto the next table and ate our meals. We finished them off in only a few minutes. We were starving from fasting all day and suddenly felt re-energised from the sumptuous meal.
It was almost 6:20 so we finished our drinks and lifted up the hangers and started looking at the clothes we would have to put on. There were three hangars and three different coloured outfits. I took the white one and passed the black and blue ones to Anne. The white outfit I was holding was a very short miniskirt, made of sheer material. It was see through. I just laughed, knowing I would never get into this and I looked on at Anne who was holding the black outfit. It looked like a long stocking in black lycra, a shiny and stretchy material. The last outfit was a blue shiny miniskirt, also quite short and made of a spandex.
"Anne, I will take the blue one", I said.
"You can't have it, I have to wear it as its a size 12 and the black one is too small for me", she replied. Anne is about a foot taller than me and much bigger boned. Clearly, she would not fit into anything smaller than a 12 and with these form fitting outfits it would still be a squeeze.
I took the black outfit and looked at the label. It had written on it - size 8 catsuit. It looked like a long stocking with not much there. I said to Anne, "I can't wear this thing- whatever it is".
We both looked at each other and then at the door and whispered "Should we run for it, and quickly get out of this strange place". There had to be more options, we can't parade in these revealing outfits looking like prostitutes. It then dawned upon me that in a nightclub with lady table dancing the waitresses would be expected to dress like this. Why didn't we realise this before we walked in.
We thought about a way for us to go to the Claude and say we were sorry but we never realised that this nightclub was that type of club. The problem was that we had already eaten dinner and didn't even have the money to pay for it. We reminded each other that we were pretty desperate for money and we best just work and earn some so we could eat and buy some clothes to wear. I had been wearing the same jeans and underwear and t-shirt for 2 days and so had Anne. She was more aware of it and had thrown her panties and bra into the basin in our dorm in the morning refusing to wear it until it had been washed. It was still wet when we left so she was in her jeans and t-shirt with nothing underneath.
It was 6:30 now and Claude came back into the room sounding irritated she said "You both need to get to work now" and she looked at her watch. We had not changed yet. She continued "Hurry up, leave your clothes in bags here and get changed and then out to the restaurant, there are customers sitting and waiting for service".
I took a chance and said "Claude, have you got any other outfits, these don't fit us", I lied.
I had asked the wrong question and she came down on us "I have been good giving you a job. This is what the waitresses wear, I have given you sizes 8 and 12 as you asked. The other outfits are all away being cleaned. This is all I have, so you better get changed and to work NOW!"
There was a tiny stock room with a mirror where we decided to go change. We grabbed the clothes and went inside closing the door behind us. Anne had the blue miniskirt in her hands and I had the catsuit. Anne was already squeezing her body into the blue dress. It was tight around the hips and butt. She actually looked quite good in it. It had a round opening between the breasts, but Anne had small size A breasts. The dress was skintight and quite short.
I unzipped my jeans and pulled them down my legs, throwing them onto the chair. I lifted the black shiny catsuit off the hangar and after working out where the leg openings were I slid my feet in and with my hands I pulled the hosiery material up over my torso. Anne looked at me and said "your panties are showing right through!".