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Safeway's 'Unofficial Grandmother'
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"The point is not to have 52 years," she said. "It's to look as good as I do."
Dickerson wakes up each morning at 2:30 to get ready for work. She has breakfast, then drives from her home in Bowie to the store in Silver Spring. From the start of her shift at 5 a.m. until it ends at 1:30 p.m., Dickerson is on her feet. She doesn't stop to eat and hates taking lunch breaks. The lull puts her to sleep, she said. She needs to keep moving.
On a recent afternoon, she stood watch over checkout lane No. 1, the express line. Her hands flew over the register -- bananas, code 4011 -- and she bagged groceries in seconds. She drummed her fingers when another employee was slow to bring bus passes to one of her customers, slowing down the line.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," she murmured under her breath.
Dickerson worked so quickly that soon there was no one left to ring up. So she started teasing her co-workers with her famous razor-sharp tongue. Knight said the one thing that hasn't changed about Dickerson over the years is her wit. Whenever he broaches touchy subjects like slowing down or buying a hearing aid, she quickly dismisses him.
"I've seen them come, and I've seen them go, and you can just go," Knight said, recalling one of her favorite lines.
After her shift, Dickerson heads home to make a hot cup of coffee and turn her TV to American Movie Classics. She goes to bed after watching "MASH," then wakes up in the wee hours to do it all over again. One day she may get tired of this life. But right now, she simply does not have time to retire.
"It's not on my schedule," Dickerson said.
