When Food Court has closed and Everything But Anchovies has stopped delivering, Foodstop is the only place in town where students can acquire that much-needed, just-before-sunrise snack or beverage.
Terry Rose, the night clerk at this convenience store on the South end of Main Street, commented that almost all the nighttime customers are students and likened her job to being the town bartender.
"We keep the little kids in donuts and the athletes in Gatorade," she observed.
Rose feeds and sells caffeine to students from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Thursday.
Rose said she has counseled students about career plans and dispenses coffee and Jolt to students trying to stay awake.
"They keep my coffee pot pretty busy," she said.
At 1:45 a.m., Marc Augustine, an exchange student from Wesleyan, came in. He insisted that Rose let him buy the 18-foot-long red crane-like superstructure which hangs over the counter.
Despite the fact that Augustine is a regular customer, Rose held her ground and refused the sale. Barely able to conceal his disappointment, he explained, "It just looks cool," and he would like to put it in his car or cellar and use it as a "crane or something."
When the topic of annoying customers came up, Augustine proudly related that he bought 50-cent peppermint patties on a credit card.
Rose laughed and said customers were generally courteous with the possible exception of those at the sandwich counter. "I hate the sandwich counter," she complained.
She said drunken Dartmouth students are generally not a problem, but told of one intoxicated student.
"This big guy came in here," she said. "He was too drunk to walk, and picked up two sandwiches."
By the time the customer made it to the counter he had finished one sandwich and most of the second. When Rose asked him how much the sandwiches were he told her he had no idea.
"The thing was he had both the wrappers hanging out of his mouth," Rose said. "The price labels were right on the wrappers."
Thursday nights are the wildest weekdays, she said.
"Last Thursday, some kids were in here playing football with the Gatorade."
Most of the funny incidents happen during the daytime, she said.
A co-worker told her of a fraternity pledge who came in to buy condoms, "clothed in only his Fruit-of-the-Looms" and was then sent back in to buy more when the purchase apparently didn't satisfy the brothers.
But Rose enjoys working at night. "You couldn't pay me enough to get me to go back to working days," she said.
Rose, whose Texas drawl belies her El Paso origins, moved to New Hampshire because she "needed a vacation from her real life." Rose is a certified psychiatric nurse and intends to return to Texas and finish her Bachelor's degree in September. She has lived in the Upper Valley for two months.
