Photojournalist and artist, Candacy Taylor, was a young waitress and wondered how the older waitresses could handle the exhausting work. “After five years of research, I believed that they actually loved their work. Some tried to retire but could not. These were women of the generation who were raised to believe that a man would take care of them. Many of them are divorced. They found that they could raise their kids on a waitresses salary,” 
she discovered. Candacy’s research led to her book, Counter Culture (Cornell University Press), which profiles waitresses aged 50 and older who have been working in neighborhood diners throughout the United States. The book has been optioned by ABC as the basis for a television series that will star Stephanie Weir (Mad TV), Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond), Margo Martindale (Justified), Delta Burke, Ken Howard, and 
Louis Guzman.
