McDonalds

On my 16th birthday my Mom took me to McDonalds

It was my request

Big fan of the quarter pounder

We're sitting there

I'm eating my fries

And she says, "You know you're sixteen now you need to get a job."

Didn't really see that coming

I was pretty busy with jazz band and swim team

But I knew she meant it

My folks got me a car

I needed to pay for gas and insurance

Okay, I thought and walked up to the counter

"Can I get a job application?"

"One moment"

A woman approaches

"Fill this out. Are you available for an interview in 10 minutes?"

I was

I got hired right there on my sixteen birthday

I thought I would work at the register

Nope 

Cook

Not sure how it works at McDonalds today

But in 1984 we actually cooked the food

On grills

In grease

They had a good system with timers to tell you when to flip the burgers

They had temperatures that were set

We had to learn all that but it was tight

Except

That those of us in the kitchen had to estimate how much to make

You'd make the cheeseburger

Slide it down the bin

Slide a number behind it

which was ten minutes from the round clock on the wall

12:58

You pick up an 8 and slide it behind the burgers

10 minutes

If it didn't sell in that time it went into a bin

To throw away

It was counted at the end of the night

It was registered

Within about 8 months

I start getting put in charge 

Calling The Shots

I'm not even 17 years old

"Put down 12, 3 quarters, 2 filet of fish, 3 McChicken. NUGGETS! WE NEED NUGGETS!"

The fry guy was in charge of his station

I liked it though

There was pressure

There was work

But it did feel good as a young person to have some authority in life

What didn't feel good was sometimes getting home around 2am

Closing

Jazz band was at 6:30am

I was making $3.35 an hour

Working for gas

At that time that's about 4 gallons an hour

Not bad

Hard work though

But I DID have fun

TWO STORIES

One time a guy came in and asked for extra extra extra pickles

I took it as a challenge

I spent time layering pickle after pickle

It was the biggest pickle burger you've ever seen

I sent it down the slide

"PICKLE BURGER!"

Off it goes

A few minutes later the guy comes back

"That's the best burger I've ever eaten."

Another time a customer orders

"Filet o Fish, extra Tartar."

Well this is a little tricky

The tarter is shot from a gun

I'm not joking

You squeeze the gun

And it distributes the perfect amount

According to Ray Croc

And that makes it easy for a 17 year old chef

So, I do the first squeeze

Then a bit of the second

Just a bit

It's already a lot of tartar

A lot

Customer comes back

"I said extra tartar"

A new filet o fish come out of the oil

And I drown it

It worked for pickle guy

I can barely close the Styrofoam container

Customer is irate

"Is this some sort of joke??!!!!"

Win some you lose some