My first job was detassling in the corn fields of Illinois. Not as glamorous as you would expect, long days, and just overall not worth it. I forget what I did with the money, as that was $300 I think for a long 2 weeks or so of work.
My first job that I consider my first job was with A&W at College Hills Mall in Normal. You won't find it there any more, as it has been demolished. It was a literal closet. One of those small mall restaurants that had a counter, served maybe 20 items, and had 6 tables to sit at.
The mall was a dying one, but the job had lots of fun points. Most important, I got a couple of my friends jobs there. Nate, my girlfriend BJ for a short while, and Chris. Nate and I went job hunting one Saturday and both filled out an application for there and we both got hired on. My boss was a kind woman named Bonnie that moved like molasses and was not all there.
We had to hand make the root beer every night so it could sit and brew. The walk in cooler to the back was small and was barely a closet. We had to manually do time cards by writing down the times. The register was a register, but it was the soda fountain next to it and the ice cream maker behind your back that really made the place.
I remember cleaning out the fryers there, and burning myself a lot. We made hot dogs, and we would plan it out just right so that an extra dog or two would be left at the end of the night so that it could be a free dinner that was counted as "waste." We didn't get a break, except when either Nate or BJ would visit and they could watch the front. I remember making ice cream floats with sprite instead of root beer, and it was delicious. There was a janitor team there, with the one guy a complete drunk and the woman just a drama queen. I think his name was Dave.
There was our co-worker names Jimmy. Big guy, not too smart, but he was slightly older, a relative of Bonnie, and did his job. We all usually worked alone, except for crossover times as well as busy Saturdays or Sundays.
The mall was a dying mall. It isn't around today, and was leveled for an open air mall. I used to live right across the street, so I walked to work every day. We would have to walk the night deposits and drop them off at the bank that was on the walk home.
There was a crappy, sneaky, lying manager named Chad. He looked and acted like a weasel. I'm glad he wasn't there long before he was fired. He didn't do anything wrong to me, he just looked like a weasel and made the employees do all the work while he stood around. If the situation was fast-forwarded to today, he would be the manager hanging on the cell phone the entire time while directing you that that bathrooms need extra cleaning that night while he brings his family of 3 step kids and a yelling wife in for the "extra waste food" that was prepared fresh.
I spent the money I made, never saving a dime. I used it to buy my own lunches at school, as well as comic and other nerd stuff. Sometimes my lunch would consist of ice cream sandwiches, bread, or water.
The uniform was polo shirts, sometime t-shirts, and a stupid hat. The clothes always smelled. I still have some of the promo bears that we had, the uniform of some sort, and some other memorabilia from it.
There was a time when that place was my life. I had that job, a cool girlfriend, worked with my best friends, and then hung out with peeps when I could. I was getting in to theater as well around then, and it all seemed awesome. Eventually the girlfriend went away. Another job came up. For a while, I was working two jobs and going to school. Eventually that broke, and quitting was the only option. I have never been fired from a job. It felt like I was leaving a special family, but this was expected after I had started to work at Steak n Shake. That was a completely different world that opened my eyes up even more to the world of restaurants.
I can't remember the last time I ate there. The mall faded so fast and so quick, it was amazing that it didn't close shop up sooner. But that was the town I grew up in, a place where people were there to go.
Steak n Shake. Now there is a much longer, much denser story to unfold one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment