The McWorker

All of today's pictures come from a page in my scrapbook. Enjoy!

Day 5

Today I have a job interview in Castle Rock, and this has prompted me to blog about my first steady job…at McDonald’s. Now before anyone criticizes the world of fast food I would like to point out that just about everyone has worked in fast food sometime in their life. What about Abraham Lincoln, Madame Curie, Margaret Thatcher (she loved serving those fish and chips!), and our very own American Idol host Ryan Seacrest? OK, I’m probably wrong about all of them, but I worked there and look how I turned out….oh, wait, I’m interviewing for a job today after being unemployed for several months…never mind!

"Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!!"

Anyway, I started my job at “the golden arches” in April of 1994 and I have my brother Josh and sister Jaimee to thank for helping me with the job in the first place, as they were both working there at the time. It was a really cool experience to be working alongside my siblings. I remember the many times I’d be talking to my sister over the headset; one of us would be taking orders in drive-thru, while the other would be a “runner”, the person putting the order together and dropping off in second booth to the HO (as in Hand-Out person). We’d make funny, inappropriate, snarky comments and crack each other up all the time! As for Josh, I’d get to hang out with him when he was in first booth and I was in the back doing clean up. I’d help him make the Happy Meal boxes when things weren’t too busy. Where else could you get valuable skills like these?!

Jaimee and I. What is up with my pose? Seriously!

After working there for three months I was promoted to Crew Trainer and this was an awesome job! As a crew trainer I worked with the new hires, giving them a tour of the place, introducing them to Ronald McDonald (kidding!), showing them training videos on everything from how to wash your hands (not kidding!) to how to salt the French fries (the ol’ triple arch technique). Jaimee and Josh were also made Crew Trainers, so the three of us were given solid purple shirts to distinguish ourselves from the peons…ahem, I mean, from the “other” employees.

The Brotherhood of McDonald's

I worked at McDonald’s until December 1995 and then I moved to Colorado Springs. I really miss that place. The people were fun to work with; the free meals were awesome (not to mention I’d always get a discount on strawberry shakes); the managers were…well, some were nice; the customers…were a pain in the neck(!); and at the end of every shift I would come home and have to take a shower to remove the stench of fries, burgers, grease and…ugh!! On second thought I don’t really miss that place.