Did you Work in College? High School?

I worked in college. At McDonald’s and several other restaurants, and I waited tables in high school. I bet you did, too. Maybe not at a restaurant, but at some job.

The Convicted Felon did a 15-minute photo op at the Feasterville, PA McDonald’s last Sunday. They closed the restaurant, only allowed a few MAGA-heads on the drive-thru line: they didn’t order, they took what he gave them.

You should read the Yelp reviews of that McDonald’s. You might also like to read what Mary Trump wrote about “McIdiot”.

He said he did it because now “he’s worked longer at McDonald’s than Kamala did.”

We all know this is ridiculous. He claims that the reason he “knows” she didn’t work there is that she has no pay stubs. Can’t make this up.

I’m betting that if you worked a job in high school or college, you don’t have your pay stubs either, unless you are still IN high school or college, or a recent graduate. You’d only keep the stubs if you needed them for your taxes, and for most of us, we’re well past the 7-year potential look back. (Some IRS requirements are shorter, full info here.) In addition, Vice President Harris worked there in the early 80’s, and McDonald’s doesn’t have records from that far back. Remember, everything was on paper then. Digitizing came later.

McDonald’s claims that 1 of 8 Americans has worked for them at some point in time. I find this completely believable. And for all of us who have ever worked at ANY fast-food joint, we know how fake the photo op really was.

First off, you wear a uniform made of terrible material - what’s good about it is that when you put the uniforms through the wash with hot water and extra soap a few times, you can remove the semi-permanent grease stains, and most of the smell. As an aside, in my experience, the local dogs follow you back to campus from the restaurant because you smell exactly like a burger and fries.

Second, you wear special shoes: I didn’t see a photo of his feet, but my guess is that he was in his standard leather-issue footwear. You never wear that because of the likelihood of slipping on the greasy floor. (I’m guessing they mopped for him.)

Third, THE HAIR NET!!!! Or at least a hat. Health Department regulations, you know. And I’m guessing he lets NOTHING touch that wig of his.

Finally, working at a fast-food place is hard work. Something the Convicted Felon abhors.

The other thing is that working at McDonald’s (or any fast-food joint) is actually great work experience, especially if it’s a first job. Fast-food jobs often build character. You learn to show up on time, with a good attitude. You put your coat in a locker, punch in and get to work. You learn how to deal with the public. You learn to work as a team with your co-workers. If you have a bad boss, you learn that life is unfair, and they won’t give you requested time off for things like mid-terms and finals. You learn time organization skills to get to your classes, study AND get to work. With no disrespect intended for people who have worked their way up to manager, district manager and potentially owning a franchise or several, for many of us it’s a great experience to learn that we want to do well in school so we can do something else.

My guess is that the Convicted Felon learned NONE of that in his brief stint.

The photo-op brought back my memories of being a McDonald’s worker. I worked evenings at a McDonald’s about 2 blocks off campus in a dicey part of town. The workers included both college students working evenings, and locals for whom this was their full-time job. The manager liked to hire us college students because he said we were industrious and hard-working. The night manager hated the college students because he believed college was a waste of time and money when you could just spend your life at McDonald’s, which he believed to be the best job ever.

Our cash registers had keys for dollars and cents. So if something was $1.50, you clicked on the $1 key and the 50-cent key at the same time. A burger cost 30 cents. The night manager and I had an argument about this. If someone bought 7 burgers, I’d hit the $2 key and the 10-cent key together. He wanted me to hit the 30-cent key 7 times, because (and I’m not making this up) he didn’t understand why I was charging $2.10. I explained that 3 x 7 = 21 and you added a zero. I used pencil and paper to show him that 2 burgers were 60 cents. I bet you know what’s coming. He wrote me up for being “uppity”. When I met with the regular manager, he explained that while “X” was a good manager, and would work nights, he didn’t think he’d ever learned his times tables.

While I have great memories of some of my co-workers, it worked out better that I ended up leaving there (we all thought it was a good idea) and ended up with a much better job at a Kosher deli. I acquired great skills there: I can smoke a spectacular pastrami, properly steam corned beef, pickle a 50 gallon can of cucumbers into half-sours, sours, or dills, and we did all our math on deli paper. (Same kind of cash register, so we added on paper first. And the three brothers who owned the place all knew their times tables.)

Ah! Memories…Please leave comments about your early jobs!