Number 11 report to the window

April 25, 2020 at around 6:30 in the hour before sunrise

Good Morning Hungover participants in last night's celebration,

In March of 1974, I started to work at a drive in restaurant called Steak `n Shake. The restaurant it was then is very different than the one it was before the pandemic, however the longer the pandemic goes on, the more it is starting to look like the concept it was back in those "good old days". I started working there part time and I thought at the time, temporarily , until such time I could get the job I really wanted which was to be a career machinist. That dream got crushed because of a little thing called a recession.

The Recession of the 1970's - Click Here

I began my career there as a curb boy. That's what we were called, we were curb boys or curb girls, and there was no need and no atmosphere that dictated a PC name. Generically, both sexes were called "Curb Operators". Besides, men didn't wear the SKORT and didn't wear the white blouse or checkered vest so it was easy to tell us apart. We never wore roller skates and the girls never wore mini-dresses , however we did begin each shift with a cumberbund around our waist, a pouch to carry our curb cards and $3 in the store's money to make change with. We were human adding machines and were expected to know the product prices, to be able to figure out the bill total and the taxes due before we took your order to the curb window and handed it in for processing. There were no drive thru windows back then. There was no self service anything and unless they had to go to the bathroom, they never had to get out of the car.

There were certain expectations that came with the job. You had to be able to run, you had to learn to run with a full curb delivery tray full of drinks and / or food from the window to the car and back, and you had to be able to hang the tray on the car window in one motion without spilling anything (unless somebody's angry girlfriend paid you to dump chili on their jerk boyfriend's lap). Every person got a glass of water when I first started, however that sorta disappeared from the policy after a short while. A car would usually back into a parking space, they would flip their lights on (that's how you knew they wanted to eat in their cars), Someone like me would run out to their car, pull a number card , place it under the windshield wiper , you would approach the driver window, take the order , turn and  stand at the drivers side front bumper and list the prices, add the ticket, tax the total and then run to the window and hand it in. At this point they would turn their lights off , and anything they needed to know was on the back of the curb card. You ran like Forrest Gump  to do everything except sweeping the parking lot and taking out the trash. You also ran to answer the microphone at the window because sometimes they had no clue what your order ticket said. Curb 80-80 all cars !!

In addition to being the exterior servers, we got all the crappy jobs too, like cleaning the bathrooms, cleaning up the vomit and spilled milkshakes and such. The inside of the store had about 12 -16 tables , with the majority of those being 4 seat tables and there were usually about 6-8 counter stools. The curb lot when I started had about 60 parking spots in the front lot and when It was super busy on Friday and Saturday night, the back lot opened up and there was about 40 more. I hated working the back lot because it was inevitably full of teenagers, drinking beer and never tipping worth a crap. It was also 100 yards away and was a shit ton of running. Back then I could run all night and then run around with the girls all night after work (wink , wink). It was fun to be 16 and young back then. Come to think of it I don't remember knowing any old curb operators. They got fat as they got older and got moved inside to the line eventually.

Now looking at what is going on and how the concepts are changing (for better or worse I really don't know) I am starting to the signs of contraction within not only this concept but in a lot of them. Playgrounds are going away, everything is being promoted as contactless, certain chains are labeling parking spaces as for call ahead parking pickup, Dining rooms in certain QSR restaurants are being closed and in some cases, removed, atriums are being remodeled and in some cases the whole building footprint is being reconfigured to eliminate the option of interior dining. Pizza hut has changed a lot of their stores to this model. The one in my town is pick up and delivery only and they moved locations to accomplish that. Of course they don't deliver to my house, but Ahh, the good old days. Slopping stuff into your lap because there is no table. Sorry Sonic we don't want to pay for a butt load of red buttons and graphics and ordering speakers. Don't you have our app?

The more things change the more they stay the same

1. 53 year old Mike Tyson is reportedly in training for some sort of comeback. One story says its for charity matches, promotional stuff and another says his trainer thinks if you gave him 6 solid weeks of a training camp he could basically kick anybody's ass. I am not in favor of this because the last thing we need is Mike Tyson slobber knocking Donte Wilder all over the place. The next thing you know, Anthony Joshua would be seeing stars looking straight up at the ceiling and he would be wondering what the hell happened.
   
   I don't care if he was 90 years old, there is no freaking way I would get in the ring with that man. Not only is he one of the best boxers of all time, he also walks a very thin line of being pissed off at a moments notice. NO way I want this guy pissed at me. I don't for a minute think he is serious about real competition, as he hasn't boxed since 2005 professionally, however even if it was just for show, just for charity, just for a good cause, would you want to take the chance he would forget for a second, do that little left hand to the body, side step , left hand uppercut thing he was so famous for? I think he would still knock the smell outta your gym shorts. There's no way. This guy wanted to box a gorilla one time, something ain't right.
   
2. Shia LeBeouf has got to be one of the most bat-shit actors on the planet. Some of the crap he pulls, the movies he has made and the public spectacles he has participated in are just beyond anything you could consider normal. I think he and Joaquin Phoenix might be somehow related. They both seem to have the same goofy as hell gene.
   
   Remember the "Professional Friend" concept from yesterday? Here would be the perfect applications for this concept. He's been cited and arrested a few times for stupid behavior for things such as causing a ruckus for no reason and refusing to leave (I think at a Walgreens)  , smoking in a public place on purpose (wanted to be cited?), he got into several accidents (one that crushed his hand), got into a fight in Sherman Oaks CA, he made a short film and was accused of plagiarizing parts of it, after he was called out for that he then posted a plagiarized copied apology from yahoo answers with no explanation, he walks out of interviews promoting his movies, he walked the Red Carpet with a Paper Bag on his head that said "I am not famous anymore" in magic marker on the exterior, he did a 6 day performance art thing where he cried and said "I am sorry" over and over  at visitors and an exhausting list of others. Tell me this idiot could not have benefitted from somebody holding his reigns and saying "No Dumbass we ain't doing that".
   
3. Just a blurb, One of my all time favorite shows? "How it's Made" , I don't know why but I could watch that show for hours, goofy as that sounds.
   
4. It strikes me that Odell Beckham Jr, as talented as he is on the football field, needs to grow the hell up and stop crying and bitching about every little thing. We should probably stop excusing his behavior too. I'm just saying. His twitter rant about the draft was just crazy. PF candidate.
   
5. A man was arrested yesterday in Acworth GA, at his storage unit, with 1400 ounces of the psychedelic drug DMT  (Dimethyltryptamine), that is about 88 pounds of this shit. Along with the drugs they discovered he had the manufacturing process and the ingredients to make buttloads more , along with Lye, Vinegar, Root Bark and all the tools and equipment one would need to be a DMT drug kingpin.
   
   He said it was all for his own personal use.
   
   
   See you after tripping balls for 35 years you guys,
   
   BigMike