Reply #68: Good God! I didn't think anyone else would say that besides me!

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I was their AM prep cook summer of '85, right after graduating high school. (Scenic Tacoma, WA)

It was really a pretty dreamy job for a kid's first time--put a roast in the over every hour and a half or so, make 2 trays of chocolate chip cookies (the dough was delicious), and pretty much the rest of the shift was just chopping vegetables for the salad bar.

Occasionally I had to do something yucky like make a batch of potato salad (very smelly), but really it was a nice job--I had the place to myself for an hour or two every morning starting at 6:30, then one person came in around 9:30, then another couple around 11, then I was gone by noon or so. I only spent one day wrapping sandwiches as a pinch-hit for someone else, and only a couple days refilling the salad bar (carting ice, etc.)

I got to wear what I want, listen to the radio all morning, free soda, and then the rest of the afternoon free. The day I left for a long weekend in Santa Cruz, they let me come in at 4:00 AM and work till 10. They were nice even when I broke the can opener. :)

Compared to the following summer--AM maintenance in an amusement park cleaning garbage, hosing sidewalks etc. starting at 5 AM, which meant getting up at 4--it was a great gig.