Weekend Assignment #260: It's a Wonderful Job

This week the the Weekend Assignment from Karen's blog comes from Florinda.

Weekend Assignment #260: Maybe it wasn't the "best" job by objective standards, but of all the jobs you've ever had, which was your favorite, and why did you like it so much?

This may be a little harder than I thought when I first read this. I've had plenty of jobs I've liked, and a few that I definitely did not, but a favorite is hard to choose. At least it is for me.

I've worked at a few restaurants  over  the years, and I think I've had the most fun at those.  I think a lot of that had to due with the lack of responsibility I had when working at them. I wasn't in charge of anything, and the biggest thing I could screw up was accidentally ordering someone's stake rare instead of medium. On top of that, anytime I was working in a restaurant I was in school, so I was younger, had less stress due to less bills, or kids health and welfare to worry about. Each restaurant job had it's own unique high points. Let me tell you about them.

My first restaurant job, or any job, was at a Bill Knapp's. You may not have heard of them; they weren't nationwide, or anything. Let me tell you though, they had the best au gratin potatoes. Back in high school you either worked at Bill Knapp's or Jewel. Well, not really, but it seemed that way.

I started out as a busboy and worked my way 'up' to waiter. It wasn't bad money for a 16 year-old kid. I always had plenty of change and singles for the candy and pop machine at school. The best part of the job was when the managers left. For some silly reason they thought it was okay to leave a teenager in charge of the restaurant and close it up. Sure, nothing will go wrong with that idea at all! Let me tell you, my friends and I ate like kings and queens after 9:30pm. I wonder why that place went out of business? It was fun for other reasons, too. Since it was everyone from high school, we knew everyone, we were all about the same age, and we got along. A lot of jokes and pranks constantly, for the most part.

When I went away to college, and Bill Knapp's closed, I worked for a shot time at a Wag's restaurant. These were Denny's style restaurants owned by the Walgreen's company. I didn't work there all that long, so not as many good stories, but it had it's moments. The most interesting times were when the people would come in, still in costume, after watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Those were interesting people. Let me tell you. There were plenty of parties to go to after work as well.

My most recent experience in the restaurant business was working at an Applebee's. I was a waiter and bartender there when I went back to school. I probably had almost as much fun there as I did at Bill Knapp's. I think one of the big reasons is that I came into that job after I left my most hated job, and I was so happy to be out of there. But, the people were a lot of fun, too. We would go out after work sometimes. Once in a while the manager would let us had a beer after work, we had to pay for them though. Jenn would come in a lot after work and sit at the bar and have dinner when I was working on the weekends. The manager's would buy her dinner a lot of times, which helped us a lot since we didn't have a whole lot of money then. One year I dressed up as Data from Star Trek on Halloween. Yes, I am a dork.

So, I guess those were my favorite job(s).

Extra Credit: What was the shortest time you ever held a job? What happened?

I think it was the Wag's Job. I worked there over a Christmas break and that was it. I think it might have closed after I went back to school. But, I could be wrong on that. Maybe I did go back for the summer too, but I don't think so.