True Story Time!

Hey all!

I thought i would recount another sadly true story from my past in which I undoubtedly do something foolish to embarrass myself. Arguably most of my really good stories have been told, but I was telling this one the other day and thought it might be funny enough to pass on.

When I first started working for McDonalds I worked at one of the older restaurants in the market. It had a basement and an exceptionally long drive thru window for a quick service restaurant. Sadly its closed now but I worked at that store for almost 8 years before the series of transfers I have had over the last few years. Back in the late 90's we didn't always use both a front and a back pay window, most of the times we worked a single pay window in the drive thru, a practice some places use still.

So I was working the front pay window, making drinks, taking money, and handing out orders. The store I worked at was kind of slow and really we didn't work all that much except when school let out or football season. I am working the drive thru (DT) pretty much by myself, with a friend of mine helping out in between helping the walk in customers. I had handed out an order but during the payment process has dropped a quarter on the ground. I wanted to get the money so my drawer wouldn't be short, so i waited for a lull in the DT and went to get the money.

Now the way our store was set up I had two options to get the money. Option 1 was to go out the cut out on the front counter, out the main door, down along the cement entrance pad that had about a 15 foot metal fence (for pedestrian protection as it ran parallel to the DT car lane) then back up the 20 yards or so to the pay window. Or option 2 and just lean out the window and grab it. Yeah.. I chose option 2.

I leaned out the window, my legs off the ground and behind my head. Now even then I was never a picture of agility or coordination. I managed to get the quarter, and another dime and a nickle that had all fallen. It was then I reached for another dime, just out of my reach. I stretched for it, and proceeded to somersault out the window into the cement floor. Luckily we still had no cars in the lane! I popped back up quickly and jetted down the lane and back into the store, praying that no one saw that tumble.

As I walked inside the other girl on front counter who had been helping me asked me what I was doing outside. To be honest I kind of had a crush on her at the time and I was embarrassed so I quickly blurted, "Nothing! Nothing at all!" She didn't buy it and I finally fessed up to what happened. The story quickly spread and soon everyone in the store was teasing me about it, including my brother and my room mate Jason's brother Danny. I took it in stride and I can laugh at the absurdity of it now. I mean a 200 pound man falling out of a DT window should be funny right? To this day my brother still laughs about it.

I know tell the story to my employees if they are having a bad day. If a customer yells at them or if the problems at home is starting to effect them at the job. it acts as a funny tale that makes them feel a little better about themselves and gives them a laugh. Still, if I could do it all over again, I probably would still have taken that shortcut. I mean that's like a walk of 30 yards!!

Stay tuned, I have new Flash Fiction in the works this week, and maybe even another True Story from my years at McDonalds. Thanks for reading.

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Gerrad!