Revelations.

I've made frequent mention of my buddy Fred in previous posts. Fred worked over at Wal-Mart about the same time I worked at Target. Many times we would talk shop over a coffee or soda at the Starbucks in my store. Not too long after I left Target, Fred left Wal Mart. Interestingly enough, right after I found a "replacement" job in the food industry, Fred went to work for one of my company's competitors, as well.

Once in awhile I'll visit Fred at his place. The weather has been bitter cold lately, and Fred likes to put a couple of beers out on the porch for a couple of hours in the late afternoon to chill them up. On days like today they can get downright frosty. I'll sit with Fred while he sips a few.

Fred told me a couple of interesting things about what goes on in his restaurant. One of my favorite menu items that his employer has is their chili. That is, until Fred told me that they use the old, crusty, unsold meat patties from the grill. They boil them in a pot of water for awhile, strain them, and mash them. Then they put it in the chili. NOT good eats. During cold weather like this, people line up to the door almost just to buy some. They just rave about it. Not me.

One of the interesting things about the fast food industry is the characters who work there. It's sort of like the The United States Army or the French Foreign Legion. They accept all the misfits and malcontents who have no place else to go. My workplace is no exception. Single moms pregnant out of wedlock, recovering alcoholics, ex convicts on propation, women fighting each other about their shared exes, mobile disc jockeys working the grill between gigs, immigrants with no English, anorexic high school athletes, cashier girls with hickeys the size of Toledo...you name it, we got it.

It's sort of like a certain clown character we all know, posing with a menu in one arm, holding aloft a shake in the other, with an inscription on his feet: "give us your poor, tired, and huddled masses." (Only in this case they'll get exploited with minimum wage.)