January 29, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

January 29, 1963

Tues  Bright and fair in am cloudy middle of the afternoon -5 to about 20.  Doug met Navy man at the school at 2 P.M. took bus from Oneonta to Albany and stayed all night.  Clifton and I went to Cobleskill by Jefferson and 2 lbs off Churchills. Stopped at Mothers a minute and got car license.  Gerald and and Roger Cohn went to Albany looking for an apartment.

Comment:  Not sure what "2 lbs off Churchills" means.  I and Roger Cohn would start going to SUNY @ Albany to get our 4-year bachelor's degrees.  We were both looking for jobs and I got mine first as a grill man at the now defunct Carroll's Fifteen Cent Hamburger joint near Latham circle.  

When I think about it now, I'm still kinda surprised how hard I had to work, cooking 30 hamburgers at a time, then adding all the stuff, then passing them on for wrapping.  It was hotter than hell in the grill area and the work was just constant as we tried to keep the cooked inventory at a minimum but at the same time quickly meet the demands of the customers for almost instant service when they came in.

The raw hamburgers were in big boxes in stacks of six with waxed paper between each patty. With lots of practice, (after working one shift),  the grill men were able to grab the wax paper by the corner and snap and flip the patty onto the grill in one quick motion, kinda like throwing a frisebee,  and quickly fill the grill with 30 patties.  We would then add 30 split open buns to the other side of the grill to start them toasting, flip the burgers, take the toasted open buns off and place them on a big sheet,  top them with the 30 patties, shoot mustard and ketchup on them from a gun-like device, top them with a pickle, put the top bun on and shove them to a wrapper.

It was constant motion and when we were busy, we did not stop for almost the entire six hour shift.  The busyness was the bad part but there was a good part also.

If there was unsold inventory at closing time, the official policy was to trash it.   Employees could not eat it on site, but unofficially we could divert it on the way to the trash bin. 

When there was not enough inventory to take home the manager, knowing most of the employee's  situations, would usually suggest that I cook up a dozen or so cheeseburgers and a few bags of fries "just in case of a last minute rush" and then Roger and I were supplied for awhile.  Nothing else was ever mentioned about the unsold inventory that had to be disposed of....