Friday, January 09, 2009

Burger King

My Grandparents owned a Burger King franchise when I was growing up and it just made sense for me to work there. What I didn't realize was how much I would love being there. I worked in the Lansing Mall Burger King in Lansing, MI. I worked there before we had a food court. I worked there when a Whopper and a large Coke was $3.00. We even had a salad bar at one point. We had one of the best stores, ever!


This is a photo of a few of us that went to the same school. We were placing a Burger King ad in the school yearbook, so we included this picture (or one like it) - I'm the short one. The very short one! Those uniforms were the brown ones with the orangy-yellow stripe. They were polyester and form fitting. I actually looked halfway decent in mine.

This is a picture of me on my 16th birthday. The guy I'm standing next to was the only guy that I ever went out with that I met while at work. (Yes, he has a mustache. LOL I just realized what you all might be seeing.) I remember, he wrote his name and phone number on a tray liner. I was just going on my shift so I asked to be placed in the dining room for a little bit so I could chat with him a bit more. He was just the nicest guy. I found this photo (or rather, it was a photocopy of the original photo - which is still MIA) yesterday in the boxes. I had to post it. We only dated for a few months, but this is by far one of my favorite pictures of all times.

So I was a Burger King gal. I worked there from the age of 14 until I was 18. There was a whole group of us that all worked there for that long. Most of the kids were honor students, too. It was such a different time in the fast food industry. It was one of my favorite jobs ever - and I was a great cashier. I was only put on the other stations if it was an emergency. I was slow as can be. Chatting with the customer and getting the order was my specialty.

Hold the pickle, Hold the lettuce, Special orders don't upset us, All we ask is that you let us, Have it your way.

Kristin

PS - I actually started this post at 11:11! It was a total fluke.

7 comments:

Terri said...

great post; I worked at McDonalds but hated it with a passion; last only about a month and a half. Blech!

"J" said...

LOL - I love the pics!!!! =) You were sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo CUTE!!!!!! You still are but I just LOVE your 80's/90's hair!!!!! =) Those were the good old days!!!!!!!

When I was a waitress - that was my fav job!!!! Now I sit behind a desk all day...no FUN! I'm a people person...I need people to deal with...not a phone, not a computer!!! Well, those things are nice but I miss dealing with people...seeing people smile, making people laugh, I miss being a waitress!!!! If Shad and I win the lotto I'm going to open a bar/grill on the lake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love to deal with people!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"J" said...

It cracks me up that you point out that your boyfriend has a mustache!!! This makes me think of a FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY story about me and Shad!!!!

I was telling my mom that I met back up with Shad after all these years being out of high school! She asked me if he was in my year book and I said, "Yes, he was in my auto mechanics class!" So she looked him up and there he was and there I was in the "shop group" photo!!!! lol He has a mustache and mom said HOW OLD IS HE? I said my age and she said he look old enough to be the teacher!!!!! lol

Just a little funny for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to scan that picture in!!!!!

Mimi's Thoughts said...

For sure working at Burger King was my favorite job! Ever!!!! I loved working at the mall!! One of these days I'll post some of the pictures of the crew that I have!! And maybe some "after work" pics too! :) Ha!

j said...

Aw! I enjoyed this post too!

Anonymous said...

I have a funny story about that Lansing Mall Burger King.
It was around 1983-84 time frame and I was 7 or 8 years old at the time and my brother 5-6 years old. I don't have many solid memories from that age, so suffice to say what happened that day had to be extra memorable to stick in my mind over 30 years later.

My mother had dragged us to the Lansing Mall for shopping and we stopped into that Burger King food court for lunch. I always loved that Burger King because of the nicely designed setup with fish tanks in between the booths.

My brother and I each told my mom that we wanted a 'Whaler' as it was called back then. We sat down in one of the booths that were next to the nice fish tank displays, while my mom waited for the food to come up. My brother and I were just sitting there watching the fish (2 fairly large fish for a tank that size). All of a sudden the larger fish just swallowed the other one without warning. We were stunned and totally disgusted. Right about then my Mom walks over with the tray with our 'Whalers' on it. We were both too disturbed to eat fish after that scene, so my Mom had to go up to the counter and tell the manager what happened. The lady came over and examined the fish tank and I remember her being apologetic but also surprised that would happen and said those 2 fish were supposed to be cohabitable and were only in the tank together a short time.
So she was very nice and gladly replaced our fish with burgers instead. So it's possible that was your grandmother that we met that day. Anyways I thought you'd enjoy the story :)

- Bill

yourwestinghousesalesman said...

I also remember that Burger King with complete clarity that it DID in fact, have fish tanks through the restaurant. The Lansing Mall was my weekend hangout in the 1980's too, and prior to the food court, I wanna say went in around 1989 or so, was our stop off for food. I never saw any fish eat another but was always mesmerized by them. I also remember their fish sandwich being called the Whaler too. I'd have rather eat dirt, so I never had one. ALSO, there was another location for Burger King, down towards the intersection of Waverly and Saginaw, that had fish tanks too. NO ONE seems to remember them, or that it ever happened, when I ask if anyone remembers them there!! Are there any extant pictures of those tanks in your family's restaraunt??? Chad S. Ypsilanti Michigan