finger push ups and food history

Exercising every day is a good way to keep the body strong. Today, I want to work my fingers. Ok, and my noodle. So, though nothing comes to mind yet, other than the multitude of condiments I used to rotate and combine to flavor up the ramen noodles (back in college), I sit to write for an hour.
My good friend Dave is playing his piano here, and calling it homework. I should be so lucky. I'm
on the mission to make my play into my work. that is the dream of most artists and writers i guess. I read my mother's story today about going to school for the first time. It was fun. Her mom would put notes and poems in the bottom of her lunch bag every day. Fortune lunches! I think my mom did that for me and my siblings a few times too.

Thinking back to the foods we ate in school--and the coincidence of mentioning my noodle doctoring in college--it would seem that I have found a theme. At least for two paragraphs.

I have worked with food quite a bit, and never written down the whole list of places I have worked before. Should be a good exercise in memory. Granted, I only worked at some places for a few nights as a waiter. I would try out places at times to see what kind of money I could make--and if it wasn't good money, i was gone... so I might even forget a name or two.

Anyway, let me see...

At:
16-- Roy Rogers. fried chicken, biscuits, eggs
17-- college dining hall. prep. salads, jello, very basic etc.
two different nursing homes as dietary aide--niether of which had a name I recall right now.
18 bussed tables in a Polynesian restaurant until a knife fight broke out one night between the owners cousin and a dishwasher. decided that was enough of that...
20
busboy in Olive Tree restaurant in a tourist town. sometimes there would be like 600+ dinners served in a single night . That's a heck of a lot of plates and glasses. I still remember a certain angry waitress who was notorious for making other waitresses cry. She was pure vinegar. One night, in an unplanned move or a total slip on the floor, she sent a tray of dinners up in the air and fell. One plate landed on her back I think, and she had her white tux shirt covered in red sauce. Not a good look. I actually felt sorry for her that night. Prior to that I think I just about hated her. One of the bartenders there, known to his friends as "Ski", was a good friend to me. We got to playing pool every night after work and drinking allot of free Gran Marnier and Budweiser. It never ceased to amaze me, night after night, how my game would get really strong after the second beer. By the fourth or fifth however, my game would go down hill pretty quick. But i never, ever played as well sober as I did with a mild to medium buzz on. One time the staff of the restaurant had all planned a beach football game. We were drinking before the game. Maybe that wasn't such a good way to warm up. On the kickoff to start the game, Ski and I were both running to catch the kick off, and pretty oblivious to the fact we were both going to arrive at the same spot at the moment the ball came down. Our heads collided, and we both cracked 'em pretty good. I now have a scar under my left eyebrow, while he has one above his right eyebrow. We were pretty buzzed at the hospital as we got stitched up. One of those odd bonding experiences. Not my best football moment I guess. Well, I worked at the Olive Tree for two summers and through two fall seasons and one spring. There are more stories to that place...but not enough time to go into all of them.

Rosko's Grille. My friend Peter "Rosko" opened one of the all-time coolest local restaurant/pubs in the Salisbury area. I was lucky enough to get to design the logo for the restaurant which he used EVERYWHERE! It was a great time working there. I felt really lucky to have that opportunity.

Ocean City
The Shanty seafood. I bussed tables there in Salisbury. I didn't like that place too much.
Crab Alley Another seafood dive run by rednecks. Bussed there too. This place smelled awful. Not a job I stayed at for very long.
Nick Idoni's House of Ribs. Man people can eat allot of those things. Nick Idoni was a small man with a big attitude and a mean mouth. He turned up years later in a field. Some strange people owned restaurants on the Eastern Shore.
Tony's Pizza my first experience with pizza. I have had many since, and never found another genuine New York pizza master like Tony. You can see everything in the mix and it might seem the same--but something was better about it. I never figured out what Tony did better than anyone else. It might have been a combination of the kinds of flour he used with the heat of the oven--who knows? I bet he will never tell. He was probably a millionaire after so many years at the boardwalk in Ocean City. That window was always visited by smiling return customers.
Pizza...that reminds me.

Four Seasons in Yosemite
Ahwahnee Hotel
Rolling Road Country Club
The Wharfside
Eagles Nest Country Club
Rudy's 3000
PJ Crickets (or something like that)
Some restaurant out near Columbia. I helped them open. It had very little volume. It just was too far out there.
Russel's Ltd.

Park City

Giorgios
Gamekeeper's Grille (disgusting pig ran that place)
Wolf Mountain pub
Park City Resort- I just loaded food into a cage to go up the mountain via gondola, and it was a thankless job
Bankok Thai I liked the place and loved the food, but wanted more money so I moved. I later regretted that move.
The Mediterraneo--probably my favorite restaurant experience. I became a good cook at that restaurant after starting as a waiter. I loved the food there so muc
Pizza Hut was another place I worked for a while. I always liked their pizzas allot too
Chez Betty-snob food attitude, run by a drug addict and his way cooler chef brother

Ojai

Wheeler Hot Springs
Nora's
Grey Gables Retirement Community
Sam's Place--actor who thought he could bluff as a restauranteur--I worked about 70 hours a week for a few months there and almost lost my mind.
St. Joseph's Retirement Center
catering