So You Want me Dead....

Today on “As the Mug Turns”, I can have you killed for $50.  Yes, odd as it may seem my life has been threatened a few times at work.  Once by a former worker’s sister who lived in the apartments near Frostop.  She was on drugs at the time and I asked her to leave the parking lot.  She has since cleaned up her act but will not wait on her to this day.  I am funny that way, you know not forgetting someone wanting you dead and all.

The big story is the “I can have you killed for $50”, was directed at my Mom, Dad, and I back in the summer of 1997.  I was actually at home and got the call from one of the kids working to get to Frostop quick.  I ran to work!  A VERY irate man was ranting that he had given a $100 bill for change to play poker.  Well, the drawer had nothing bigger than a $50 in it so clearly he did not give what he thought, either he was mistaken or was lying.  He would NOT accept he was wrong.  It was so bad that instead of taking the time to call 911, I simply hit the panic button on the alarm panel.  It was before the police arrived that he popped out with, “I can have y’all killed for $50”.  We were obviously rattled.  The police got there and took him away.  Later my Dad pressed charges for disturbing the peace.   Clearly it disturbed us at the time.  I was scared enough to spend the night in Baton Rouge that evening!  Looking back now we do laugh that all three of us were only worth $50!! 

 

What Happened to the Bathroom?

On today's "As the Mug Turns", bathroom horror stories.  This one leaves me shaking my head for sure!  The majority of these stories occurred in the mid 1990's.  I have NO idea why in that particular time frame people had such difficulty with using something that most toddlers master.  There were a few explosions - I WILL NOT go into detail let me just say I DO NOT pay anyone enough money to clean that up.  Yipee that means the task falls to me.  I am left with HOW IN THE HELL does that happen.?!? 


Then there was the woman that came to the counter to tell us she witnessed a woman tell her kid to just use the bathroom in the hallway.  Really was she raised by wolves?  Sigh.


But by far the BEST or WORST was the guy we called the pukemeister.  EVERY single time he came in he managed to vomit in the sink in the bathroom.  No idea why other than he was crazy.  I mean the toilet and the sink are VERY close.  There is NO way it was an innocent mistake every single time.  Yes, we cleaned it up and never said a word.  I mean how would one go about bringing that up exactly.  "Excuse me could you please refrain from being a pain in the rear and puke in the toilet bowl like a civilized human being."


Also, how many times do you flush a toilet that doesn't go down on the first flush?  One, two, three, or till you are standing in water up to your ankles?!?


Yes, I may have gotten to meet some celebrities and appear on Memphis Beat (way cool) but I also get to clean a FUNKY bathroom from time to time.  See you tomorrow with another "As the Mug Turns" story.

The "Hostage" Situation!

Today on "As the Mug Turns" I bring you he "Hostage" situation.  One thing that can be certain at the 'Top and it is nothing can be certain.  This night is one for the record books.  I can still see bits of it when I close my eyes all these years later.  It was a routine night shift in the fall of 1996.  Back then we closed at 10pm so I assume it was between 9pm and 10pm because both my Dad and I were at work.  Suddenly police start pulling up across the street at the furniture store.  Yes, the same building that played a role in the crap kicked out of someone story.  FYI, the building was torn down in 2001! 


Next thing you know our parking lot is filled with police cars as well.  We are told to close and NO one could leave.  Luckily we only had one couple in the dining room at the time.  We are told that there is a hostage situation at the store across from us.  REALLY?  It was unclear as to why police ended up there but a man had shot at them from inside and he had a hostage. So, we get everything cleaned up and then watch the situation unfold.  Swat teams start to assemble around our building.  We hear them on the bullhorn, "come out with your hands up". Side note - I got a call from the guy I was seeing at the time and I told him I couldn't talk because there was a hostage situation across the airline.  I am sure to this day he thought I was lying!! Finally after a few hours they escorted the couple that was left out of the building and a few of our workers.  The rest of us were watching and playing travel Trouble.  (I bought it for the rare occasion when the lights go out - always fun). 


 After a few hours, they resolved the situation.  How?  There was never a hostage - just a paranoid guy with a gun.  It never made the papers or TV from what I found.  I think it was all a big mistake but it made for a great "As the Mug Turns" story!

 

Crap Kicked out of You......

On “As the Mug Turns” today, yes you can actually get the crap kicked out of you.  The fact I now know this statement to be true should have had me rethink the career path I picked.  Well, in all fairness every single story I have written about so far should have been a HUGE RED FLAG as to my chosen path in life.  This is truly an all-in or all out business.  It is a passion you either have or do not have.  These stories to those that love the restaurant business are just our war stories.  You better have a sense of humor or it will crush you.  With that in mind I bring you the crap kicked out of someone story. Next week a few more bathroom horror stories!  Sigh.

Ok, so there used to be a building across the Airline Highway from Frostop – it was the St. John St. Charles Club, Chez Ami, Star Light Lounge, and a furniture store from what I remember.  This would have been 1994 and it was the Star Light Lounge.  It was NOT a fancy place.  Anyway, around 4pm one afternoon a guy walked across the Airline for a burger with us.  He left a $5 tip – clearly he was DRUNK!  Later that night about 10 minutes before we closed I left to run to Blockbuster.  It was right after our 10pm closing that I came back to work to see police cars filling our parking lot.  I thought to myself what could have gone wrong in the 10 minutes I was gone.  Well…..  The guy from the bar from earlier had run across the Airline Highway and into our bathroom.  Police followed shortly after him.  So, the guy finally came out of the bathroom and my Dad goes in to check it and finds blood everywhere and soiled undies.  My Dad comes out and asks are these yours?   Of course they were his.  He had been in a fight at the bar and knowing they would take him to jail chose to run to our restaurant to remove his dirty drawers. People I can truly say I have seen it all.  Yes, indeed you can have the crap kicked right out of you.

See y’all Monday with more “As the Mug Turns” stories.

                                                                       

Diner is Bug Dinner

On “As the Mug Turns” today, what happens when you are changing out the roof of your restaurant and they get the entire roof off and it rains a good Louisiana summer rain? I can tell you friends it ain’t pretty.  Let’s go back to 1996 and finding out we had Formosan termites.  Sigh.  They started to swarm out of our lights at night that spring. A week into that we started to see the wings and thought well they are dying.  Nope that just means they have gone to eating the wood. We developed a plan to change the roof which was flat and holding water to a pitched roof.  We were also going to put in a new floor and have the entire building treated.  It was in one of the first days we were closed and I was taking up the old floor that two woman came in through all the mess and asked if we were open for them to play poker.  There are NO tables, half the floor is gone, and the poker machines are covered in plastic. As I stood there covered in sweat and dirt, I wanted to hit them with something!

 Ok, we were set to be closed 10 days.  My Mom, Dad, and I go to the Hill Behan on Jefferson to pick out what would take the place of Formica on the walls.  It had been a VERY dry summer.  We leave Hill Behan and look back toward LaPlace and the sky is DARK.  I felt my heart drop.  We drive home in the pouring rain.  When we got back to LaPlace, the ceiling was collapsing, the walls were buckling, and they had thrown the breaker to have no power in the building. 

I was set to meet friends in Baton Rouge that night and my Dad said go.  I can remember watching from my window at home before I left.  So, I met my friends and had MANY margaritas.  The next morning I woke up to the article on the front page of the Times-Picayune – Diner Is Bug Dinner.  Really?  That is really kicking you when you are down. Oddly, the article had my Dad and Mr. Larry Brock pictured on the roof.  Years later his son, Andre’, would marry my little sister Tracey.  (little silver lining)

Well, it turned out that the rain was a blessing in disguise. We found out that we had termites in every wall.  Thus began a 6 week rebuilding of every wooden wall in the building. It seems we had been running our own LaPlace Disney World for termites.  Our flat roof was like their own little water park.  We were also lucky given the damage that none of us were crushed by the air conditioning units that had been on the roof. 

So, the roof had to be put on at night since it was so hot during the day in July.  They rented lights and got to work.  I could hear them working from my house every night.  The roof went on, the walls went up, and the floor went down.  The building was finally put back together; we had a big party on a Friday night to celebrate with the crew that rebuilt the building and our workers who were ready to come back to work.  That Monday we opened back up and the mug kept turning!

Don't Pull

On today’s “As the Mug Turns”, why I should NOT have pulled the thing that said pull. Let us go back in time to early September 1993. I had just graduated in May and was home working full time. Back then full time for me was 7 days a wee...k and 13 hours a day. It was a night shift probably around 5:30pm. There is a big thunderstorm happening. Huge lightning and thunder and then we start to smell smoke in the kitchen. 23 year old Terry panics. We all seem to think there is a fire above us in the hood system. I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off. One cook is actually yelling what is the number for 911. (911 was new in LaPlace at that time) I announce to the dining room everyone out. A kid that worked the front is saying I paid for 2 burgers tonight but only ate one don’t forget. (SO not at the top of my worries at that moment) Then I do the thing that I will never do again. I pulled the pull switch for the fire suppression system. I do not think I had any idea what would happen next. The system shoots foam everywhere – both fryers and the grill. The entire kitchen is covered and some of the front. The fire department, the police, EMT’s, and my Dad get here. Guess what we can still smell smoke. Crap. The lightening had gotten the dishwasher. We were shut down for the night and the cleanup that will take hours begins. One cook goes to empty the fryers – she decides to empty the 350 degree grease in to a plastic pickle bucket. The grease melts the bucket and now the kitchen is covered in foam and grease. Sigh. Finally about 4 hours later and everything is cleaned my Dad says to the crew what have you all learned. Terry – don’t pull the pull thing. (In case there really is a fire in the hood, fryers, or grill the system has sensors and will go off on its own), others lessons were the number for 911 is 911, don’t put hot grease in a plastic buckets, and yes we know you only ate one burger but paid for two.
The next day the fire suppression company came out to recharge the system and said they had never actually known of someone to pull that thing before me.
I have had many a stupid moment in the last 20+ years but this was the crowning jewel of my stupidity. There may still be a VHS tape of this event but I do NOT ever need to see that again.
Tune in tomorrow for more "As the Mug Turns"!

Norman Bates?

Today on “As the Mug Turns”, the story that I am surprised doesn’t still give me nightmares. This story goes all the way back to a Saturday in the spring of 1987. I am working the front with Paul Lowry and he leaves me in the front to go t...o clean tables in the dining room. At this point a regular customer comes to the window and to say he was acting strange was an understatement. Before continuing, I must point out that I had just seen the movie Psycho a week before this incident. The customer, normally a VERY mild mannered man, starts yelling at his mother, “go back to the car Mother” in a way that sounded to my 16 year old ears just like Norman Bates. I leave the front unattended and go to get Paul. I mean I ran to the dining room and grabbed him and said come up front NOW. I am already freaked out at this point. Next up the guy asks for his “small Pepsi please”, he always said that. I have no idea which one of us got it for him, but he proceeds to crush the cup in his hand – drink everywhere. He then manages to start to eat the dollar bills in his hand. Once again, have no idea who called my Dad. By the time he showed up the guy was in convulsions outside. Paul and I are completely freaked out, Betty, behind us, is worried too, and the best was the electrician Trevor Taylor from Jamaica who I swear to goodness turned white while this was happening. Well my Dad comes from home and manages to get the money out of the guy’s mouth. The police and Baloney’s ambulance show up. We later found out he had diabetes and didn’t take his insulin. The EMT’s gave Jimmie a lecture about sticking his hand in a stranger’s mouth (remember this was 1986). Paul and I, of course, had to tell everyone this at school on Monday!!
Tomorrow on “As the Mug Turns”, I will go back to more funny stories!