There but for the grace of...

I worked in Burger King once. I'm really not sure why I did and, with hindsight, I'd probably rather I hadn't. It was only by dint of fate that I came to be working there at all - my grandmother had a lodger who worked there and they happened to be looking for Christmas staff and, to be honest, there were things I wanted to buy that I couldn't afford without some sort of job. And so, through that minor confluence of events, I came to be working in a fast food restaurant.

I can't say that I took away a great number of happy memories with me when I eventually left (as is my habit, I stayed longer than I should have done, certainly beyond the point that the job had anything left to teach me - admittedly in the case of Burger King that wasn't really very long at all). Still, there are several memories that stick out.

The first needs a little background: The area behind the counter was tiled and my shoes had little or no grip on it. Whilst you might imagine this to be a problem, it wasn't it - rather it was a lot of fun instead, especially when I was working behind the til at the opposite end of the counter from the food (I know, food in this case should probably be in inverted commas). Naturally the fastest method of transport from the food back to the til where the hapless customer was waiting (don't look at me like that. It was Burger King - they knew exactly what they were getting) was to take a small run up and then slide the remaining distance. It was certainly the most fun, although experience quickly taught me that it was best to wait until the quieter times before trying it.

Bearing that in mind, the first memory relates to what is one of my favourite pratfalls, which was on a particularly quiet evening and I decided to take an extra long run up, for a particularly spectacular slide. Spectacular for all the wrong reasons in the end. With carton of chips in hand, I began to slide, and midway back to the til gravity got the better of me and I slipped on to my rear end, on which I was carried the rest of the way. The customer I was serving, watched me vanish before their eyes and then witnessed my arm popping up over the counter to present them with their purchase as I continued to lie there on my back.

Perhaps you had to be there at the time.

Other memories tend to relate to the people who worked there, who formed a particularly interesting mixture. Broadly speaking, these broke down into two categories, the students and people who were working there only in the short term, and everyone else. Or to put it more cruelly, those with futures and those without. I know that's a crass and horrible way of expressing it, and I chide myself for putting it like that, but please understand how true it is. Several of the managers (not all of them) were actually quite resentful of some of the staff because of it. However, there were also some people who straddled the divide and with only a little push could fall into either camp. People like Tracy.

Tracy obviously hadn't planned on eeking out a career in Burger King, but had somehow managed to find herself in such a position anyway (that darned Path Of Least Resistance strikes again). But unlike a lot of people who were stuck there, Tracy was a) a nice person, and b) had plans for her future - she wanted to join the Army, but couldn't at the time - I forget the exact reason why, but I remember that it was a temporary situation. It was obviously something she was keen on, and her face would light up when she was describing it. But whilst I was there she never managed to happen. And she was still there when I left, still talking about how much she was looking forward to moving on.

A few years later I passed by that Burger King again and peeked in the window. Tracy was still there.