Do No Harm

"Hello, my name is Klaus, I'm a manager at Rustler's and I wanted you to come in for an interview."

That was how it started. I was fresh off my seventeenth birthday and was trying to afford both gas and drug money in the spring of '85. Every spare moment was used filling out job applications. In a surprising fact, Rustler was not the first interview I went on. The day before I received the call from Klaus, I was invited to come and interview for a job at McDonald's. So I went to the interview at MickeyDee's and the following day I had set up my interview for Rustler Steak House. Now beggars can't be choosers and I had already accepted a job at McDonald's the previous day, but I figured "What the heck? Just go and see what happens." Besides I had never actually spoken to someone named Klaus, it could have been fun.

The next day I drove to Marlton and parked "The Stang" (before it got the most awesomest paint job, at the time it was brown, it would soon be "Hell Black". That was the name of the paint. It was of course black but when you got up close to it there was red flecks in it. Way cool. But I digress. I interviewed and he offered me a job. Now here was my first exposure to the business world and I was suddenly a commodity that was in high demand. How the hell did that happen? Yeah, I know, 17 year olds looking for a minimum wage part time job are so hard to find. Now I had to make a decision. It was actually a "no brainer" Rustler was only a few miles down the street, not even 6 to be exact. I think. McDonald's was in Voorhees, which was near where I went to school and thought it would be cool to be able to leave school and go right to work. My first schedule I was given for McD's were all 6-11 shifts. I was done school at 2:15, what the frigg? I told the manager when I interviewed it would be good if I could get like 3:00 shifts since leaving school and driving home and then driving back only to work five hours and drive back home again. Shit, all my money would be spent on gas alone. Seemed kinda pointless as well as weedless.

On the other hand... Klaus, who after conferring with his boss (who happened to be Cindy Johnson, later to be Cindy Johnson Barr, and a very close friend for many years) said I was hired at Rustler and could I come in for my training. I asked him what was my schedule. He said he could give me between 20 and thirty hours a week usually 3-9 or 4-10 shifts.

We have a winner!

So the rest is history. But I often wonder what it would have been like if I had worked at the golden arches instead? Considering I met my best friend working at Rustler's and even though time has taken away some of the innocence and naivete of that seventeen year old man (boy?) it has given me lasting memories, when the memory works. A lifetime of laughter, fun, tears, love, and somewhere out there is someone who knows why I said "Burma". All in all, I'd say it was a good choice.