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You had no idea – nobody told you – it seemed like a good idea at the time.
First job – Chicken Delight – buck twenty-five an hour – free lunch.
You lied – you told them you worked in fast food – they didn’t check references – they needed a warm body – you filled the bill.
First day on the job was like landing on Mars – Stainless Steel everything. You had to wear a hairnet. You nodded your head and said “mm-hmm” like you invented fast food. Your boss mumbled – he was in a hurry – he had places to go.
You were never good at math – change of a ten stopped you dead in your tracks. Customers liked you – a two dollar meal got them five dollars change. You got a lot of repeat business that day.
Boss freaked out – you got demoted to the kitchen – mountains of fries and tons of chicken pieces. Your job; work the fryers.
Co-worker shows you the ropes – wanders into the storeroom – the smell of fried chicken and shrimp mingles with smell of dope. Co-worker walks out and motions if you want to finish the joint.
Now you’re stoned and negotiating boiling vegetable oil. Orders are piling in and you’re running low on chicken – you wander to the walk-in refrigerator and grab a 20 pound bag of frozen solid chicken parts – nobody told you the difference between the frozen ones and the thawed ones. Chicken was chicken to you.
You empty the contents of the frozen bag into the vat.
Next thing you know you’re being assaulted by exploding chickens and geysers of boiling oil.
The ambulance arrives and carts you away – hairnet melted; stuck to your head – body covered in welts. You’ve never seen frozen chickens explode before.
Wrapped up like a mummy and confined to a hospital bed for a week, your only salvation is the prehistoric AM table radio brought in by a candy-striper who claims to be in the same grade as you.
She turns on the radio and smiles – leaving the room and you with tunes from KKDJ to keep you company as your puffy raw-red body slowly heals.
At least there’s music – and your severance check minus the destroyed chickens.
Maybe a job in a bookstore . . . .
And here’s over an hour’s worth of Larry Hayes from KKDJ on August 6, 1971.
