Great story. Thanks. So did “jim” really hire you?
Nope. I was there for a few weeks before I even met him, and before that he had no more idea who I was than I had who he was.
But there’s even more to the story: about seven years after leaving that job, it led directly to another job, at exactly the right time. I was between restaurant jobs and had unfortunately found myself working the swing shift in a convenience store, and was hating every minute of it and seriously considering looking for a new job. However, I wasn’t specifically looking the day I was walking downtown and decided to try out the burgers at this tiny little corner diner I’d never visited before. The vaguely-familiar lady behind the counter took my order, then asked, “Did you used to cook at Smitty’s?” That’s when I recognized her as a waitress I’d worked with at the other place, and now she owned this diner. So I said, “Yeah!” and she said, “I remember you did good work. You want a job?” Well, I went ahead and accepted the offer.
When I finished my burger I walked to the convenience store to give the boss there my 2 weeks notice, but before I could say anything he hauled me back to his office and fired me, providing a list of complete bullshit reasons (like, “You’re late to work too often”, when in fact I was at least 10 minutes early every day - I mean, geez, I lived a block and a half away from the place). It wasn’t hard to figure out the real reason: somebody was stealing and he didn’t know who it was, but I was the “new guy” so he guessed it must be me (it wasn’t), but without evidence he couldn’t just come out and accuse me so he made up some reasons. I didn’t bother to argue, I just said, “Well, the timing is perfect; I came in to give my notice because I just accepted a new job.” (The real thief got his, though. A few months later he got busted when he sold beer to a minor who happened to be part of a liquor control board sting operation.)
Anyway, one of the other cooks at the new job, a lady named Fran, was also somebody I’d worked with at the other restaurant. I stayed there for six months, during which time I got to be good friends with the “senior” cook there, Lewie, and then I moved on to other opportunities. A few years later the owner died suddenly of a massive heart attack at the age of 44, and a couple months after that her husband hired me back on (and then he sold the place a few months later). Fran and Lewie were still there (and still are today - Lewie’s been there for more than 20 years and has worked for 4 different owners), along with … Jim. Yeah, that Jim. Jim was in the process of buying his own restaurant, so I was basically taking his place. I stayed on there for about three and a half years that time, during which Lewie basically became my best friend, and he still is. And I likely never would have met him if I hadn’t basically bluffed my way into that job back in 1987 