Washing Dishes Again

Our church, Temple Baptist Church, in NE Portland - has a wonderful kitchen and dining room. Wednesday nights, before the kids activities and choir practice, there is dinner served up. With dinner comes dishes and someone need to do that cleanup.

Larry Johnson, a steady volunteer, was going on vacation for a few weeks and was looking for help. I had not washed dishes in a large kitchen type setting since 1990 - when I had a 3 week job at TGI Friday's in Roseville, Minnesota.

That summer I was very close to getting an lab chemistry intern-type job at 3M in St. Paul - but it fell through. I had already committed to living in Bethel housing over the summer with 5 roomates - so I needed to find another job. I couldn't find anything that I wanted to do - involving chemistry. So - I grabbed the first job I could find - as a dishwasher. I had done dishwashing, busing, and hosting at Bosacki's Boathouse restaurant in Minocqua, Wisconsin for the previous 5 summers - and I really wanted to get away from the restaurant business.

After my first night at Friday's - I realized I really didn't want to do that all summer. So - after two days - I put in my two week's notice. My boss thought it funny, but appreciated the notice. Those two weeks gave me enough money to cover my apartment for the summer (amazing how cheap you can live with 5 guys in a two bedroom, college housing apartment). A week or two later I did get to work in the Bethel Chemistry Department, cleaning up and preparing the labs for the coming fall semester. It didn't pay quite what 3M paid - but I had fun.

Anyway - back to the present. Larry needed someone to fill in for him while he was on vacation - so I came in last week so he could show me the ropes. All the skills came right back (I do most of the dishes in our family still....) and I just needed to learn where to put things away, and the flow of things in the Temple kitchen.

Larry shows me the ropes

Last night, I worked with Gordon - and we just flew through the dishes, silverware, pots and pans - and even nursery toys.

So - everyone had clean dishes, good fun, and great conversation. A great success!