When I was hired as a busboy at Poncho’s Restaurant it never dawned on me that I’d be working in one of the most state of the art designed kitchens in Portland. There was always a tour going on. Poncho’s, with it famous red sauce was Portland’s first Mexican restaurant; established in 1947.

From the outside it looked like every other old house that was built in the early 1930’s; the only difference was a long awning stretched over the front entry way, a sign read, Poncho’s Mexican Restaurant, and there was an endless line of hungry customers.
All the busboys had a dress code. We had to wear black shoes, and a white dress shirt worn under an embroidered Mexican vest; which I thought was very festive!

Arriving at 3:30 pm meant that I would be opening up. That’s restaurant talk for; make sure all the food is prepared buy 5:00 pm. or you’re fired! So, I made sure that I re-heated 30 gallons of refried beans, washed and cut 20 gallons of potatoes for french fries, cut bags and bags of soft tortilla shells for our own deep fried corn chips, cut and grated 60 pounds of cheese and made sure that the hard taco shells were stocked for the taco bar.
Besides the busboys opening up in our own area, others were opening up as well in theirs, like the dishwashers, at the salad bar, hostess at the front entryway, in the cantina and of course all the cooks and waitresses.
Around 5:15 the orders started coming in to the kitchen and that’s when the show really started! Back then there was no such thing as a microwave; every order was handmade, fresh in or around the big gas powered ovens or on top of the flat top grill.

After the orders were cooked the huge hot plates were placed onto a big tray. It was then my job as the busboy to carry that tray out to each waitress at their station; At the beginning the trays were very awkward; I was always burning my arms from the hot plates but soon I got the hang of it and it became fun. As time passed I could spin the tray before setting it down at the stations. 
I soon started making friends. Most of my new friends went to different high schools. If I worked until closing time some of us would go out after work, it was usually to Carmon’s Restaurant. I would get a hot butter horn and a coke.
Being a busboy was fun, but I also enjoyed working in other areas of the restaurant, for instance, the salad bar. Making salads was only part of the job. I also made a lot of milkshakes, chocolate, strawberry or vanilla,

and if there was any left over I could throw the rest out or drink it. I chose to drink it! What would you do?  
One day there was an opening for a dishwasher so I applied for a transfer. Next thing I knew I was now 1 of the 4 dishwashers with a big raise; my busboy days were over!

Over the next few months the four of us dishwashers from time to time would talk about going on a road trip, but I never really took it seriously until Scott drove to work one day in a newly purchased VW bug convertible and said, “Road trip this summer!”

 To be continued…

Grandpa Tom