“Please state the nature of your emergency,” the prompt question to my 911 call almost made me forget why I had picked up the phone. “I work at Taco Bell; there is a guy across the street, in a car, watching us through binoculars. We’re getting ready to close, and I think he might be casing the place.” With the call made, there was no turning back now, and the four of us employed by the restaurant strategically moved about the dining room, cleaning but wanting a good view of the upcoming event.
All I can say is it must have been a slow night in Stillwater, Oklahoma, as no less than four cop cars came screaming down the road, lights flashing surrounding the offending vehicle parked across the street. The new restaurant manager, to which we had all taken an instant dislike, stumbles out of his car, still holding the binoculars, pointing toward the store and then back at himself as if the officers knew what he was trying to say during this intense verbal exchange. Given all the excitement, It was now perfectly acceptable to stand in front of the dining room window and stare, which we all did, laughing as our Nemesis tried to explain to the local cops his reasoning behind spying on us.
I should probably back up and explain how I became the harbinger of such awful misfortune. The year was perhaps 1980’ish, and I was attending Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The owner of eleven Taco Bells had posted a help wanted sign in the Business building on campus for someone familiar with profit/loss statements and looking for highly part-time work, meaning no more than a few hours a week. I had worked the previous summers as a night auditor for a motel in Tulsa and could find my way around the primary business documents, so I applied and got the job.
The owner was fun to work with, successful but not boastful, and allowed me to do my work at my own time and speed. The reports he was trying to bring together were more for personal understanding of his restaurant holding than for any required business setting. We worked and tweaked until he was satisfied that the information presented fit his needs and was accurate across the eleven stores. As a side note: there was money to be made in beans, meat, and cheese, at least during the 1980s.
After a few months, he approached me and informed me that he had sold the stores to a corporation out of Phoenix, Arizona and that my job would end. However, he could get me a job at the local Taco Bell store in Stillwater if I still needed a job. I thanked him and accepted the new position.
To this point, I’d worked in food service for most of my life. As a college student, the hours were flexible, the crew generally like-minded, and the restaurants provided a free meal or two around work shifts.
I worked at the store for about a month before the asset sale was complete, and our new manager arrived to make his mark. The new guy was from Phoenix corporate office, and I’m not sure what his story was; however, he wasn’t an exemplary boss. The poor guy did not understand who we were as workers and what the jobs meant to us as college students. We were all attending Oklahoma State University and clearly understood that our employment at Taco Bell was an entry-level job. We worked well, not necessarily hard, but the tables were clean, and we all stayed busy, as restaurant workers were inclined to do when things were slow.
By the end of the first couple of weeks, however, the new manager had made some significant changes to the work schedules. As a result, several employees were forced to look for jobs elsewhere as the new manager refused to be as flexible as our previous boss.
On that fateful night, one of the former employees had stopped by to say goodbye and pick up a couple of things when he noticed our new manager across the road. “Better stay busy,” he explained as he nodded toward the window. “Boss man is across the street with binoculars watching you.” I had picked up the phone before thinking of any plan. But as the four of us stood at the windows laughing, I thought, “the guys a jerk, but working here has been an absolute blast.”
Written August 11, 2022