April 8, 2025 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Varry Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
One of you may remember Charles Charles was a caller
for the show sometime back. He'll remember when we'll ask
him in a moment. And Charles at the time was
the fry cook short order cook at the waffle house.
And what caught my attention, because I get a lot
of emails, was it Charles mentioned Jonathan Kim and Jonathan
(00:58):
Kim uns gringoes. That's how Russell is able to travel
the world watching Depeche Combo and YouTube and all these
things and live this awesome life because he's created a
great culture at his company. And twenty something years ago
he hired this guy who was I think at most
(01:20):
a manager, maybe not even a manager at bia Peretti's,
and Jonathan sort of rose through the ranks and now
is the president of the operation. And I just for
fun on Saturdays and Sundays, I will call him ten
o'clock and Warren, Hey, what are you doing. I'm out
at the Tombol location. Check in the construction. Where are
(01:43):
you going from there? I'm going to go out to
Conrad and then where are you going from there and
going out to sugar Land. So he visits all the
stores constantly, and he does it on Saturday. He does
it on Sunday. Used to he would get up on
Sunday morning and play golf, which was his one indulgence
for the week, and then he would in his golf
clothes then go and visit all the locations. They have
(02:04):
over twenty locations. I mean, it takes a while. They're
spread they're all spread out in the suburbs anyway, So
this gotch ass. Charles sends me an email and he says, uh, oh,
by the way, we talk about you sometimes every morning
at the waffle house because I'm the short order cook
here and Jonathan Kim comes in every morning and he
eats something like ten eggs and this, this, this and this.
(02:27):
So he's got my wife on this darn thing because
she's on the she needs more protein kick. And so
I told her, well, you know, Jonathan eats ten eggs
every morning, and she says, so tell me about that,
what you know? What super was it due to you?
What is it? How do you feel afterwards? And so
she can't eat ten eggs. She's one hundred and ten pounds,
but she eats probably I don't know five or six
(02:50):
now and she swears it's made a world of difference
for her. But anyway, Charles had a story. He was
living in his vehicle. He was a strong for the
mother of his child. He loves his child and just
wants to be active in his child's life. He worked
these long hours. Well, things took a turn for the
worst after that, and Charles has emailed me regularly, sin Sin,
(03:14):
and so I feel like I'm going through it and
we had a recent break in the case and it's
not a good development. And I thought, you know what,
there's probably some folks out there and ladies, I'm not
beating up on you.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I don't want you to think I am, because I
think in most of the time when there's a breakup,
the woman gets a short shrift and she gotta take you.
There's a lot of dads that don't even stay involved
in the life of the child when there's a split,
and the courts have now largely recognized that for many
years that was the case. So if you're that dad
(03:49):
who is actually trying to be involved in your kid's
life and do the right thing and see your kid
on the regular. These are the guys that get short
shrift because the system issued that everybody is as bad
as some guys are. So the good guy gets the
presumption against him and it makes it very very difficult
for him, very difficult, and that's not right, that's not justice.
(04:12):
So Charles had something happen to him that I thought
he should probably share with you. Welcome to the program, Charles, Charles.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Oh, I'm sorry, I was checking. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I can hear you, all right? So I brought us
up to where we are so that we get this in.
I think it's important for people to understand that as Charles,
as they were figuring out child support, Charles would pay
for his child, and the mother of his child, correct
me if I'm wrong, tries to keep the child from him,
and that's just tearing him up. He lives for this child.
I was living out of his vehicle to try to
(04:48):
make all this work. He moved up to Livingston to
make all this work. Well, he takes another job forty
hours a week, so he's working eighty hours a week.
Was a waffle house and Denny's. What was the two
locations you.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Were working originally it was the waffle house and the
pizza hut down there in the port, and that was
when I was sleeping in the car after the separation.
It's a really long story, but our separation involved me
losing my job up here in Livingston where I was
(05:21):
staying my residence, and then to survive, I moved back
down there where family was in the South Houston area,
started taking up work down there. Couldn't get a place
to live down there because one full time job I
didn't make enough income. Ended up getting a second job
just to qualify for a place to live, and at
(05:42):
that point I had to go into court. We show
up and the court bases the child sport off whole income.
So they go and they base my obligation off of
eighty hours a week, which you know is pretty daunting.
Fast forward a couple of months. I'm completely exhausted. I
(06:05):
had one morning I got up to go to the
bathroom and the only thing I remember I remember after
that is I was on the ground look looking at
the base of the toilet with a bunch of blood
coming out of my head. I was so exhausted that
I either fell and hit a ledge or I'm not
(06:27):
really sure what happened that morning.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
As a general rule, if you fall in the bathroom,
you don't want blood coming out of either head. It's
not gonna it's not any well, no it's not.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
But I ended up leaving a job because of that.
And the issue is that it's not exactly an easy
process to go in there and get your obligation a
mended whenever you lose income. And I was just trying
to survive at that point for about a year and
(06:59):
a half and I worked on getting into a higher
paying position. Waffle House stepped up and they paid me
several more dollars an hour put me overnight and in that.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
How much working out how much did they take you
up to?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I was making sixteen something an hour.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Okay, and before that.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
It was like twelve.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And they gave you the pay increase because you were
willing to work overnights.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Working overnights and another race for a position change.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
What was the position change?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Basically, you take these cooking tests and if you can
meet expectations, you go from the grill operator to the
master groll operator, and you can go from the master
row operator to the rock Star gral operator. It's just
like their little you know, little fun position turn.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
People have to address you differently at that point.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
No, no, but.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
All the cookie shows now these stupid the chef chef
will right her chef. It's the most annoying thing ever.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Hold on a second show he sold separately.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
American sniper Chris Kyle passed twelve years ago, and twelve
years a long time. It feels like forever ago, and
he would still only be fifty one today. That puts
(08:49):
into perspective. You know, you have to.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
You have to get up and pick up the pieces
when you lose some who's such a big presence, not
only in your family but in the nation, and now
you have.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
This gaping hole in your life. Who's rough, Charles, they
bumped you up above sixteen. Do they give benefits at
waffle House?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Well, they actually are really good of their employees other
than the you know mee being a fat person. I
like the employee meals. But there's some numbers you can
call if you ever need assistance with like mental health
or legal issues that will help gets you to like
a discount earlier. They do several things for the employees,
(09:42):
and not everybody knows about it because you have to
go back and read the boards, and people don't really
go and read.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
But yeah, the the on the rock star chef, like
what would be one of the things they would ask
you on that.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
So they're basically going to dump you off by your
off on a Sunday morning when you have a full
house and you just have to keep everything going by yourself.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So if they dump you off because you know, some
guy got in a fight right before you, or he
got arrest and they hauled him out of there, and
you've got a restaurant full of people at the waffle
house and they're all hungover or some of them still drunk,
and there might at any point be an outbreak or
a mob or whatever else. What is the first thing?
(10:26):
Do you like? Put out forty eggs and start I mean,
what do you do? Walk me through that checkdown?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
There's a a whole like pattern. You start with your knats.
Typically I just fill the whole grow up with bacon
and some sausage just to get it going. And you
just get all your eggs going, and you want to
be in the rhythm of like having your eggs pre
cracked in the bowl so you don't have to waste
time cracking them, you might as well go and just
drop all your waffles and get all the irons going
(10:54):
at the same time, because I mean, you're gonna need it,
you know, And so it's just you try to keep
everything going as as fast as possible at that point,
keep all your toasters going, and you don't sit there
and wait for them to call out what you need.
You just start making it ahead of time, just to
try to get the plates out as quickly as possible. Okay,
(11:16):
So that's my opinion. They disagree with it.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
That's okay. I only want you're so so you roll
out these eggs. How many eggs can you do you
roll out on the griddle at one time?
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Well, we could have like six pans going at the same.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Time, and how many per pan?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Two or three? So you're talking about twelve to eighteen eggs?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And how long does that egg cook? Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Well, just the boons. If we're talking about a light
egg with a hot pan. I can get some over
easy eggs out on about forty five seconds maybe, But.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
You do another stuff in between when you crack them
and when you come back.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
To it, right, so you throw it on the fire
and then you turn to your right and you run
down to go put toasts down or drop a waffle,
where you go to your left to go grab some
more meat and throw it on the grill, or take
something off and out of the corner of your eye,
you're trying to keep an eye on the eggs so
you don't burn it.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Charles, I'm not trying to puff you up. Okay, this
isn't incoming fire from the Taliban every direction and mortars
and IEDs, but this is emergency room triage because we've
all cooked. And you know, if I cook for me,
my wife and my two kids, I make an absolute mess.
(12:30):
Everything is burned. I don't. It's not that it's that
hard to perform the tasks you're performing. It's keeping your
cool knowing that I have to do A and B
and C then back to A, then B, then back
to A, then D, all in rapid succession while people
are waiting for their food and they're a loud noises
and this has been going on for hours on end,
(12:52):
and you're tired. That's not nothing.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Right, right, Well, it's purely mechanical.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You get it down.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
You just get into a rhythm and you're just you're
just acting. You're not really thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Okay, so you turn around and what is the most
common plate? Scrambled egg two scrambled eggs, eggs, bacon, grits, toast.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah, basically the hash browns. Grits are less common than
hash Browns.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I think has a stupid.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I do.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, I'm dead serious. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not
insulting you. I don't see a purpose in hash Browns.
I don't know. It's it's the worst use of the
product that I can It's the worst form. I don't
understand it. I don't understand it. But anyway, y'all don't
do grits.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
What, Yeah, we have grits.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh, it's just it's a side order. Okay, so do
you kind of all right? So you're you're pulling the ticket.
It's not digital, right.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Oh no, it's we don't we don't have tickets. Are
calling it to you. You're setting your plates. They tell
you three orders of scrambled egg three scrambled plates, and
you're putting out three plates with a jelly packet on
the bottom, and you're throwing some hashbruns on the top.
An actual reminder right there, and if it's wheat coast,
you flip your jelly packet upside down. If it's raisin
(14:15):
raisin toast, you're throwing an apple butter on there instead.
And they have a whole marking system so you don't
have any screens. Raviously, you've been in the waffle house
before and you just have that server yelling, actually telling
you what they need and you have to run down
and dress your plates for it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And is the is the waitress the expeditor? Is she
the one that's that's taking the plate and presenting it
like she there are things she's going to add that
you're just putting the food out there? Are you putting
Remind me, now, are you putting the bake in, the
egg and the toast all on one plate or are
you sending out a plate of each?
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Well, we have side plates for the bacon and all that,
and then you have the bigger plate for the meal,
which would be like the eggs toast, and then the
hash brands are the grits.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
On average, how many waitresses are there working a shift?
Probably about three, so you're keeping all of their orders separated.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Yeah, yeah, you just have it on that little.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Long harder than Charles. That's a lot harder for the
rest of us than you realize.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Briskets and berry letting it all hang out, going against
the grain is what we do on the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Can stop sending me your hash brown comments. I don't
care that you like them. It doesn't make them. It's
the worst use of potatoes out there. One of my
friends said, whether to do potatoes, how can you be
against them? Well, i'll tell you what. Put them in
a juicer. They probably got a blender back there. Put
them in a blender and make potato juice out of
it and serve that to people when they go. But yeah, exactly, here,
(16:03):
here's your potato sludge. Eat This is a potato smoothie.
That's gross. Why'd you give me that? Well, it's potatoes.
The point isn't whether hash browns are good or bad.
That's not the point. The point is you got ten
things you can do with hashbrown with potatoes before you
get to hash browns. Why would you ever get on
your checkdown list? Right, Tom Brady? Why on third and
(16:26):
sixteen did you do the fun beforeward like Kenny Stabler
and the Holy Roller, hoping that the right guard would
pick it up and run that's well. I looked over
Randy Moss and he was covered. And then I looked
over it. What was that little fellow that came here,
a little slot receiver, Wes Welker. I looked at Welker
(16:48):
in a slot and he was covered. And then I
looked over at Antonio Brown, and I thought he's crazy.
And then I looked and finally I got down to
you know, that's all there was left. Oh well, then
that makes that a good play, fumble forward, hoping the
right guard land on it eight yards down the field. Charles, Yes, sir,
(17:10):
So you were working forty hours there and forty hours
at another job. She's kicked you in the house. You're
living in your truck. You're working eighty hours a week
of a job that's already harder than most jobs. You're
not exactly pushing paper. You're working yourself to a nub
and resting by sleeping in your car. Your fat as
(17:31):
all get out. You've got to be uncomfortable. Every inch
of your body's got to be hurting. And they used
those eighty hours and the money you were making off that,
which hold on sixteen bucks an hour times eighty, so
you were making probably.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
No, No, you weren't making making the okay, No, I
wasn't making sixteen yet at that point it was ten
dollars an hour at more than twelve dollars an hour
at the other.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, so you were making eight nine hundred dollars a
week take home less than that, and they based that
what your child support should be, right, correct, And your
point of that is twofold. Number one, I can't work
eighty hours a week. That was to get myself out
of my car and not be homeless anymore. And number two,
(18:18):
if I'm working eighty hours a week, I can't see
my child who I'm paying child support for.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Exactly exactly, And that's that's my main issue with it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, is you not getting a lawyer and negotiating a budget?
Who could have said what I just said on your
behalf wearing a suit which tends to convince judges and
did it pro sae. But we'll discuss that in a moment.
And I've had this conversation off there. So when are
you back in court today?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
You know it's going to be in a couple of days.
I believe it's on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Okay, what are they trying to get you to pay
in child support.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Well, the letter that will send to me they want
me to pay essentially six hundred dollars a month right now.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And what do you think is fair?
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Well, the state, wells is twenty percent of your income
post taxes, and right now I'm making fourteen dollars an hour,
and I think you base it off of a full
time income. At fourteen dollars an hour, we could come
up once an amount that's fair, but I think that
they should just limit it to not be more than
(19:28):
forty hours a week.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I go back for these guys, Gay second, Charles, I'm
just doing some some math in my head. You said
sixteen dollars an hour, but now you say fourteen dollars
an hour, and you're doing forty hours a week, right,
that's right, right, So that's five sixty a week times
four weeks is twenty two hundred dollars, right, right.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Then you take your taxes out and then you figure
when if I do the taxes, I like to multiply
the amount by zero point eighty three. And then you
take that amount and you multiply it by point two
and you trigger out your monthly obbligation.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Okay, So let's do really, let's two point eight three
times twenty four hundred dollars. So, uh, you've got about
you've got about two thousand. Let's do round numbers. You've
got about two thousand and so you got so you
think you should pay four hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Yeah, it should be right around four hundred. Now they're
asking for six right now?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Oh yeah, you probably gets to the level that you
could have afforded a lawyer for a while, right, even
a strips in her lawyer. So are you right to
see your child? Now? Is she giving you? Is she
allowing you visitation at all?
Speaker 4 (20:50):
So there's been there's been issue with that. Also, when
I followed the I actually filed to take her back
into court. This was not on the child's child support issue,
but this was on another issue in the household where
my kid's living, the person she has living with her,
(21:11):
I had gotten arrested for a possession of a stone
firearm and drug paraphernalia and a big thing from three
years ago. When we were on court, I was complaining
about the guy having a substance abuse issue. Well would
I know that he I know that he smokes weed
(21:32):
and I personally don't want that around my kid. He
was five years old at the time. No, I don't
believe so.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Is the guy Mexican?
Speaker 4 (21:44):
No, he's a white guy.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
What's his first name? Is it Darryl Way? Is he
a bad guy?
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Well, I don't think he's a terrible guy. I don't
like that around my kid. No, she isn't, is he? No, No,
he wasn't. Wasn't a felon. I imagine that's different now that
he got arrested for deny possession of the stolen.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Firearm and you called him in on that, No.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
No, I didn't. Actually they he has seizures, and so
he was driving her vehicle without a license and their
tags were out and they got pulled over for that.
Then no, no, it's not so he ended up getting
(22:34):
you know, they had he was with a friend. The
friend had a bag full of weed that was portioned out,
and he had a hot gun on him, and so
he gets pulled out of the car. They find the
stolen firearm on him, They find his pipe. That's where
the drug paraphernalia comes in. And then the other guy
(22:57):
actually had ran but then came back and he had
a backpack in the car full of marijuana. So it's
a long story. Basically, the first time I went into court,
the judge wouldn't even consider the substance abuse complaints that
I had because there were no drug charges. And so
(23:18):
whenever I found out that he was in court for that,
I went and got a copy of the police report,
went over it, and then I decided to file to
go back into court to discuss these things. And at
that point she stopped letting me see my kid for
about a month and a half and it got really
ugly between us. Again, what if she wasn't too happy.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Would it bother you less? If he was raging alcoholic?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Probably not. I still wouldn't be happy with her around
my kids.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, but then it wouldn't be a climb the stupid
drug laws tears because I start here that our country
is failing you today. Invest in Kleenex, ladies and gentlemen.
And this is the Michael Berry Show. I got a
(24:22):
self directed study credit in law school for my third
year and I was in England, so the university was
very kind to me. They allowed me to count my
PhD credits, which we call an LLM here in England
(24:43):
as my third year of law school, so I got
two degrees in three years, which normally law school takes
three years. It was pretty awesome of them to do
it the way they did it, and I had to
come up with They had to come up with one
extra course to get me through, which I took while
to in a bar. And there was a professor that
had been there forever named Joe Sutton and his son,
(25:04):
Johnny Sutton, is a charming, very smart guy who was
US attorney who's done some awful things, which with which
I disagree. I don't think he's a bad person, but
he's one of these guys that worked for the Bush family.
He's like a mercenary for the Bushes. He's the one
that went after the two border guards. You remember Will
(25:27):
He wrote the song Yeah, Campion and Ramos and I
had him on during that time, and I started our
discussion by saying, your father did myself directed to study
at Utidorge. Your father he was kind of in his
twilight years as a faculty. Remember, they kind of kept
him around, but he did it, and he and I
(25:48):
formed quite a friendship. And my subject was pro se representation.
Pro Se is the Latin term that means roughly representing
yourself in court. And I started it with dishonest abes quotation,
he who represents himself as a fool for a client.
And I've always loved that line, and that's what came
(26:11):
to mind when Charles and I were emailing me. We're
emailing back and forth over the last couple of days
about him getting dragged to court and feeling that it
was wrong that they based the amount of his child's
support on how much he made when he worked eighty
hours a week, but unfortunately he didn't have a good
lawyer to explain that to the court. Yeah, so that's
(26:32):
kind of a bummer. So now he's stuck in that.
So Charles, I have to give you credit. Yeah, you're
one of these guys kind of in a Forrest Gump way,
but you're one of these guys that just keeps plugging along.
And I'm not saying you don't make terrible decisions on occasion,
but I keep you lovable as all get out, and
people that know you, like Jonathan Kim tell me you're
(26:53):
just charming as you can be. And I guarantee you
waffle House lives in fear that you're going to move
away again because they just can't find people like you
to do what you do. You're worth your weight and
goal to them, and I think you're a big boy
from what I've heard.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Well, that's the thing. I moved away from them back
in September because my kid wanted me to be closer
and they don't have a waffle house up here in
the Livingston area, and I ended up moving back up
here to on Alaska, which is just up one to
ninety from Livingston. Yeah, so that I could be four
minutes down the road to my kid. And I had
(27:29):
gotten an office job out here and that just wasn't
really working out. I wasn't able to keep up my
performance there, and so I ended up going to the
new Dennis that they built out here, and that's where
that fourteen dollars an hour is. So I'm trying to
find another little part time.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Are you talking to the microphone because Ramon won't turn
the volume up and I don't want to have to
change my setting because then everything else will be too loud.
So I'm hoping I'll get you to do it on
your end. Do you have it up?
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I actually have I have my phone up to my ear.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Do you not hear me that way I can. Okay.
So you told me that there is that like waffle house,
and this shocks me that there are Denny's partisans and
that they make fun of the waff It's like it's
like the Socials and the Greasers.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Right right, And now I'm working for Denny's over here,
so that you know, you have an actual computer screen
with everything already listed on there, and I really don't
like it. I have to turn around to look at
what I need to cook instead of just glancing down
a line. Waffle House, in my opinion, is definitely easier
(28:38):
because you get all of your plates set up and
I can just kind of peek over and I know
exactly what I need just by looking at the plates
real quick. Whereas Denny's it's kind of disorganized on the
computer screen and you're trying to count down tickets to
figure out how many of each item you need, and
it just takes longer.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
If you drive. If you drive the Louisiana on Iten,
before you get into Orange, there's Highway sixty two that
runs pard It runs perpendicular to the to Iten that
you're on, and I grew up very close to that
intersection right there and when you're headed that way, so
you're eastbound, So the northeast corner of that intersection of
the highway which is a flyover, and sixty two, which
(29:21):
is the highway which takes you up East Texas right
there in that northeast corner, and there's a place called
Fads and inside Thads which is a gas station that
used to be my elementary school. They tore that elementary
school down and inside of Fads is a Denny's. And
when they built that Dennis, my parents were very excited
because Denny's was their kind of place. And so you
(29:42):
would pull up there and then be all the eighteen
wheelers out in the parking lot, and the would be
the lizard, the lot lizards, what Yeah, the lot lizards
all out there. And then a guy I went to
school with turns out he was a lot lizard, and
that was awkward because he's well whatever. So anyway, I
go there with my parents one and my wife, and
my wife's a good sports never going to criticize anything,
(30:03):
and we go in that Denny's and it's been there
for about two years at that point when I finally
go and we go in that Denny's, and it felt
like it had been there for sixty years. But it's
like a city pool in an urban environment, it's trash
to day, or a public housing project is trash today.
It opens, and it was really cold, which felt weird,
(30:23):
and you're seated, which feels odd, and you're very far
and they got carpet on the floors, and the staff
doesn't seem like they want to be there, and I
just thought, how does this place survive? Whereas waffle House,
which is not nearly you know, Denny's, tries to do
things that make it seem nicer. Waffle House is like,
here's the grill and Charles's cooking. You can sit right
(30:47):
next to him or a little bit further away on
a Melomine bent deal that we bought all the old
dairy queen chairs, and your waitress is going to walk
ten steps here and here's your menu, And I just go,
I love it. How can it be that I love
waffle House and I won't be seen dead in a
in a Denny's.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Help me, Well, waffle House just waffle House just owns it.
We're not We're not trying to hide the fact that,
you know, maybe things are a little run down, you know, Denny's.
I've been through several different Denny's just to go eat,
and some of them are pretty rough, Michael. They're they're rough,
and You're right, they don't seem like they want to
(31:25):
be there, because I guarantee you they don't want to
be there. But that's where they are and probably can't
find them. No the Denny's, Yeah, serve staff, Yeah, yeah,
did you?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Did you ever go to the Dutch Kettle on?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Hasn't been there. Oh, it's not there anymore. It's Gumbo Donner.
He's a guy that took it over. He's done a
great job with it. I like the guy and I
love their menu, But the Dutch Kettle was the last holdover.
You would go in there and they would be there
would be people smoking, and some of them were actually customers,
Like your waitress would come over, she have a cigarette dangling.
What can I get for you, darling? And she's she's
(32:03):
moving it. What maybe, what can I get you? And
she turned my wife, honey, what you want and she
was already pouring your coffee and it was just it
was so glorious. I miss that. They'll never They'll never
open new places like that. I'm just glad I'm old
enough to remember it. And there was a Dutch agaunt.
Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
You never got any cigarette ashes in your in your coffee, no,
did you?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Oh yeah, he knows, you know. It was just it
was an that acrid smell. I love the acrid smell
of smoke. That's what a diner should smell like, Charles,
I wish you the best of luck, my man hanging there.
Stay in touch,
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Varry Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
One of you may remember Charles Charles was a caller
for the show sometime back. He'll remember when we'll ask
him in a moment. And Charles at the time was
the fry cook short order cook at the waffle house.
And what caught my attention, because I get a lot
of emails, was it Charles mentioned Jonathan Kim and Jonathan
(00:58):
Kim uns gringoes. That's how Russell is able to travel
the world watching Depeche Combo and YouTube and all these
things and live this awesome life because he's created a
great culture at his company. And twenty something years ago
he hired this guy who was I think at most
(01:20):
a manager, maybe not even a manager at bia Peretti's,
and Jonathan sort of rose through the ranks and now
is the president of the operation. And I just for
fun on Saturdays and Sundays, I will call him ten
o'clock and Warren, Hey, what are you doing. I'm out
at the Tombol location. Check in the construction. Where are
(01:43):
you going from there? I'm going to go out to
Conrad and then where are you going from there and
going out to sugar Land. So he visits all the
stores constantly, and he does it on Saturday. He does
it on Sunday. Used to he would get up on
Sunday morning and play golf, which was his one indulgence
for the week, and then he would in his golf
clothes then go and visit all the locations. They have
(02:04):
over twenty locations. I mean, it takes a while. They're
spread they're all spread out in the suburbs anyway, So
this gotch ass. Charles sends me an email and he says, uh, oh,
by the way, we talk about you sometimes every morning
at the waffle house because I'm the short order cook
here and Jonathan Kim comes in every morning and he
eats something like ten eggs and this, this, this and this.
(02:27):
So he's got my wife on this darn thing because
she's on the she needs more protein kick. And so
I told her, well, you know, Jonathan eats ten eggs
every morning, and she says, so tell me about that,
what you know? What super was it due to you?
What is it? How do you feel afterwards? And so
she can't eat ten eggs. She's one hundred and ten pounds,
but she eats probably I don't know five or six
(02:50):
now and she swears it's made a world of difference
for her. But anyway, Charles had a story. He was
living in his vehicle. He was a strong for the
mother of his child. He loves his child and just
wants to be active in his child's life. He worked
these long hours. Well, things took a turn for the
worst after that, and Charles has emailed me regularly, sin Sin,
(03:14):
and so I feel like I'm going through it and
we had a recent break in the case and it's
not a good development. And I thought, you know what,
there's probably some folks out there and ladies, I'm not
beating up on you.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I don't want you to think I am, because I
think in most of the time when there's a breakup,
the woman gets a short shrift and she gotta take you.
There's a lot of dads that don't even stay involved
in the life of the child when there's a split,
and the courts have now largely recognized that for many
years that was the case. So if you're that dad
(03:49):
who is actually trying to be involved in your kid's
life and do the right thing and see your kid
on the regular. These are the guys that get short
shrift because the system issued that everybody is as bad
as some guys are. So the good guy gets the
presumption against him and it makes it very very difficult
for him, very difficult, and that's not right, that's not justice.
(04:12):
So Charles had something happen to him that I thought
he should probably share with you. Welcome to the program, Charles, Charles.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Oh, I'm sorry, I was checking. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I can hear you, all right? So I brought us
up to where we are so that we get this in.
I think it's important for people to understand that as Charles,
as they were figuring out child support, Charles would pay
for his child, and the mother of his child, correct
me if I'm wrong, tries to keep the child from him,
and that's just tearing him up. He lives for this child.
I was living out of his vehicle to try to
(04:48):
make all this work. He moved up to Livingston to
make all this work. Well, he takes another job forty
hours a week, so he's working eighty hours a week.
Was a waffle house and Denny's. What was the two
locations you.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Were working originally it was the waffle house and the
pizza hut down there in the port, and that was
when I was sleeping in the car after the separation.
It's a really long story, but our separation involved me
losing my job up here in Livingston where I was
(05:21):
staying my residence, and then to survive, I moved back
down there where family was in the South Houston area,
started taking up work down there. Couldn't get a place
to live down there because one full time job I
didn't make enough income. Ended up getting a second job
just to qualify for a place to live, and at
(05:42):
that point I had to go into court. We show
up and the court bases the child sport off whole income.
So they go and they base my obligation off of
eighty hours a week, which you know is pretty daunting.
Fast forward a couple of months. I'm completely exhausted. I
(06:05):
had one morning I got up to go to the
bathroom and the only thing I remember I remember after
that is I was on the ground look looking at
the base of the toilet with a bunch of blood
coming out of my head. I was so exhausted that
I either fell and hit a ledge or I'm not
(06:27):
really sure what happened that morning.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
As a general rule, if you fall in the bathroom,
you don't want blood coming out of either head. It's
not gonna it's not any well, no it's not.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
But I ended up leaving a job because of that.
And the issue is that it's not exactly an easy
process to go in there and get your obligation a
mended whenever you lose income. And I was just trying
to survive at that point for about a year and
(06:59):
a half and I worked on getting into a higher
paying position. Waffle House stepped up and they paid me
several more dollars an hour put me overnight and in that.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
How much working out how much did they take you
up to?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I was making sixteen something an hour.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Okay, and before that.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
It was like twelve.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And they gave you the pay increase because you were
willing to work overnights.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Working overnights and another race for a position change.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
What was the position change?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Basically, you take these cooking tests and if you can
meet expectations, you go from the grill operator to the
master groll operator, and you can go from the master
row operator to the rock Star gral operator. It's just
like their little you know, little fun position turn.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
People have to address you differently at that point.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
No, no, but.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
All the cookie shows now these stupid the chef chef
will right her chef. It's the most annoying thing ever.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Hold on a second show he sold separately.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
American sniper Chris Kyle passed twelve years ago, and twelve
years a long time. It feels like forever ago, and
he would still only be fifty one today. That puts
(08:49):
into perspective. You know, you have to.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
You have to get up and pick up the pieces
when you lose some who's such a big presence, not
only in your family but in the nation, and now
you have.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
This gaping hole in your life. Who's rough, Charles, they
bumped you up above sixteen. Do they give benefits at
waffle House?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Well, they actually are really good of their employees other
than the you know mee being a fat person. I
like the employee meals. But there's some numbers you can
call if you ever need assistance with like mental health
or legal issues that will help gets you to like
a discount earlier. They do several things for the employees,
(09:42):
and not everybody knows about it because you have to
go back and read the boards, and people don't really
go and read.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
But yeah, the the on the rock star chef, like
what would be one of the things they would ask
you on that.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
So they're basically going to dump you off by your
off on a Sunday morning when you have a full
house and you just have to keep everything going by yourself.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So if they dump you off because you know, some
guy got in a fight right before you, or he
got arrest and they hauled him out of there, and
you've got a restaurant full of people at the waffle
house and they're all hungover or some of them still drunk,
and there might at any point be an outbreak or
a mob or whatever else. What is the first thing?
(10:26):
Do you like? Put out forty eggs and start I mean,
what do you do? Walk me through that checkdown?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
There's a a whole like pattern. You start with your knats.
Typically I just fill the whole grow up with bacon
and some sausage just to get it going. And you
just get all your eggs going, and you want to
be in the rhythm of like having your eggs pre
cracked in the bowl so you don't have to waste
time cracking them, you might as well go and just
drop all your waffles and get all the irons going
(10:54):
at the same time, because I mean, you're gonna need it,
you know, And so it's just you try to keep
everything going as as fast as possible at that point,
keep all your toasters going, and you don't sit there
and wait for them to call out what you need.
You just start making it ahead of time, just to
try to get the plates out as quickly as possible. Okay,
(11:16):
So that's my opinion. They disagree with it.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
That's okay. I only want you're so so you roll
out these eggs. How many eggs can you do you
roll out on the griddle at one time?
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Well, we could have like six pans going at the same.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Time, and how many per pan?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Two or three? So you're talking about twelve to eighteen eggs?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And how long does that egg cook? Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Well, just the boons. If we're talking about a light
egg with a hot pan. I can get some over
easy eggs out on about forty five seconds maybe, But.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
You do another stuff in between when you crack them
and when you come back.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
To it, right, so you throw it on the fire
and then you turn to your right and you run
down to go put toasts down or drop a waffle,
where you go to your left to go grab some
more meat and throw it on the grill, or take
something off and out of the corner of your eye,
you're trying to keep an eye on the eggs so
you don't burn it.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Charles, I'm not trying to puff you up. Okay, this
isn't incoming fire from the Taliban every direction and mortars
and IEDs, but this is emergency room triage because we've
all cooked. And you know, if I cook for me,
my wife and my two kids, I make an absolute mess.
(12:30):
Everything is burned. I don't. It's not that it's that
hard to perform the tasks you're performing. It's keeping your
cool knowing that I have to do A and B
and C then back to A, then B, then back
to A, then D, all in rapid succession while people
are waiting for their food and they're a loud noises
and this has been going on for hours on end,
(12:52):
and you're tired. That's not nothing.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Right, right, Well, it's purely mechanical.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You get it down.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
You just get into a rhythm and you're just you're
just acting. You're not really thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Okay, so you turn around and what is the most
common plate? Scrambled egg two scrambled eggs, eggs, bacon, grits, toast.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah, basically the hash browns. Grits are less common than
hash Browns.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I think has a stupid.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I do.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, I'm dead serious. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not
insulting you. I don't see a purpose in hash Browns.
I don't know. It's it's the worst use of the
product that I can It's the worst form. I don't
understand it. I don't understand it. But anyway, y'all don't
do grits.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
What, Yeah, we have grits.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh, it's just it's a side order. Okay, so do
you kind of all right? So you're you're pulling the ticket.
It's not digital, right.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Oh no, it's we don't we don't have tickets. Are
calling it to you. You're setting your plates. They tell
you three orders of scrambled egg three scrambled plates, and
you're putting out three plates with a jelly packet on
the bottom, and you're throwing some hashbruns on the top.
An actual reminder right there, and if it's wheat coast,
you flip your jelly packet upside down. If it's raisin
(14:15):
raisin toast, you're throwing an apple butter on there instead.
And they have a whole marking system so you don't
have any screens. Raviously, you've been in the waffle house
before and you just have that server yelling, actually telling
you what they need and you have to run down
and dress your plates for it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And is the is the waitress the expeditor? Is she
the one that's that's taking the plate and presenting it
like she there are things she's going to add that
you're just putting the food out there? Are you putting
Remind me, now, are you putting the bake in, the
egg and the toast all on one plate or are
you sending out a plate of each?
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Well, we have side plates for the bacon and all that,
and then you have the bigger plate for the meal,
which would be like the eggs toast, and then the
hash brands are the grits.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
On average, how many waitresses are there working a shift?
Probably about three, so you're keeping all of their orders separated.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Yeah, yeah, you just have it on that little.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Long harder than Charles. That's a lot harder for the
rest of us than you realize.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Briskets and berry letting it all hang out, going against
the grain is what we do on the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Can stop sending me your hash brown comments. I don't
care that you like them. It doesn't make them. It's
the worst use of potatoes out there. One of my
friends said, whether to do potatoes, how can you be
against them? Well, i'll tell you what. Put them in
a juicer. They probably got a blender back there. Put
them in a blender and make potato juice out of
it and serve that to people when they go. But yeah, exactly, here,
(16:03):
here's your potato sludge. Eat This is a potato smoothie.
That's gross. Why'd you give me that? Well, it's potatoes.
The point isn't whether hash browns are good or bad.
That's not the point. The point is you got ten
things you can do with hashbrown with potatoes before you
get to hash browns. Why would you ever get on
your checkdown list? Right, Tom Brady? Why on third and
(16:26):
sixteen did you do the fun beforeward like Kenny Stabler
and the Holy Roller, hoping that the right guard would
pick it up and run that's well. I looked over
Randy Moss and he was covered. And then I looked
over it. What was that little fellow that came here,
a little slot receiver, Wes Welker. I looked at Welker
(16:48):
in a slot and he was covered. And then I
looked over at Antonio Brown, and I thought he's crazy.
And then I looked and finally I got down to
you know, that's all there was left. Oh well, then
that makes that a good play, fumble forward, hoping the
right guard land on it eight yards down the field. Charles, Yes, sir,
(17:10):
So you were working forty hours there and forty hours
at another job. She's kicked you in the house. You're
living in your truck. You're working eighty hours a week
of a job that's already harder than most jobs. You're
not exactly pushing paper. You're working yourself to a nub
and resting by sleeping in your car. Your fat as
(17:31):
all get out. You've got to be uncomfortable. Every inch
of your body's got to be hurting. And they used
those eighty hours and the money you were making off that,
which hold on sixteen bucks an hour times eighty, so
you were making probably.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
No, No, you weren't making making the okay, No, I
wasn't making sixteen yet at that point it was ten
dollars an hour at more than twelve dollars an hour
at the other.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, so you were making eight nine hundred dollars a
week take home less than that, and they based that
what your child support should be, right, correct, And your
point of that is twofold. Number one, I can't work
eighty hours a week. That was to get myself out
of my car and not be homeless anymore. And number two,
(18:18):
if I'm working eighty hours a week, I can't see
my child who I'm paying child support for.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Exactly exactly, And that's that's my main issue with it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, is you not getting a lawyer and negotiating a budget?
Who could have said what I just said on your
behalf wearing a suit which tends to convince judges and
did it pro sae. But we'll discuss that in a moment.
And I've had this conversation off there. So when are
you back in court today?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
You know it's going to be in a couple of days.
I believe it's on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Okay, what are they trying to get you to pay
in child support.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Well, the letter that will send to me they want
me to pay essentially six hundred dollars a month right now.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And what do you think is fair?
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Well, the state, wells is twenty percent of your income
post taxes, and right now I'm making fourteen dollars an hour,
and I think you base it off of a full
time income. At fourteen dollars an hour, we could come
up once an amount that's fair, but I think that
they should just limit it to not be more than
(19:28):
forty hours a week.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I go back for these guys, Gay second, Charles, I'm
just doing some some math in my head. You said
sixteen dollars an hour, but now you say fourteen dollars
an hour, and you're doing forty hours a week, right,
that's right, right, So that's five sixty a week times
four weeks is twenty two hundred dollars, right, right.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Then you take your taxes out and then you figure
when if I do the taxes, I like to multiply
the amount by zero point eighty three. And then you
take that amount and you multiply it by point two
and you trigger out your monthly obbligation.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Okay, So let's do really, let's two point eight three
times twenty four hundred dollars. So, uh, you've got about
you've got about two thousand. Let's do round numbers. You've
got about two thousand and so you got so you
think you should pay four hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Yeah, it should be right around four hundred. Now they're
asking for six right now?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Oh yeah, you probably gets to the level that you
could have afforded a lawyer for a while, right, even
a strips in her lawyer. So are you right to
see your child? Now? Is she giving you? Is she
allowing you visitation at all?
Speaker 4 (20:50):
So there's been there's been issue with that. Also, when
I followed the I actually filed to take her back
into court. This was not on the child's child support issue,
but this was on another issue in the household where
my kid's living, the person she has living with her,
(21:11):
I had gotten arrested for a possession of a stone
firearm and drug paraphernalia and a big thing from three
years ago. When we were on court, I was complaining
about the guy having a substance abuse issue. Well would
I know that he I know that he smokes weed
(21:32):
and I personally don't want that around my kid. He
was five years old at the time. No, I don't
believe so.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Is the guy Mexican?
Speaker 4 (21:44):
No, he's a white guy.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
What's his first name? Is it Darryl Way? Is he
a bad guy?
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Well, I don't think he's a terrible guy. I don't
like that around my kid. No, she isn't, is he? No, No,
he wasn't. Wasn't a felon. I imagine that's different now that
he got arrested for deny possession of the stolen.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Firearm and you called him in on that, No.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
No, I didn't. Actually they he has seizures, and so
he was driving her vehicle without a license and their
tags were out and they got pulled over for that.
Then no, no, it's not so he ended up getting
(22:34):
you know, they had he was with a friend. The
friend had a bag full of weed that was portioned out,
and he had a hot gun on him, and so
he gets pulled out of the car. They find the
stolen firearm on him, They find his pipe. That's where
the drug paraphernalia comes in. And then the other guy
(22:57):
actually had ran but then came back and he had
a backpack in the car full of marijuana. So it's
a long story. Basically, the first time I went into court,
the judge wouldn't even consider the substance abuse complaints that
I had because there were no drug charges. And so
(23:18):
whenever I found out that he was in court for that,
I went and got a copy of the police report,
went over it, and then I decided to file to
go back into court to discuss these things. And at
that point she stopped letting me see my kid for
about a month and a half and it got really
ugly between us. Again, what if she wasn't too happy.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Would it bother you less? If he was raging alcoholic?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Probably not. I still wouldn't be happy with her around
my kids.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, but then it wouldn't be a climb the stupid
drug laws tears because I start here that our country
is failing you today. Invest in Kleenex, ladies and gentlemen.
And this is the Michael Berry Show. I got a
(24:22):
self directed study credit in law school for my third
year and I was in England, so the university was
very kind to me. They allowed me to count my
PhD credits, which we call an LLM here in England
(24:43):
as my third year of law school, so I got
two degrees in three years, which normally law school takes
three years. It was pretty awesome of them to do
it the way they did it, and I had to
come up with They had to come up with one
extra course to get me through, which I took while
to in a bar. And there was a professor that
had been there forever named Joe Sutton and his son,
(25:04):
Johnny Sutton, is a charming, very smart guy who was
US attorney who's done some awful things, which with which
I disagree. I don't think he's a bad person, but
he's one of these guys that worked for the Bush family.
He's like a mercenary for the Bushes. He's the one
that went after the two border guards. You remember Will
(25:27):
He wrote the song Yeah, Campion and Ramos and I
had him on during that time, and I started our
discussion by saying, your father did myself directed to study
at Utidorge. Your father he was kind of in his
twilight years as a faculty. Remember, they kind of kept
him around, but he did it, and he and I
(25:48):
formed quite a friendship. And my subject was pro se representation.
Pro Se is the Latin term that means roughly representing
yourself in court. And I started it with dishonest abes quotation,
he who represents himself as a fool for a client.
And I've always loved that line, and that's what came
(26:11):
to mind when Charles and I were emailing me. We're
emailing back and forth over the last couple of days
about him getting dragged to court and feeling that it
was wrong that they based the amount of his child's
support on how much he made when he worked eighty
hours a week, but unfortunately he didn't have a good
lawyer to explain that to the court. Yeah, so that's
(26:32):
kind of a bummer. So now he's stuck in that.
So Charles, I have to give you credit. Yeah, you're
one of these guys kind of in a Forrest Gump way,
but you're one of these guys that just keeps plugging along.
And I'm not saying you don't make terrible decisions on occasion,
but I keep you lovable as all get out, and
people that know you, like Jonathan Kim tell me you're
(26:53):
just charming as you can be. And I guarantee you
waffle House lives in fear that you're going to move
away again because they just can't find people like you
to do what you do. You're worth your weight and
goal to them, and I think you're a big boy
from what I've heard.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Well, that's the thing. I moved away from them back
in September because my kid wanted me to be closer
and they don't have a waffle house up here in
the Livingston area, and I ended up moving back up
here to on Alaska, which is just up one to
ninety from Livingston. Yeah, so that I could be four
minutes down the road to my kid. And I had
(27:29):
gotten an office job out here and that just wasn't
really working out. I wasn't able to keep up my
performance there, and so I ended up going to the
new Dennis that they built out here, and that's where
that fourteen dollars an hour is. So I'm trying to
find another little part time.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Are you talking to the microphone because Ramon won't turn
the volume up and I don't want to have to
change my setting because then everything else will be too loud.
So I'm hoping I'll get you to do it on
your end. Do you have it up?
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I actually have I have my phone up to my ear.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Do you not hear me that way I can. Okay.
So you told me that there is that like waffle house,
and this shocks me that there are Denny's partisans and
that they make fun of the waff It's like it's
like the Socials and the Greasers.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Right right, And now I'm working for Denny's over here,
so that you know, you have an actual computer screen
with everything already listed on there, and I really don't
like it. I have to turn around to look at
what I need to cook instead of just glancing down
a line. Waffle House, in my opinion, is definitely easier
(28:38):
because you get all of your plates set up and
I can just kind of peek over and I know
exactly what I need just by looking at the plates
real quick. Whereas Denny's it's kind of disorganized on the
computer screen and you're trying to count down tickets to
figure out how many of each item you need, and
it just takes longer.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
If you drive. If you drive the Louisiana on Iten,
before you get into Orange, there's Highway sixty two that
runs pard It runs perpendicular to the to Iten that
you're on, and I grew up very close to that
intersection right there and when you're headed that way, so
you're eastbound, So the northeast corner of that intersection of
the highway which is a flyover, and sixty two, which
(29:21):
is the highway which takes you up East Texas right
there in that northeast corner, and there's a place called
Fads and inside Thads which is a gas station that
used to be my elementary school. They tore that elementary
school down and inside of Fads is a Denny's. And
when they built that Dennis, my parents were very excited
because Denny's was their kind of place. And so you
(29:42):
would pull up there and then be all the eighteen
wheelers out in the parking lot, and the would be
the lizard, the lot lizards, what Yeah, the lot lizards
all out there. And then a guy I went to
school with turns out he was a lot lizard, and
that was awkward because he's well whatever. So anyway, I
go there with my parents one and my wife, and
my wife's a good sports never going to criticize anything,
(30:03):
and we go in that Denny's and it's been there
for about two years at that point when I finally
go and we go in that Denny's, and it felt
like it had been there for sixty years. But it's
like a city pool in an urban environment, it's trash
to day, or a public housing project is trash today.
It opens, and it was really cold, which felt weird,
(30:23):
and you're seated, which feels odd, and you're very far
and they got carpet on the floors, and the staff
doesn't seem like they want to be there, and I
just thought, how does this place survive? Whereas waffle House,
which is not nearly you know, Denny's, tries to do
things that make it seem nicer. Waffle House is like,
here's the grill and Charles's cooking. You can sit right
(30:47):
next to him or a little bit further away on
a Melomine bent deal that we bought all the old
dairy queen chairs, and your waitress is going to walk
ten steps here and here's your menu, And I just go,
I love it. How can it be that I love
waffle House and I won't be seen dead in a
in a Denny's.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Help me, Well, waffle House just waffle House just owns it.
We're not We're not trying to hide the fact that,
you know, maybe things are a little run down, you know, Denny's.
I've been through several different Denny's just to go eat,
and some of them are pretty rough, Michael. They're they're rough,
and You're right, they don't seem like they want to
(31:25):
be there, because I guarantee you they don't want to
be there. But that's where they are and probably can't
find them. No the Denny's, Yeah, serve staff, Yeah, yeah,
did you?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Did you ever go to the Dutch Kettle on?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Hasn't been there. Oh, it's not there anymore. It's Gumbo Donner.
He's a guy that took it over. He's done a
great job with it. I like the guy and I
love their menu, But the Dutch Kettle was the last holdover.
You would go in there and they would be there
would be people smoking, and some of them were actually customers,
Like your waitress would come over, she have a cigarette dangling.
What can I get for you, darling? And she's she's
(32:03):
moving it. What maybe, what can I get you? And
she turned my wife, honey, what you want and she
was already pouring your coffee and it was just it
was so glorious. I miss that. They'll never They'll never
open new places like that. I'm just glad I'm old
enough to remember it. And there was a Dutch agaunt.
Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
You never got any cigarette ashes in your in your coffee, no,
did you?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Oh yeah, he knows, you know. It was just it
was an that acrid smell. I love the acrid smell
of smoke. That's what a diner should smell like, Charles,
I wish you the best of luck, my man hanging there.
Stay in touch,
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