Thought you were older. I was a freshman in 03. What dorms? I was Birch Lindstrom.
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- Thread starter SoapyCy
- Start date
I lived in Larch that year and the following. 7th and 4th floors respectively.
There was a dating or married couple at Welch Ave Station that I got to quasi know as a patron. They both left, IIRC to go work at Red Lobster. He was tall and she had short black hair. They would come into WAS after their shifts at Red Lobster and talk highly of it.
I worked at PP in the early-mid 80's. GREAT Place to work for a college kid.
Yep, full page of coupons in Daily, every week. Small 1 topping - $4.99. Medium 1 topping - $5.99. Large 1 topping - $6.99. Side-note. During that era, PP was the 2nd busiest pizza delivery joint in the US.
Wasn't unusual to sell over 1 thousand pies on Sunday. Recall many a night where I and 7-8 other drivers would deliver over 100 pizzas between 4pm and 12am.
At the time, PP had a rep for "shady" drivers ("hippy, dope smoking types"). True.
Around 1984, management decided to become more corporate (goofy uniforms, no smoking dope in delivery cars, no long hair....).
Business began to erode, quickly.
Can honestly say, half of us dropped out of college, cuz we loved working at the Pit so much.
P.S. Is the walnut WELCH AVE. STATION still hanging? I burned up 3 routers making that sign!
Worst Job:
Party Time.
This was a store on 3rd near Duff that sold party supplies. They also had a business setting up the large canvas tents you see at events (think Newton Speedway, some ISU events on campus, football games, etc.)
I had a shift where I spent 12 hours swinging a sledgehammer, knocking 40 inch metal tent stakes into the ground. I did work with James White, the former ISU running back, though, which was pretty neat.
One day, we were in a 15 passenger van on the way to Newton Speedway. The van had an overloaded 22 foot trailer in the back. The van had no seats or seatbelts in the back for the employees. It did, however, have a couple dozen of the metal tent stakes and a bunch of other equipment.
Long story short, the driver lost control, we jackknifed, and crashed over the median off I-80. I ended up stopping by running my head into the interior of the van. I broke my back and neck in 6 places, deflated a lung, and had a number of other injuries. I spent two weeks in the hospital and another few months recovering. I am fortunate to be alive.
Party Time went out of business and was bought by another company; I think it is called Celebrations now.
Best Job:
Rieman Music at the old downtown.
Manager, Derrick, is an awesome dude. He treats customers fairly and was incredibly easy to work with. He consistently would sell guitars for 10-20% less than the other branches, but higher management never complained because we sold such a high volume and were really profitable.
Also farmers market on Saturdays meant we got delicious food for super cheap during our shifts.
Party Time.
This was a store on 3rd near Duff that sold party supplies. They also had a business setting up the large canvas tents you see at events (think Newton Speedway, some ISU events on campus, football games, etc.)
I had a shift where I spent 12 hours swinging a sledgehammer, knocking 40 inch metal tent stakes into the ground. I did work with James White, the former ISU running back, though, which was pretty neat.
One day, we were in a 15 passenger van on the way to Newton Speedway. The van had an overloaded 22 foot trailer in the back. The van had no seats or seatbelts in the back for the employees. It did, however, have a couple dozen of the metal tent stakes and a bunch of other equipment.
Long story short, the driver lost control, we jackknifed, and crashed over the median off I-80. I ended up stopping by running my head into the interior of the van. I broke my back and neck in 6 places, deflated a lung, and had a number of other injuries. I spent two weeks in the hospital and another few months recovering. I am fortunate to be alive.
Party Time went out of business and was bought by another company; I think it is called Celebrations now.
Best Job:
Rieman Music at the old downtown.
Manager, Derrick, is an awesome dude. He treats customers fairly and was incredibly easy to work with. He consistently would sell guitars for 10-20% less than the other branches, but higher management never complained because we sold such a high volume and were really profitable.
Also farmers market on Saturdays meant we got delicious food for super cheap during our shifts.
Very lucky to survive that. 15 passenger vans are basically death-mobiles even without a trailer. I would never ride in one as they are not stable on the highway.
Why would anyone expect you to skip your wedding and honeymoon to work at BWW?
Worked at a university establishment that was run by a grad student who would frequently solicit female workers and students he taught. He was a major kiss ass to the right people and no one in power believed it. But now he is post doctoral and marrying a girl he taught in a 101 class, so got to think that opened some eyes.
I've come to realize that PP was a TON better back in the 80's & 90's than after that. I was at ISU in the early 2000's and never got the love for the place. Pizza was just blah in my opinion and the "deals" were never very good in comparison to the other places in town. Guessing it is mostly a nostalgia thing that keeps it on its pedestal which is cool. Sounds like it was crazy busy back in the day.
I was there early 90s and PP was terrible pizza then. Thin, greasy, "cheese" made from some kind of petroleum distillate product, crust like a damp washrag.
BUT
It was cheap af, might have been $8 for a large? Maybe 2 for $12 with a coupon?
And after a dozen or so Beast Lites, it qualified as "food".
