B&T's Texas Style BBQ aka my first job

Look at me, finally blogging this week. I tell ya, I don't know what's gotten in to me recently. I used to be so good about pumping out a blog post (or two or three) with no problem, and now I can't even get one. I've sat here staring at the blank screen the last two days and nothing was coming to me. Thankfully I am saved by Bonnie from The Life of Bon who is hosting a Throwback Thursday summer link up (with prompts!) and this week we're talking about our first jobs.



My first job was pretty awesome, in that I got to work for my parents after school at their restaurant. I don't know if I've mentioned it before on this lil' ole blog, but my parent's used to own and run a barbeque restaurant. It was pretty awesome. People still ask me about it. The job itself wasn't all that glamorous (there was a lot of dish-washing) and working with my parent's wasn't always awesome (I got fired once) (they re-hired me the same day) but I wouldn't change working there for a million bucks.

Dad on his billboard back home. Pretty much famous.

(unfortunately this is the one of two pictures I have at the time, all other pictures aren't digital and are with my parents)

 

You may (or may not) know that I was raised in Texas and moved "back home" (my parents lived in Atmore until they were married) when I was 15, and my parents decided they wanted to open a BBQ restaurant. It was a lot of hard work (they had to completely gut the building they bought and do all new landscaping) and not to mention the hurricane before opening.

 

The day they planned to have the grand opening, I BEGGED my parents to let me stay home from school and help out. They wouldn't hear anything of it. I called from school and begged some more before lunch. Negative, ghost rider. The next thing I know my aunt (who works at the school) came to my class to get me, telling me that mom called and she needs my help. I was so excited. I had no idea what I was getting myself in to.

 

This picture is actually on a day after the restaurant was closed, but the only other picture I have. As you can see it was nothing much, but that's all we needed.

The line to get in and take your order was literally all the way through the restaurant and out the door. They were completely slammed. My parents had called in several other relatives for backup: my great aunt was in the kitchen making potato salad, her husband was washing dishes, my cousin was answering the phone, and my great-grandmother was running around doing anything and everything she could to help. It. Was. Chaos.

 

I'm not going to get into the details of the whole day (mostly because they're all a blur) but I know that by the end of the night, me, my mom, my cousin, and my dad had all cried at some point, pretty much the whole town of Atmore came to eat, and we had sold out of food (intended for the whole weekend) in one afternoon. It was completely exhausting but such a fun day and one I'll  never forget.

 

Sometimes I wish my parents still ran the restaurant (because the food was freakin awesome) but it had a good run and I think we learned a lot about each other as a family (i.e. there is a such thing as spending too much time with each other) and I also learned a lot about work ethic, washing dishes, and how to make the best (secret recipe) BBQ sauce in the world.