Dentists and McDonald's...
I once wrote about vibrating razors, but now I also have a vibrating toothbrush to go with said vibrating razor. I think vibrating implements are the new hot thing this year, or at least they seem to be. I know that powered toothbrushes have been around for a long time, but this one is self contained. Meaning, there is a non-replaceable battery sitting in the toothbrush handle, with a simple on/off switch, so basically, when the battery runs out, you replace said toothbrush. It’s good stuff, and I actually believe that it works better than regular. My teeth and gums feel cleaner, more fresh, and I don’t get that awful sweater tooth feeling like I normally would mid way through my regular day. Instead, the teeth seem to stay smoother and cleaner throughout the day. Good stuff. Oral-B. What a company. Dentists love Oral-B. I wonder if they get paid off to SAY that they love Oral-B, or if they’re just provided some samples of their products, and they find them to be the best. Don’t know how the dental pay off business works, but I’m sure there is some kick back to dentist’s offices using their products, and or supplying them and recommending them to their patients. Back in the good old days when I felt like I was at the dentist like 4-5 times per month, that’s what they used to give me to brush the tooths with. Oral-B stuff. Dr. Kivus and Dr. Marcus in Auburn Maine. I’m pretty sure Dr. Marcus is most likely dead now, as he was pretty old when I was really young. Dr. Kivus I heard ended up retiring here recently. It’s funny how dentistry has progressed from just the time that I was say, 10 or 11 years old to where it is now. When I was younger, I’d roll in there, get the choppers cleaned up, and the dental hygienists wouldn’t wear masks, wouldn’t wear gloves, and would just stick their fingers into people’s mouths bare handed. Same for the dentists. That was just how it was “done” back then. Fast forward to now. You go in for a cleaning, and you have a fully masked, caped, and gloved hygienist working on you, and this is a good thing. It’s not like there isn’t a lot of blood and bodily fluids rolling around in people’s mouths during a regular dental visit and all. Now that I think about it, I can’t believe that they didn’t use protective measures even then. What are you going to do about it now? I smell class action lawsuit. Nah, just kidding. But I could see that happening to those guys. It’s not like blood born pathogens and other bad things weren’t known to dentists even in the early 80’s/late 70’s.
I had so much dental work done when I was a kid. I jumped off of a stage on roller skates, lost my footing, and snapped out my 2 front teeth. That was a few trips down and back for that one. Amazingly enough, I only had to have work done on those replacements 2 times since I was in 6th grade, and one time was completely avoidable. That was the time I was at a party at St. Michael’s College in Winooski Vermont visiting my friend Kathy over St. Patrick’s Day. When you’re at an Irish Catholic college, they tend to party fairly hard during St. Patrick’s Day. This was no exception to the rule. We were awoken at like 8AM by one of her friends with beers. Go forward about oh, 16 hours, and many beers later, I’m at a bar, with people I don’t know, on a campus that I’ve never been on before, and I have lost my friend Kathy somewhere along the way during the evening. I’m walking around meeting people who I will never remember, drinking a beer, when someone smacks into me. Not on purpose of course, but I was walking around drinking a beer, and it was crowded, just a simple bump, which of course was enough to knock the bottle into my 2 front teeth, and knock out one of the replacement nubs. And then I swallow it for added measure. The other time, same replacement nub, I was eating some Cheetos when I was in high school, and it just fell out. Both times required more reconstructive procedures to be done to my mouth. I’m sure my parents paid 2 arms, and 3 legs for my dental care. Then there were the braces, the repeated visits for braces adjustments, retainers, more visits, and so on and so forth. By the time I was a senior in high school, all of the work was done and over with. Since I’ve been in college, I don’t go to the dentist too much. Last time I went was when I had my wisdom teeth yanked. Is it any wonder I don’t go much anymore?? I think I went to the dentist enough when I was a kid to cover me throughout the remainder of my life. Over the years I’ve had the braces, I’ve had 8-10 teeth pulled, I’ve had retainers, I’ve had reconstructive tooth repair, I’ve had cleanings and manhandlings by technicians, x-rays, and on and on and on. It’s truly not a fun experience anymore. I guess in Seinfeld parlance, I could be considered an anti-dentite. It used to be OK when I was in school, because I could get out of class. For some reason, we had to drive an hour away from where we lived to go to the dentist. I never knew why, but that usually meant a stop at Burger King in Auburn on Center Street, because we only had McDonald’s at home, and compared to Burger King, they suck. That was our “special treat” for going to the dentist, lunch at Burger King. Good stuff. What’s funny though is that in the fast food nation that we are now, if you go to Rumford Maine, still the only official fast food place in town is McDonald’s. Nobody else ever came to town. There aren’t any fast food joints in Mexico Maine, well, except for Subway, but they don’t count I don’t think. Oh, and there is a Dunkin’ Donuts, but that doesn’t count as fast food either, because that’s just some freakishly tasty breakfast items and coffee. We never had a Burger King, a Wendy’s, or any other burger joint, just McDonald’s. And I used to work there.
Yes, it’s true. I used to work at McDonald’s in Rumford Maine. We had these awful brown pants we had to wear and horribly maroon colored shirts. The pants, on everyone not just me, were way too tight, and were high water style. And I mean, they were this way for everybody. It was some ugly color combinations there. In a bit of rebellion, I used to wear regular clothes to work, and then change when I got there. I say rebellion because I seemed to be the only person who did this. When I started working there in 1988/1989 I was 15 years old, and I made, wait for this, $3.75/hour. When I finished working there, I was making a whopping $3.90 (after 2 pay raises). Working for McDonald’s was like working for the Gestapo. I swear. If you even had so much as a minute or less of downtime, there was a manager yelling at you to clean something, or to arrange something, or to re-stock the cups, or get some water, get some ice, and so on and so forth. You got time to lean, you got time to clean they would say. This is Rumford Maine though, not what I would call the busiest McDonald’s in the history of the world. There were times where there was NOTHING to do, when you hadn’t seen a customer in hours, and the old retired folks who frequented the joint would complain because you didn’t make their free coffee fast enough. I do have to say though that with this management style, that place was freakin’ spic and span all of the time, which is something I never see at fast food places these days. We had to clean the bathrooms once per hour, or more if someone complained about them. And I mean clean. Mop the floors, brush the toilets, clean the stainless, clean the sinks, the urinals, and so on. But yeah, the place was spotless. There was a bit of a power madness throughout the management staff there though, as for the most part, the managers were kids who had barely graduated high school and were most likely to be given swirlies, yet here they were in a “seat of power”, and they were going to make good on it, and make everyone else around them miserable. McDonald’s, the place for cheap minimum wage labor, and for workers to be looked down upon very much so by their bosses. It’s classic low wage work conditions. Except you’re 15-18 years old, and for the most part, in a job situation, you just do what people tell you, and don’t know what to expect (as lots of times it is your first job), and probably won’t stand up for yourself. There is always a thumb on the back of your neck from The Man. But then again, it paid for my Bon Jovi / Skid Row concert tickets, so it couldn’t have been all bad.
I had so much dental work done when I was a kid. I jumped off of a stage on roller skates, lost my footing, and snapped out my 2 front teeth. That was a few trips down and back for that one. Amazingly enough, I only had to have work done on those replacements 2 times since I was in 6th grade, and one time was completely avoidable. That was the time I was at a party at St. Michael’s College in Winooski Vermont visiting my friend Kathy over St. Patrick’s Day. When you’re at an Irish Catholic college, they tend to party fairly hard during St. Patrick’s Day. This was no exception to the rule. We were awoken at like 8AM by one of her friends with beers. Go forward about oh, 16 hours, and many beers later, I’m at a bar, with people I don’t know, on a campus that I’ve never been on before, and I have lost my friend Kathy somewhere along the way during the evening. I’m walking around meeting people who I will never remember, drinking a beer, when someone smacks into me. Not on purpose of course, but I was walking around drinking a beer, and it was crowded, just a simple bump, which of course was enough to knock the bottle into my 2 front teeth, and knock out one of the replacement nubs. And then I swallow it for added measure. The other time, same replacement nub, I was eating some Cheetos when I was in high school, and it just fell out. Both times required more reconstructive procedures to be done to my mouth. I’m sure my parents paid 2 arms, and 3 legs for my dental care. Then there were the braces, the repeated visits for braces adjustments, retainers, more visits, and so on and so forth. By the time I was a senior in high school, all of the work was done and over with. Since I’ve been in college, I don’t go to the dentist too much. Last time I went was when I had my wisdom teeth yanked. Is it any wonder I don’t go much anymore?? I think I went to the dentist enough when I was a kid to cover me throughout the remainder of my life. Over the years I’ve had the braces, I’ve had 8-10 teeth pulled, I’ve had retainers, I’ve had reconstructive tooth repair, I’ve had cleanings and manhandlings by technicians, x-rays, and on and on and on. It’s truly not a fun experience anymore. I guess in Seinfeld parlance, I could be considered an anti-dentite. It used to be OK when I was in school, because I could get out of class. For some reason, we had to drive an hour away from where we lived to go to the dentist. I never knew why, but that usually meant a stop at Burger King in Auburn on Center Street, because we only had McDonald’s at home, and compared to Burger King, they suck. That was our “special treat” for going to the dentist, lunch at Burger King. Good stuff. What’s funny though is that in the fast food nation that we are now, if you go to Rumford Maine, still the only official fast food place in town is McDonald’s. Nobody else ever came to town. There aren’t any fast food joints in Mexico Maine, well, except for Subway, but they don’t count I don’t think. Oh, and there is a Dunkin’ Donuts, but that doesn’t count as fast food either, because that’s just some freakishly tasty breakfast items and coffee. We never had a Burger King, a Wendy’s, or any other burger joint, just McDonald’s. And I used to work there.
Yes, it’s true. I used to work at McDonald’s in Rumford Maine. We had these awful brown pants we had to wear and horribly maroon colored shirts. The pants, on everyone not just me, were way too tight, and were high water style. And I mean, they were this way for everybody. It was some ugly color combinations there. In a bit of rebellion, I used to wear regular clothes to work, and then change when I got there. I say rebellion because I seemed to be the only person who did this. When I started working there in 1988/1989 I was 15 years old, and I made, wait for this, $3.75/hour. When I finished working there, I was making a whopping $3.90 (after 2 pay raises). Working for McDonald’s was like working for the Gestapo. I swear. If you even had so much as a minute or less of downtime, there was a manager yelling at you to clean something, or to arrange something, or to re-stock the cups, or get some water, get some ice, and so on and so forth. You got time to lean, you got time to clean they would say. This is Rumford Maine though, not what I would call the busiest McDonald’s in the history of the world. There were times where there was NOTHING to do, when you hadn’t seen a customer in hours, and the old retired folks who frequented the joint would complain because you didn’t make their free coffee fast enough. I do have to say though that with this management style, that place was freakin’ spic and span all of the time, which is something I never see at fast food places these days. We had to clean the bathrooms once per hour, or more if someone complained about them. And I mean clean. Mop the floors, brush the toilets, clean the stainless, clean the sinks, the urinals, and so on. But yeah, the place was spotless. There was a bit of a power madness throughout the management staff there though, as for the most part, the managers were kids who had barely graduated high school and were most likely to be given swirlies, yet here they were in a “seat of power”, and they were going to make good on it, and make everyone else around them miserable. McDonald’s, the place for cheap minimum wage labor, and for workers to be looked down upon very much so by their bosses. It’s classic low wage work conditions. Except you’re 15-18 years old, and for the most part, in a job situation, you just do what people tell you, and don’t know what to expect (as lots of times it is your first job), and probably won’t stand up for yourself. There is always a thumb on the back of your neck from The Man. But then again, it paid for my Bon Jovi / Skid Row concert tickets, so it couldn’t have been all bad.
posted by giantcu92 @ 9:22 AM
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