Being a divorced dad in his 40s I've had my fair share of jobs. From farm work when I was 14 years old to a bank teller at 18, a financial analyst for a few months in my early 20's and then ultimately being on my own in software for the past 23 plus years, I've had to figured out my favorite job by now right?

Well I did, but I didn't mention it above. My ULTIMATE favorite job of all time was being a Mc-Manager at McDonald's (Yes, I love adding "MC" to everything when talking about McDonalds).

I started at the age of 16 at the BUSIEST McDonald's in South Western Ontario at the time (Ontario is my province - like a state in the USA). It's situated near the Ambassador bridge which connects Windsor, Ontario, Canada, to Detroit, Michigan, USA.

McDonalds, really!? Your favorite job? Yes, by far. Think about it, what stress did I really have at McDonalds. If a customer yelled, I'd simply give them a refund and/or give them another meal. Of course the public can be extremely rude but in hindsight, compared to the stresses of my current job, McDonald's made them look simple. And, each customer was only around for minutes, so sure, you could let them ruin your day, but why let them, they'd be gone before you knew it anyways.

McDonalds was also a great place to actually learn how to work. They taught organization, team work and processes. And for a sheltered boy that lived on the outskirts of town on a farm with his Italian parents he could actually meet friends and girls! So that's when I met my first "real" first girlfriend.... Her name was Katie.

So McDonald's taught me how to do better business, meet a girl friend and be more organized. Could it get better? Yes, my younger brother Rob also worked there and to boot he also climbed the ladder and became a Mc-Manager after a year or so like me.

We would have so much fun but one of my favorite things to do while at work was the old "Switch-er-roo" at the drive thru window. The old "Switch-er-roo" isn't what you probably think it is, although the drive thru window was a great way to get "friends" out of the building on midnights 😏 , the Switch-er-roo was when an Mc-drive thru worker would have an upset customer at the window looking to speak to a manager, I'd tell my brother, who also was a Mc-Manager, that it was one of his friends looking to speak to him.

Then BAMMMM, my brother would go to the drive through window all goofy like, expecting a friend, and then get blasted by the customer, all the while I laughed my literal ass off! (Come on.. brotherly love)

Now, like I've probably said a million times, I have NOT changed since I can remember. I've always been goofy, fun loving Ben. I guess that also didn't change while at McDonalds, because on Mc Oscar night, yes, they made up an Oscar night with red carpet and prizes and all, I won the "Most Infectious Laugh Award" which was engraved on a Ronald McDonald trophy.

This award still lives in the Pour Decisions Bar, but it's a bit broken, and missing Ronald's body, after my asshole, I mean friend Matt dropped it.. Could also have been the wind, but it's funnier to blame Matthew.

Grossest story of my 2.5 year career at McDonalds? Well there are two and to be honest, I think they are tie on the nastiest Mc-incident award (if that exists).

The first nasty story involves the McDonald's woman's employee bathroom which was NOT accessible to outside customers. You'd figure because you "knew your co-workers" you'd NEVER believe that an employee would smear their own shit, yes shit, all over the employee Mc-shitter walls, sink etc.. literally EVERYWHERE... To this day I still don't know who the Mc-culprit was but the thought still makes me beyond ill.

The second, grosser in a different way, story includes one of my Mc-trainers when I first started my new Mc-Job. Remember, I was a 16 year old naïve boy that was sheltered by his Italian mother.

I was being trained in drive thru and the customer was being very rude to my Mc-trainer on the drive thru window from his car. To make a story short, the trainer literally took the person's fries and hacked up a nasty loogy (a huge nasty spit ball) and spit it into their fries. I am NOT KIDDING!

So, as I preach kindness, this was more of a reason to NEVER be an asshole to anyone, especially to someone that's service you food. Be kind people, it's free!

Funniest story of my Mc-worker days, there are literally way too many but the one that stuck out to me will always be when a customer had paid for a Big Mac combo at the first drive thru window, to then simply drive by the second window to actually pick up his food.

Believe it or not, about 35 minutes later the guy came back to get his food... But who am I to laugh at this? I forget why I go into a room or back in the house most of the times.

And as a final note, another pretty funny thing I use to hear quite often from Americans visiting McDonald's was: "do us Canadians live in igloos".. and I'll let you imagine how creative my answers were 😄... best part, we lived 20 minutes across the river by bridge from them... You simply, can't make this up! LOL