Waking Up Chuck E.

I was 16 and I needed money.

It was time to get my first-ever job.

I scoured through the classifieds in our local paper trying to find a place to work. I circled possible jobs and then I came across one that required no experience and paid the most: Dishwasher at Chuck E. Cheese.

Despite my mom furrowing her brow and asking, “Why would you want to work there?”, I followed through with applying and got the prized position.

The year I started working there was 1996, so Chuck E. Cheese still had the following things (that today’s kids no longer get to experience there)…

I was hired as a dishwasher, but I soon got to do other roles (server, cook, game room, etc). It was actually a pretty fun job. Mostly high school kids my age worked there and sometimes we would even hang out outside of work.

Eventually, I mainly worked in the kitchen making pizzas. When the orders piled up, it could get stressful, but it made the time fly by. If we made an order incorrectly, we were supposed to throw it away, but many times we would stash the pizza in a storage closet and quickly scarf it down while trying not to get caught by a manager.

The role of being Chuck E. Cheese (fun fact: his formal name is Charles Entertainment Cheese) was supposed to rotate between the employees, but I swear I had to do it more than everybody else. When it was my turn, my manager would loudly notify me in a wicked witch-type voice that would send a shiver down my spine.

When it was your turn to be Chuck E., you would go to a very small room where his costume was stored. The room was dingy and smelled bad from the B.O. of workers who had previously sweated while donning the rat suit. The outfit was up on a hook and I always thought it looked like a hunter had killed ol’ Chuck and hung up his carcass to drain.

After getting everything on, I would check myself out in the wall mirror. I remember having some pretty deep thoughts in there.

There were a few main rules regarding Chuck E.

1. No talking while in the costume

2. Don’t take any part of the costume off while out on the floor

3. Never open the door to the small storage room in front of a kid (so they wouldn’t be scarred for life by seeing Chuck’s lifeless, dangling corpse).

When it was time to leave the room and go mingle with the kids, you were supposed to have a co-worker help guide you around. Sometimes things would be really busy, so you’d have to venture out onto the floor solo. Since you are wearing a giant head and can only see out of a mouth hole, you have no peripheral vision. It’s also hard to see below eye-level, so you were vulnerable to little kids becoming human-battering rams and excitedly running full-speed into your crotch.

Since you couldn’t talk as Chuck E., it was mainly walking around giving high fives and getting hugs. Actually, Chuck only had 4 fingers on each hand, so I suppose he gave high fours. Sometimes I would imagine him being frustrated that he only had 4 fingers and could never flip off an angry, rude customer.

Occasionally, being Chuck E. meant performing in a birthday party. Part of it was enjoyable due to how amped-up the kids got, but it was also hot as hell in that costume when you’re in there busting moves. The birthday hostesses always had choreographed dances for each song, but I just free-styled and made sure my head didn’t fall off.

My favorite experience as Chuck E. was when a small boy took my hand and introduced me to his entire extended family scattered throughout the restaurant. It was very sweet.

I can’t elaborate on everything, but here’s a brief list of some other notable things that happened while working at Chuck E. Cheese:

• I got my first ever phone number from a girl (written on the back of a Chuck E. Cheese receipt)

• An odd employee brought a sock full of nickels to work and threatened to use it as a weapon (against his co-workers)

• I tried to explain Skee-Ball technology to an angry hillbilly customer (it didn’t go well)

While it was a good first-job experience, all things must come to an end. This is the conversation that initiated the end of my Chuck E. Cheese career…

The thought of having to wear a special pin in my visor freaked me out and it also just felt like it was time to move on. Shortly after that conversation, I put my two-week notice in after getting a job at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Despite having to wake up Chuck E. all those times, I still have fond memories of my first job.

Until next time,
Patrick

*Feel free to share an experience at you first-ever job!

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