America Celebrates Its Bicentennial (July 4, 1976)

My summer job in 1976, which was the summer between my freshman and sophomore year at Penn State, was working at Roy Rogers restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh.  And that's where I spent the 4th of July - the day the nation was celebrating the Bicentennial.  (Our distinctive salutation to customers was "Howdy Pardner", and after giving back their change, "Happy Trails".)  Roy's was the only fast-food restaurant open that day in the vicinity of Point State Park and Gateway Center, where Bicentennial festivities were taking place, so the line of customers was non-stop and it went out the door.  Sunny and mild weather ensured that the celebratory crowds would be quite large.

 

Because of the large number of customers that day the roast beef we served was unusually rare because there wasn't enough time to cook it completely (under orders from our manager).  Rather than come off in full slices the beef came off the slicer in drippy clumps.  Burgers were a bit rare as well, but that was the cooking instruction on any day (the district manager would make spot visits during lunch and slice open a burger to see if it was pink in the middle.)  At least we didn't get any complaints from customers.  On a typical day I put in 4-5 hours but that Sunday it was a 12-hour day.  When I punched out it was nearly 10:00 and the fireworks were over.  On the bright side, at least I didn't have to work on the day before or after the holiday.