Never had this as a job at all, but I've done more than my fair share of dishes, and still do.

Pretty nasty job and usually pays lousy.

Although I had other jobs that were short lived my first real job was that as a dishwasher in an Italian restaurant called Mario's Miramar. Mario's was located across the street from the local high school and employed a number of people that I hung out with at that time. The cast of characters who worked there was something out of a situation comedy. There was Mario, a minor cog in the Mafia wheel, Peter and Ebo, two refugees from a Communist country who dressed exactly like the foreigners who are parodied on the old Saturday Night Live, Tommy, the Hawaiian bartender, who would lick the ice cubes that went into Mario's drinks, and Jockomo the chef. No one knew whether Jockomo loved Hitler or hated him but if you stood in the kitchen and yelled Hitler he would chase you with a knife. For a first real job I had the time of my life. The dishes were washed in a commercial dishwashing machine so the only real work myself and my partner had to do was load and unload the machine, stack the dishes and wash the cooking pans and utensils. It may not sound like much but when the place was packed it was all we could do to keep up with the flow. Everyone got a free meal before work and if a steak came back too well done we all got a piece of it. We could help ourselves to all of the coffee, onion soup and garlic bread we could eat. Mario's friends were always very nice to us and tipped everyone very well. His friends were usually men in their 50s accompanied by 21 year old dates and several times I saw them drive up in their Cadillacs that was loaded with things like coffeemakers which had fallen off the truck. The restaurant was a large converted house and the upstairs contained offices and bedrooms and very often strange pretty ladies would be seen on the upper floor. More than once I heard Mario phone his house to say that he would be working late and would be spending the night at the restaurant. My friends and I were paid minimum wage but it was off the books so we were actually making more than minimum which in those days (1970) was $2.00 an hour. Mario would insist that one dishwasher stay until the last table was cleared which was usually around 2 in the morning. Those last few hours were relaxing and I'd be allowed to sit at the bar where I could have free cokes and Jockomo would usually make a late night meal for me before he left. When Mario decided to retire and move to Florida he sold all of the liquor to the help at wholesale and I have a blurred memory of a very active going away party. Working with my friends was a blast as there was always joking around with lots of laughter and it gave me the feeling of family, where we all looked out for each other. After the restaurant changed hands I worked there again but of course it was not the same. Being a dishwasher may not have been a glamorous job and often I would walk home smelling of wet garbage, but I don't think I have ever had as much fun or enjoyed any job more in my whole life. I still have a few momentos that I took when the restaurant closed (such as the rubber stamp with the restaurant's name and address that was used on envelopes) and they serve as a reminder that there was a time during my teenage years when life was sweet and work was fun.

I use to deliver pizza. When you are the closing driver, one of your chours before closing was to wash the dishes. I hated doing it, but it had to be done.

Back in my restaurant days there were times when I'd have to fill in and wash some dishes. Aside from janitorial work it is the dirtiest job a restaurant has to offer. It's not disgusting or anything but you get pretty soaked and wind up with all kinds of sauces and food stains all over your clothes. It gets very hot in the dishroom and you sweat a lot. It's kind of like a sauna. What's nice is that it's pretty low-stress and you can basically take your time; the longer it takes you to clean up the higher your paycheck will be. Downside is that the pay is minimum wage.