I rarely worked the window, and it was only when someone was on break, or we were under staffed and the other people on shift weren't exactly capable of running a register.
But we had a few regulars.
My personal favorite was "farmer man". Homie would ride through with his animals. Usually it was one of those pot belly pigs, named Harvey. But he had a goat named Bill, a rooster named Charlie, and sometimes a nanny goat called Maria.
Why those names? No idea, it was drive through, so no time for long chats. But he'd order for them by using their names, as in, "I'll have a whopper, and Harvey here'll have a cheeseburger."
The awesome visits from him were when the cab of his truck was essentially full of critters. One day, the rooster was with him, along with a bunch of hens just chilling on the passenger side.
Really good customer, he would roll through a few times a week, always polite and had his shit ready. He was literally a farmer, there's plenty of them out here in the sticks. One of the normal window staff asked him if she could bring her kids to see a farm, and he was happy as hell to say yes. His critters were essentially pets, though the chickens were an egg source. Dude was a one man petting zoo lol.
Then there was "coffee". He'd roll up, and order "coffee". That's it, nothing else. And I mean that's all me would say. You'd ask what size, and he'd just repeat "coffee". At first, people just got mad, assuming he was fucking with them. But he kept coming back. Eventually the manager just said "fuck it, tell him he's getting a large". He got told that, and to drive forward. He'd take the large coffee, hand over his money, and that was it. But he never said anything. If you told him to have a nice day, he'd nod and smile a little.
There was also "naked lady". As the name might indicate, she would come through naked. There would be a visible pile of clothes in the passenger seat of her car, sometimes just a robe, but usually what looked like jeans and a t-shirt. Her order varied. But she'd been coming there for years by the time I ran into her at the window.
It was usually only night time, fairly late, but every now and then she'd come through during breakfast rush. Story was that she had called in one day to ask if it was okay to come through the drive through naked, and the manager at the time thirty it was a joke and said she didn't care as long as the money didn't get pulled out of her twat, before hanging up. No idea if it was true or not. If you worked the window at her usual times and were new, you'd get warned amd asked if you were okay serving her. We were also warned not to be creeps about it.
She was probably in her early forties, attractive, and friendly. Knew the window workers by name and would chat while waiting, when it was night. Didn't really flash anyone, didn't try and get any extra attention, but didn't make effort to hide anything either.
One guy asked for a better look one night, and she said that he could look all he wanted, but she wasn't putting on a show. Manager gave him hell over it, though the lady didn't complain about it.
There was one lady that was usually on nights that wouldn't deal with her, and that's how I first encountered naked lady. Got called up from the kitchen and asked if I was okay taking care of a naked customer. I was in training to be a nurse's assistant at the time, so I didn't have an issue with nudity. It had already become just kinda unimportant to me. So I just shrugged and said sure. The manager warned me to be chill and that was that.
Nice lady.
What was weird was seeing her elsewhere in clothes. She was just as friendly if you ran into her at the grocery store or whatever. But it was always a little jarring, like she should be naked everywhere lol.
Beyond that, it was just the usual drunks, potheads, and occasional crack or meth head that were weird enough to stand out.
This was 15 years ago now so memories are fuzzy. Weirdest things I saw? How sad people's lives could be. The saddest one was a woman came through with her child at 11:30pm, and she was clearly heavily buzzed if not full on drunk. Yelling at her kid who was obviously tired and wanted a happy meal. No kids seat or even wearing a seatbelt. One of the few times I called the police.
As for fun things? All of those jokes and pranks you see online or think will be really funny? I saw them dozens of times. They were never original, they were never funny, everyone thought they were the funniest person for asking for a whopper at a McDonald's. Gets to the point you know just to type in big mac, tell them the price, and have them move forward. I was making $7/hr. Whoa look we're having fun at the expense of the minimum wage employee who'll be fired on the spot if they say anything negative. The ice cream prank? Seen it. Hamburger no meat no bun no condiments? Seen it. We're not neutral faced because we're annoyed at you, we were all tired of hearing the same boring jokes. It was all lame dad energy, but coming from teenagers.
everyone thought they were the funniest person for asking for a whopper at a McDonald’s
is it possible for someone to maybe have done that, not as a prank, but because they were so shitfaced while in the drive thru that they legitimately thought they were at Burger King and/or confused the two?
Everything is possible. But this is a common drive thru "prank" in at least the northeast of the USA, I remember it being all the rage when everyone got drivers licenses.
Yes that happened, and yes we could tell the difference. Drunk people were pretty obvious. As long as they didn't throw up I was fine with them, because again the $7/hour employee would have to clean it up
Or just aren't into brands or burgers, but remember a name they liked once.
Or just a brain fart.
Yeah someone like me, who for the longest couldn't remember what "mcbullshit" name they had for the burger I wanted, so I ordered "two of those dollar burgers" until they raised the price and I had to learn the word "McDouble," ugh lol.
Maybe it's someone who just absolutely can't be bothered, like "let me get one of those whoppers or whatever the fuck, it's all the same."
Two people who were... Large. They ordered quite a bit of food. When they pulled up to the window they had an entire goddamn sheet cake in between them on the seat and they were going to town on it.
I'll have two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s, one with cheese, and a large soda.
Hmm they seem like reasonable people. You wouldn't want to have dessert only, would you
Not a worker, but I've had to walk thru the drive thru line before. Apparently some 24hr McDonald's close the lobby after 10pm. I was driving a u-haul that was too tall for the drive thru and there was no where else open at the truck stop.
I've been in that same situation, except they refused to serve me at the drive through.
It was the most American thing I ever experienced – being denied burgers cause I didn't have a car.
