Dishwasher Post: 5

Just because you have money does not mean you have manners; this is one of the lessons Pete Jordan learns in this section of Dishwasher. Pete is currently dishing at a costly lodge in the mountains of Colorado. Here he encounters some wealthy vacationers that often tend to wear on his last nerve. As he is bussing he has many near collisions with the “wealthy snobs” (108), he says “I didn’t understand. Did these rich arrogant pricks really expect me to meekly yield to them? Did they also expect me to curtsy while I was at it? (108). After all of the different places and people Pete has been exposed to through his dish jobs I would expect him to be able to handle himself better in situations such as these. Granted the people might be acting rude, but I still feel he could be more professional about how he acts around them. It is just a part of the career he has chosen.

In a latter area of Pete’s travels he gets a chance to view the opposite side of the spectrum. Now instead of being looked down on because of his job he is being considered too good to be hired as a disher. He is instead offered positions as a waiter due to the fact he is white. In the areas of the country he is in dishing is considered to be a job for colored and Hispanic people. When he finally finds a job the manager puts Pete as the head dishwasher putting him in charge of others who had been there much longer than him. Pete says “Head dishwasher? Me? I barely managed to be the head of myself, let alone heading anyone else (127). You really get a sense of the different cultures in the different parts of the country. One minute people a low life, the next he’s looked up on.

Jordan, Pete. Dishwasher : One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States. New York: HarperPerennial, 2007.