http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/ MiceChat is a Disney theme parks news blog, and discussion forum. We love Disney, so visit MiceChat to see the latest Disney park information and news! en Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:05:53 GMT vBulletin 60 http://micechat.com/forums/images/mc3/misc/rss.jpg http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/ http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/1118-now-listening-40-remembering.html Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:18:06 GMT I have Sirius/XM satellite radio in both the plug-n-play and internet subscription.

Several times each weekend, on the 70's channel, they repeat old Casey Kasem American Top 40 shows, as they originally aired.

I often listen to the Sunday 9PM Pacific show, where a different year is featured each week.

For example, tonight they are playing the AT 40 show fom May 24, 1975.

I had been posting on these in a thread in the Music forum. Perhaps this has-been blog is the better place.

So far notable...at number 33, moving up - Love Will Keep Us Together by the Captain and Tennille...and now at 23 - "Only Women" by Alice Cooper.

Ooh...here's one I love..at 22...I'm Not Lisa by Jessi Colter (who became Waylon Jennings wife). What a beautifully haunting melody.

Casey tells us that 24 of the 40 this week were written by the artist singing them. Guess we were still in that classic singer-songwriter period.

I'll check back....

At 15, a former number 1...Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom"....

At number 3 ... Jackie Blue by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Number 2... Before the Next Teardrop Falls by Mr. Tex/Mex, Freddy Fender

And at Number 1...Shining Star by Earth, Wind and Fire

Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars! ]]> Radiobarry http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/1118-now-listening-40-remembering.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/1096-more-40-my-dl-days.html Wed, 13 May 2009 07:21:55 GMT The period between 7 and 9AM was a busy one. Well, the whole shift was a busy all the way to 3:30pm. Bear in mind that this was 30 years... The period between 7 and 9AM was a busy one. Well, the whole shift was a busy all the way to 3:30pm.

Bear in mind that this was 30 years ago. And especially with there first major makeover since 1967, I have no idea what NOMK was like now.

We were more of the "food factory", making things in large quantities.
There were "reach-in" refrigerators, and several "walk-in" boxes, with at least two "walk-in" freezers that I recall inside of walk-in refrigerators.

There were service elevators to the Blue Bayou, French Market and the original (once Sara Lee) Cafe Orleans...where "runners" would come down and get food, and take it back upstairs to smaller kitchens "upstairs" where the orders would be plated and sent out. The Cafe in those days mainly relied in our kitchen to prepare barbecue beef sandwiches en masse for their people to heat up and plate for sending out. For those that don't remember, the original Cafe was a table service sandwich shop, with lots of delicious ice cream treats from the fountain.

A community college chum of mine worked the fountain there. I think he nearly developed carpal tunnel from scooping ice cream. He wore a striped vest costume, as I recall, complete with one of those fountain worker hats like from the 50's. I loved the old Cafe Orleans.

Anyway, back to the kitchen...the dishroom had conveyor belts from all three restaurants bearing "busstubs" bearing all manner of delightful stuff. The dishwashing machine, which I think they were still using before this latest rehab, was a huge wall-to-floor oblong revolving thing, with racks to be filled on one side and emptied on the "clean" side. The same runners who came down for food, and sometimes the "buss" people" came down to retrieve clean plates and take them back upstairs.

Across the kitchen...the potwashing room...about as close to hell on earth as one could come to at the "happiest place on earth". All those pots, pans and utensils...a thankless job. I am sure that part of my permanent hearing loss comes from the sound made by sadistic potwashers who delighted in taking large cast-iron skillets, pots and pans and throwing them across their room.:eek:

As for the rest of us...their was the "hotline" - where we were responsible for frying all those big fritters for the Royal St. Veranda, heating up various previously prepped entrees especially for the Bayou and Market, and making endless mounds of rice, green beans, seafood jambalaya, to name just a few...

On the other side of hotline was the previously mentioned "vat" line, and beyond that were prep tables for the head chef and other cooks on duty. Beyond that, tables for the "pantry" section. On day shifts, the "pantry" consisted of very nice, yet very stern older ladies who had lettuce to chop, and many salads to prepare, and had no more interest in Casey Kasem than our sobering up head chef did. God bless Joe - rest his soul - he really was a nice man. We just saw it more easily once he found AA.

He was a bigtime Angels fan, and we never missed a day game on the radio if he had anything to say about it.:) And he did!

Anyway, the final area of the New Orleans Main Kitchen were work tables (stainless steel, all) in an area called "back-up". I was never sure why it was called that.

Anyway, they got all the cakes and pies and such served at the restaurants in those days and it was their job to cut and plate them, and place them on bakery trams for the aforementioned runners to take upstairs to the aforementioned smaller kitchens.

And oh yes, if you left the hotline and walked straight to your left, you'd be entering the "Disneyland Employees Cafeteria" or DEC, the secondary employee eatery to the Inn Between. The DEC was not open 24/7, except for when the IB might be closed for rehab. Its nickname was "the Pit" because of our, well not so much underground but subterranean location.

And I promise, in my next entry, I'll get back to more about how Casey and AT 40 ties into all this! ]]> Radiobarry http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/1096-more-40-my-dl-days.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/1095-has-been-reminisces.html Tue, 12 May 2009 02:57:52 GMT I know that there is a site for former Disneyland CM/employees called hasbeens.com, but I just don't like it near as much as this one.

I've had a hankering to share memories from time to time, even beyond what I do in the forums. I'm trying to turn this blog into something more positive, by sharing some of these.

On my satellite radio's 70's channel, on the weekends they play original broadcasts of Casey Kasem's American Top 40 from that decade...more or less timed to coincide with the current time of year.

For example, last week the Billboard chart date they used was from April 1975.

Yesterday, it was - May 5, 1979.

Why do I mention this?

In 1979 and 1980. I worked the early morning day shift in the New Orleans Main Kitchen. The 7AM crew often met for breakfast at the Inn Between around 6-30...then we'd walk through the park, humming with pre-opening activity, toward the Main Kitchen.

The food receiving crew was already there, having taken food deliveries from trucks using the backstage service road. Those guys started at 5AM. Our first cook - called the "vat line" guy - started at 6AM, and by the time the chef and the rest of us came in, he had four huge vats already bubbling full of clam chowder, whatever the soup of the day would be, and various other sauces that had to be made that day.

We had a radio in the front of the kitchen, near the pot-washing room and the food/people elevator to the French Market.

Those of us working the "hot line" toward the front of the kitchen could have music on.

But, in those days before he found AA, god bless him, our morning chef sometimes came in on Sunday morning in - shall I say - not exactly a Disney magic frame of mind.

So that radio had better not be able to be heard very far away from where we were...at least til about 9AM or so.

I have to go just now...but ai promise to share more, on what was going through my mind as I heard that broadcast yesterday...and the role that Casey Kasem played in helping us churn out all that food to hungry DL guests, at least on Sunday.

-- Barry ]]> Radiobarry http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/1095-has-been-reminisces.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/940-i-am-still-here.html Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:32:20 GMT In case anyone cares. Does anyone ever read this? In case anyone cares. Does anyone ever read this? ]]> Radiobarry http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/940-i-am-still-here.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/838-i-am-more-disneyland-than-disney-fan.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:03:31 GMT I know some real Disney fans. They have every video, DVD, blue-ray, x-ray, or HD that Disney has ever thought of making. (Come to think... I know some real Disney fans.

They have every video, DVD, blue-ray, x-ray, or HD that Disney has ever thought of making.

(Come to think of it, most of those folks have kids, and I don't, except for my inner child - well, more on THAT another time.)

But I am not that big of a fan of the company, the Disney characters, cartoons, Walt Disney World or the other parks, etc.

I am a Disneyland fan.

Oh yes, it was a real treat to go to my Aunt's house on Sunday every now and then, and watch her color TV, and feel the excitement and absolute awe when Tinkerbell waved her wand to set off that delightful explosion to bring about another episode of the Wonderful World of Color.

But ever since my first visit in 1960, I loved Disneyland. Andany time I'd see the castle logo or that wonderful old Disneyland logo on a bag of corn chips, or a record album, whatever, I just had to have it.

I got my first real kiss at Disneyland when I was 12.

And later I was a CM/employee for the better part of eight years.

So if it weren't for those experiences of my past, my youth, at Disneyland, I'm not sure I'd be a part of this wonderful website today.

For what it is worth.

-- Barry ]]> Radiobarry http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/838-i-am-more-disneyland-than-disney-fan.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/556-my-blog.html Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:44:51 GMT I have finally joined the latter part of the first decade of the 21st Century. I hardly ever use a cell phone, and I have yet to send my... I have finally joined the latter part of the first decade of the 21st Century.

I hardly ever use a cell phone, and I have yet to send my first text message.

But I have a blog.

My life has meaning now. ;)

-- Barry ]]> Radiobarry http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/radiobarry/556-my-blog.html