Pay Up Or Wash Up

[GNC]

In Mythconceptions in the latest FT, the question is posed about what happens if you can't pay for your meal at a restaurant, and the common answer is that you have to wash the dishes as punishment. But has this ever happened outside of a sitcom or newspaper cartoon? Have you or someone you know ever found yourself short of cash after a meal and were forced to visit the kitchens, roll up your sleeves and make amends with the dishcloth?

 

[GingerTabby]

I've heard a variation on that theme but it didn't involve washing up. A former neighbour of mine recounted the story of how she and a friend once dined in a restaurant and discovered at the end of the meal that neither of them was carrying a wallet. Both were highly embarrassed. The restaurant manager agreed to accept my neighbour's wristwatch as collateral while she went home to collect her wallet. She immediately returned to the restaurant, paid the bill and retrieved her wristwatch. Problem sorted. I don't know why my former neighbour was out and about without her wallet in the first place. The wallet obviously hadn't been lost or stolen since she knew it was at home. That's just a FOAF tale, however.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I thought Laurel and Hardy had to do it in "Below Zero" - but no synopsis mentions the washing-up. It's a while since I saw it.

I am struggling to think of films in which it does happen. Such an elusive cliché! I'm sure I have seen it many times, though. It can't be a Thunderbird picture, can it?

 

[LordRsmacker]

When I'm out with work colleagues and it's my turn in the chair, I'll often look at the bill, nearly have a coronary and declare with a flourish "FUUU-CKIN' 'ELL, I'VE NOT GOT THAT KIND OF CASH ON ME. WAITER!!! BRING ME MY MARIGOLDS..."
Not once have they shown me the way to the pot-wash, miserable bastards.

(We did have to phone the cavalry to bring a credit card when 4 of us got stitched up in a restaurant in Barcelona, but that's another story. That one nearly turned nasty, and I certainly hope it did as we left after I tipped off the large group of British soccer fans on a nearby table that they were about to have their pants pulled down in the same way as we just had. Chairs were flying as we got into the taxi...)

 

[EnolaGaia]

Washing dishes to pay off a meal was a common plot device in older films (etc.), and - at least in theory - it remains something of a possibility depending on the situation, location, and inclinations of the restaurant operator(s).

A collection of incident reports can be found in multiple threads strewn around the Web. For example, this one:

https://www.quora.com/Do-restaurant...h-dishes-as-compensation-if-he-she-cannot-pay

... covers multiple angles on the subject.

For one thing, some responses explain why working off a meal debt can pose a problem for restaurants in some places. Labor laws, health laws, training requirements, staff coordination issues, etc., etc., can make it difficult or impossible to even contemplate having customers off the street do dishwashing duty.

On the other hand, some respondents indicate such work is commonly imposed in certain places, though not necessarily limited to dishwashing. Apparently peeling potatoes is so common a resolution method in Kenya the practice has been given a name that's propagated widely in popular culture.

In addition, some of the responses in this particular collection refer to restaurants that offer customers the option to work for their meal 'up front' (i.e., trading labor for food is an explicitly acceptable mode of payment).

 

[Ulalume]

It happened often enough in Archie comics. Seems like Archie was always having to wash dishes to pay off Veronica's meal. Jughead, on the other hand, usually had to mop Pop Tate's floors when he ran out of credit.


Never known anyone to do it in real life, though.

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

I never saw it happen in 10 years of restaurant management - if I put a customer on the potwash, what was the potwash lad supposed to do?

And as mentioned above, you need to be safety trained on the equipment before you can even step over the kitchen threshold.

It may have happened in the past, but not nowadays. Health and safety gone mad!

 

[escargot]

There's also the old cartoon image of an unsuccessful gambler 'losing his pants' and consequently walking home dressed in only a barrel, usually suspended from his shoulders on leather straps like braces.

 

[Mythopoeika]

There's also the old cartoon image of an unsuccessful gambler 'losing his pants' and consequently walking home dressed in only a barrel, usually suspended from his shoulders on leather straps like braces.

...And where do you get a barrel these days?

 

[Frideswide]

...And where do you get a barrel these days?

 

[liveinabin]

There are so many things like this though. I mean to keep starting a thread about them.
Things like music in lifts, putting your occupation on your passport application, pictures of cottages on chocolate boxes and the dial tone when someone puts the phone down on you.
You only ever see this in popular culture.

 

[Frideswide]

music in lifts is common

 

[liveinabin]

Really? I've been in lifts all over the world and I'm yet to hear any.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Things like music in lifts(a), putting your occupation on your passport application(b), pictures of cottages on chocolate boxes(c) and the dial tone when someone puts the phone down on you(d).

(a) Heard that years ago.
(b) Dunno. Can't remember doing that.
(c) Seen that.
(d) Heard that years ago.

 

[bushkindle]

I thought Laurel and Hardy had to do it in "Below Zero" - but no synopsis mentions the washing-up. It's a while since I saw it.

I am struggling to think of films in which it does happen. Such an elusive cliché! I'm sure I have seen it many times, though. It can't be a Thunderbird picture, can it?

Doesnt happen to Laurel and Hardy in Below Zero. They just get beaten up and dumped outside. Maybe it was in another of their films?

Remember seeing an old US cartoon film years ago where two characters in a restaurant ended up doing the dishes. It something that turns up in old comics too.

 

[bushkindle]

There's also the old cartoon image of an unsuccessful gambler 'losing his pants' and consequently walking home dressed in only a barrel, usually suspended from his shoulders on leather straps like braces.

Another comic/cartoon cliche is if anyone is ill or naughty they get given a dose of castor oil. I had no idea what castor oil was when I was a kid but I grew up thinking it was the evil of all evils

 

[rynner2]

...putting your occupation on your passport application

I did that! In the late sixties I was working for a French company in the oil industry. Although I was only a 'geological technician', the company asked me to change my passport profession to 'Geologist'.

(They also wanted a copy of my baptismal certificate (to prove I wasn't Jewish) because much of our work was in Muslim countries...)

 

[liveinabin]

(a) Heard that years ago.
(b) Dunno. Can't remember doing that.
(c) Seen that.
(d) Heard that years ago.

What I mean is that these are things that are referenced in popular culture as if they were still commonplace or normal.
You say that you heard music in lifts and the dial tone when someone puts the phone down years ago, so not recent enough to make it a common experience then. (also you don't get a dial tone when someone puts the phone down, they don't work like that)
It's interesting that you remember putting your occupation on your passport, Rynner.
Yes I have seen pictures of cottages on chocolate boxes too, but not for at least 30 years. Yet pretty villages still get referred to as 'chocolate box pretty'.

 

[INT21]

....putting your occupation on your passport application..

Just looking at my wife's old black passport (can't find mine) and the top line on page 2 asks for 'occupation'.

It says 'housewife'.

I believe mine stated 'Automobile Engineer'.

In those days I was a mechanic.

INT21

 

[Mythopoeika]

You say that you heard music in lifts and the dial tone when someone puts the phone down years ago, so not recent enough to make it a common experience then. (also you don't get a dial tone when someone puts the phone down, they don't work like that)

OK, not a dial tone - I stand corrected - but back in the old days, I seem to recall hearing a tone.

 

[LordRsmacker]

Another comic/cartoon cliche is if anyone is ill or naughty they get given a dose of castor oil. I had no idea what castor oil was when I was a kid but I grew up thinking it was the evil of all evils

Dunno about Castor Oil, but as a kid, I used to wonder if one day I'd be ill enough to get some Lucozade. It never happened, I think you had to be REALLY ill before you got any of that, like "Disney Land" ill.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Dunno about Castor Oil, but as a kid, I used to wonder if one day I'd be ill enough to get some Lucozade. It never happened, I think you had to be REALLY ill before you got any of that, like "Disney Land" ill.

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times my Mum bought me Lucozade when I was ill as a child. It was the bottle wrapped in the orange plastic and I always thought it was a bit of a treat. She didn't like buying it 'because it was expensive'.

 

[LordRsmacker]

....putting your occupation on your passport application..

Just looking at my wife's old black passport (can't find mine) and the top line on page 2 asks for 'occupation'.

It says 'housewife'.

I believe mine stated 'Automobile Engineer'.

In those days I was a mechanic.

INT21

I'd HAVE to put "Secret Agent" in there, how could they prove otherwise?
Or "Gigolo".

Or "International Playboy".
Hmmm, I think I know why they dropped that part of the passport - idiots like me ("Smart Arse"? "Comedian"?)

 

[GNC]

I imagine some would be tempted to put "terrorist" these days, for a laugh.

My mum always used to get me Lucozade when I wasn't well, but that was the only time I ever drank it.

 

[Swifty]

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times my Mum bought me Lucozade when I was ill as a child. It was the bottle wrapped in the orange plastic and I always thought it was a bit of a treat. She didn't like buying it 'because it was expensive'.

Ha! .. I'd forgotten about the plastic wrapped Lucozade bottles

I went on an exchange visit to France when I was a kid and the French Mum helped nurse me back to health from a case of gastroenteritus (or however it's spelled) with fizzy coke on her doctors orders .. it didn't stop her kid from stealing my Return Of The Jedi toys though .

 

[OneWingedBird]

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times my Mum bought me Lucozade when I was ill as a child. It was the bottle wrapped in the orange plastic and I always thought it was a bit of a treat. She didn't like buying it 'because it was expensive'.

Ditto.

I guess they had to do some serious rebranding to come back from their strapline - Lucozade AIDS recovery!

 

[ravensocks]

Can confirm music in lifts. Best one was a few years ago, but my university library lift had a little tinny muzak version of 'Spin spin sugar' by the Sneakerpimps. Took me months to work out was it could be as I kept thinking 'You know what this sounds like? Nahhhh, can't be...' Best disco lift ever.

 

[ravensocks]

Oh yes, and there is a bit in the passport for additional information. I am aware of people (medical and PhD) who have put that they are doctors to try and get upgraded. Don't think it has ever worked though!

 

[Graylien]

I've never heard music in a lift. If I ever get in lift and it starts playing Girl from Ipanema, I'm getting straight out again. No good can come from that.

 

[Peripart]

...And where do you get a barrel these days?

A half-decent man-sized barrel must be more expensive than the forfeited trousers, I should think.

As for the OP, I can't recall ever having known the thing happen in real life, though in Robert Heinlein's Job, the protagonist is always ending up working in kitchens to pay his way.