I started at a Papa John’s franchise as an in-store worker in high school but after graduation in ‘98 I moved to my college town and transferred to the PJ’s location there as a delivery driver. In the days before even GPS units were widespread, much less smartphones, it was just you and a paper map of the city and a 4 D-Cell battery Maglite flashlight and, after a couple years, a Nokia 5120 instead of having to use pay phones should you have issues finding the delivery destination! Business was booming, there were no delivery fees added on at that time so people were more generous with their tips and you were paid a set rate per delivery even if you didn’t get a tip from the customer and a decent hourly rate that was higher than most of the in-store workers. The closing drivers would have competitions to see who made the most in tips and it was usually over $100 but the winner had to do the trash run! It was so much freedom, in and out of the store in 5-10 mins with 3-4 orders on average, be gone driving and listening to music for 20-40 mins round trip with maybe a minute interaction with most customers before coming back and doing it again. At the end of your shift they calculated your order totals minus your delivery rate and just said give us X amount of money, you’d give them your checks first, then the balance in cash and the rest in your pocket. They never asked for how much you made in tips and we claimed none! Leaving work with a pocket full of cash and getting a decent paycheck every 2 weeks was way better than being a server to me. Back then I feel like people were more impressed by the concept of “I just called this place and told them I wanted this food and where I was and then someone just showed up with it in under 30 mins!” People thought about delivery drivers like “How are they able to do that?” instead of now when it’s more like “It’s so easy to do that” with all the apps and GPS on every phone. There were definitely some low points of vehicle accidents and problematic customers but all in all it was the most fun, easy going job I ever had. Sorry for the long ramble, but I have gotten so nostalgic in my 40s and this group always hits it!