The Tab Book

I knew which staircase doors were jammed with pennies & was able to deliver the grilled cheeses fast.  We grew to have quite a few regulars, some even gave me tips (cigarettes, a hit on the bong, a beer, etc.).  

Another thing that made our food service stand out was the fact that we allowed our customers to get food on credit.  We'd spot them until they got paid the next week or whatever & kept track of it in a spiral bound book we referred to as "The Tab Book."  Kate & I recently discovered the old purple notebook & used it for scrap paper (ironically those scraps were used to right down current orders at Mad Munch- full circle).  

The names brought back some fond memories, even though some of the people never paid, according to our scrawled out records.  If you didn't pay & you're reading this, you know who you are.

That was really the only bookkeeping that we did.  There were no Balance Sheets or Profit & Loss Statements.  The three of us never talked about how much money we were actually making.  When we ran out of cheese, bread or Country Crock, we'd go around collecting tabs from the purple notebook.  Yuri was the only one who had a car so he would then drive us in his Grand Cherokee to WalMart to restock.  I guess he just absorbed those costs, though I recall he asked for gas money a few times.  Whatever money was left went toward booze & smokes.

It was an exciting time but we knew there was plenty of room to expand.