Note: I actually ordered the griddle on the 5th of April, 2019, and am only now catching up and updating the old blog.
As a young man in High School, I went to work as a cleanup boy for “B&H Burgers” in Norwalk, CA for the sole purpose of earning enough money to buy/maintain a car. Eventually I was able to purchase a 1953 Chevy BelAir with my Grandfather co-signing the contract. I made certain he didn’t have to pay anything other than his signature, working hard at my part time job, impressing the owner, and eventually working my way up to short order cook on their *huge* griddle. I didn’t quit that job until I joined the Navy in August, 1963.
In 1964, serving as a Radarman Seaman on the USS Marshal (DD-676) out of San Diego, I was selected to be the CPO Messcook, and would serve my tour of messcooking in the CPO Mess rather than the Crew’s general messdecks. Being introduced to the job, I was tickled to see a griddle in there about 22″ square and for the next six months kept 18 CPOs fed breakfast and special meals of of that griddle, then used it to keep food drawn from the general mess hot for the noon/evening meals. They were elated and all lamented my departure when I completed that little tour.
In the 1970’s I made Chief myself, then Senior Chief, and in the early 1980’s Master Chief Petty officer. Each and every CPO Mess I served it had a griddle – and I *always* used heck out of it to my own benefit as well as the rest of the Chiefs.
Bottom line of all of this history – I’m certain I will still love cooking on a griddle and was elated to add one to our outdoor cooking repertoire. It will be different, never cooked on one outside – but hey! It will be fun!