Milwaukee Rising

Dishwasher Pete is about travel, freedom, irresponsibility a bit of a lack of manners and life up to the elbows of water in the sinks of this great nation.

Warning — if you care to maintain your illusions and delusions about restaurant cleanliness, do not read this book. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Pete Jordan is a guy who grew up knowing police were there to harass him and, while avoiding the drugs and prison that claimed many of his friends, did not develop a real interest in anything the suit-and-tie world could offer him, either. This is not to say that Pete was without ambition — Pete wanted to was dishes in every state in the union.

So he started to travel. From the heat of Louisiana to the traffic of New York, on the west coast and in the midwest, Pete washed dishes. The jobs were mostly ridiculously easy to get because of the ridiculously high turnover and absolute unattractiveness of the duties involved. The fringe benefits were few — beer (mostly stolen) and food (often taken off of plates coming back to the kitchen area to be washed). The hours were long, the work arduous. Yet, Pete kept dishing because it paid the few bills he had and allowed him to keep moving.

For more than a decade, as his hair and his youth slipped away, Pete Jordan chased his dreams and the next dishwashing job. Jordan’s tale of the chase is funny and affirming (dish dog friends for life!).

Parents — give this book to your children so they understand the kind of dead-end, back-breaking labor that awaits them if they don’t get an education (or in this economy, even if they do get an educaion).

Parents — don’t give this book to your children lest you ignite an undeniable passion for rootless, eat-the-leftovers-off-the-plate wanderings