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WEDNESDAY, JUNE11, 2003
NEWS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN =15
JOBS
Pizza delivery proves lucrative, entertaining
By Matthew Leavitt editor@kansan.com Special to the Kansan
Steve McFarland, Pizza Shuttle delivery driver, stepped toward an open garage carrying two pepperoni pizzas on a warm September evening.
As he entered, he said he was greeted by two hungry couples sitting on a beat-up couch watching ESPN's Sunday Night Football.
An attractive woman in her late 20s handed him a $20 bill.
McFarland turned to make change and said he was surprised when he felt her hand snaking between his legs and groping his testicles.
"I went to get the change and she just grabbed my balls. We looked at each other and laughed a little bit, they gave me a big tip and I left with a smile on my face," McFarland said.
McFarland said he and the small army of delivery men in Lawrence never knew what they would find when they headed into the darkness to deliver hot pizzas. From hungry inebriates to icy roads, students who offer beer and marijuana as tips and women who offer a strip-tease in place of cash, McFarland said his job could serve up a spicy slice of life in Lawrence.
Nicole Becker, shift manager at Pizza Hut, 934 Massachusetts St., said the most interesting delivery stories typically involved drunken customers and people out of control.
"Most drivers have a story about some drunk person trying to compensate them
with something other then money," Becker, Olathe junior, said. "You can use your imagination as to what that compensation may be."
McFarland, Lawrence senior, said he had been flashed by girls trying to get pizza for free.
"I didn't give it to them because then I would have had to buy it and that's money out of my pocket," he said.
Justin Shrack, Lawrence senior, is a former Papa Keno's delivery driver. He said he was offered beer for tips when he delivered to parties.
Domino's Pizza driver Adam Reese, Manhattan freshman, said he was once offered marijuana as a tip.
"I delivered a pizza to a couple of guys and after they had paid they invited me to come in and smoke with them," Reese said.
Money is still the preferred form of payment for pizza delivery drivers. While the price of pizza stays the same, the size of tips varies.
Reese said $1 is an average tip. Depending on the size of the order, Reese said delivery drivers consider $2 a good tip.
Reese said he was happy if he was handed a $10 bill and got to keep the change on an $8.75 order.
McFarland said students don't deserve their bad-tipping reputation.
"Students are better tippers than your average public because of the amount of students in the service industry. They're sympathetic," McFarland said.
Drunks and strange payment methods aren't the only challenges drivers face. Nature makes life difficult for many drivers.
"Most drivers have a story about some drunk person trying to compensate them with something other then money," Becker, Olathe junior, said. "You can use your imagination as to what that compensation may be."
Nicole Becker Olathe junior
Jared Greene, Gumby's Pizza delivery driver, said snow and ice made delivering to a hilly campus difficult.
"Last winter we had a really good snow pack," Greene said. "I couldn't get up the hill over by GSP and Corbin. I had to park and walk up the hill to deliver the pizza."
McFarland described an ice storm that made delivering dangerous.
"You couldn't go more than five miles an hour. One of our drivers actually was involved in a five-car pileup on Iowa Street. Thankfully he wasn't hurt," he said.
Becker said parades and other special events cause more problems for deliveries than weather at the Pizza Hut she manages.
"When KU won the Final Four game against Marquette we almost had to close down deliveries completely," she said about the number of celebrating motorists.
Becker estimated that her store sent out
approximately 150 delivery orders on a typical Friday night, one of those weekend nights when pizza drivers could expect strange encounters.
Greene said he had one such encounter with several drunks outside McCollum Hall. As he carried a pizza, Greene said he was rushed by an inebriated student who attempted to wrestle the pizza away from him.
"I grabbed the pizza with one hand and shoved him with the other," Greene said. "After midnight you're dealing with just about all drunks. For about three hours there you've got to exercise extreme patience and expect the unexpected."
Greene described another encounter with a pair of dogs.
"I had just delivered a pizza and as I opened the gate to leave the yard I had a dog on each leg," he said.
For Reese, the pay made things worthwhile. Reese said he made $5.15 an hour and $.70 per delivery to cover gas and mileage, plus tips. He said his pay averages out to between $10 and $12 an hour.
In addition to the money, delivery drivers have the opportunity to see into the lives and homes of the people of Lawrence. Shrack described one occasion when the people were gone but the money was there.
"I went to one house where the customers had to go to the store to get something," Shrack said. "They had left a note on the door saying where money was in the house and how much to take for a tip. So I went in and made the delivery."
—Edited by Maggie Newcomer
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome clinic battles disease
The Associated Press
EMPORIA — It's his first full day of summer vacation and Lance Sutton has to be coaxed to skip down the hallway of the Flint Hills Community Health Center.
Even the sight of his hosts for the day, staff members of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Clinic, skipping in unison isn't enough to inspire the 6-year-old.
Nancy Devenport, a speech therapist with the FAS clinic says Lance isn't refusing to skip. And it's not that he can't do it. Lance and other children who
Lance has static encephalophathy with alcohol exposed, meaning alcohol affected his brain's development, said psychologist Wes Jones.
have been exposed to alcohol while in their mother's womb just don't think, move or behave like other children, she said.
Once a child is diagnosed with FAS, all clinicians can do is offer suggestions to the child's guardians and school on how to cope with what one of the clinic's founders, Dr. James Barnett, calls an "invisible handicap."
One morning a month the half dozen
team members of the FAS clinic try to make people understand the dangers of consuming alcohol while pregnant. A pilot program sponsored with $15,000 each from the state Legislature and the community, the clinic is the only one of its kind in the state.
About seven states in the nation have such clinics, said Barnett, who's also a Republican state senator from Emporia. Team members, including psychologists, physicians, and therapists, traveled to the University of Washington in November 2001 to learn about FAS and how to operate a clinic.
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Their work time, about eight hours a month, is donated by their employers.
Barnett said the clinic's primary goal is to prevent the syndrome, which can lower IQs, impede growth, cause facial abnormalities, and create behavioral problems. In some cases, fetuses can die.
The syndrome is entirely preventable with education, he said. The National Institute of Health reports 39 percent of women of childbearing age know about fetal alcohol syndrome.
"If you're pregnant you shouldn't drink. And if you drink, you shouldn't be pregnant," he said.
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