Sean C. Morgan
After almost 24 years behind the window at A&W, Sue Olson’s last day was Friday, Jan 26.
Olson went to work for then-owner Verlin Weaver on May 1, 1994.
Olson said she needed extra money at the time. She had been a stay-at-home mom. She and her husband Ric had raised two children, Patty and Eric, by that point and had two children still at home, Debbie, 10, and Tim, 15.
A&W needed a cook who could work days, Olson said.
Patty, who owns and operates A&W today with her husband Josh Hankin, had been working at A&W for five years at that point, Olson said.
“They bought the restaurant five years after I started.”
Josh Hankins had been working at Hewlett Packard.
“It was so neat,” Olson said. “She was 26. He was 25, which to buy a business, was phenomenal.”
As a bonus, they didn’t fire Olson, she noted mischievously. “And they had plenty of opportunities. I was a brat too.”
“It would be weird to fire your mom,” said Patty Hankins.
Olson said she enjoyed being at the restaurant, especially with the student employees.
“Working with the younger kids, the high school kids and the college kids, it has kept me young.”
Olson, who is the chairwoman for the Singing Christmas Tree, said that Bill Langdon, who is the choir’s accompanist, commented that she must “work with a bunch of kids.”
“I’m still 16 inside,” Olson said. That’s been the best thing about the job. “I liked keeping going with the kids. It kept me more fresh.”
She’ll miss the kids and her co-workers, she said, but with trouble with her knees, she decided it was time to quit.
While there, she worked nights and days full time, Olson said. For the past few years, she has worked four days a week. Most of her time at the restaurant, she worked the fryer end of the kitchen, putting out the orders.
Going forward, Olson will have surgery on one of her knees, she said. After that, “I have a lot of baby clothes to make.”
A lot of the young women who have worked at A&W are having babies, she said. She’s also planning to spend a lot of time making ornaments for the Capitol Christmas Tree.
“We have the same kind of work ethic,” Hankins said of her mother. “We worked really well together – most of the time.”
Without Olson there in the beginning, Hankins said, she and her husband would not have been able to take vacation or start their family.
“Naturally,” she will miss Olson, Hankins said chuckling. “But she lives down the street from me.”
“And we’re Facebook friends,” Olson added.
Numerous customers, friends and family dropped by to celebrate Olson’s retirement with her during an open house at A&W Friday afternoon.