^{This article originally appeared on Enterprise Insider.}

A team of former McDonald’s employees went again to their previous restaurant in Missouri for a “Class of 1975” reunion to mark practically 50 years since they labored jointly.

Nineteen previous personnel returned to the cafe in Hazelwood, jap Missouri, in March, with some touring in from Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, and Tennessee, Joan Elhoffer, one particular of previous McDonald’s employees who assisted arrange the reunion, instructed Business enterprise Insider around email.

“I was reminiscing with a couple good friends previously this year about how distinctive it is that we have all stored in touch in excess of five decades – and determined we have been overdue for a celebration,” Elhoffer mentioned. “We experienced celebrated a 10-calendar year reunion lengthy back and we did a 40-12 months reunion 10 years back, but we wanted to do it even even bigger for the 50.”

Some of the attendees brought in outdated pictures and their McDonald’s softball jerseys, Elhoffer said. They ate collectively, spoke to the restaurant’s present workers, and even signed yearbooks they’d designed for the occasion.

Such as those people who get the job done for franchises, McDonald’s is one particular of the largest companies in the U.S., and suggests that one particular in eight Us citizens has worked at the chain. Its community of over 40,000 company and franchise dining places globally has extra than 2 million staff.

In Oct 2023, McDonald’s celebrated its claim that about 12% of folks in the US have labored at the speedy-food large by web hosting a lavish occasion and highlighting notable former crew members, like Michelin-starred cooks, astronauts, and Peloton instructors.

^{Courtesy of McDonald’s via BI}

Elhoffer was 16 when she begun working at the Hazelwood cafe, she advised BI. Most of the other former personnel who attended the reunion were being aged amongst 16 and 19 when they started out there, with several continuing with their work all through superior faculty and even though attending local colleges, she reported.

“For virtually all of us, this was our to start with career,” Elhoffer stated.

They turned close buddies although doing work at the cafe, Elhoffer claimed, with some of them playing on the restaurant’s softball workforce. She claimed “a number of” of them — herself provided — fulfilled their spouses when performing at McDonald’s.

^{Courtesy of McDonald’s through BI}

“There is these types of a robust sense of household and close friends within this team,” Elhoffer informed BI. “We went to each other’s faculty dances, weddings, and parents’ funerals. We raised our kids with each other, celebrated holiday seasons, vacationed with each other, and ongoing for 50 a long time to love robust friendships.”

Elhoffer explained that she started off her vocation at McDonald’s by controlling the grill location. She was afterwards promoted to next assistant manager in 1978. She went on to show up at Hamburger College, and McDonald’s coaching faculty, and become a shop manager.

Elhoffer claimed she bought her to start with cafe in 1991. She now owns 7 McDonald’s places to eat close to St Louis. Seven of the 19 persons at the reunion went on to grow to be franchisees, even though the many others pursued distinctive career paths, this sort of as getting instructors and accountants, she explained.

^{Courtesy of McDonald’s by way of BI}

The most important alter due to the fact she started out working at McDonald’s has been the introduction of push-thrus, Elhoffer said. She included that when she first started at the chain, orders experienced to be rung up by hand, and workers wanted to manually increase tax.