McDonald’s worker winds up 33 years with super-size memories

BANGOR – Burgers, fries, shakes and sodas were the only items on the menu when Lois Leighton Moore went to work at McDonald’s on Broadway in 1969.

No pies, ice cream, cookies or yogurt parfaits were available for dessert. Egg McMuffins weren’t on anybody’s griddle and it would be another decade before kids started begging for a Happy Meal.

There was no drive-up window and little inside seating at the 5-year-old company-owned restaurant her first day on the job 33 years ago. People parked, walked up to the takeout window, ordered and paid for their meals, then went back to their cars to eat at northern Maine’s first McDonald’s.

Moore of Glenburn retired last month after serving more Big Macs over the years than she could count. The great-grandmother refused to reveal her exact age, but admitted she’s more than a few years past the average age of retirement.

“I just felt that it was time,” she said of her decision to give up getting to work before 5 a.m. five mornings a week. “I opened up regularly for quite a few years. There were snowy days when I didn’t get my driveway plowed out that early, so I’d call a cab and wade through the snow down to the road to wait for it. But, working there was something I really loved.”

Moore was the breakfast manager when Gary Eckmann purchased the Bangor and Brewer McDonald’s in 1989. He said that her greatest strength as an employee was her reliability and the fact that she knew her customers’ habits. She may not have known their names, he said, but she knew who had cheese on their breakfast sandwiches and who didn’t.

“One of her strengths as a manager and trainer was she led by example,” said Eckmann. “She had a tremendous energy level and work ethic. She wasn’t there to take it easy. She understood she was there to work and take care of customers, and that’s how she trained folks.”

Moore grew up in Levant. Her first job was working in Woolworth’s. She met her late husband Eldon Leighton when the Glenburn teen-ager came to a dance in her hometown. She quit school to marry him when he joined the Naval Air Force at the beginning of World War II.

After the war, the couple worked the Leighton family dairy farm on the Pushaw Road in Glenburn. As more people used Pushaw Pond for recreation, traffic grew on the road and the Leightons built a Dairy Joy on their property, where they sold ice cream and fried clams during the summer.

While Moore recalled many happy years with her young family, there were difficult times as well. Their middle child Randall Leighton was killed in a silo accident on the farm when he was 14.

“That was tough, I’ll tell you,” said his mother, pointing out a picture of him.

Moore’s older son Cary is a builder who lives nearby. Her daughter Jolene Landry lives in Portland. She has three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

She said last week that she’s still trying to figure out how she wants to spend her retirement. Moore worked full-time at McDonald’s for the last three decades and she’s not sure if idleness will suit her.

“I figure something will come up that I’ll really like,” she said. “The first things on the list are my grandchildren and I do play golf.”

Eckmann said that in addition to Moore, her longtime co-worker Ann Hanson of Hampden retired a week after Moore did.

Both women are greatly missed by their former morning customers. Phillip Gildart and Stephen York, both of Bangor, have breakfast at McDonald’s almost every morning. The two agreed Monday morning that things aren’t the same since the women retired.

“I’ve been coming here steady almost 30 years,” said Gildart, “and Lois and Ann both were here all that time.”

York observed that when Moore was on the job, “things moved a- long a lot faster. She was pretty efficient.”

Gildart said that he has the same thing for breakfast every morning and Moore knew what it was.

“Before I could get my money out, she had my order out on the counter. I miss her. She made things hot.”