When Sonja Shearer started as a cashier at the new McDonald’s on Northern Avenue in 1970, she made $1.25 an hour and sold hamburgers and french fries for 38 cents.
After taking five years off to care for her son, Shearer returned because McDonald’s worked around her schedule as a mother, she said. She will retire Friday with more than 30 years of continuous employment at the same McDonald’s.
“The hours were very good for somebody who’s got children,” she said. “I wasn’t gonna stay here, but drifted on, drifted on.”
When she started, the McDonald’s restaurant was a tiny space with just enough room for customers to walk up and order.
A dining room was built in 1976, the year she returned to work. The drive-through was added 10 years later. An outdoor playground came and went. The McRib sandwich, chicken fajitas and danishes were added to - and taken off - the menu.
Shearer’s favorite sandwich, the Big Mac, cost $1.25 in 1968. The sandwich now sells for $2.89. The menu expanded to include chicken sandwiches, salads and breakfast during her tenure. Shearer, 59, is the “gold standard,” said Mark Levine, president of the Golden “M” Company and owner of the Northern Avenue restaurant.
Shearer sports a silver ring commemorating her 10-year anniversary with McDonald’s, a golden arch necklace for 15 years, a silver watch for her 25th anniversary and a gold tennis bracelet decorated with tiny golden arches for her retirement.
“I was really happy when I got that at the Christmas party two weeks ago,” she said.
It was important to mark Shearer’s milestones at the company, Levine said.
“Thirty years in the same store is one out of a million,” he said. “Normally, we would have 30 employees for one year,” Levine said.
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