Friday Afternoon Jam: The Toyes

A Bay Area tradition remembered

I worked my way through college as a chef, and one of my gigs was the relief for the regular dinner chef for a small local women’s hospital. It was a good gig, but it had some odd requirements. You had to cook healthy meals, they had to be served on time, and you were not to engage with the patients beyond asking simple questions¹.

But it was a cakewalk. Two afternoons a week, I would arrive about 3 PM, I would cook dinner for between 8 and 20 women, usually a set meal, but occasionally there was someone with dietary restrictions, so I got to be creative. It was about 4 hours from arriving to completing the clean-up, and departing. For this I was paid in excess of $20 an hour, a princely sum considering this was the late 1980’s. Pretty good walking around cash.

Anyhow, the kitchen at this establishment — like virtually all kitchens I worked in — had a beat up old boombox, and we listened to the radio. The morning cook (she had the full time job) listened to classical, but when I arrived, I flipped it to KFOG, the San Francisco (duh) station that played rock, alternative, and eclectic tunes. In short, great background for the chopping, dicing, sauteing and normal chef work.

But at 3:00PM on Fridays, they played The Toyes’ “Smoke Two Joints” to kick off the weekend. That was their jam, and I lived for it.

Below is the track, whether you partake or not in the cannabis rituals, this reggae jam is just happy.

I hope you enjoy this Friday afternoon send off!

1. This was largely because a lot of women who had attempted suicide, or had been in brutally abusive relationships, or had other horrible backstories. I followed the rules to a T. The person I replaced tried to “date” a couple of the patients. Sick fuck.

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