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With the exception of Terry
Opdike (who started at the GJ Relay Station at Park Lane
near Greenville Lane before transferring to the main GJ), no
one worked at GJ earlier or for longer than Toad. He worked
for the original owner Gary Jost back in '79 or '80 with
Bruce McMillan who helped him get the job and worked up 'til
very near the sad end. Back in '79, the delivery man was
Tim Murray (old brother of Todd Murray and friend of Bruce
McMillan and Toad) and the managers were Claudia Cannon, and
guys named David and Les (whose last names are lost to
time). Toad was made a manager before several other
employees that had been there several months before him. He
would often ride in the back of the pickup truck with the
trash cans full of dough that were transferred to the relay
station. When he went off to A&M, his brother Rosy came
back to help the new owners Dave and Petey
Willingham/Willingstein get up to speed with the restaurant.
Toad began as a night
manager but eventually expanded to day manager and trained
many other managers, but finally wised up and realized that
the real bucks were in delivery and subjected his white '74
Toyota Celica ("The Toadster Roadster") to nightly abuse.
This is the vehicle that 25 years ago, the editor of the this webpage (Dale "Cap'n" Conkel) had to help push across town at 1:30 am when Toad let it run out of gas on the way back from a post-GJ closing breakfast at Denny's.
He also managed at the
newer GJ in Carrollton.
Toad learned from the early managers that "there's never
enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time
to do it over", and thus he required each employee to do his
best, or do it over. From this he earned the nickname, "The
dick with ears".
He loved to flip pizzas up in
there air like a pizza aerial acrobat and then slip into the
oven. It was pure magic. Toad's brother is Ross "Rosy" Miller, DDS Toad honed his legendary air guitar skills on bands like Boston (Listen to "Foreplay/Long Time" (Click Here to Listen), Journey and Styx.
I've been the lucky husband of the former Catherine Noble since 1998. Catherine has taught 3rd and 4th grades in DISD and GISD respectively and will pursue her masters someday after raising the most beautiful baby in the world, Caitlin born 2/05
Dr. Todd Frank Miller is a native of Richardson, Texas (Graduating from J. J. Pearce High School. GJ was a hangout for Pearce Mustangs.) He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Texas A&M University in 1986 (Gig 'em, AGs!), a Master's Degree in Neurophysiology from the University of Texas in 1989 and his Doctorate in Optometry from the University of Houston in 1994. Dr. Miller has been in private practice
since 1994
http://www.vizualeyes.com/
His interests include anything scientific, in particular astronomy and paleontology
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GJ's - the time of our lives