Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States

For 12 years, I was the most prolific dishlicker of them all. From 1989 to 2001, I dished my way around the country, unwittingly searching for direction. From a bagel joint in New Mexico to a Mexican joint in Brooklyn; from a dinner train in Rhode Island to the Lawrence Welk Resort in Branson, Missouri; from an upper-crust ladies’ club to a crusty hippie commune-I washed the nation’s dishes. Whether it was a gig so lousy that I walked out within an hour or one where I toiled 120 hours a week, I remained a man on a mission: to bust suds in every state in the union. -Pete Jordan

Dishwasher is Pete Jordan’s amusing memoir of his itinerant dishwashing extravaganza. Part adventure, part self-parody, and part self-discovery, it reveals how he transformed into Dishwasher Pete, -the ultimate professional dishshog, unlikely folk hero, writer and publisher of his own cult ‘zine-and his struggles to find love, stability, and yes, the elusive happy-ever-after.