When I was in high school, I worked for two years in McDonald's and got to be at least friendly with many of the longtime employees. They'd teach me Spanish, I'd help them with their English.

Then the summer after my freshman year at Tech, I go in to grab a quick dinner after a work softball game with my summer job. Everyone was cold to me, even the people I knew were giving me stares. I even heard someone mutter "El Diablo." I couldn't understand it.

Then I got home and took off my baseball cap ... with the big INS - INSPECTIONS words and badge on it. From my summer job with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Yeah, that explained things.