Shenanigans
When I got out of college I was all set to become a teacher. I had learned all the skills that I needed and was ready to take on the world. Unfortunately, the world was not quite ready to take on me.
So there I was, having moved out of my parent’s apartment to live with a group of friends out on Long Island with my future still up in the air.
Lucky for me, I got a job working at a major department store in Bayshore, which shall remain nameless. Just know that I saved up my Penneys so that I could pay the rent until a teaching job came along. I became a stock boy. Now stock boys worked behind the scenes, making sure that inventory was kept in order and when products were needed, could deliver those products to the floors that needed them.
To some, being a stock boy was a boring job. Day in and day out you always did the same thing. You certainly
had little interaction with the shoppers and because of your casual appearance and job responsibilities, you were not supposed to be seen by the big wigs of the company, even though you did a lot of the grunt work.
I still wanted to be a teacher, so I strived to be professional and hard-working. Well, maybe that’s a little bit of a falsehood. I was efficient as a worker and mostly did what I was asked to do, however, I was far from professional.
As a storyteller, I play with voices. Though I wasn’t a storyteller then, it seemed natural for me to play with voices as a boredom breaker. I used different voices all of the time. did silly things like speak into the intercom by the freight elevator on one floor which connected to a managers desk in the upstairs stock room and would crumple a piece of packing cellophane by the speaker and in my old man voice call out, “Fire in the hole” I would follow that with a spitting sound and then say, “No problem, it’s out.” Whoever was up there knew it was me and ignored it. At one point my manager did call out my name. When I responded with “What?” in my normal voice, she said “Thanks”. On questioning her as to why she called my name, her response was, “I just wanted to hear what you really sounded like.”
I do remember shinning down a garbage chute, which was about three-foot square, to jump on some boxes near the bottom to try and clear a jam, which I was unable to do, and then shinning my way up the chute for two floors, as the floor I started on was blocked by carts, only to the step out of the chute 4 stories up and appear in front of a company bigwig discussing with someone all the dangers of leaving the doors to the garbage chute open, after all, it was a three-story drop and someone could get hurt. I explained what I was doing and lucky for me I did not get fired.
And never let me walk by a series of pull baby toys that when you pull the cord, it says something like “D is for Donkey”. I am sure to pull all the cords in succession. It is fun just listening to all of the things that can be said on those toys as they all go off as I walk by them.
One of my colleagues and I did a routine once next to a large, open empty box. He would stand there and keep saying “26..26..26..26” until I walked by, looked into the box, and asked, “26 what?” At which time he would push me and I would fall into the box completely as he started saying, “27..27..27”.
There was actually a time I did get onto the selling floor to help catch a parakeet that had gotten loose from the pet department. I ran around with a butterfly net and actually did catch the bird. The powers that be made sure that I was never let back on the selling floor again.
I do remember my manager asking me once what degree I graduated college with. When I told her I was going to be a teacher, she just laughed. She could not believe anyone would ever hire me as a teacher.
That was my foray into the world of business immediately after college. After working there for 6 months I did get a job as a teacher.
And the rest is history. I’m glad I got a chance to hone my skills prior to becoming an educator and molder of young minds. One never knows what skills one will need. As I taught my students all through teaching… “Nothing is boring unless you let it be.” And I can assure you, some of my students, as I had done, did plenty, not to be bored.
