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The year was 1970. I had just finished four years in the US Army. To my mind, it would have been a complete waste of my time, and the Army. I had finished two years at Pensacola Junior College, majoring in business, before the disastrous two terms of Florida State University. I had majored in pool play while they thought I was majoring in accounting. Have been able to learn how to hustle pool, but not how to do accounting type stuff, Uncle Sam took my education.
Before he got his hands on me, though I did work for a few months at the local grocery store. When I returned to Pensacola after 4 years of service, local grocery hired me back. I had figured out that I was a failure and had basically given up thoughts of returning to college. I just figured that I would go back to work at the grocery store and it was. Unfortunately, as it seemed at the time, but fortunately as it turned out, the only place they had for me was the night stock crew.
The first night, the truck pulled in, Larry, the crew boss, told me, “New guys need to go to the car.” I had already figured that one out, so after the driver lifted her pallet fork and lifting hand pallet truck inside, I went into the trailer. The work was terrible. The floor was a layer of slime Gook and from things that had leaked. Somehow it defied the laws of physics, because it attached wheel pallet truck, while slipping under my feet when I tried to get a grip.
Brettin were stacked two high, seemed to weigh several tons each, and the inside of the trailer was an oven. Somehow, however, I managed to get up to the tailgate where the driver lifted off her fork and took it into the store where the crew distrbuted cases that the corridors and began labeling and put the stock on the shelves. After finishing two hours, I got to join them. The work inside the store was a cinch after what I had been through in the car.
This went on for several weeks, twice a week. It was funny, but I did not question it, just did it. In fact, I actually grew to enjoy it. It was desparately difficult exercise, but I began to enjoy the challenge, and looking forward to two hours of my enforced meditation inside the trailer on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
One day, the store manager called me into his office. Grocery store manager was there, as was Larry, night stock crew chief. The manager told me that Larry was taking a better position on one of the other stores would have to be replaced. He explained that Larry had recommended me for the position of chief night stock crew. He went on to explain that one of the reasons was my age and military background. Larry had apparently been satisfied with my will to take on the challenge withoug complaint and get the job done. In addition, the store manager and grocery manager felt that everyone else on the crew was too young or not sufficiently reliable. They felt that I had the maturity to handle the job and my military training and background would be beneficial. I was not sure about that part, but accepted the job.
The first night I showed up in a new, elevated my ability, I noted one of the stockers and said: “You’re in the car tonight.” He made a face and immediately began to complain. It is when a small piece of my military background rose to the surface and I told him to knock it off and get in the car.
The rest of us went into the store and started right shelves. Soon, the driver came in first pallet from the back of the truck and put them on the floor. We began distributing the cases was normal. After a few minutes, however, the board was empty and the driver did not move more inside. I started to walk back to check if anything was wrong. The driver came out of Ware room into the store and met me halfway. As soon as he got to me, he demanded vows, “Are you going to put someone else on the truck with that boy?”
“No,” I replied. “Why should I?”
driver’s face was so purple. “Every store I go to put two people on a trailer to unload it. One person can not do it by themselves!”
I turned around and saw other members of the stock crew behind me. One of those who had been with the company for several years sheepishly nodded. So I sent him out to help unload the trailer … the same trailer that I had been unloading with me for a few weeks.
At first I was angry. I had been taken for a ride. I thought about it, and I began to realize that I had learned something in the Army after all. They had tried to make me understand that when I thought I had reached my limit, I could reach in and find something else to call. That had gotten me through basic training and through 4 years in the military.
Yes, I had learned something. I had learned that many of the values that people have to control their dreams, their performance, coming within own their heads. I was able to unload a truck because I did not know it believed would not be done by one person, and I decided to do it come hell or high water. It was not one of the crew, and some were bigger and stronger than me, who thought they could do it … and they could not!
The next day, I started thinking about going back to school. Finally, the store manager and grocery manager asked if I wanted to start training for the position of a grocery store manager. I did not have any trouble figuring out what to do. I thanked them and told them I would enroll in the University of West Florida to finish getting my degree in accounting … and I did!
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Source by Donovan Baldwin