Those of us that already knew each other were joined by a few other Walmart managers who were all a little strange and a whole lot of fun. We spent 27 days working 7 days a week and 12 hours or more each day when we finally started receiving boxes. We were training another company to actually hire the staff and run the building. We Walmart folks were just there to train their people and to make sure they did things to our standards.
Like I said, we were a hard working bunch. But we were a hard partying bunch too. Our 10 to 12 hour days were followed by several nights of excessive drinking that always made the next morning more painful than it needed to be. We were either at a wing place drinking beer and daring each other to eat the insanity wings or we were over at Foozie's playing pool (badly in my case).
I still remember a good friend (who will recognize himself here but I will not call his name) deciding to try the insanity wings. They will bring you one wing to sample for free because it is such great entertainment
for everybody else. I told my friend in a loudness that only comes from having too much beer," Dude, wait until your beer gets re-filled before you try it. And bite down with your teeth so that your lips are pulled back. You don't want it to get on your lips," and I bared my teeth like a 5 year old smiling for his class picture so that he could see what I was talking about.
My friend did not listen. He bit into the chicken wing drumette with his lips wrapping around it like it was corn on the cob and with maybe a finger of liquid left in his beer glass. Now, I have never seen anyone go into anaphylactic shock, but this must have been a pretty close impression of the event. His lips swelled and they turned a light purplish pink color. His eyes and nose both became incredibly athletic - they were running like they stole something. I gave him my beer after his little swallow proved totally inadequate. The rest of the gang gave him beers too as he struggled to regain the ability to talk. Our waitress got one hell of a tip, by the way.
We had fun at work too. I remember getting chastised for referring to one of my trainees in a derogatory manner. I was charged with training the four desk clerks for day shift. Three of them were amazingly sharp people that I would have wanted on any team that I was forming. Smart people who were quick on the uptake and eager to do a good job. And then there was this one young lady who had long blonde, curly hair with an amazingly curvaceous body and an Angelic face that just may have been the dumbest human being I have ever encountered in my life.
Now we had told the company responsible for actually running the building that we needed the best of the best for the desk clerk job. On a receiving and shipping dock, a good desk clerk is like having another supervisor on the dock. They decide which loads to put into what doors when the days starts. A bad desk clerk can just cripple an operation.
I sat there with the other 3 clerks who were absorbing everything I had to teach them and watched them grow tired and bored as I was having to spend time teaching this absolutely gorgeous woman how to log into the system for the 239th time. I sat and looked at her with her perfect hair, model body, and blue eyes, and pouty lips, and slender fingers, and long legs, and ... What was I saying?
Oh, yeah, I found myself wondering why her male supervisor and male area manager and male operations manager and male assistant genereal manager had put her forward as a candidate for desk clerk. It still remains a mystery to me to this day. I began to refer to her as "Sack of Hammers". I did this in front of my bosses once. They each asked why I called her that. I told them it was because she was a dumb as a sack of hammers. That was when I got chastised.
My operations manager (a dear friend to this day) and I made a deal that I would start training the unloaders after lunch and he would start with the desk clerks since I had made so little progress. I made a point to watch how long Sack of Hammers spent at the computer versus the other three and to see how often my boss put one or both of his hands on the top of his head. When my old boss/buddy puts both hands on top of his head, he is trying to keep his head from exploding.
At our last break of the day he came up to me. "I am sorry son. You were right."
"About what," since I can't let ANYTHING lay where it is.
"She is as dumb as a sack of hammers."
Our entire team knew who Sack of Hammers was and you could tell who had worked with her personally and who had not. The ones who had, called her Sack of Hammers. The ones who had not, thought we were horribly unprofessional. Until they worked with her. Then they hung their heads and said, "You were right." We still talk about Sack of Hammers and how beautiful she was and we wonder if she did drugs and they impacted her that way or if her mother had done the drugs and she was born that way or both.
We were successful though. Within months we were number one on the Operational Index that Walmart uses to track its buildings and within a month or two of that we were number one on the Profit and Loss rankings that are even more important. We pulled together as a team and sacrificed and worked hard and we achieved. We were all very proud of ourselves.
Some of that had to be happening around August 25th, 2005. I wish I could remember exactly what I was doing on that day, but I do not. I am pretty sure that I was not thinking about the fact that we had soldiers overseas fighting and dying. I know that even then I would pick up the tab at a bar or restaurant when I saw military people in uniform, but those folks didn't hit my radar too often. Still don't if I am brutally honest.
Whether you agree with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or not, you have to appreciate the sacrifice of the people who are away from their families for months or years and who put their lives on the line in extremely hostile areas. My personal view is that our push overseas has kept the bad guys on the run so much that we have not had a single attack here in over ten years. That proves its worth and what we owe the people who have chosen to serve over there.
I think to all the hard work that was really a lot of fun and all the fun that was really a lot of hard work and I smile. It was a great time with great friends doing great things in our chosen profession. It was just a lot of fun. I was able to live my life without care or worry and have fun. That did not come free.
Operators of Delta Force Killed in Action in Iraq on August 25, 2005.
6-Sgt. 1st Class Trevor J. Diesing / August 25, 2005 / IED attack / Husaybah, Iraq.
7-Master Sgt. Ivica Jerak / August 25, 2005 / IED attack / Husaybah, Iraq.
8-Sgt. 1st Class Obediah J. Kolath / August 25, 2005 ( died on August 28 in Germany ) / IED attack / Husaybah, Iraq
I bet the families of these three men know exactly what they were doing on August 25, 2005. They were probably doing the same kinds of things that you and I were doing, right up until they were notified of something awful that changed their worlds forever. Please, the next time you have the chance to say thank you to someone in uniform, over come your shyness and say so. If you have the means to pay for their meal or their drink or their tank of gas, do so. And please, please live well and have fun and add value to life. They pay too much and are paid too little for any of us to do anything less.
