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Eighteenth Job of Bob - The all-mighty "State," Part IV - The ethical Bug-Eyes, go to Hell and see white!
This entry was posted on 9/4/2008 8:15 PM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
So I finally settled in on the job offered by the two jokers from the first State interview - the young rube with the stupid grin and the old dude whose breath reeked of alcohol. They of course had promised that I would be using dozens of sophisticated pieces of janitorial equipment. And I deferred to my alleged good Protestant work ethic upbringing - I figured I could come away with a rewarding experience in learning and working with new equipment. Besides I liked tinkering with gadgets - it was something I used to love doing once upon a time.
Remember at that point, I was still working for the Farm-Hardware-Retail-Auto Service store. In my divine wisdom, I surmised I could work at the University all night and then work at the store all day - kind of makes one wonder who the "real" rube was in this vignette? Bug-Eyes stopped me in the store a couple days after I started at the University and asked me, "You got anything to tell us?"
I had no idea what he was fishing for. I wondered what there was to tell concerning a five dollar per hour job in a 20 dollar per hour country? Perhaps in my now hectic-lack-of-sleep schedule I had forgotten to put a price on some auto product. "If you are going to interview for another place Keith, I want to know," Bug-Eyes said as he glowered. This to me was a departure back to an era of employee/employer loyalties. But it was the 1990s. You could quit a two-bit job at break time in the A.M. and have another two-bit job by noon. I dismissed Bug-Eyes as a labor dinosaur. However, in retrospect, he certainly held to his fundamental workplace ethics - something now 20 years later in "the race to the economic bottom" that many look back at with nostalgia.
My first week at the University I worked at the gigantic recreation center. I remember the pool fumes being so strong my skin became irritated by the end of the week. The rec center was not to by my official assignment. Both rube and drunk supervisors were gone my first week. So in lieu of their absence, I was assigned to the rec center until their return.
My interim boss at the rec center was an intense ball headed man about 40 years old. He looked like an enhanced G. Gordon Liddy. He had biceps the size of bowling balls, an immense handle bar mustache, and his head shinned so brightly you could see your reflection. One night I was diligently polishing the Olympic weight lifting machines - no doubt his pet area to maintain - when G. Gordon startled me and said with great passion, "Tomorrow, we go to hell and see white!" A vein bulged from the middle of his forehead.
Having not long ago returned to my beloved homeland in Wisconsin after a 10 year absence I was eager and ardent to fit back in. I felt out the loop with recent local colloquialisms and was anxious to blend back in. I was also subconscious about exposing any slow and easy Texas mannerisms I might have acquired in the "Lone Star State." I assumed a new phase had evolved back home whilst I toiled for a decade in the South. "To go to hell and see white" surely meant we would intensify our work output. After all, there had been books written and movies made about the "white light" one sees and the epiphanies and enhancement of one's life gleaned after a near death experience. Surely this was some new expression relating to asses-and-elbows and productivity.
"To hell and see white it is boss," I said without hesitation.
The next night I was polishing G. Gordon's chrome weight bars even more vigorously than ever. Ol' G. Gordon found me about three hours into the shift. He stood in the doorway to the weight room with the forehead vein just a bulging. "Where in God's name have you been, son?" G. Gordon said, his eyes bugging and biceps throbbing.
"Right here, boss, working like crazy," I said proudly.
"I told you to go to Hell and see white, what is your god damned problem?" he said with an urgent face.
At this point I surrendered. I had no clue what this madman meant.
"I give up," I said. "I thought to go to hell and see white meant to work harder," I added.
He stared at me incredulously, like he was looking at an escaped lunatic.
"H-e-l-e-n C. W-h-i-t-e," he said slowly. Then G. Gordon placed his hand on his veined forehead as in mortal pain and said, "Helen C. White is a library on the other side of campus named for one of our former well known professors and English department head - Helen C. White is the name of a person."
Wisconsin military service person of the week
Army Specialist Justin W. Linden, 22 was killed on Friday, June 4, 2004 when his convoy unit was attacked with an improvised explosive device and rocket-propelled grenades in Baghdad, Iraq. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Justin moved to Portland, Oregon, after graduating from Clinton High School in 1999. Clinton is a town of about 2000 people in Rock County, Wisconsin. Specialist Linden served with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard. The Journal Sentinel went on to say Justin's mother Donna lives in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Linden moved to Portland about four years before his death. In Oregon he was married to wife Sarah on February 28, 2004 shortly before leaving for Iraq. Also while in Oregon he had worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken were he met his future wife. The Journal Sentinel mentioned Justin is remembered in Clinton for his participation in baseball. Linden played outfield for Clinton and earned an honorable mention on the Rock Valley All-Conference baseball team in 1999. Army Specialist Justin W. Linden was the 18th Wisconsin military service person to die in Iraq since Spring 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
86,661 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,530 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,147 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
576 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
314 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
360 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
30,561 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
2,379 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
91 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
11 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
130 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
15 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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