Me, me, me.

No, that ain't it.  Sorry, right turn here. 'Nuff about me.

Simple stuff, wonderful people, leaders.

Ron. A boss (front line supervisor) we had at United Airlines. He loved United.  He loved people.  He loved life. He respected people. He let you know when a job was well done by simply saying "Nice work folks."  He was positive.  Always. We never saw him have a bad day.  Oh he would get nervous, but in a good way.  Airline work is "it's GOTTA happen, NOW." His pacing, concern, worry (care) wore off on us. 2 be continued. Hate long paragraphs.

He was a leader.  A soft, quiet, humble one. Deferred the thanks, but the work we employees did was because of his leadership. Band camp, late 1970's.  Boss announced he was going to retire in a couple of weeks.  We worked the 4am to noon shift.  We all parked in the employee lot and caught the 3:30am employee bus to the terminal. 2 be continued.

3:34 am. From the 'white courtesy telephone' (in the terminal, a floor above Ron).. "Hey boss, it's Jim.  I'm not feeling great today, think maybe I'm getting the flu,  I've got to use a sick day."  "OK Jim, thanks for calling, I hope you get better soon."  Four minutes later, from the 'white courtesy telephone'..  "Hi boss.. it's Fred.. My car bit the dust. I think it's the starter.  It's our only car. I'm having it towed to the shop.  They don't open until 8, so I'm afraid I won't make it today.  I'm very sorry."  "Sure Fred, I hope it's nothing too costly, I'll see you tomorrow."

Ron, was starting to get a tad nervous.  We just knew he'd begun to pace.  'White courtesy telephone.'  "Boss, it's Fernando.  My wife is at her parents in St. Louis as her dad is sick, my baby is throwing up like crazy, I can't take him to the sitter like this, I'm afraid I have to take a sick day."  "Gee Fernando, i'm so sorry about that, take good care of that baby, and I hope he and your father in law get well soon."

We could see Ron's pace pickup.  He just had to be thumbing through the employee phone number file to find replacements.  Planes were only minutes away.

Three more 'white courtesy telephone' calls, various excuses.  The song Under Pressure comes to mind. His brain "This is all too coincidental, but I've got to prepare just in case it is the case, man, I hate waking people up at 3:45 am." Still, he was composed, genuinely  nervous, assuredly pacing, but still nice as heck.

3:50am, Jim, Fred, Fernando and the other three of us walk through the door into the United Airlines Operation's office. We could see the sweat dripping from his face.  He looked up, gave us a big ole smile and he hadn't had a stroke or a heart attack. Our retirement 'gift' to him. Funny ha ha.  Good memories.  Great man.

Tommy.  Tommy had his own children to raise, but then again, over the years he raised 20 or so of us that only belonged to him part-time.  Summer maintenance for the City Park in Liberty.  I don't know the circumstances of his youth, but I'm guessing, through no fault of his own he'd never really learned how to read very well, or write very well.  Victor, way up above you remarked "wonderful people". What's so special about someone that can't read too well or write too well?  LOTS.

16 year olds are squirrely.  16 year olds have the attention span of a gnat.  16 year olds are all about fun, and if you spell out W O R K, there ain't no F or U or N in there anywheres.  Tommy's one goal in life, while he was overseeing us anyways, was to keep his boss happy. He'd drop us off at the ballfield that had been rained on a tad, hand us some shovels and rakes and retort "Now I don't wanna see nuthin' but assholes and elbows for the next three hours." He couldn't fool us, he was a softy.

Tommy liked fun, with a governor on it.  He'd smile, laugh, correct us, guide us, all with the patience of Jobe. He'd drop three of us off, complete with weed-eaters,  at an overgrown ditch at Bennett Park.  It might be a hunnerd degrees. "I know it's hot. Take your time, get in the shade awhile, but if any cars go by, look busy, I don't wanna walk into the office and have Wayne (his boss) tell me "A citizen called in concerned about their tax dollars as some of your workers were playing around, not doing anything at Bennett Park."

He was famous for "Why you little dipsh*t".. or idiot.  Or "now that is the rock chuck'nist, laziest one 16 year old I've ever seen." We'd be riding, he'd see a pretty lady, turn his hat around backwards and holler "WOOOOOOOOWEEEEEE, wouldya take a look at that!".. While we were a long way from real life, settling down, raising a family, he still offered marital tips such as "Gitya one you don't gotta shake the sheets to find."

We'd get him talking on coffee breaks, he had a wonderful laugh, and we were very good at twisting a 15 minute break into a 40 minute break.  We loved Tommy.  We gave him hell, but we loved him.  Tommy was an educator. HUH? Yep, in the game of life.  Right and wrong. Simple stuff, but it loomed large in how we acted from that day on in life.

Tommy loved his family, Camel non-filters, whiskey, and us.  He would never admit so, but he did.  And we loved him back tenfold. Maybe you had to be there, but Tommy had the (positive) impact as great as any school system educator we ever had. We all had dads, but Tommy was one to us too. Not a single one of us could have lovingly corralled  a group of teenagers as well as Tommy did.

I'm gonna stop. Probably boring! I guess if there is a thought to have, it's "Who have the special people, leaders, bosses in your life been?"  Common threads? Seems to be kindness, being treated with respect, of course with expectations of work well done, offering appreciation, with a little fun thrown in.  It's simple, but then again it's not. Maybe I've had one or twelve too many jobs, but I can sure think of some leaders who had difficulty with the above.  Sure, not everyone is cut out to lead, but it certainly makes one thankful to be under the helm of those who were.

Happy Wednesday, yippeee, the grocery ads!

By Henry Gibson..  Forward by Dale Carnegie

Love, Victurd