GEORGIE AND BEN
By; Gerald A. Polley
The horseplay at work is really getting carried away. I had
warned the people involved in it "If you want to humiliate
each other, that's fine, keep me out of it." I'm hoping one
of the new young cooks that thinks he's very funny will
understand and will not think he can do whatever he wants to do.
This kid reminds me of Georgie.
Georgie worked for a while at the second real job I had. That was
a very hard summer. My employer was having all kinds of problems
and didn't need any more grief. To say that Georgie wasn't too
bright was being very kind to him. And he thought he was the
funniest thing that ever lived. There were some of the cooks that
didn't mind his shenanigans. But me and an older cook, Ben, both
told him to leave us alone.
One day I was coming to work with my usual ride when a county
sherrif's car went by me with its bubblegum on. I thought
"Somebody's in trouble!" A few minutes later a state
police car passed me, siren wailing and light flashing.
"This is getting serious!" I thought. I knew it was
real trouble when a second county car went by, siren wailing and
light flashing. When I finally got to the restaurant both county
sheriff's cars and the state trooper were there. Ben was sitting
in the back of one county car, and Georgie in the other. The
waitresses were all on the porch crying. I asked "What
happened?"
"We're not sure," the head waitress answered, "but
from the sound of it Georgie exposed himself to Ben and Ben beat
the living daylights out of him. We were trying to stop it but we
couldn't do anything. Ben just wouldn't listen. He just kept
hitting him and hititng him. And Georgie kept screaming 'It was
just a joke! It was just a joke! I wasn't serious!'"
"We warned him," I remarked.
The boss went Ben's bail and had him back to work that afternoon.
Eventually Georgie's father managed to bail him out and convinced
the county attorney to drop the charges against Ben because he
didn't want Georgie to have to go into court and testify as to
what caused the beating. Ben agreed to drop the charges of
indecent exposure if Georgie would get counselling. So nobody
went to court, and I imagine all the complaints were simply
thrown away, the way things were done in those days.
Georgie wanted to come back to work, but the boss said "No.
You've just got too many problems. I can't have somebody as
disturbed as you in the restaurant. It's too hard on the other
workers." Georgie couldn't understand. He thought he was
just being cute, funny. He didn't think he had been doing any
harm. He's damned lucky he survived!
THE END
How Things Have Changed!
People often say Gerald has had more than his fair share of strange people. He seems to run into the worst of humanity! Gerald really does not think that is so. With forty years of working in restaurants that usually draw a strange assortment of people he has just had more opportunity than others. But it has given him the opportunity to see a vast section of humanity. For every miserable person he has met he has met a dozen good people. For every messed up person he has worked with he has worked with a hundred wonderful ones. It's just the type of employment he has been engaged in. It puts him in constant contact with all segments of humanity. He has worked with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and even a couple of Confusists, not to mention a few Wiccans here and there. If there were any Satanists they were probably smart enough not to tell Gerald what they were because they could probably tell they wouldn't be very safe around him. He has noticed that over the passing years people have become more acceptant of unacceptable behavior. Some of the things he hears in restaurants nowadays would never have been permitted for a minute when he started working over forty years ago. If a waiter had made obscene comments about the customers in those days, he would be right out the door! If an employee totally ignored the boss' directions and did whatever they wanted to do they would be gone! But it is so hard to find people that will even work today, that it is difficult for employers to maintain discipline, and this is sad. Soon a breaking point is going to come, when the public realizes that this simply can't continue. There's going to be serious health problems in restaurants throughout the country because of the unsanitary practices of employees that simply will not follow directions and do whatever they want to do, and the public is going to say "Enough! These people have to be brought under control!" Let us hope it never comes to that, but sadly it probably will. That seems to be the only thing that gets anything done.