When I was an impressionable 17 year old, I worked as a stock boy at Rite Aid drugs in the Sunrise mall in Massapequa, LI. The job paid about 25 cents an hour above the minimum wage, and it had the fine long term effect of making DAMN SURE I went to college, so I wouldn't have to have a "career" like George.
George was the store manager, and he seemed old, but was probably younger than I am now. He had a mid 60s Elvis haircut (this was 1978), and a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor. On Tuesdays the supply truck would come from Harrisburg, PA, and I would get to the store at 5 am, help unload until 630, drive to my high school, and then return to work the 3-11 shift. George admired my work ethic, even though, as he said, "Dave --you're a JEW --you ain't even Protestant!"
One afternoon, George called me over to the candy aisle, and pointed to the floor. I thought he was going to complain about some mess I had left, but instead pointed to 2 M&M candies lying side by side. "Dave," he said, "I've been workin' so hard, the two of 'em fell off."
It may have been the funniest thing I'd heard in my life up to that time, and it immediately instilled in me a love and appreciation of low brow, working class humor.
Well, this week, for a change, I've been working so hard that I might have dropped a pair of M&Ms. Whenever I'm very busy ar work, I think of George.
I hope he retired and earned a nice pension, and is fanning himself somewhere up in Central or West Florida, where folks like him tend to move to escape the cold NY winters. I still laugh at his line nearly 30 years later.
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