Mid-December 1998...

3 pm on a Friday afternoon at Yale New Haven. Anything can happen and it usually does. No point in going back to North Haven if someone from here was gonna call us up to come down. Still, I knew a secret, closer to the holidays, the less surgeries they do. I had an easy to see patient on a heart step down floor (heart patients who are currently stable) of all places.

I finished my patient there and then I stopped minding my business. I was snooping around the charts and suddenly a name jumped out at me. The name was the same, the address was the same. Guess what? Its probably the same person. Funny, I thought he was dead already. I needed to see this.

The person in question is John King, my old boss at the trophy shop. Other than a quick visit in the mid 80's, I hadn't seen him.

I go to his room and popped my head inside and he looked over at me and held his chest. Oh great! He's gonna have ANOTHER heart attack! I forgot, NEVER surprise people on the heart floor! His jaw drops with amazement and excitement.

He tries to speak but appears to have some trouble, but he gets the words out.

"Oh my God...Sam!" he said...He used to call me Sam! I have no idea why!

"Well I won't ask if you remember me." I said with a smile.

"How can I forget you?" he said, "T-this..this is wonderful." and he starts to get a little emotional.

He was having a hard time talking, maybe a little brain damage from the no less than 5,000 heart attacks he had over the years. He was on a first name basis at every coronary care unit in the area. 

It was time to give the old man some exercise walking down memory lane.

1984..

I was between lives, needed a better job when I got a phone call from my father.

"Dave, I was down at Dinn Bros. trophies and saw Mr. King." he said, "Do you remember him?" 

If you ever played a sport ever in the 60's or 70's in New Haven, you probably knew John. He was previously the manager of one of the few sporting good emporiums of the time and a semi local business icon whose name was synonymous with sporting goods.

He was with them for years, but the store had been bought out by a company that mismanged it and it went out of business. John was ok with that because he had a huge retirement package stacked up waiting for him. Nearing 60 and already having 3 coronaries, he was more than ready to pack it in. But then he was astounded to find out that the owners had "raided" all the retirement packages as well. Not ready for Medicare and his wife having never worked, he needed a job and helped open the trophy shop thru a connection with the Dinn people.

By '84 he is 64 and had another half a dozen coronaries since then and was on the cusp on retiring again!

"Yeah" I told my Dad, "I remember him."

"Well he told me that he needed an assistant." he said, "That Dinn Brother's does a great business and you know Dave, he's getting old."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Dave, the guy has had more heart attacks than Fred Sanford. One of these days the guy is gonna fall down and not get up."

I knew where he was going, be at the right place at the right time. If he was packing it in soon, they'll need someone to run the place. Its a nice job in sports and recreation where I might actually know people already.

"Maybe I'll go down and say hi." I told my Dad.

"Ok, uh Dave...go easy, I don't think he likes young people." he told me cautiously.

I took his advice but went down there and he was amused and amazed to meet me. He asked why I came down and I told him my father said he might need an assistant.

"No, I don't need one." He said.

"Oh, ok." and got ready to depart.

"How do I know I could work with you?" he asked.

"You don't I guess. But I show up everyday." I answered, "Showing up is 90% of life. Everything else can be learned."

"Good answer. Show up Monday morning. $4 an hour."

I could barely live on that even in 1984. But if things were going to play out that he'd retire one day and I'd inherit the place somehow, I'd have to deal with it for awhile. As you can tell by that wage, this company didn't have a benefits program or matching 401k and stock options.

While he was usually really nice to me, he could also be difficult. He wasn't the easiest guy to work for and I was 21 years old, so I'm sure I pissed him off frequently. I know I have 4 people around me that age in my life now and they piss me off frequently. 

But everything he taught me is something I use in my customer service work life today.

Be on time...present yourself well...know your stuff...respect your customer..and let THEM make their own decision...never bad mouth your competition...and by God Sam...be a man and drink COFFEE! My caffeine addiction can be directly traced to this period of life.

Everything was done the simple old fashioned way...no cash register or electronic anything...everything was written out and each sale and all the orders were recorded by hand.

"No point in me learning anything new." he'd say, "Besides, these people (the company) won't buy anything!"

Everyday we'd have interesting discussions on life and occasionally get silly as all crap and then on a dime something would get him mad and he'd start yelling at me, occasionally sending me home mad and say, "Maybe we'll have a better day tomorrow."  Like sending a 4 year old to bed!

He'd tell you at least 3 times a week he harbored no racial issues toward anyone, but then make an off color joke or comment on someone's nationality, especially mine.

On the first day of work at the office on Lower Chapel street right outside Wooster St. New Haven's Italian section, he said to me, "Sam (he called me that on day 1), you must be right at home here in this neighborhood. Lots of places for 'your kind' to eat!"

How he even knew I was half Italian, unless my father told him my mother was, I never knew. At least 3 times a week, he'd make some joking "I-talian" reference, so I began mentioning his "kind", the Irish had a few issues of their own, which he'd conveniently forget with a smile.

"Sam you could probably knock on any door on Wooster St. and some relation of yours would give you a free 'sangwich'" mimicking the way founding mothers said "sandwich".

At least weekly he'd piss and moan about his pension and all the offers he had, but couldn't take. It was a well known drawback for him that he didn't drive at all. He usually took the bus or had his beloved wife Gladys drive him in. Thank God for Gladys really. They were obviously a great couple, but they'd have these funny assed fights now and then, with threats of one of their old asses leaving.

When they were going to fight he'd say to me, "Sam, can you go have a cigarette?" Encouraging the bad habit I had in those days. Of course quitting smoking THEN might have increased my cash flow a little.

Gladys would make these great turkey salad sandwiches every other Monday...thankfully. At $4 an hour, as you can imagine, I wasn't eating very well. Something that didn't escape John's notice.

Every once in awhile he say, "Gettin' too skinny Sam". Well yeah I couldn't get reservations at the Bistro. My main foods were canned soup and peanut butter and I was walking probably 4 miles a day..

On Friday afternoons he'd say to me, "Sam, if you take a few dollars from the cash drawer for the weekend, I won't notice until Monday." We got paid on Monday and he wanted to make sure I at least ate during the weekend. Still, I'd start the next week a few dollars behind. Something that also didn't escape his notice!

It might have helped if this job paid a little better.

"I'm tryin' to get you another dime an hour Sam, but you get me too mad!"

Another dime would be $4 a week...I guess that's 40 packs of Ramen noodles.

Of course I didn't help my own cause sometimes. He got mad at me once because a woman customer friend of his wanted me to meet her daughter and I agreed.

"Sam, we'll have none of that!" he told me.

Then one guy was yelling at him about something and I picked the guy up and dumped him on the street.

"SAM, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

He sent me home that day too...sometimes he'd pay me when he did, usually he didn't. The next day I'd leave him alone for the morning until he yelled in back, "C'mon out and have some coffee Sam." Then everything be ok.

Once in awhile, the subject of his kids who were grown would come up. It was obvious he talked to them, but I got the feeling their relationships had a few issues and that maybe his temperment got in the way now and then and then he'd change the subject. I'm not sure.

One day he brought me in a radio. I hadn't complained, but the elevator music he had playing in there was making me nuts.

"You haven't said anything, but I thought you'd like to listen to YOUR kind of music back here." which was a nice gesture. I thought it was his way of saying I was getting on his nerves and if I had my "kind" of music to listen to, I'd stay in back. So I did...

Then a few days later he got mad and said, "Since I got you that radio, I don't see you anymore! Take it home!!"

We once talked about his heart condition and I asked him if there was anything I needed to know if he had a heart attack.

"Nah" he replied, "The bus stops right in front every 15 minutes, I'll get to the hospital. When I get to the ER I just wave to them and go right in back, they know me there."

Now and then he'd say to me, "Sam, I'm gonna have to replace you" more often than not with a laugh or in some kind of funny circumstances.

 One day I actually had money to eat lunch and was going to get food. I said to him on the way out, "Do you need anything?"

Going into his off color humor he said, "Maybe a colored kid to replace you."

I smiled and shook my head and left. On the way walking into downtown I'm thinking I'm gonna pull one off on him. I have this ten dollar bill on me and I'd like something to eat. But I'm used to being hungry, so I'm gonna take a gamble on a few laughs.

I found a young black teen boy and gave him the $10. I told him to go to the trophy shop, ask for John, introduce himself and say, "I'm Dave's replacement!"

I walked around downtown for awhile figuring I scared him into another heart attack or I lost my money. I got back to the office and he's sitting in his seat beat red from laughter. I broke out into laughter as well knowing he got the message, but then I went in back and the kid is sitting at my desk on the phone laughing too!

"Man I could get used to this!" the kid says

I fell down from the laughs and I saw John get even sillier and I was now scared he really was gonna have a heart attack. We had to calm down quickly but it was the best $10 I ever spent.

The rest of the afternoon we couldn't look at the other with a straight face.

After that day he never yelled at me again and we had nothing but a great relationship.

But for lack of a better way to put it, he wasn't "retiring" fast enough...I was really getting hungry and needed more money to live on. I knew I'd either need a second job or a better new one. I decided that I was going to move to Westerly to be closer to DJ and Emy, unless he had a better idea.

I went to work the morning I was going to tell him but he had something to tell me.

"Sam, I have to let you go." he told me.

I was thinking this was one of his jokes, so I told him my plan and he said, "No, really they told me I have to lay you off." The $4 an hour I was making must have really been putting a dent in the coffers.

We spent the rest of the week together and I moved the Westerly. I got a new job and settled in there about 65 miles from New Haven when suddenly, just a month later,  right before the New Year, I got a phone call from one of the stuffed shirts of Dinn Brothers.

"We're ready to have you come back and take over. John had another heart attack." I told the guy I was in no position to come back and take over as I had just moved! Once again, nothing ever happens on schedule!

I called John to make sure he was ok and he said he was doing fine. I did visit him the next year and he worked for a month or two until he was 65 and finally retired.

Back to 1998...

We were all caught up and were thru laughing, telling the above stories but it was time to leave. He's shook my hand and started to cry, "This was the nicest thing that's happened to me in a long time Sam." I got the feeling he had been kind of forgotten about by anyone outside his family. He had worked hard for many years and developed a repore with the community but when we stop working, where do many of those people go?

He was one person who probably taught me more about serving the public than anyone else did.  As I left he said to me, "We worked really well together Sam and we had fun!" I smiled and said, "Yes we did."

"By the way Sam." he said, "The guy you tossed on the sidewalk."

"Yeah, uh, I'm sorry about that." I told him.

"I wanted to do that to that guy for 30 years!"

I walked back to the desk and his nurse said, "You made that guy's holiday, he needed that."

John King died February 17, 2002 his beloved Gladys actually died before he did.