Jerry

Wrapping up a few odds and ends on a Sunday afternoon and my thoughts turned to Jerry – a former co-worker of mine when I was selling stuff at one of the “Big Box” stores in my area.

While I was making lunch, I thought that the world could use a few more Jerrys.

Jerry sold grills and lawn equipment. He was good at it, too. He had oodles of advice, most of it I carry with me nearly ten years later. He was customer friendly… maybe a bit too friendly in a good way. He could have sold more mowers if it hadn’t been for the stories he told and the advice he’d give people.

He also tended not to suffer fools gladly. He was advising a customer one afternoon when someone else tried to butt-in to the conversation, demanding Jerry’s attention RIGHT NOW! Jerry told the customer that he would be with him in a minute and continued the conversation he had been having. The other customer pushed back a second, and then a third time. Finally, Jerry told the person trying to interrupt to “I’m with a customer, Buffalo Breath, I’ll help you when I’ve finished.”

The customer didn’t take to being called “Buffalo Breath” – He called Corporate to report him. Corporate called and talked with Jerry. “Is it true that you called a customer Buffalo Breath?” Jerry didn’t deny it. He told us that he was able to tell that he was on speaker phone when he heard the laughter of everyone listening in at corporate.

Now, that wasn’t the first time, nor was it the last time that corporate called to check up on Jerry. He had a disarming sense of humor which was appreciated by the people in North Carolina, but not necessarily by some of his customers here in Texas.

Of Jerry’s co-workers, I cannot say that there was anyone of them who didn’t like him. Even those of us on the other end of the political spectrum (I like to think that Jerry thought that Ronald Reagan was way too liberal for his tastes) respected Jerry. He was one of a kind.

Toward the end of my tenure at the store where we worked, Jerry was in the habit of inviting one or another of his co-workers to lunch at “On the Border.” He had a favorite table and a favorite server. I had the honor of having lunch with him a few days after I left the store. The man was generous to a fault.

A year, maybe two or three after my lunch with Jerry, I learned that he passed while having an operation for some minor little detail. Every one of his former co-workers felt the same way I did about his passing. It was one of those sad days when memories of someone who was truly one of the good guys.

We need more Jerrys in this world.

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