Thursday, May 26, 2005

"Der" Wienerschnitzel or "das" Wienerschnitzel

E. Jahn commented on my abuse of the German language, no doubt I needed the swift kick. Then he added another correction, one that I had nothing to do with; except that because Der Wienershnitzel declared bankruptcy back in 1976 here in the Houston area I became a locksmith. I know, that makes absolutely no sense unless I fill in the blanks, all of them.

I was the manager of a police officer’s softball team; not because I knew more about the game or because I had great managerial skills, it was because I was known to be something of a hustler. The team needed uniforms and they figured I was the “go to guy” for that task. I lined up Der Wienershnitzel to sponsor the whole team, all 18 uniforms from cap to socks. I ordered the uniforms at a cost of $27.50 per uniform. The next week I let the regional manager know how much the check was to be made out for and he advised me that the corporate offices had declared bankruptcy and to cancel the order.

Rather than cancel, since they were already ordered, I told the uniform company to hold off on the sponsor’s advertisement lettering on the backs of the jerseys. I then began the task of finding 18 individual small businesses to take the place of Der Wienershnitzel. I told each of these owners that I would take a picture of the whole team that they could put on the wall of their business to let the public see that they “supported the local police”. They didn’t have to mention they had only sponsored one of those uniforms. I also let them know that there would be no name of any sponsor, that the team name of Point Control would be the only name. One of these was a locksmith, Jim Reed, of Reed’s Key Shop.

I would stop by all of the places that had donated to the cause, visit and shoot the breeze to let them know how much their contribution was appreciated. I got to be friends with Jim Reed, enough so that I was invited to stand on the “working side” of the counter at his shop whenever I visited. One day I picked up a lock cylinder that he had been working on. I had no business fiddling with it and the next thing I knew, pins and springs were shooting off in different directions because I had accidentally pulled the center section away from its body.

I was mortified at having ruined his labors as I stood with the remaining pieces in my hand. Jim smiled and said, “You broke it, you fix it.” I had watched him put together many similar locks and so I began to do as I had seen. It took a while but I was able to get it all back together so that it worked. Jim must have been impressed because he asked if I would like to come by on Saturdays, my regular day off, to learn the business. “Just think what you could do if you actually knew what you were doing”, was the line he used. I never missed a Saturday opportunity to learn from him. Thanks again Jim.

And so, if Der Wienershnitzel had not declared bankruptcy I may never have linked up with the locksmith business. “Das” right, “Yesterday I couldn’t spell locksmith and today I are one”, another line from Jim Reed.

I went back through my archived blogs and here is the permalink to the photograph of the 1976 Point Control Police Softball team...
http://tfsternsrantings.blogspot.com/2005/01/found-it-im-formerly-skinny-guy-2nd.html

...along with the permalink for the short story I had posted for that photo, “Looking for an Old Photograph”.
http://pecawsgift.blogspot.com/2005/01/looking-for-old-photograph.html

No comments: