Sunday, March 30, 2008

Memorable CoWorkers

An off blog discussion has reminded me of some memorable co workers. If some of them had a blog, I'm sure I'd be on their list.

#1 on my list was a guy I worked with about 10 years ago. He had the reputation of being a tad eccentric. (I'm sure I had my own reputatation) He had been a sniper in Vietnam, so there was probably a bit of baggage there, but he never talked about it. We bid into the same station, with him as the engineer and me as the Firefighter. Fortunately, I had worked with the captain quite a bit before, and we got along well.

"Dave" and I shared a skewed sense of humor, enjoying "The Simpsons", Bay area sports etc. Per his reputation he would sometimes get very quiet and avoid us. Remember, we're in a small fire station for 24 hours at a time. He was getting close to retirement. After working together for about a year, he was in an unusually long period of isolation, so one day I cornered him, and said, "Listen Dave, if there's something I've done or said, I'm sorry, and I'd like to correct any problem between us" His response was, "I never want to speak to you again". And per his word, for the next 6 months until he retired, he did not speak a single word to me unless it was necessary for the job. (He was also the crew paramedic, so he would tersely ask me for equipment he needed)

We only learned of his retirement and which day was his last, through the grapevine. I wished him well as he left. He never turned around or acknowledged me or anyone else. He got on his motorcycle and rode off never to be seen again.

PSYCH!

4 comments:

  1. I worked with a Dave once but she was female . It came on as sudden , and after two years ended as sudden . She said " I'd like to apologise for how Ive been but I dont want to have to explain . I thought that was great . So at least it had an ending .... a good one at that .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our office crazy took a crap in the middle of the office and peed on the receptionist desk after everyone went home. Too bad about the cameras that caught the "release" of his hostilities.

    Shoot, did I ever tell this story before? I have to be careful...not just on my blog, but everywhere I go. Seems I am being monitored for redundancy.

    HF

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes Hinsley, I think you mentioned that before ;)

    ReplyDelete