Saturday Story - August 1, 2020 (or optionally - July 32nd!!!)
John wasn’t good at school. Not that he was dumb, retarded, but he just wasn’t motivated.
There is a concept that if you don’t learn to read by third grade, you will be a ‘drain on society’. If you can’t read, you can’t do much in history (too much reading), science (still some reading), math (can be okay - except story problems), or other disciplines.
John could mostly read - fairly slowly - which put him behind as it took him longer to read and do assignments. He hung in there. He grew tall and liked sports and especially football. He became a defensive lineman for the Hamden Dragons football team. He was quick enough to get a few sacks on the opposing quarterback and with others put enough pressure on the other team’s backfield to make mistakes. As a sophomore, he played in about half of the varsity games, as a junior he was third-team all-conference and as a senior, he was second-team all-conference College just wasn’t an option for John. He could possibly play on a Division III team, but to do so, he would have to take courses.
After graduation in the lower 1/4rd of his graduating class, with his parent's approval, John went into the Army. That was a good match for John. The discipline of getting up in the morning and having routines. As an organization, the Army needed support staff, and John ended up in the kitchen. He took a liking to kitchen work (he had worked in the kitchen for Duchess Restaurants part-time through high school (but not during football season).
Lots of the kitchen work was repetitious. Cutting, mixing, cooking, following recipes. John could read recipes - but soon found he liked to improvise some menus. Maybe a little more Tex-Mex flavoring here, some zucchini there (it was abundant on the base he was on). Garlic - in just the right amount - could really enhance almost any entree without being ‘overboard’.
He soon experimented with spices. He learned there were spices, and then there were Spices. Common ginger was okay, but if you could get Peruvian ginger grown in the foothills of the Andes Mountains it was different. Avocados were versatile, but there were other varieties than the traditional Hass avocados. There were Hawaiian avocados and others - some tangier - some milder than the Hass avocados.
He was on his way. When his term of duty ended, he signed up for another term and got sent to the chef’s school. Where football had been his passion in high school, cooking was his new passion.
One of the captains of John’s squad noticed that John didn’t read well and worked with some of the Army staff to improve his learning - mostly through cookbooks and more. John even picked up a sizable knowledge of French and Spanish as least as it related to food.
During this second term, he became the head chef for the Fort Hood base. A visiting general liked John’s cooking so well, he managed to move him to his staff.
As success grew for John, so did his skills. His superiors urged him to apply for an online college program through the Army in hospitality and food. John launched himself into his studies like an offensive lineman after a punny quarterback.
Back in Hamden on leave, he cooked for his extended family several times. An uncle liked John’s cooking and offered to get John into a restaurant when he returned home. At the end of his second tour in the Army, he returned to Hamden and with his uncle’s help got a job at State Street Cafe. John started at the bottom - a 26-year-old rookie cook’s assistant at a diner-like restaurant. John worked the morning shift - the bacon and eggs shift.
He cracked eggs in his hands, fried mountains of potatoes and bacon. He was amazing - although only the other kitchen staff saw him. The manager had another restaurant and after a year asked John to move to the assistant chef at Eli’s on Main - a slightly upscale family restaurant. Soon John was crafting out specialty items for the menu - with the chef they introduced two specialties of each week.
John had also found a girlfriend through an online dating application. He hadn’t ever been much of a lady’s man (quarterbacks get the girls, not defensive linemen/cooks). The girl was of Italian heritage like he was from nearby New Britain Connecticut. They hit it off as two similar quiet, hard-working people. He had been investing most of his earnings as he lived pretty cheaply living with his parents. When an opportunity to buy in at Eli’s on Main, John put up some of his funds. Now, instead of an assistant chef, he was part owner. He played in a men’s slow-pitch softball league that some of his old friends from high school played in - and on a team that Eli’s sponsored. He was generally in right field but could hit pretty well. At 31 years-of-age, John was finding himself.
After some of the games, the guys stopped for a beer. John hadn’t been much of a drinker, but it was fun to have a beer (or two) with the guys - especially as his work was generally 11:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. It felt good to be fitting in.
Soon, one beer became two, two beers became four. Beer on Tuesday night became beer on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights after his shift was over (and as an employee and part-owner, those were free).
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Sundays were his day to visit Maria - it was about a 45-minute drive to New Britain. They would do church together and fun things during the day. During the summers, they could catch a baseball game with the New Britain Rock Cats. They loved hiking at Kent Falls State Park and the many other hiking trails in Connecticut.
Some Sundays, Maria would drive to Hamden and they would go to St. Rita’s Parish and then hike Sleeping Giant State Park or at East Rock Park overlooking New Haven Harbor. Once they drove to Noark and had lobster at Abbott and Costello's famous lobster house.
*****
Work and life were going good until Tuesday, August 25th.
After the softball game, the players stopped for a bear and John had three draft Miller Lite Beers. On the way home, John just didn’t see the car pulling out of the Stop-and-Shop parking lot and slammed into the rear of the car. There were a mother and a teenaged girl in the front seat and a toddler about 4 years old in a child seat in the rear. John’s airbag inflated and both cars were pretty much totaled.
Police soon arrived and arrested John for drunk driving. An ambulance took the family to Yale-New Haven Hospital. The mother and daughter were checked for cuts and bruises but the toddler had been tossed around and was unconscious.
John spent the night in the New Haven County Jail. He got updates on the people in the car and for the first time in a very long time, he really prayed. He got on his knees in his cell and pleaded with God to save the toddler. He was released on bond the next morning and took a taxi to the hospital and found the chapel and prayed more. The update on the child was it was awake with a concussion and minor cuts and bruises. John gave thanks.
When John’s case came to court, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence - first offense. He got a $15,000 fine, paid court costs and vowed never to drink again. Through friends at the hospital (who must have violated the HIPAA health information act), he got the address for the lady and anonymously sent $10,000 to the family to help with their medical bills.
*****
John didn’t drink again. But, not all drunk drivers stop after the first offense and the first accident. People didn’t see much difference on the outside of John, but those who knew him knew that he had changed on the inside. Eventually, he became the owner/manager of the three Eli’s on Whitney franchises. He trained his bartenders to watch their clients to see if they could drive or not - and if not, John paid for their transportation home.
He never was a big talker, but a quiet man who knew the value of life, the value of sobriety, and the value of God’s love!!
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So, what are the takeaways today?
Sure drinking and driving can be deadly.
Hard work does pay off
Getting an education helps out too.
You don’t have to be flashy to be successful
Even those who struggled with high school can make it!!
Hugs!!!
Karen
