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May 2008
Summer job horror stories?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s about time for some good old-fashioned horror stories.
Yep. The kids are out of school, the video games are going full blast, and you may have already heard the first whisper of “I’m bored.”
It’s time to pull out your collection of frightening summer job stories.
Everybody has at least one.
Maybe you picked up road kill off the south Georgia highways.
Maybe you cleaned bathrooms at Slumpy’s Bar.
Or maybe you worked for a political campaign.
Bring it out, shake off the cobwebs and watch the young eyes widen with every grotesque — and exaggerated — detail.
The best ones come from before the proliferation of fast-food restaurants — when teen jobs were more likely in dark stockrooms or mosquito-laden fields than at a drive-through speaker.
But even younger parents can play, because the real horror is in the telling.
My husband’s favorites are about his stints as a hotel maintenance worker in San Antonio, as a restaurant janitor in Ohio and as a stockroom worker at a Valdosta discount store.
My contributions are tales of cutting grass for the estates of the dearly departed (using push mowers and a machete), being a switchboard operator (remember Lily Tomlin’s “one ringy-dingy” in “Laugh-in), or serving as mobile librarian on a “Bookmobile” in rural Georgia. Some days I saw only the driver.
If your worst summer job was as lifeguard at the country club or Banana Boat girl at a beach resort, you have your work cut out for you.
Be careful not to overdo, however. Soon - far too soon - children reach the age where you want them to get a job. Pour on just enough to move them outside for sunshine and fireflies. Don’t warp their little brains. You don’t want them too picky.
Good summer jobs are elusive in the best of times. This year’s slumping economy has tightened the supply.
Sam Hall, director of communication for the Georgia Department of Labor, said experienced adult workers who have lost jobs in manufacturing, construction or financing may be competing for the seasonal positions teens often fill, many of which are in the leisure, retail or hospitality business. The rising cost of gasoline and its impact on disposable income could also affect how many seasonal positions are offered this summer, Hall said.
Here in Snellville, the city parks and recreation department has seen an increase in adults inquiring about seasonal jobs. The department’s summer jobs have long been filled, though, most by college students returning from last summer, said Cyndee Bonacci, parks and recreation director.
Complicating a summer job search is the already congested schedules of many of today’s teens. Fitting a job around high school sports or band practices, Scout camps, driver’s education and other obligations isn’t easy.
They should persevere, however. Think of all that is learned in those first days of employment:
• the importance of a strong work ethic, punctuality and social skills.
• the importance of a paycheck.
• the realization that work is — well — work.
• the realization that not all bosses are created equal.
• the realization that some bosses are not created at all; they are the result of scientific experiments gone bad.
After all, kids need fodder for their own summer job horror stories.
What’s your most memorable summer job story? What did you learn?
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Paying tribute to the man, not the marker
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Susan Gast/AJC and family photo
Lt. Clifford Eugene Wages, whose monument is near Winder, always dreamed of being a pilot.
For a decade, all we knew was the marker.
We came across it during a family blackberry-picking outing, an annual ritual that took us along rural roads. Our children were young then, and we stopped in Barrow County to use a church picnic table for lunch. Afterward, we wandered through the adjoining cemetery.
The marker — actually, it’s more of a monument — captured our attention. Standing 7 feet tall, with its carved image of a B-24 bomber backed by billowing clouds, it draws the eye.
LIEUT. CLIFFORD EUGENE WAGES
NO. 0-685220
PILOT OF B-24 BOMBER BORN JUNE 23, 1923 WENT DOWN IN THE ADRIATIC SEA WITH HIS PLANE 15 MILES FROM BARI, ITALY MAY 4, 1944
HE GAVE HIS LIFE THAT WE MIGHT LIVE
It was a sobering moment. I remember thinking about the 20-year-old man. Who was he? What were his dreams? How young an age to carry such responsibility!
I also thought about my father, who served in World War II with the B-29s out of Guam. It could have happened to him, I thought. And I wouldn’t be here.
Almost every year since, on Memorial Day, we’ve returned to that cemetery at Carter Hill Christian Church just south of Winder off Ga. 81. We’ve erected miniature U.S. flags at the base of the marker, sometimes adding a note, flowers or red, white and blue ribbons.
Our pilgrimage was to pay homage on the holiday and to teach our children about the sacrifices too often required.
But we stopped short. We never pushed past the marker and our musings. We never learned about the life that was lost.
Until now.
A series of phone calls recently led me to Martha Whitehead, a niece of the fallen airman. Martha lives in the 175-year-old house across from the church — it’s an old family place — though she will be moving next month.
“It’s all going commercial,” she said.
Martha was born after Wages’ death, but knows him through the memories of her mother, the late Lucile Wages Giles, who was his older sister.
Gene — as Martha calls him — was the youngest of six children — five boys and a girl. The Wages were part of a long-standing family in the community near Fort Yargo State Park; Carter Hill Church is named after Martha’s great-great grandfather.
Martha’s mother, Lucile, was 11 years older than Gene and “to her, he was always her baby.” Martha said.
Lucile liked to tell Martha all about Gene - how he would climb a steep flight of stairs to meet her on Saturdays when she was working in Winder as a hairdresser. She would give him 25 cents, and they would go to the movies and eat popcorn.
She told Martha that Gene was so handsome, fun-loving and somewhat of a clown. One time, After joining the military, he grew a mustache “just to aggravate them,” Martha said.
Before he went to war, Gene dated a young woman named Hilda Long from Monroe. He probably would have married her if he had returned home, Martha said.
But he didn’t come back.
Martha said Gene always dreamed of being a pilot.
“He trained and trained and trained.”
While flying near Bari, Italy, his B-24 bomber went down. Some of the crew survived, but Gene was never found, Martha said. She said that flight was “his first maneuver.”
Several Internet sites, including one for Wages’ 456th Bomb Group, as well as a forum at www.ArmyAirForces.com, say Wages’ plane, named “Calamity Jane,” was lost during a practice mission. They cited the cause as a “runaway prop,” a propeller malfunction that leads to an overspeeding engine.
Mary Wages, who was Gene’s mother and Martha’s grandmother, “never got over it,” Martha said. She and Martha’s mother met with a surviving crew member to talk to him about Gene and the plane crash. The two women were the ones who bought the marker, Martha said.
“They talked about him a lot,” Martha told me as we stood in the cemetery Tuesday, watching that night’s storm approach. “They talked about him like he was here.”
I’m glad they did. I’m thankful they passed along tales of the young airman and the portraits that Martha has kept safe in the old family home.
The keeping of the memories has allowed my family to know more than the marker. It’s given us a glimpse of the man.
We’ll drop by the cemetery Monday. But this Memorial Day, we’ll finally have a connection between the striking monument, the young pilot who gave everything for his country and the family who missed him dearly.
Who will you remember this Memorial Day?
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Mum’s the word though killer goes free
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A friend dropped by the other day. We got to talking and, during our side-door chat, he wondered aloud what ever happened in the double shooting in south Gwinnett County.
It was a high profile crime. There was a party for two teen siblings in a subdivision off Mink Livsey Road Oct. 27. During the festivities, one 16-year-old was shot to death and another was seriously injured.
Original reports were that the shootings were done by uninvited guests who crashed the party. No one has been charged in the case.
My friend wondered how a crime committed in the midst of 150 party-goers would remain unsolved.
I remembered reading that Gwinnett Police were having trouble finding people who would talk about the shooting. Apparently that has not changed.
Cpl. Illana Spellman, spokesperson for Gwinnett Police, recently said the “case is suspended for now until additional leads come in. The neighborhood would not cooperate with Detective [Chris] Smith at the time. No one would provide any information. That is still the situation now.”
Spellman said she spoke with the detective personally at the time of the shooting and during the follow-up on the investigation.
“He expressed his frustration … about the neighbors and friends not being cooperative with interviews or with answering any questions about what happened or who may have seen the suspects,” Spellman said.
“The detective did not receive any return calls when he would attempt to make contact with individuals who may have had information,” Spellman said. “He would make continuous phone calls and visits and not get any responses. I remember putting out a couple of press releases about urging the public to come forward and cooperating with the investigation — to no avail.”
Why? Why would no one want to talk when a life has been lost? Why would none of those who were attending the party with the victims speak up? What about neighbors?
This week, I went down to Chafin Point Court where the shootings occurred. The street of two-story, mostly well-kept brick-and-rock-front homes, was quiet.
I knocked on 11 doors near the crime site. I talked to six people.
None would give their names. None claimed to know anything. Their answers were vague.
One said the neighborhood was “fine.” He said he had heard that the trouble was caused by people from DeKalb County, not local residents. He didn’t want to be identified, however: “I don’t want trouble. You never know.”
One said she was concerned that the killer had not been caught but that she knows nothing.
Another said the family that held the party has since moved. But that he knows nothing.
And on it went.
Why would people not talk? Some truthfully may know nothing. But others seemed more uncooperative than uninformed.
Were they afraid? Or just distrustful?
Spellman said such reticence, unfortunately, is common at times.
“Some people do not trust police based on their personal experiences or their perception of police,” she said. “Some do not want to become involved or be seen by their peers as a ‘snitch.’ Others may be afraid of retaliation if word got back that they were even speaking with an officer.”
So, one teen received spinal injuries. One teen is dead. Six months have passed. And all is quiet on Chafin Point Court.
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Theft of booster funds leaves wide wake
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the triage of illegal behavior, stealing money from a school booster club probably ranks in the “minor” category. But it sure does get under my skin.
In recent days there have been two reports of theft from school-related but parent-controlled programs in Gwinnett. A Grayson man was charged in one and a warrant for a Snellville woman was sought in another.
Grayson High School’s wrestling team booster club is missing an undetermined amount estimated to range from $19,000 to $40,000. A former treasurer of the group was charged with four counts of theft by taking, involving amounts totaling about $8,000.
At Parkview High School, the U.S. Marine Corps Junior ROTC program is missing an estimated $14,576. A warrant has been sought for a Snellville woman in connection with the loss.
At this point, both of the cases involve only charges and accusations - no convictions.
A simple search of the Internet, however, reveals that thefts from booster clubs and similar organizations are not uncommon or isolated. Datelines range from Texas to Encina, Calif.; Colorado to Topeka, Kan.; and Shreveport, La. to Georgia’s Peachtree City. And that’s the top of the list.
The crimes are ones of opportunity committed when financial controls are too relaxed, according to an article in Athletic Management magazine. In many cases - the thief intends to pay the money back but just never does, the article said.
Such intentions don’t get my sympathetic juices flowing.
Here’s why:
Stealing money from nonprofit groups such as booster clubs is a crime with widely felt effects. It’s not just about money. It”s about trust and community and role models.
Thefts of this type not only hurt the students and parents in a club. They can chip at the confidence in and future support of that organization. The betrayal is felt by the grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors and businesses who donate money to the causes. The breach of trust can even leapfrog into suspicions within and about other non-profits.
There are schools, I’m sure, that are blessed to have deep-pocketed donors who can fill up the coffers. Most schools are not that fortunate. For them, the cash comes in at a painstakingly slow pace and at great sacrifice.
The dollars that a thief finds so irresistible are raised by students and parents working untold hours canvassing neighborhoods to sell doughnuts or gift wrap or candy or discount cards. (In the case of the Grayson club, members sold meat as a fund-raiser.)
Money often is raised in bake sales, walk-a-thons, car washes, talent shows and pageants. Local businesses give donations as sponsorships.
All of this effort is led by volunteers— many of them parents who already work another job outside the home. They do it to pay for equipment, uniforms, travel expenses, special instruction or other costs - all for the kids.
In the Grayson case, the wrestling team originally planned to use its money to build a training room. When a room became available through other means, the club wanted to spend the money on wrestling mats, additional uniforms, training costs and trips to competitions.
Due largely to the theft, the club ended the season with $94 dollars in the till.
I could find no reliable numbers on booster clubs or booster club thefts. It appears obvious that the large majority of booster organizations are operated ethically by people who can be trusted. Many have strict financial controls. That should remembered to provide proper perspective for such crimes.
But those who do stray into the booster accounts, those who not only steal money, but also hours of planning and hard work, a belief in the goodness of human beings and a decent role model - in my mind - are guilty of more than a “minor” crime.
What’s your opinion?
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