25 Years Ago

Every relationship usually has a beginning, middle and an end.

The beginning started about a week after I started my employment at Woolworth.

The ending happened 25 years ago this week.

The date was February 2, 1989. It was a Thursday night when the personnel manager Dan was staying in the store that night to be with the cleaning crew that was coming in and waxing the floor of the store.

A girl employee Jodi decided to stay with him. I asked if I could stay with them as well.

Now here is where the problems arose to its peak.

For the last few months, I had been having a crush on Jodi. She was a couple years younger than me and found her a socially desirable person to be with.

This girl was not one of those drop dead gorgeous girls, but was still not an ugly girl either. Her nasally voice which sounded like the combination of a Brooklyn accent and a Maine accent made her that much more interesting.

However, she had some major issues. The big one was that she was emotionally shy and just the slightest thing sometimes would send her for a loop and upset her. The problem was that she never spoke up if something bothered her.

During the early months of my employment at Woolworth, I spent many nights with Jodi at the back register while she worked behind the counter at the customer service desk. So we spent that time doing a lot of talking and fooling around because the night manager hardly ever came around to see what we were doing.

I never asked Jodi out on a date during the time she worked at Woolworth despite my strong feelings for her. I felt that it would be wrong if something happened that shouldn’t have. So I had to use restraint for how I felt. However she certainly knew I really liked her a lot.

She never felt that she was ever harassed so I thought we got along real well with each other.

Then came that dreaded night. The 3 of us: Jodi, Dan, and me together in the store’s restaurant sitting in a booth together for most of the night.

We spent the night talking, laughing and overall having a good time together. We even had a snack from the restaurant, which I don’t think they ever got reimbursed for. Overall, it was a great night.

Or so I thought.

The cleaning crew got done around 2:30am and I got home around 3:15am on the following Friday morning. This is the latest I ever stayed out on a job even though I really wasn’t getting paid for it. So I was stupid in 2 ways: not getting paid and missing out on my supper when I got home.

Of course, I called several hours earlier to say that I was going to stay with the manager, but I made no mention that my true intention was to say that I was staying to be with my want-to-be girlfriend Jodi.

I thought all was fine as both me and Jodi had off Friday and neither of us would have to be back to work until Saturday.

This is when the problems began.

Jodi called out sick on Saturday. Of course, I thought nothing of it and considered that she was still tired after the late night a couple days ago.

Jodi was off on Sunday, but Monday she once again called out sick again.

Then she called out again on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

However, on Thursday when she called she said she was quitting and would not be back again.

I thought “did I do this?”

Did I drive her away from the job she loved?

Over the last couple of months, Jodi had moved from the service desk in the back of the store to doing the stocking in the candy section in the front of the store.

So this meant that when I was down back, I had to put up with 2 other people at night who shared the service desk on opposing nights. One was Nicole, a young mother in her very early 20’s and Tara, a girl about my age.

These 2 were about as different could ever be. Nicole hated me because she blamed me for Jodi leaving and Tara liked me to the point of actually defending me against Nicole's bad feelings. In fact, I thing Tara was glad that Jodi was gone so that she could move in and start liking me.

However, there were a few things about Tara that bothered me. First, she was the darkest white girl I had ever met. No, it was not tanning she was just naturally dark. Second, she was a smoker and because I am allergic to smoke that bothered me being around her. She did eventually quit the habit.

Finally, she enjoyed sitting in the dark while behind the service counter. Since the counter was built into the wall, it had its own light switch and she enjoyed sitting there in the dark. It was creepy to say the least, but she always had that mother hen approach to me defending me every step of the way.

There were nights when I know that Tara and Nicole worked together at night when I had off and I heard rumors that they used to talk about me and certainly the sparks flew between them.

It was quite apparent that Tara had a crush on me whereas Nicole hated me to no end. Of course, I had to put up with this for about a year before both of them eventually quit the company.

The relationship that I had with Jodi would be my tainting for the rest of the time that I worked at Woolworth as other female employees thought that I was responsible for Jodi's demise with the company.

It should be noted that about 2 weeks after Jodi left the company I was trained for the service desk job as if it were a punishment for my relationship with her. I continued this “punishment” even through my working years at Staples as I held the same position there as well.

And that my friends, is the legend of how I got to the service desk and unfortunately never really left it in either job I was at.

So what did I learn from all of this?

First, relationships can be toxic for good or bad. Certainly, I liked Jodi, but she did not reciprocate. Tara liked me but I foolishly was reluctant to be with her. She did ask me out once and like the fool I was I turned her down. In some ways, I really regret that move as I might be still with her today. Possibly, even in the dark.

Second, who you think are your friends may be your worst enemy. Nicole originally got along with me as long as Jodi was around, but when she left, Nicole became my worst enemy. Nothing would ever change her, not even how bad she treated me in general even when I reported her to the management. She was just a bad person in general.

I never saw Jodi or Nicole ever again after they left the company. Tara went to work at Ames department store after leaving Woolworth. She stayed with them until the company closed down and has not been seen since its closure.

Overall, if I had to do all this over again, I would have done things much different. I still would have stayed with Dan and Jodi, but Tara definitely would have been a different story.

However, unfortunately I can’t turn back the clock 25 years to a better time. What’s worse is that I never learned is work relationships should not happen under any circumstances unless you are willing to accept the consequences.

Little did I know that the relationship train would derail several more times over the next 20 years. Some much worse than others would dominate and impact me even up to today.

Those will be discussed in the future, possibly.