Crazy Antics and Dreams

And the file cabinet came falling down!

Long ago in an office that I once entered from time to time, this painful antic occurred. The offices of the asset managers contained solid oak furniture including several four drawer lateral file cabinets. The cabinets were very heavy oak and were able to handle the heavy files that were used on a daily basis.

One of our young asset managers was the guardian of real estate files that I used every day. The first time that I opened the top drawer of one of the cabinets in her office, I noticed that the cabinet rocked forward when the drawer was open. Since the cabinet was supposed to be stable and balanced, I closed the drawer and investigated the problem by opening the bottom drawer. To my dismay, the bottom two drawers were empty. The first thing I did was to inform the asset manager that she needed to rearrange her files. As incredible as it may sound, she informed me that it was easier to get the files out of the upper drawers than the bottom drawers. Apparently, she didn’t want to bend down every time she needed a file. Did I mention that she was a blonde? Also, she had all of her large black binders on top of the cabinet. After her explanation, I returned to my office to continue working.

Not more than a day later, I returned to her office to put some documents on her desk. Before I could turn to leave, the top-heavy cabinet fell forward and pinned me to the front of the desk. As if that wasn’t a bad enough situation, all of the black binders battered my head and shoulders. Being alone in the office and too stunned to shout for help, I was happy to see our mail clerk passing by the office. She sprang into action and went for assistance because she was too petite to lift the cabinet herself. The president of our company was the closest man in our offices so she ran to his door and ordered him to help. He was so stunned to be ordered by the clerk that he just sat at his desk looking at her in disbelief. When he didn’t jump up right away, she ordered him again in a slightly higher voice. Fortunately for me, he left his office and ran after the clerk. By this time our IT manager was walking into our offices and helped the president raise the cabinet off of me and back into place.

Once I was freed from my predicament, I could barely stand so I sat in the nearest chair and cried from the pain and the embarrassment. By that time the entire staff came to the office to find out what the excitement was all about. While they removed all of the files from the cabinet, I tried to compose myself. The funny thing is that my boss, a very nice man indeed, was on the telephone in the adjacent office. He told me that he heard a loud thump, but since he didn’t hear anyone scream he wasn’t concerned.

All in all, I survived this catastrophe; let’s just say that I was badly bruised over eighty-percent of my body. The only good thing that came out of this incident is that all of the cabinets in our offices were inspected for stability.

“Where everybody knows your name . . .”

There are definitely times when you wish that no one knew your name; there are too many of these times for me to list here. This incident jumps to the top of the list! While leaving work with another employee one evening, the elevator was soon crowded to capacity with “suits” and other executive types. For this trip from the seventh floor I was positioned in the front corner next to the elevator’s control panel. Unfortunately, the elevator stopped about an inch or more lower than the lobby floor. A couple of gentlemen made room for me to step out of the elevator first. Sadly, I must have been the only person in the elevator car who hadn’t noticed that the floor of the car wasn’t flush with the lobby’s ceramic tile floor. When I turned to step out, my foot caught on the lobby floor and I fell sideways out of the elevator and landed with my usual lack of gracefulness. The only person in the car that knew my name exclaimed loudly, “Sharon!” I’m not certain which was more embarrassing, falling out of the elevator car or knowing that all of the strangers in the car now knew my name – go figure!

A Sears Store, My Mom, Me, and Some Cashews

As a young teenager, I didn’t always enjoy going shopping with my Mom. On one sunny afternoon, my Mom insisted I tag along with her to the nearest Sears department store. Back then all of the Sears stores in our area had a candy counter where all sorts of delectable goodies were displayed as temptations for unwary shoppers. The smell of popcorn being popped in a theatre-style popper is one that still evokes memories of fresh hot buttered popcorn. This day was different when it was announced that a new shipment of cashews had just been roasted and salted. This was a temptation that my Mom couldn’t refuse so we headed to the candy counter at best possible speed. Mom purchased one pound of hot cashews. We munched on the delicious cashews all the while Mom shopped. When we returned home, less than a fourth of the cashews were left. It’s amazing how ill one can become after eating so many cashews! I can’t remember if we even told the rest of the family that we had consumed almost the entire pound of cashews, but it is a great memory all the same!