Young and Impetuous
By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet
I have stayed in touch here and there with a man I worked for 30+ years ago.
Phil was in charge of a division of Quaker Oats in the marketing department. He oversaw the marketing for Aunt Jemima products as well as things like the grits and hominy. All grain-based products. He was also in charge of the Aunt Jemima maple syrup line.
I loved working for Phil. Phil seemed to tolerate me pretty well too.
I think he liked the fact that I was smart. He put up with the fact that I was not the greatest typist and I was always five minutes late. But there was nothing I would not do for that guy. I did my best to go out of my way to make sure his things were in order and projects were done on time. I went above and beyond and helped him with monitoring a department budget as well as some reports. I helped him screen resumes for hiring as well as anything else I could think of.
I was a sponge. Everything that came across his desk or mine was read by me. I wanted to learn and was willing to put in any amount of hours to learn all I could. I was even criticized at one point for not going home. I was making the other secretaries look bad. That just prompted me to take work home. In those days you couldn’t do much work at home. Your only typewriter was on your desk. It weighed about 30 pounds. No way you were taking that back and forth on the train like we take a laptop home now. So I just read what I could and studied everything Phil was doing. He became a mentor of sorts.
Phil had a small family. He had one young son and a pretty wife.
I decided I wanted to treat him and his family.
I had begun decorating cakes and was quite good at it. So I made an egg-shaped cake and decorated it. It was presented on a beautiful glass platter. I got up at dawn and drove it to his house. I put the cake on his porch step and sneaked off to my car. I hoped they had a lovely Easter with a yummy cake for dessert.
The next day Phil didn’t say anything to me about the cake. I had not put a note with it. I figured when he saw the decorated cake he’d know it came from me. He had seen my cake decorating in action before for office celebrations. I was too shy to come forward and ask him if he got the cake. I just let it go.
For 30 years I have wondered if he ever got the cake. I finally got up the guts to ask. He and I had been exchanging emails last week. I told him the story of the cake. I told him that as I grew older I realized what a dumb idea that was. The cake was sitting on his porch; probably for hours, uncovered. All kinds of things could have happened to that cake!
It could have been peed on by a roving dog. It could have been decimated by local raccoons. It might have sat there for days until it was moldy or rained on. I was not thinking about the fact that some folks go in and out of their back door and never use the front door unless company comes. The cake was small enough that even driving in and out of the driveway they might not have seen it.
Here I was worrying about the cake getting eaten and enjoyed by some of my favorite humans but it was probably eaten by animals. But where did the platter go then?
When I asked Phil about the cake delivery of 30+ years ago, he has no recollection. Of course. If he had indeed eaten my cake I’m confident he would have remembered.
Maybe all along the real story is I mistakenly delivered it to a neighbor and they ate it. And they were the ones left wondering who left if for them.
It appears this is one mystery that will never be solved.
Lesson learned.
Cheers,
I have stayed in touch here and there with a man I worked for 30+ years ago.
Phil was in charge of a division of Quaker Oats in the marketing department. He oversaw the marketing for Aunt Jemima products as well as things like the grits and hominy. All grain-based products. He was also in charge of the Aunt Jemima maple syrup line.
I loved working for Phil. Phil seemed to tolerate me pretty well too.
I think he liked the fact that I was smart. He put up with the fact that I was not the greatest typist and I was always five minutes late. But there was nothing I would not do for that guy. I did my best to go out of my way to make sure his things were in order and projects were done on time. I went above and beyond and helped him with monitoring a department budget as well as some reports. I helped him screen resumes for hiring as well as anything else I could think of.
I was a sponge. Everything that came across his desk or mine was read by me. I wanted to learn and was willing to put in any amount of hours to learn all I could. I was even criticized at one point for not going home. I was making the other secretaries look bad. That just prompted me to take work home. In those days you couldn’t do much work at home. Your only typewriter was on your desk. It weighed about 30 pounds. No way you were taking that back and forth on the train like we take a laptop home now. So I just read what I could and studied everything Phil was doing. He became a mentor of sorts.
Phil had a small family. He had one young son and a pretty wife.
I decided I wanted to treat him and his family.
I had begun decorating cakes and was quite good at it. So I made an egg-shaped cake and decorated it. It was presented on a beautiful glass platter. I got up at dawn and drove it to his house. I put the cake on his porch step and sneaked off to my car. I hoped they had a lovely Easter with a yummy cake for dessert.
The next day Phil didn’t say anything to me about the cake. I had not put a note with it. I figured when he saw the decorated cake he’d know it came from me. He had seen my cake decorating in action before for office celebrations. I was too shy to come forward and ask him if he got the cake. I just let it go.
For 30 years I have wondered if he ever got the cake. I finally got up the guts to ask. He and I had been exchanging emails last week. I told him the story of the cake. I told him that as I grew older I realized what a dumb idea that was. The cake was sitting on his porch; probably for hours, uncovered. All kinds of things could have happened to that cake!
It could have been peed on by a roving dog. It could have been decimated by local raccoons. It might have sat there for days until it was moldy or rained on. I was not thinking about the fact that some folks go in and out of their back door and never use the front door unless company comes. The cake was small enough that even driving in and out of the driveway they might not have seen it.
Here I was worrying about the cake getting eaten and enjoyed by some of my favorite humans but it was probably eaten by animals. But where did the platter go then?
When I asked Phil about the cake delivery of 30+ years ago, he has no recollection. Of course. If he had indeed eaten my cake I’m confident he would have remembered.
Maybe all along the real story is I mistakenly delivered it to a neighbor and they ate it. And they were the ones left wondering who left if for them.
It appears this is one mystery that will never be solved.
Lesson learned.
Cheers,
To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/
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