American Dreaming - 1982 / Part II

“Hi, can I speak with Carol please?” I said.

A young women wearing a bright red puffy sleeved blouse and a tan skirt approached the counter slowly.

“Carol isn’t working today. My name is Celia, can I help you?”

“Yes, I understand there is an opening within your mailroom and I’d like to apply for that position”

“I see” she sternly replied. “Do you have any experience in dealing with corporate interoffice mail?”

“Um, well no… but, I’m a very quick study. I’m sure I can pick up what I need to know quickly. I’m hard working and very detailed oriented”… I was trying to recite any and all of the buzz words that I saw in the classified ads that I had been studying for the last couple of weeks.

“Okay. Here is the application. Please fill that out and attach a copy of your current resume and submit it back to me here for processing.”

“Oh, um… a resume… I don’t have any copies with me here…um, you see I met this woman on the bus and she told me about the job … I wasn’t even aware of the opportunity…”

“Oh… you met a woman on the bus… What woman would that be?”

“Ah, yeah… I only got her first name…Jody I believe she introduced herself to me as. She was about your height, blonde, petite... uh...”

Celia’s face visibly took on a different countenance. Her eyebrows arched and she asked “Jody Hathaway?” She then pointed to a portrait on the wall behind me with the plaque that read “Board of Directors” with a legend underneath. I quickly located the visage of the same young lady who I had made the acquaintance of in the bus ride over here. It seems I had received a nod from the Chairman of the board of director’s of the International Digital Machine Corporation.

Still slightly reeling from that revelation, I recovered and stated quite emphatically that; “Yes, it was Ms. Hathaway that had informed of this position and she recommended that I inquire about it with an application submission.”

Needless to say, I think my relationship with Celia improved tenfold after that little piece of information was exchanged. I fumbled with the application for a few minutes but I have to admit that I was feeling pretty good about my chances. I was also thanking the gods for the good fortune. If nothing else and regardless of the outcome, this was going to be a interesting story to tell.

---Jim