Not childish, child-like!

Today I was stocking lettuce at work. Now, that's not uncommon, I pretty much do that every day. The boxes come with a flap on the front so the bags won't fall out. I stack up the boxes from inside the cooler, behind the product, facing the doors. You have to leave that flap I mentioned on the box while you do this or the bags go everywhere (I actually had to demonstrate this to a manager not too long ago; they didn't believe me.Now THAT'S micro-management!"Why don't you take the flap off first?") Anywho, so I get the boxes stacked and ready. I have to go out of the cooler and around to the doors so I can cut the flap off. And you have to hurry, because if you don't, some customer will destroy the appearance of the whole stack trying to rip off the flap so they can get the "freshest" bag. I take my handy-dandy Walmart-approved safety box cutter and slash the cardboard flap off the six boxes, zip zip zip. There's a family shopping a couple of feet away, and I hear this little girl, about 9 or 10, giggle and say "Grandma, did you see what he did? That was cool!"

Don't you wish that you could be so impressed by something so simple? What happens to us as we grow up that we lose that sense of wonder and excitement? One of the nicest compliments I ever got was given to me many years ago when my roommate described me as "childlike." He was using that description to explain why most people liked working for me. He said that things never got old in my restaurants, that people always wondered what I'd come up with next. When I was running the O'Charley's on Murfreesboro Road, on Friday night we often had movie quote night. I'd write an obscure movie quote on the dry erase board, and all night people tried to either guess what movie, or they'd try to stump me. The one that started it I'll never forget: "This town needs an enema." Most people probably know this one now, but back then it was a new movie.

I regret losing that childlike quality, or at least letting it dim. That 9 year old little girl today probably did more for me than any "Positive Mental Attitude" speaker I've ever heard. I'm going to try to get some of that back.

Next quote: "I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of bubble gum."