A) My first real job, in high school, was working on weekends at a local Valley grocery store chain. One day the manager WHISTLED, in front of employees and customers, to "get over there and bag some groceries!" For the first time in my young life, RESENTMENT...EMBARRASSMENT...and a feeling of WORTHLESSNESS crowded into my thoughts, standing in the store. I felt alone and worth nothing as a person!
B) And then, later that evening at home, alone, young Ronnie lay down on my bunk bed and closed my eyes. I built up enough courage, "stepped outside of myself", and thought about all of the POSITIVE attributes, to that point in my life, that I had accomplished and gave to others around me. Funny, even then I must have had an epiphany of one day off in the future realizing that someone would create and write about..."PAY IT FORWARD!"
C) How DARE that manager treat me that way, a hardworking, loyal, industrious...grocery bagger!
D) Next weekend...Ronnie paused in front of that manager, before clocking in, and explained that I was NOT a dog...that I deserved personal RESPECT...and that I would not, could not accept the "treatment" thrust AT ME the weekend before, all in a quiet, strong voice, looking him in his eyes, only in front of him, no one else around! Sure, my mouth was dry...I was "skeered"...and had practiced my brief declaration over and over..... Then I turned and left!
E) Next day, he came up to me and...apologized, telling me that he had been rude and insensitive...that I was honestly a good employee.
F) This grocery bagger went on to be elevated, in time, to a cashier, volunteering to come in a 5am to unload trucks and ALWAYS being offered plenty of work for four years of weekends and summers, earning enough to attend Bridgewater College and graduate with a Philosophy/Logic B.A. degree. And then going on to study much more at U.Va., W&M, ODU and even Montana State U. one summer, rewriting a Federal Government program for students!
G) FEISTY...LEARNING...and never backing down when I knew I was in the right and in the know....and it all began because a "BOSS" whistled at Ronnie, treating me like a lesser being....
H) ....more....
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