Going to work with Daddy

[susandennis]

When I was little, there was hardly a treat more exciting than Going to Work with Daddy. Neither one of my siblings thought it was even moderately interesting. I thought it was magical. Daddy was the Vice President of Hanes Underwear. (Which morphed into Hanes Corp which then got eaten by Sarah Lee - today your tightie whities come from Sarah Lee... )

He worked in a big brick building that was attached to a huge manufacturing plant in downtown Winston-Salem, NC. This was in the 50's during the years I was about 8, 9 and 10ish. Every once in a while he'd go in on a Saturday and if I was very very good, I got to go with him.

Inside was grand and regal with dark burnished woods and dark green carpeting and big, high ceilings. Daddy's office was a two office suite. His secretary's desk filled the first room and you had to get by there to get to his office. His secretary wasn't there and I got to sit at her desk. I got to draw with her pencils and her tablets and type on her typewriter. I got to put on her earphones and transcribe dictation. I got to answer the phone every time I pretended that it rang. I was always so sorry when it was time to go home.

I do remember taking great care to ensure everything was put back just as I had found it because I had this great fear that his secretary would complain about my messing with her stuff and I'd never get to go back.

A lot of the people who worked for him were from out of town. When they came in to town they usually came to our house for drinks. Out of the couple of dozen men that paraded through in those years there was one woman. She lived in Chicago and she was bigger than life to me.

She had no children and no husband and made her own living and that example was so not lost on me. The first time I met her I was awestruck. She was very kind. I had a bazillion questions and she answered every one of them quite patiently. I remember asking her if she didn't have a wife, how did she get groceries? And I remember that she did not even laugh. She said that sometimes she bought them herself but a lot of times she ate in restaurants. Ok, there was a critical piece of information...

I'm sure she had no idea what a profound impact she had on me and I was always sorry that I never got to tell her.

One of the developers brought his kid in to work today. The boy is about 10 and very quiet. He's got a laptop and his playing games in the cubicle next to his dad. His Dad said that the kid had asked him what work was like so he thought he'd just bring him in and show him. I just heard the kid say 'this is kind of fun - is this like every day?'...