His name was Tony and I’ll never forget him. He loved baseball, he loved life and he taught me about perspective. I just need to remember to look at the world through Tony’s eyes more often.
I graduated from high school on a Thursday night and moved to Minneapolis on Sunday to start my summer job on Monday.
It was factory work in a bottling and canning operation for a well-known pop/soda company.
After about an hour of introduction, training and HR initiation I was put on the lines in the canning area.
I can’t remember for sure but there were 5 or six stations and we rotated stations every half hour.
The first station I was put into was in “the hole.” The cans of pop would come on a conveyor belt single file into a machine where they were put into six packs with the little plastic rings holding them together. After getting linked together with the plastic they rolled down a conveyor belt again.
My job was to take the six packs off the belt, two at a time, and place them into a box. There was another person in “the hole” with me who would do the same thing. He would place the first two six packs into a box and slide the box to me where I would complete the 24 pack by placing the second two six packs alongside the first two. I would then push the completed box down a conveyor belt where the stacker would place them onto a pallet to be taken to the warehouse.
At the beginning of my first shift I looked a lot like Lucille Ball in the chocolate factory. I was partnered with Tony on that first shift. He was incredibly patient and kind as he took up the slack far more often than he should have needed for me that first time through.
We didn’t talk much as I was concentrating so hard on getting the rhythm of the cans, the belt, and the boxes down. By the end of the first day I was beginning to feel pretty comfortable every time I rotated into “the hole.”
On the second day I began to feel more comfortable in all of the stations. “The hole” proved to be the most challenging but I had it down cold on day two.
Tony and I were partnered again. We began to talk and I noticed for the first time that he had a very thick accent. I wasn’t even aware of it the day before.
I asked him where he was from and he said he had moved from Cuba to the United States in 1961. Surprisingly, my memory of history told me this was after Castro had taken power of Cuba.
It took a little prodding but eventually Tony told me that he had escaped to the U.S. on a raft when he was 14 with his mother and siblings, I don’t remember how many. Their father had stayed behind to protect them by showing up at work and leading his normal life. WOW!
I worked in that factory with Tony for four summers. Tony loved to whistle and they were always upbeat happy songs. Tony NEVER had a bad day. Tony NEVER complained.
I remember often being bored by the factory work but Tony always brought me perspective when I got to work with him in “the hole.”
Tony often proclaimed that he lived in the greatest country in the world and he knew it because he had lived somewhere else. He had perspective.
Often I find myself lacking courage because of self-imposed barriers. Thinking of Tony reminds me of real courage on the part of his mother and his father and his siblings. That was life and death courage.
Most of what we need courage for isn’t life and death and yet we shy away from it. Why is that?
What can you do this week to be courageous? Think about Tony and step out of your comfort zone this week!
Joshua 1:9
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
