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Yesterday, I began working temporarily as a part time Public Information Specialist for Montgomery County. It's amazing how much can happen in one day.
Ah, the life of a Public Information Specialist. Basically, I am stationed at a desk awaiting phone calls, directing traffic through the building and doing a few other small jobs including posting calendar events to a bulletin board once a week. Not bad if you ask me. I am being trained by a wonderful lady named Betty. She will be reaching her retirement this coming Thursday. Betty and I talked about how long she had been with the county. Thirty-three years ... I haven't even been alive that long. It's no wonder she was tearing-up as people stopped by the desk yesterday to wish her well and let her know how much she will be missed. I couldn't imagine being at a job more than five years, much less 33. Not that I wouldn't do that, mind you, it just doesn't seem possible. I've seen my mother experience more layoff's in her lifetime than any person should. I've watched friends quit well-paying jobs because they were taking up too much of their time ... time now spent frivolously and unpaid. I was also amazed at the amount of organization behind Betty's desk. Everything was in its place and its place was neat and tidy. I can only imagine what her house looks like! Despite the amount of work going on inside the Montgomery County Government building, there was a painful silence that resonated from every corner. According to Betty, it usually wasn't that quiet. It was hard not to take in and appreciate the buildings' architecture from our vantage point. According to Betty, you can really hear the rain on the sky lights on damp days. I spent some time studying a map of the building and wondering what it looked like during the days it was an overall factory. My grandma worked there at one time. As a matter of fact, she told me a story not too long ago about working there. She and her sister had both just gotten a job there. With their first paycheck, they went out and bought the same coat in different colors. My grandma's coat was a baby blue and, according to her, very beautiful. It was a $12 coat ... the most expensive covering she had owned up to that point. A few days later, there were several young women interviewing for jobs at the overall factory. They came in through a small coat room. At the end of the day, my grandma's coat was missing. Rumor had it that the girl who had stolen it ended up having an attack of the conscience and tossed the coat into a stove. Ironically, no one got to really enjoy that $12 coat. Around halfway through our day, Supervisor Bill Brown stopped by and broke the silence with stories about his tenure with the Blacksburg Police Department. I'd never personally chatted with Supervisor Brown and I really enjoyed becoming familiarized with his personality. If you get the chance to talk to him, I recommend asking about his experiences in Blacksburg. After our brief chatter escapade, it was back to answering the phone. I've realized that people call the government center for everything and I'm expected to know even more than that. Whether there's a tree down on a phone line, a confrontation with a contractor who changed his prices after the work was completed or a need for teeth extraction for a senior ... I've got to know who does what in the government and where to refer each situation. I've also realized that Betty DOES know everything and then some. Thirty-three years of knowledge ... thirty-three years of contacts. Most of our day was spent sitting behind the desk. But, from that observatory point, so much had already happened ... without anything really happening. By the end of the day, Betty's desk – my temporary, part time home – was surrounded by flowers. Today, there's supposed to be a luncheon held in her honor. One lady has a $5 'gentleman's bet' going that Betty will be swamped with flowers by the end of her Montgomery County Government professional life.
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