Monday, April 27, 2009

I love some of the people I meet

The other day while I was on delivery, my phone rang. I answered it and found out that it was a little lady that got our flyer and was needed some work done. I took all her information and mentioned that I was at work and that I would have Chuck call her.

Chuck calls her, goes out there and finds out what she needed done. Turns out that her neighbor needs help too. Ok, not a problem. The one needs holes dug and fig trees planted, gutters cleaned out and a garden patch tilled. The other wanted to have a shrub pulled up, tomato plants planted and a strip of ground tilled, so that way her husband can get through on his tractor.

So, today I go shopping with my dad. And then off to the little neighbor's house to get things done. Chuck had the truck ready to go when I got home. Shovel, extension cord, Alligator to cut shrub down, and my little shovels to plant the tomatoes.

We get over there and she had already started on what we were going to help her with. She told me that she wanted a hole dug for a rose bush. Ok, not a big deal, so where is the rose bush, in the ground on the other side of the yard. Dig that up, and then plant it. Meanwhile, Chuck is over there cutting the plant down that she needed down and digging up the roots to that one. All that goes well, now what. Dig holes for tomatoes and plant them for her. She didn't expect me to plant them, she thought that I was only gonna dig the holes. But I was there so, why not.

This couple is a lovely little couple. He will be 89 in June and still doing yard work, she is right behind him. Turns out he is from King of Prussia PA. Nice, I thought I heard yankee in him. They have lived in Cleveland for 6 years.

He found out that I was from NJ and asked the whereabouts and I told him around the Lakehurst area. He remembers when the Hindenburg caught on fire. It flew right over his house, he remembers the people waving to the ground below. And then the radio broadcast that it had blown up.

He was sitting in the shade watching us work, and called over to me, "hey Lakehurst, do you know what scrapple is." What kind of Yankee would I be if I didn't know what Scrapple was. "Yes, sir, of course I do." And I told him that he can find it at Publix in Ooltewah if he was looking for some to buy. Oh he was thrilled to hear that.

His wife got to giving more direction to Chuck about odds and ends and what she will have to have done on Saturday. The pear tree is to be moved, we don't have the ability to do that. The patch of land needs to be tilled, and they are thinking about hiring us to mow and care for their yard this summer. She mentioned that it is getting hard on her husband to do it. He told Chuck that he has a nice little mower for him to use, Chuck told him that he has a nice mower and can have that yard done in about 35 minutes. He was pleased to hear that too.

I think we have a potential to do more for them. We will do the job right, and make sure they are happy with what we will do for them.

Sweet people, loved to talk, lovely yard.

With me leaving Pizza Hut, there is one thing that I will miss, the people. But meeting the wonderful people that I have met so far, I don't think that will be a problem.

So far I have really wonderful customers. This also leads to referrals.

2 comments:

Johanna said...

I think the generation from 60 and below could take a great lesson from those older. There's much to learn from them, including politeness and kindness. So much of that is lacking, especially in my generation and below.

I loved reading your blog. I love reading stories of older people. :) It makes me smile.

elaine.hayes said...

You may be leaving Pizza Hut (YAY!) but you are still going to be working with people. So you won't lose that. And this couple sounds absolutely delightful! You will have so much fun getting to know them.