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jaeleslie at 01:26pm on 02/05/2004
jaeleslie at 01:26pm on 02/05/2004Friday evening we went to a retirement party. It is a little known fact that besides the seasonal duties of Santa there are 365 days in the year during which Santa keeps pretty busy. He has just retired from his position with the City Parks Division.
Actually the party started in the midafternoon when the working people get off work. It was held at the local VFW post where Mr S' retirement party was held a few years ago, which is a small building a few blocks from the parks maintenance yards that has a large meeting hall decorated with photos of people who have served there as either Veterans or Ladies Auxiliary back since the first world war, and at the other end of the entry hall a barroom (Unattended Children Not Allowed In Barroom). As usual for these events a buffet was set up on one side in the meeting hall, with lots of long tables and chairs for people to find a seat and talk. It was as nice a spread as you would expect, with little barbecue hotdogs on toothpicks and excellent little meatballs in marinara and lots of sliced meats and cheeses for sandwiches and cole slaw and potato salad and pasta salad and vegies and dip and crunchy things. Just the usual, but plenty of it. Every so often pitchers of cola or beer would appear on a table. So I drank some of that light american lager.
Oh and of course there was a big cake, a very good one. It had a picture of his tractor in the frosting, labeled with the fleet number of his city vehicle. My memory is of the sad kind that actually still remembers the radio call numbers of the Parks fleet more than fifteen years after I have had any reason to know them.
It was also a well-organized party in that all kinds of people came from many different departments, because of course Santa has maintained vital relations with many different lines of work. The division head and former division head (ret.) and various union reps and recent hires and all the people who have ever retired from the Parks Division and are still alive seemed to all be there.
So I got to sit with the old cemetery crew I used to work with, when I was the Office Girl there, all retired now, and tell stories, kind of like a high school reunion but different. Everyone agreed that retirement is a fine thing, no dissent there, and early retirement an interesting option, and the occasional person who then (after thirty years of work or age 55) needs a little job to keep busy seems to have no problem finding one. Or then like Greg (who was in the Navy) you could always study French and go to Paris for a while, which I thought was an interesting plan. There's always something to do.
I suppose I should mention that the elves who are still employed with the City seem to find it amusing to continue working even after strong hints have been dropped that they have put in plenty of years now, with a fortitude not known to mere mortals, while the entire staff is changing over around them to people who don't remember any of the mistakes that have already been made. Some date might come around that makes them change their mind and they will go too. Lots of the unknown history and latest gossip of local public works projects floated around. The people who were not retiring or about to retire Real Soon Now seemed to think things are going to be pretty different from now on, and we hope will be adjusting their blood pressure medication accordingly.
Then I ventured down the hall to the smoky barroom, where I found one of Santa's chief deputies dispensing drink tickets from one end of the bar. I will admit I kind of fell off the wagon then, and continued into the evening feeling no pain, talking to any number of people until we were hoarse and watching the races on the television, and since I was not taking any other kind of medications it was okay. Santa is the kind of person who will always politely ask if I would like another, and then when I think about it and say Er and then in a state of perhaps not the best judgement I decide Yes! then of course he will have one too. So he was well and truly retired by the time we left, and that last one was probably not entirely necessary, my apologies to Mrs Santa. He says he will be spending more time up at the farm now. Maybe we will drive up to visit.
Actually the party started in the midafternoon when the working people get off work. It was held at the local VFW post where Mr S' retirement party was held a few years ago, which is a small building a few blocks from the parks maintenance yards that has a large meeting hall decorated with photos of people who have served there as either Veterans or Ladies Auxiliary back since the first world war, and at the other end of the entry hall a barroom (Unattended Children Not Allowed In Barroom). As usual for these events a buffet was set up on one side in the meeting hall, with lots of long tables and chairs for people to find a seat and talk. It was as nice a spread as you would expect, with little barbecue hotdogs on toothpicks and excellent little meatballs in marinara and lots of sliced meats and cheeses for sandwiches and cole slaw and potato salad and pasta salad and vegies and dip and crunchy things. Just the usual, but plenty of it. Every so often pitchers of cola or beer would appear on a table. So I drank some of that light american lager.
Oh and of course there was a big cake, a very good one. It had a picture of his tractor in the frosting, labeled with the fleet number of his city vehicle. My memory is of the sad kind that actually still remembers the radio call numbers of the Parks fleet more than fifteen years after I have had any reason to know them.
It was also a well-organized party in that all kinds of people came from many different departments, because of course Santa has maintained vital relations with many different lines of work. The division head and former division head (ret.) and various union reps and recent hires and all the people who have ever retired from the Parks Division and are still alive seemed to all be there.
So I got to sit with the old cemetery crew I used to work with, when I was the Office Girl there, all retired now, and tell stories, kind of like a high school reunion but different. Everyone agreed that retirement is a fine thing, no dissent there, and early retirement an interesting option, and the occasional person who then (after thirty years of work or age 55) needs a little job to keep busy seems to have no problem finding one. Or then like Greg (who was in the Navy) you could always study French and go to Paris for a while, which I thought was an interesting plan. There's always something to do.
I suppose I should mention that the elves who are still employed with the City seem to find it amusing to continue working even after strong hints have been dropped that they have put in plenty of years now, with a fortitude not known to mere mortals, while the entire staff is changing over around them to people who don't remember any of the mistakes that have already been made. Some date might come around that makes them change their mind and they will go too. Lots of the unknown history and latest gossip of local public works projects floated around. The people who were not retiring or about to retire Real Soon Now seemed to think things are going to be pretty different from now on, and we hope will be adjusting their blood pressure medication accordingly.
Then I ventured down the hall to the smoky barroom, where I found one of Santa's chief deputies dispensing drink tickets from one end of the bar. I will admit I kind of fell off the wagon then, and continued into the evening feeling no pain, talking to any number of people until we were hoarse and watching the races on the television, and since I was not taking any other kind of medications it was okay. Santa is the kind of person who will always politely ask if I would like another, and then when I think about it and say Er and then in a state of perhaps not the best judgement I decide Yes! then of course he will have one too. So he was well and truly retired by the time we left, and that last one was probably not entirely necessary, my apologies to Mrs Santa. He says he will be spending more time up at the farm now. Maybe we will drive up to visit.