HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-12-21, Page 66 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, December 21, 2016
A Christmas Story: A Chamber Christmas
Mike O'Neill
Contributor
The Chamber of Com-
merce held its November
meeting early in the month
so that any plans agreed to
could be put into place
before Christmas. Progress
reports were presented and
approved and most of the
members shared their strat-
egy to make some money
this holiday season. Then it
was time for the guest
speaker.
The members were quiet
as a tall, strong -looking man
strode confidently to the
podium. He looked success-
ful and prosperous from his
spit -shined shoes and cus-
tom suit to his perfect hair
cut. He smiled out at his cap-
tive audience and in a deep,
clear voice he said "Thank
you for inviting me here. If
nothing else, I got a good
cup of coffee."
The members smiled and
knew they were in the pres-
ence of a pro. They were with
a man who knew how to put
a customer at ease very
quickly and a man with the
ability to close a sale. They
prepared to listen intently.
"I'd like to tell you a story"
he began. "About twenty
years ago my area experi-
enced a building boom. We
are cement heads, as they
call us, foundations, side-
walks, just about anything
concrete, we do. It was get-
ting late in the year and we
were being pushed by con-
tractors, owners, the Minis-
try of Labour and just about
anybody else you could
think of. I'd been on my own
for about five years and was
doing well, in my eyes at
least. The year had been a bit
of a challenge though. I'd
turned over half my crew.
Now, as most of you know,
cement work is very physi-
cal. But it is also a lot of intu-
ition and judgement. When
to trowel? When to add cal-
cium? Is the weather going
to co-operate? And so on. I
can teach a lot of this stuff,
but the guy has to want to
learn it. There seemed to be
a serious lack of desire in the
next generation. So there
was a big turn over in help. I
paid more. But it seemed the
more I paid, the less they
wanted to work. Except for
Thomas.
"Let me tell you a bit about
Thomas. He was a full six -six,
two hundred and seventy
pounds if an ounce and
wouldn't say a bad thing
about anybody. He was
about forty, and the only
man I've met who could out-
work me. He'd hired on in
June and I'd trusted him to
run jobs on his own by the
end of September. We got
along well and he seemed
like a keeper.
"So knowing that about
him, and how the year was
going, you might be able to
understand my surprise
when he came into the office
about two in the afternoon
that Christmas Eve.
"Puzzled, I asked him how
it was going and whether or
not the forms were set up on
the Kruger house and he
said simply 'I sent the boys
home at noon."'
"Well sir, I nearly had a fit.
I remember yelling at him
something about 'Don't you
know we're going to pour on
Boxing Day?' and things like
'This weather isn't going to
hold' and carried on for
some time. The language
was a little stronger mind
you. And I remember saying
'Who do you think you are?'
and finished up with some-
thing like 'Who said you
could do that?'
"I was standing now and
almost ready to take a
swing at him, this was
going to cost me a lot of
money and headaches
and goodness knows what
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all. He looked full into my
face and...Oh, yeah; I have
to mention his voice. It
was like it came from the
bottom of a barrel. I can't
really do it justice, like
Tennessee Ernie Ford's,
only fuller. Anyway, he
looked me square on and
said 'Who do you work
for?'
"I said 'I work for ME! I'm
the one who has to pay the
bills around here, I'm the
one who built this company
up and get the work and
buy the trucks and pay the
taxes and...Where do YOU
get off telling the guys they
could go home?' I was spit-
ting nails, I tell you. He just
said simply 'I work for my
family. I work WITH you,
but FOR my family. All of
what you said is true, and
you're very good at it. But if
your Maker called you
home tonight, who would
miss you? In five years, who
would care the most that
you were gone?'
"Well, what do you say to
that? I did some thinking,
but I was still mad. I told
Thomas to get out and he'd
better be here Boxing Day
morning. He said 'No' that
he'd given the men the
week between Christmas
and New Years off and that
he'd be back then. I fired
him.
"I set about trying to
undo what he'd done. First
I called the crew. To a man
they said that Thomas told
them what to expect and to
wish me a Merry Christmas
when I called. To a man
they said that they wanted
to keep working with me
but not at the expense of
their families. To me it was
crap. Their families had
what they had because of
me. I was the one who
signed the cheques. We
worked all winter because I
built a reputation for get-
ting work done right. The
ungrateful wretches. I was
winding down. You can
only bang your head on the
wall so long before you get
sore. I just locked up and
went home for a good stiff
drink.
"I got home somewhere
close to four o'clock. I have
three boys, the oldest about
ten back then. They thought
something was wrong and
they were in trouble for it.
But my wife, bless her, just
dropped what she was
doing and made a run and
jumped into my arms like I
was a returning hero. I can-
not tell you how good that
felt. The boys got into the
spirit and we really had a
good time. I even helped
around the house and I
don't know what all. But, I
remember that I never
thought once about
business.
"My family actually
talked me into going to
church that Christmas Eve.
We sat about half way back
in the outside row. As the
carols were sung and the
preacher droned on for a
long time, I became inter-
ested in the stained glass
window beside me. It
OPP participating in province -wide
Huron County OPP is have launched this year's
reminding motorists and "Lock It OR Lose It" cam -
passengers to "Lock it OR paign during the holiday
Lose it" when it comes to season because it's easy to
their vehicles and valuables be distracted and leave
as part of the Ontario Asso- vehicles unlocked or valua-
ciation of Chiefs of Police's bles in plain sight during
(OACP) annual "Lock It OR t h e h o l i d ay
Lose It" campaign. hustle -and -bustle.
Ontario police services During the "Lock It OR
depicted a strong young
man who it appeared, was a
worker. I looked long and
hard. There was something
about it that I just couldn't
put my finger on. I let it
slide and we went back
home. The kids went to bed
and Mary and I set about
attacking the assembly that
was required. Now, I'm
pretty handy with tools and
Mary has told me that I'm
not a lot of fun to work
with. But that night it was
different. Mary gave sug-
gestions and I worked
WITH her and we laughed
like kids and had a great
time. The next day was the
best Christmas Day we had
had up until then. It felt
good.
"So, I learned something.
I gave my family the gift of
time. MY time. And it was
more for me, I'm sure. I had
some time between Christ-
mas and New Years to do
some heavy thinking. It just
came to me that while I
could replace every one of
the workers, they could
also replace me. It was then
Submitted
that I began to think of the
men as part of families, not
workers only. I began to
formulate a strategy. I
didn't know how it would
work yet, but come January
second we'd all get together
and revisit the labour situa-
tion. All the while I had in
the back of my mind that
stained glass window.
"Well, to make a long
story short, we came up
with a plan. It didn't always
go smoothly, I can assure
you. We lost some business,
but we gained more. We
worked hard, very hard to
make a company that
slowly morphed into a fam-
ily. In those twenty years
since that Christmas, all
three of my boys joined the
company. All three have
their own homes and fami-
lies that they spend time
with. And I get to spoil their
children. But here's the
thing: we never saw
Thomas again. Except in
that stained glass window.
It portrayed St. Thomas the
Apostle, patron saint of
construction."
"LOCK IT OR LOSE IT" campaign
Lose It" campaign, police
officers and auxiliary offic-
ers will be checking vehi-
cles throughout various
centres in Huron County to
confirm vehicles are locked
and that no valuables have
been left in plain view.
Members will place a
small notice on vehicles
checked indicating what
safety precautions were
neglected and offer simple
prevention tips for drivers to
protect their vehicles against
theft. The notices also con-
gratulate drivers who have
secured their vehicle.
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