Are the 90's finished yet?

There are so many disadvantages to growing older that you tend to forget the good stuff. Today Rita was reminded of those good things.

Many years ago, in fact round 1990, Rita employed 16 staff in her Battery Point café. They were all uni students, working their way through uni. I never had to advertise for staff, as current staff recommended friends who they considered would fit in, and that’s how it worked. All of them have gone on to achievements ranging from princess to pauper! I met one of them today, after not having seen him for probably 12 years.

Andrew was a zany kid. Enthusiastic, loud, noisy, vocal, funny, artistic, a performer, tall, cleancut, great with entertaining the customers, OTT in many ways. He was never grouchy, or rude, or bad tempered. But I gathered from staff that he was pretty lazy, and didn’t perform well when the café was bulging at the seams, and we needed all hands on deck, concentrating hard, and paying attention to everything that was happening on every table.

I needed to lay it on the line to him. I gave him a few friendly warnings, but eventually it came to a head, and I knew what I had to do.

I took him to lunch, spoke gently but firmly to him, and basically left it to him to decide what he wanted to do. Did he want to persist, maybe letting the rest of the team down, knowing that they (=his friends) would come to me and tell me if he was still not pulling his weight, or would he like to take some time out, then return if he wanted to, after some time away. As I didn’t work the same shifts as Andrew, I never had to tolerate his slackness.

He decided to leave, and eventually went overseas. I saw him on his return to Tassie after the overseas stint. He was with a friend, to whom he introduced me as “the person who sacked me in the nicest possible way”. I loved that! And what’s more, it was true. There was nothing vindictive about letting him go. Quite simply, he wasn’t doing what he was being paid for, so I made it his problem, and the solution his decision.

So – today when I met him, I had no problem seeing him again. In fact I was overjoyed to see him again. We had a wonderful chat, and I felt so inspired after I left his company. He is exactly the same guy he was 20 years ago. He hasn’t changed one iota. And to make things worse, he actually looks exactly the same. It’s as if he walked out the door of my café yesterday, and into RVL (where I met him today) this morning.

And you know the funniest thing? He’s Ut Si’s (Colette’s) stepson! He’s the Prof’s son.

And that’s the great thing about aging. You can see humans developing over the years. You watch your own kids evolve from these funny little tykes who spew and can’t walk or talk or go to the toilet, then they grow into a Nellie. One minute you’re changing their nappies, you turn around and there they are planning their 40th birthday next week! You’ve barely had time to draw breath after you finished searching for their first tooth, and here they are all grown up, walking on their own and not requiring you to remind them about their homework any more.

Andrew has grown into a splendid man. The Prof is justifiably proud of him. I loved chatting to him today, and seeing him again. Almost as much as I loved breakfasting with Colette and the Prof, and kids.

That’s what Christmas is all about, isn’t it?