Larry, The Night Baker

I am at the end of my work week and it ended on a hot day that was pretty slow for Senior Gardener Discount Tuesday.  My co-workers are good people and we all plugged along and drank water, cleaned plants and kept them watered as well.  I am fortunate and grateful to have a paying job as I try to make it through this difficult part of life.

I may be the only wage earner soon in our household. I listen to stories on N.P.R. about jobless people very much like myself and get the runaround at a local grocery chain as I try to get them to recognize me as a job applicant.  I feel frustrated spending part of my day off going into show my face and have them tell me that they are "going through the applications."  How long might that take you might wonder? Do they just throw my resume out as I exit the store? Who gets those jobs and why?  Why not me I ask? 

My partner is walking through this summer as well, having been given her layoff notice with a vague end date.  We talk honestly about our lack of local support and about money as we sit in the backyard with the dogs and drink tea in the evening.  I try to be supportive as well as she tells me about how hard it is to have people at work act like it is nothing to be laid off. They don't want to know about her stress and it seems like they don't really care anyway. They have their jobs and she does not.  How does one let that go? I think I would be playing Johnny Paycheck myself.

This week, a very familiar face appeared in the nursery and I was happy  to see the man I new as "Larry, The Night Baker" from Whole Foods.  Larry was in his civvies and I asked him if he were having a day off.  Larry told me that Whole Foods has laid him off along with a few others that the new management considered "the old guard."  If you knew Larry, you would have been very shocked and saddened.

Larry, the night baker, is a bear of a man who was always positive and upbeat in his baker gear, behind the counter at our local WFM.   One night, as we shopped, he mentioned that there was fresh bread in the bakery and.....we love you.  No kidding.  I stopped.  Did he say he loves us?  Ah, yes he did.  Larry is that kind of guy and he was very, very devoted to WFM. 

I went home that night thinking of Larry and sorry that WFM did not appreciate how much he gave to others.  Larry made us feel special and yes, loved.  "May the road rise with you " Larry and "may the wind be always at your back."