We’ve got one guy at our store who does all the receiving and returns work for our busy business: Pete Sampson. How Pete can keep it all straight is beyond me (especially when he splits his time between our store and Brandeis University, where he’s the assistant track & field coach), but he does so without complaint and with a stellar sense of humor. We couldn’t help playing to that when we purchased a cake in celebration of Pete’s recent 38th birthday. I doubt the bakers at Roche Brothers (our local grocery store) had been asked to write this exact message in icing before, but Pete certainly found it entertaining:
To all you hard-working receivers out there, I lift a fork to you! Here’s hoping your year is one of intact boxes, accurate packing slips, and an ample supply of box cutters.
We had a shipping/receiving guy at a bookstore I worked at named, no lie, John Bookout.
I totally miss my days of shipping and receiving. Alone in the back room of the store, singing out loud with the radio,bonding with the UPS man, cuts from the industrial strength tape dispenser. Sigh.
My most favorite tools in the world: the tape dispenser and the box cutter. Yeah, the UPS man too.
Say Happy Birthday to Pete from his former co-booksellers in Falmouth. You’re lucky; he’s the fastest receiver alive.
when I worked S&R it was the FedEx guy who was super-hot. But it was UPS and RPS who were accuate and that won int he end (although if UPS guy had ever asked me out that might have changed.) Ah, memories.
this cake brought back a lot of memories from my bookselling days. I worked a little bit in receiving, oh the box cutters and book carts!
“Ever since reaching legend status I’d discovered the throngs of lithe-limber, lifelike sleepwalkers out there who prefer the safety of making love to a legend-that is, to a construct they carry around in their heads-to the hard work of living with & loving another contrary, quirky, flesh-and-blood human being.” Brothers K thanks for adding to legend alison. your faithful receiver Pete