Jim has worked for the city for 20 years. He has decided to retire at the end of the month. Today, the city threw him a little retirement party. His mom and Steve and Heidi were able to attend, as well as all of our kids except Preston who was flying back from Hawaii and was not able to get here. It was a nice party, with a ton of people dropping by to wish him well. His influence on the town and the good he was able to do were very apparent. I know he will be missed there.
I do not know exactly what the future holds for him, he is working on a couple of things that seem extremely positive.
I do know what the past has been. The city has been good to him. It was a job he took a lot of pride in, and put a lot of himself into. Lots of his time, energy, and devotion to doing things correctly, as well as some blood, sweat and tears. Things I personally witnessed - his undying loyalty towards helping people. They called upon him to not only take care of city problems, but their personal problems as well. Branches that fell, mailboxes that needed put up, plants that were replaced, cats that were buried, the list of things that they asked of him was endless. And he did it all with this idea that if he could help, he would help. Sometimes, I was not patient with this mindset. I told him on more than one occasion it was not part of the job. It was not his problem. But if you know Jim, you know he is a fixer with a heart for helping. I don’t think it was possible for him to say no. The job infiltrated all of our lives as well. When you have 8 kids, you have a team for clean up day when nobody showed up. You have part time employees who can umpire games, run concession stands, line ball fields, spray paint benches and I don’t even know what all else. Most of our kids first jobs were some seasonal position that they couldn’t fill, but could count on Jim’s kids wanting money.
The job kept us constantly and consistently entertained as well. My all time fav will always be the man who came to pay his ticket at city court, and when he pulled his check book out of his pocket, dropped a bag of drugs on the floor and ended up getting arrested.
Or how about the lady who saved a weeks worth of her dog’s poop to throw on her neighbor’s lawn as a part of an ongoing dispute.
Or the time a woman saw her neighbor’s house was on fire. She called the unmanned volunteer fire department, and nobody answered. So she got in her car to come to city hall to complain that nobody answered. Did she call 911? Negative.
Or the man whose child fell in the lake and he brought him to city hall for Jim to decide if they should seek medical help.
Or the vacation we took with our kids and some random tabloid magazine of some sort published an article saying that our town was hosting a dog meat eating festival. The mayor at the time was so upset he called Jim on our vacation to get guidance on how to handle it. Jim wasn’t amused, but the kids and I howled with laughter.
Or the lady who drove her car to city hall to tell Jim she was too drunk to drive herself home (which was also in town) and asked him to drive her home. Of course he was willing But when he got in her van, she had peed her pants and he sat in it!
Jim might now be able to find the humor in the stories we have been laughing about for years. I hope so anyway.
He has done a great job there. I seriously couldn’t be more proud. And although I will miss having him as my work neighbor, I think the less stressful, less time consuming part of his life will be more enjoyable for all of us.
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