Brother Will

 

Brother Will

At the Atlanta Post Office Time Keeper Office I worked with a guy I  call “Brother Will”.  He was amazing.  Some days he had me spitting mad and other days crackling up laughing.    

I read It is food brain pushups or exercise to recall details of your past.  So, here goes.

Brother Will was very good dresser, casual, laid back, and never got upset.   He and his wife, which I know also, are the parents of nine daughters.  I don’t know about the first eight daughters but I know he was not at the hospital when the 9^th daughter was born.  He was playing poker.

That’s Will, never getting upset.

Before Will became a Postal Employee he was in the Army for 20 years.  I think his last assignment  was at West Point Military Academy , upstate New York. There, he had a part-time job with the Officers’ Club as a aiter.

He was very pride of the way he delivered a freshly cooked steak to the diner’s table sizzling.  “It is the way you smear the butter; the sizzling makes it a dramatic event.”

One time he, a guy name WAP, and I operated a timekeepers’ booth at a remote parcel post annex in the North part Atlanta.   He was on the midnight tour and I relieved him in the morning.  I remember one time I walked in our little booth and it smelled like farts.  Lots of farts.  I said, “Whew!” 

He laughed and said I caught him cooking eggs.  How could one not laugh at that?

Brother Will had an excellent speaking voice.  He had a part time gig on WAOK Radio Station of Atlanta.  He had regular hours but at times he had to stay on the air longer.

One time he was out two days, called in sick.  But he was on the air during that time.  A person in upper management thought he had him.  They had him giving news, weather, and time during the time he should have been at work.

They thought they “Had Him.”  However, did I mention Bother Will was a smooth talker?   And a slippery one at that. 

One time all the time keepers, about 36 of us had to do something new, I forgot what.  We all fussed and griped.  All but Brother Will. 

He said, “Its just something to do, man.”

That “It’s just something to do.”  Changed my outlook on things.